It was day three, the last day of our ACS-iting smacki-liciously wonderful and splendidly perfect ORIENTATION’08! GIVE IT UP FOR OUR STUDENT COUNCIL AND OGLS! Thank you very much for all your effort and help and guidance and accompany and for the fun, laughter and joy you guys brought to us! I wanted to pay a little tribute to you guys and show you what you OGLs looked like on stage dancing to the song “Lemon Tree”, but unfortunately, wordpress does not allow me to upload videos =(. So… too bad.
I would like to thank all my OG mates for making this experience a wonderful one, and my OGLs too! Thank you all! Thank you guys for everything! My life was much filled by you guys with happiness! Thank you everyone in Orientation’08 including all the people manning the booths, for without you, there would not be any CCA fair to attend. Thank you all the teachers and students and parents who were at the subject briefing, be it the booths or just there to listen, for without you, one part of the amazing orientation would be missing from the masterpiece. Thank you members of the public for helping us during our ACS-iting Race yesterday for without you, our experiences would be fade, and this orientation may have well been a failure for us. Thank you all the people in the world who are each connected in six degrees to each other for without your existence and influence, none of this may have taken place.
That said, today, this camp, is, and will be one of the most unforgetable events of my life. Life is short, live it to the fullest. That was the attitude that I brought to this orientation. An experience in events like IB Orientation happens once and only once in your whole entire lifetime. Being one of the orientees will only happen once, and that is then and now. Why not give it your fullest and experience a once-in-a-lifetime experience? Rather experience it than to look back and regret and wished that you could do more.
From being part of a performing dance team for the year end concert in Primary 5, being selected from the whole cohort, and thinking that dancing hip hop is to be “dao” and cool, I have learnt that everything – a stage performance, a day at school, anything in life, it may happen just once. That performance was long gone, but feelings and thoughts of “I could and should have done more” still wells up in me.
Opportunities have passed my way many a time, yet I held myself back and withdrew; kept my sword sheathed. And many a time I will regret it, and I would hope that I had the guts, the courage to have done it.
So from this year on, I shall strive to live my life to the fullest, and open up real wide, like a hippopotamus opening its mouth, and savour every bit of fun and joy life offers, which I can squeeze out of the juggling balls of work and play.
Back on to today, despite the sessions of talks this morning, the day was set right with an appetizer of… MASS DANCE! I was surprised at how much more I could remember than the day before. Mass dance was punctuated with filarious standoffs between the two factions – EE (Extended Empire) and TOK (no idea what theirs is). The finale was a standoff of breakdancing between the two factions, but TOK if I am not mistaken, had a year 6 breakdancer/OGL/Student Council Discipline to dance. But, all in great spirit, there was no win, nor any lose.
Next up, TELEMATCH! EEeEeEeeEeEeEeEeEe!!!! Well, this portion of the whole orientation was expected to be the dirtiest. After changing into our telematch outfits, we headed to the small patch of field next to the rugby field which was where the event took place. Obstacles: Place your hands into an icy cold basin of water of approximately -1000K until it is your turn to do the course. Grab the pole and go round it 8 times. Run towards the long sheet with powder and water. Slide on it without touching the string held by two OGLs. Run to the pail of “milk” (powder, water, grass). Scoop up a cup filled with “milk”. Hold it with your mouth and duck-walk to the next chair. Pour the REMAINING “milk” into the pail there and using your mouth, pick up A macaroni hidden in flour. With the macaroni in your mouth, run back to the previous chair with the cup and drop the macaroni on the plate and throw the cup back into the pail of “milk”. Run to the next chair with balloons on them. Pick up a balloon and hold it in between your legs and hop to the next chair. Upon reaching the next chair, roll on the ground towards your OGL waiting for you at the end. When you reach him/her, give them a nice big hug! Run back through the course and slide on the mat under the string and run towards your team and give the next person the shirt and the cycle begins.
So… the race is off… my turn! Put hands into basin… OW! COLD! OW! Come on… numb… numb… numb… OW! My hands are not turning numb! OW! Okay, time to cheat a little. Lift up, in, out, in, out… Yay! My turn!
Round the stick I go… One, Two, Three… “Ah! I am getting giddy already!”… “How many rounds already?” “Aiyah, just go la!” “Oh, okay!”
Vision is swaying up and down like a see-saw… the mat! Oh no, how to slide? Ah!!! Head first I guess! I do not want to be splashed with water at! Wee! Here I go! *Slide* Okay… stand up and run!!
Look into pail… white chalky liquid with grass and styrofoam cups so torn parts of the rim is torn up. Oh well… *scoop* half cup… good enough. *hears OGL cheering* *lifts head up with cup of “milk” in mouth* *”milk” touches mouth* Oh man… sick… okay, keep head down. Duck-walk… Plate!
Look into plate… Oh man… that is a lot of flour. Attempt number one… face into flour, but no macaroni… *lifts head up* Ooh! There is one that is sticking out of the flour! *Picks that macaroni up* Run back with cup! *About to go, but turns back to pick up cup* Run back to pail, then to balloons.
While running… Ooh! One balloon left! Looks to the ground… 2 shredded balloons lay dead on the grass. *Picks up balloon* Hop, Hop…*Hears OGL cheering me on!* Hop, Hop…
“ROLL! ROLL! FASTER JENN CHONG!” *Roll, roll* Oh man… too much momentum! Need… to… slow… down… Oh man… rolling of course! Change angle of rolling! “Stand up! Stand up!” Okay, wait, a bit more…okay, stand! *HUG* kekeke you shall get dirty! Muahahahhahah! Okay, enough, time to head back!
“Take the balloon! Take the balloon back!” Oh, okay. *Picks up balloon* *Puts back on chair* *Slightly disorientated* *Runs back to mat to slide* *Realises that I am the only one who stays in course throughout the race and not make a detour round the course only to head back in to slide on the mat* Slide!! *Prays no one sprayed stuff at me* Run back to team! Takes off shirt and pass it on. [Unfortunately, the evil OGLs surely did spray powder at me because the back of me head was powdered white, or so what people tell me, that my hair had powder which coagulated(probably because of water from trying to clean it off) which looked like I had dandruff, WHICH I DO NOT!]
Washed up and all, and head back to watch the rest of the race. Here comes the highlight!
Our OG finished, carried Asyikin at high speeds and headed back to base. Wanted to throw her into the basin but selfish people wanted it for themselves. OG2’s OGL got dumped! Finally… the moment you all have been waiting for… Since Gua Khee’s team was last and me and Asyikin were playing with the dirty shirt to soak up water and spray on each other, we decided to wring it on Gua Khee when she came back. A sudden twist of events happened when unsuspecting Gua Khee returned… “Gua Khee!” “Gua Khee!” She looks at me, looks down at the basin of ice water… “No… NO!” People held her down and up went the basin of cold water and it was emptied on her! HaHa! Someone should have grabbed the golden kodak moment when Gua Khee realised that she was about to be drenched! The expression was priceless!
I gave her a little present with the drenched piece of cloth. All hell broke lose as she chased me around with the clothe and threw it at me. Dang it hit my leg, then I tried to throw it back at her while chasing her. The first throw almost hit if she followed the same course that she was running. But, she changed, so it missed. After I tried again but she caught it. Dang… Too bad. Oh well.
That exciting part ended and it was time to change and have lunch. Lunch was with our OG! GO OG1! So we ate, and I was forced to sit with the girl-dominated table by Asyikin. While eating, we chatted, refamiliarised ourselves with names, and played games like black magic, counting numbers, taking pictures. After lunch, we went to the CCA booths where Dr Lee was like “Aren’t you supposed to help?” Hoho, so I went over to help.
Hyper and high as I was, I did one of the things I hated to do, and that was to approach strangers. Better than not, I managed to get a girl named Samantha to join Band! How cool is that! Then, her OGL came over from drama and tried to psycho her to drama… oh well, at least she wrote her name down and it was me who introduced! One small step for humanity, one HUGE step for me to be more open and outward!
Tried to ask more people, but… the girl was only interested in swimming, and I did not know that swimming had a booth. O_O
Then got called away by Bryan Tan to help Zhong En. Then they take so long just to get to where I am. Then by the time they reached, it was time to go cheering… =S
Cheering! This is the first time I felt like part of the school, a part of a body of people who works together and so closely knitted while cheering. Everyone cheered their lungs out including me, one of the very rare occasions, the last time was during PSL camp. The new cheer was incredibly cool and hip! THE INDEPENDENT CHEER!
[Independent Cheer]
All: A,
To the C
To the S to the I
We’re INDEPENDENT!
All: A,
To the C
To the S to the I
We’re INDEPENDENT!
Core: INDEPENDENT!
Echo: Woo~ Woo~
Core: INDEPENDENT!
Echo: Hoo (Huskily)
Core: INDEPENDENT!
Echo: Woo~ Woo~
Core: INDEPENDENT!
Echo: Hoo (Huskily)
All: INDEPENDENT~ (crescendo)
WOOSH!
It was so embarrassing when we did the Hokkien ACS cheer. I did it correctly but no one followed, so I was like “YING…!” and the only one at that. After cheering at the astro turf, we did mass dance, but it was probably recorded or photos were taken.
People moved way back and halfway through the dance, me and Amos were like in front of the whole pack of people with two OGLs in front of us. Lucky we danced alright. Haha! After was standoff between EE and TOK again. After that, freetime till 5.30pm.
Dinner set-up was elaborate. Yue Guang was like “This is even better than Senior’s Night!” Bags were put behind chairs on the balcony and we people were sat below.
The food was asian, but splendidly scrumptious! Well, at least I dare say better than band camp food. =S Buffet style. TOK won the orientation so they got food first. Probably let them win so that OG17 would not die of hunger. LOL. Kidding. While eating, there was the SUPERLATIVE GAME! They had the straightest… elbow, the longest… surname, the widest… NOSTRILS!?!?!?! Then it was followed by the dance by the OGLs, a tribute to 2008 Orientation Orientees! They danced to the melody of the song “Lemon Tree”! They were so cute! Especially when it was the part with the word “tree” and the turned in a circle while hopping! I took a video! Youtube here I come! Irritating thing was that there were a few people who blocked my phone while I was taking it. =(
Next was a touching slideshow of beautiful memories that we accumulated during these 3 days of orientation. Playtime was approximately 10 minutes as told. Funny shots were in it where people were playing the station “iGallop”! Especially Bryan who look so cute like a little boy riding a pony playing giddy-up!
The night ended with singing of the all-so-patriotic tradition of ACS (Independent), the splendid singing of the school anthem and followed by the 3 cheers for ACS cheer.
OGs grouped together one last time and gave each other blessings and goodbyes.
OG1 IS HAVING A GROUP OUTING! ROCK ON! Looking forward to it! Hopefully Xiaobin will not fail us in organising it.
The night was still young for most of us as spirits were high and cheery. The bus stop outside school was filled with chitter-chatter of our new sprouts of IB year 5 2008. I waited for my friends to go home before going home myself – a little service to my friends since I live so close.
The night stayed alive for quite a while after the curtains closed as the hatchlings of turtles hatched and ran for the sea back to their home. A hatchling waited for his friends to be on their way before heading home himself. The night’s buzzing excitement died low to him as he drew further away from the nest. Now what is right before him is the comfort and safety of home, being unable to do anything about the buzzing excitement, being unable to join the buzz, the young turtle goes home taking a Santa sack full of memories and experiences with him. As the play ends, the turtle’s exciting day is drawing to a close. Wishing to store the precious jewels of memories, the turtle carves pockets into its shell and decorates it with the jewels. Having done so, he remembers the responsibilities of tomorrow, and decides to call it a day.
…And the curtain falls.
