ADM Freshman Orientation Camp 2006 (19 July - 21 July)Presented by the School of Angels, Demons & MonkeysI came back from camp last night, at midnight. Today i woke up with a sowllen archilles tendon in the left foot. I must have run around too much the past few days.
My school's Orientation Camp, in which i participated as an Assistant Group Leader and a member of the Programming Committe, lasted for 3 days and 2 nights.
Highlights of the camp
Day 1 - 2 Battlefield games
Day 2 - Station games in the day, Cluedo at night
Day 3 - Talentime and PopArt Bash
Day 1We came to sch bright and early at 8am and met at the Seniors Room in the new ADM building for our briefing. After that, we got ready to welcome the freshies. I was an usher, directing the juniors to the auditorium. Aiyah i suck at this kind of thing...my smile too fake ;P The rest of the day went like this: ice-breakers, then bringing the freshies to Hall 7 to dump their bags, then the battlefield games.
At first, the freshies played while seniors watched. But then the Demon house (oops it's my house) cheated and ended the game pretty quickly so there were many bombs left. And so a free-for-all bombing session commenced.
It's so fun to get bombed!!! I wanna get bombed. I mean, isn't it sad to be the one w/ the cleanest shirt i.e. no one bothers to throw bombs you? i dun want to be that person! So i snuck up on pple that i know, and got some paint bombs hurled my way. And I screamed like siao thruout =D
Yay i really like resulting paint splashes on my house tee after the battlefield game. The committe deliberately made the house tees white and played the game with fabric paint bombs so then we'll all get multi-cloloured house tees...u get the picture.
The gross thing was that i got bombed at my right hip and the paint soaked thru to my undies. My underwear was white and now it's half-orange. I dun mind the colour but the paint was sticky and i couldn't change it cos we still had another battlefield game. Sticky underwear. Ugh.
We also had a mass dance session. Our mass dance has got all these funny retro dance moves, it's really quite cute =) But got certain steps that i still can't master even now. The mass dance music is 'Soul Bossa Nova' from the Austin Powers OST.
Tots on the first day:
Hmmmm....i was ok during ice-breakers but after that i cooled off. i just let Annette, the OGL, do most of the talking and my fellow AGL, Daphne, make small talk with the freshies while i was silent throughout. Worse, i dun even dare look at them straight in the eyes. What's new? Annette was taking charge of the announcements and cheers and everything else that i felt like i was a freshie myself, like i was juz there for the ride. Another sian thing was that Jasmine wasn't around cos she had rashes and had to rest at home. No familiar face. *sad*
When it came to the allocation of rooms, i was praying that i didn't have to sleep in the same room as Annette cos i had a bad impression of her since last yr. She stop short of throwing a tantrum at my class last yr when no one wanted to represent ADM in the interfaculty games. Also, she was so outgoing and confident in front of the freshies that i was jealous. Actually i was pretty worried i'll have difficulty communicating w/ her during the camp cos i didn't like her. and i dun like working w/ pple i don't like.
So, after my rant, i'm sure u can guess that i eventually had to share a room with her. Daphne returned to her room in hall and while Annette has her own room in hall as well, she was the OGL and had to stay with the OG at Hall 7.
The room was really creepy! The beds were facing the door, the room was bare and when i switched off the lights the room was really dark! So i slept w/ the lights on. Anyway, on the first night, i locked her out of the room. She had to stay back after the debrief for her Cluedo bit cos i went to bathe first. By the time i returned from my bath, i had that feeling that i had locked her out cos i'd spent so long in the toilet. And i did. I saw 5 missed calls frm her on my hp. But i didn't know where to find her! i walked to my neighbour's room, asking whether Annette had come by. To my surprise, Annette shouted my name from the opposite block! She wasn't throwing a tantrum or what, just trying her luck. In fact, she was shocked that she actually recognised me from that distance. Anyway, she was really nice abt it and didn't throw a fit at me or anything. Oops... irresponsible bao strikes again.
The toilet was creepy as well. Imagine old-looking toilet w/ those old-fashioned square tiles. For some strange reason (inadequate resources?!!!!), the toilet door was like 20cm frm the ground. Then there was the "Beware of the peeping tom" sign pasted on the wall. Hmmm. I can't help but link the 2 oddities together.
To conclude, it was a tiring first day. And we still had debriefing that night until 1.15am. I slept at 2.15 listening to DBSK's 'Tonight' and feeling more than a little homesick.
Day 2I had abt 5 hrs of sleep (woke up at 7am), which was pretty decent for a camp. After the morning briefing, I basically disappeared for the day. I was one of the station masters for station games.
My game was 100secs no NG. But soon it became apparent that my game was taking too long to complete. It was changed from starting at the start whenever someone made a mistake to just going back one station. Finally it was changed to letting both teams complete the stations and taking the one w/ the shortest timing to be the winner. Lydia was very concerned that my game was taking much time and stayed w/ my station to help. Somehow, she tot that Angels were always at a disadvantage cos it seemed as though we were always editing the rules when the Demons were playing. I got so influenced by her that i gave 2 victories to Angels (1 deservedly, the other maybe not deservedly) and 2 to Demons. One OGL who irritated the hell out of me was Y. She was still pissed by the Demons frm last night's 2nd battlefield game, where the Demons won becos of roughplay. Grrrrr.....and everytime i changed the rules or when i ruled that the Angels did not obey by the rules, she rolled her eyes went and said some 冷言冷语. WTF!!!!!!!! It's just a game, and some more it was ytd's game, why must bring the unhappiness of ytd to today's games?? Fuck that, ok. Fuck that.
Thanks to Cheryl and Siew Yen and Wei Hao who kindly donated their time to our camp!! Thanks thanks thanks for your help. After my game, they stayed back on request to help with the 'Body Art' station in the 2nd round of station games.
Yay! Jamine came to join us for the camp today.
One funny thing happened during Body Art. There was this guy who drew the lot for using the butt to paint. And he really sat his whole butt into the tray of purple paint! So funny! Then he sat on the canvas and shook his butt on it. So garang...haha...
My OG lost 7 out of 8 games. Wish i could have been there to see them play. But seriously, i dreaded meeting them so much that i readily agreed to help out in the 2nd round of station games just so i could disappear from the OG.
One happy thing: My OG had to decide on a title for the fashion show that they planned to put up for Talentime on the last day of camp. Since our house was represented by the colour red, they decided to do sth with a red theme. During the discussion on the title of the item, i suggested 'Monkey Butt' cos "chinese pple always say 'as red as a monkey's butt' " Most of them took to the idea immediately and eventually voted for my title. So happy!!! To have pple think well of my idea and accept it made me real proud cos this affirms my creativity. Harhar.
One funny thing: I encountered some really funny cheers today as a station master. Cos all OGs were supposed to impress us with their cheering to get bonus cheering points. Many OGs liked to surround me and cheer around me. Two had cheers calling me a 'mei nu', which totally tickled me and made my day. Hahahahahaa!!!!!! Some had funny moves and formations (imagine 3 guys turning round and round on the spot saying '放风筝啊, 放风筝...' while the girls flanked them and knelt on the floor w/ their arms outstretched, doing the cliched quivering-fingers-thingie.) I could safely say that 7 out of the 8 OGs were really onz....It's great to see the freshies getting into the spirit of the camp and seeing them bond so well with one another.
Cluedo, cluedo, cluedo. For those who don't know what Cluedo is (i didn't know what it was until i joined the camp) it's a game where the freshies are presented with a mystery and have to go through stations to get the clues and piece together the whole story. At each station, the freshies have to do tasks in a limited amt of time in order to get the clues and there will be seniors to scare them. i was pretty worried i'd screw up cos i was shown the route to lead them only 1 day b4 the camp (i was in KL during the Cluedo dry run). And i was scared of the place myself! But i did ok. Plus there were station masters to help me out if i forget what to do.
Anyway, the story of our Cluedo game was this: A's headless corpse was thrown down a building. The freshies have to find her killer. The suspects are Z, J, R, and D. Z is A's boyfriend and their relationship was on the rocks. J is A's best friend but secretly likes Z. R is A's ex-boyfriend who can't get over her. D is a lesbian and likes A. All these characters were acted by the seniors in the camp from Day 1. The idea is to draw attention to all the characters' relationships and have the freshies believe in the story. A is for Annette. So our OG knew most of what was going on btwn Z and A. And they really believed the conflict to be true! Esp after Z & A kept acting out their conflicts during mealtimes and mass dance practice.
That night, we lied to the juniors that we were having a battlefield game at Nanyang House, our Cluedo venue. There, A & Z were supposed to stage a quarrel in front of everyone. So when a quarrel and tussle broke out btwn them, imagine the senior's surprised when 3 freshie guys ran after Z when Z pulled A roughly. 2 came from our own OG, i'm proud to say. i was too shocked to do anything. Anyway, one of them, Steven, was holding a bag of coconuts (which the 3 GLs treated them to and were to be used as Talentime props) when he witnessed the fight and he promptly threw his bag of coconuts and ran after Z. Funny kid. He's only 18 this yr. He's Indonesian so his English has got this cute Indonesian accent. Kawaii.... But he's pretty naughty. Likes to play with the cats at Hall 7.
Ok ok, back to the main topic. While the ADM club president was making a fake announcement to cancel the 'game', the corpse was thrown down. Several seniors screamed for effect. Some freshies were genuinely frightened. Even i was shocked. i didn't see the corpse fall thru the air, only saw it bump onto the ground. But even then i got creeped out. And it chilled me to no end that the corpse took a real person's name. Like, as though Annette had really died *spine tingles* *hair on the back of my neck stand*
One of the girls in my OG cried! My gosh i was really shocked. I hugged her but her tears couldn't stop flowing. When my OG realised that the conflicts were staged and that Anette had been acting & Daphne had been feeding them false info all this while, they felt betrayed and angry. i could see the disappointment and disbelief in their faces. I dunno how to manage them...i felt so bad i wanted to cry myself. Luckily, the bad feelings passed when the game started.
After that, i was so flustered when the other groups started moving to their stations. i was so intent in dealing with them that i forgot to get ready. i couldn't even open the holding the lightstick! i left my handphone behind and i forgot to take off my shoes and keep them with theirs! (oops)
I got my OG into a line and we proceeded into Nanyang House. I held the big lightstick while the last person in the line held the dimmer one. At the first station, which was the guy's toilet, we were all still creeped out. I picked Steven to go in. Soon after he went in, we heard scotchtape being yanked out and he was out of the room in 2 secs flat. Why? Cos he had torn out the station instructions! Baka guy!!! haha. Trust him to lift our moods. After that, everyone was less scared.
Except for a cockroach sighting and a scare from one of the seniors posing as a ghost, we proceeded on without much incident. One girl was so scared by the 'ghost', she cried. I tried to comfort her but i didn't know what to say. i wanted to hug her but i dunno whether she'd let me...i hesitated abt it but in the end i just sat beside her and tried to comfort her. Haiz even my words sounded like crap to me. i felt so useless and helpless. Another girl OG member could comfort her better, i feel. She held her hand and asked her to think of her boyfriend, etc. Gosh i didn't even think of that. Tongue-tied. That's me. Anyway i dun really know how to comfort pple.
As the night went on, i got less scared cos there were plenty of Cluedo facilitators walking ard and giving me instructions to move, stay put with my OG, etc. It got to a point where we weren't scared at all and were talking and laughing away (we were supposed to keep quiet at all times to maintain the mood of the game).
There was this very tall ghost with a deep voice. He was wrapped up in black cloth so i could see his face at all. i tot it might be R but i just asked if he was another person. (it was R, alright)Haiz.....yappari shuai guys are more attractive. He kept disturbing the guys (cos he can't touch the girls), peering into their faces and resting his head on their shoulders. My freshies tot he's a gay, which made me wonder if he was S or W. Oops. Anyway, i was a bit attracted to him becos of his height. I was asking him some qn while walking with him when he suddenly stopped walking. My mouth knocked into his shoulder lah! When i asked him who he was, he asked me "You don't know who i am?" I really didn't know and even poked him in the face to check his features. I only poked once and then it was time for my OG to leave ;P
After the game ended, i was still scared by the whole situation. The juniors were throwing the seniors names abt like nobody's business. "J killed A becoz of Z", "D cut off A's head cos she loved her too much", etc. It creeped me out cos it sounded so real...i dunno how to explain it. But luckily Lydia was there to comfort me. She sang a song and looked up at the sky. I did so too. after looking at the stars for a while, i got distracted and felt better.
And that night i had to sleep w/ the fake corpse in my room cos Annette brought it back to the room. Uggh. That night, i was so tired i barely heard a word of w-inds' "So what?" and "Long Road". I fell asleep quickly.
Debrief was horrible. Everyone was just really really seh (braindead). Everyone was just spacing out as the club president was giving instructions.
Oh yeah. Someone found my phone on the ground when i was leading my OG. No one had an idea whose it was. Until they opened the cover and Jasmine saw the junki wallpaper. She said when she saw the wallpaper she was like, "Yeah, it's definitely Baofei's phone." haha...i'm infamous for being idol-crazy.
Day 3
I disappeared again, involuntarily (AGLs had to help clear Nanyang House) and voluntarily (i ran off to help decorate the bash area. So even now, i'm still awkward w/ my OG. i talked more to them ytd compared to other days but still....
I was laughing like crazy at my OG's guys during their Talentime item. They were supposed to act effeminate and H did it SOOOOOO SOOO well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was hilarious to watch. The guys sashayed down the stage to the slow & sensuous "Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton's. They all acted shy, covering their faces and looking away from time to time. THEY WERE DAMN CONVINCING LAH!! Kaoz.....Then when H reach the front, he pasued for a good 2 sec b4 flipping up his raffia-string tube top. God, he had me laughin like crazy. i laughed until peng4 in the audio control room k! DAMN funny. And their exit was funny too: the 3 guys waved daintily at the audience.
The hosts had funny names to: Butt Pitt and Jennifer No Breast. Butt Pitt, acted by HZ, had a banana pinned to her shirt over her groin area. The item ended with one of the models plucking the banana away and giving it to H when HZ was doing her closing. Then the models promptly weNt crazy and ran after H off stage. They're CRAZEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA
Our seniors dance performance was a bit screwed up. haha. we were too nervous! A lot of us forgot the dance moves, even Z, who was the one who choreographed it. haha. it was a bit messy but in the end it worked out fine. i jumped up twice during the posing points in the song. Yay! i like jumping!
Later in the night i took off my long sleeve top to reveal my halter top from Taiwan. Yay i like that top. I'm glad i got to show it off after a while. Oh yeah we also celebrated Michael's bdae w/ a tiny cake and a loud bdae song, attracting looks from some bewildered freshies. i kept running from OG to group and back again. Oops. i think my classmates were really bored. Sorry for not entertaining u guys!
My OG won best OG!!!! i was so happy i ran to join them! We cheered so loud and i screamed so hard i have a bad sorethroat now. ( i seem closer and closer to getting a flu w/ each second. Any minute now...) For that split second when my OG was called out (OG 5), i was so happy i literally jumped up and screamed (DBSK's concert in KL must have been a good training ground for me huh -_-'") like a mad woman. i think my classmates must have gotten a shock from my antics. I congratulated the OG. Gosh, no OG that i had been in had ever been anywhere near winning the best OG award (maybe my sec 1 class? We got the prize for the most organised class during our orienatation camp what, 7 yrs ago? gosh that's a long time ago!). And now that i've won it as an AGL, a very invisible AGL, i dun think i shud share the glory. i just feel very, very proud of my OG.
I could see that everyone takes care of everyone. Everyone is very cooperative and no one is left out. They get along fabulously and work together harmoniously and i think they gel as a team and an OG. It's amazing...seeing sth real form from nothing. Seeing strangers becoming friends and seeing them trust and rely on Annette and Daphne. It's just great for me as an observer. I would like to join this circle but it's my fault for not putting in the effort to communicate w/ them so...
There was a cute freshie who caught my eye. He's not like exceptionally shuai, just above average i guess. And short. Like, his height's only abt 170cm. Anyway i kept sneaking looks at him and purposely standing opposite him. Next time go back to sch got eye candy to see. He might already be attached though, shuai as he is. Aiyah shud have taken a pic w/ him during the bash. His bash clothes were quite bad, however: a blue short-sleeved shirt over a white tee and 3/4 pants. Ugh. He looks like a jc kid or sth.
The bash died pretty fast cos there weren't any serious clubbers.
Friends made:Annette - i used to not like her. And tot she didn't like me but someone told me that A is just as cool towards everyone. Even if she acted cool towards me it doesn't mean that she hates me. and i found that to be true. Each time she talked to me, she never snubbed me or anything.
Daphne - I sometimes think that she doesn't really listen to pple when they are talking to her. Like, she's hearing them but not listening. And that she's v kaypoh. But i'm ok w/ her now. I was kinda rude to her ytd cos i was abt to lose my temper over sth (mixture of fatigue and frustration here) but she totally didn't put my bratty tone to heart at all, which was cool. And made me feel even more guilty for being bratty in the first place.
KM - nice girl!! Kept asking me whether i was ok each time she sees me looking tired/glum. And she's really helpful too. but she keeps calling jasmine by my name! haha i think that's cos jass & i give her the same feeling cos we're both nice pple and very lame.
RR - nice & helpful girl. sometimes i tot she a bit attention-seeking but i think she's ok....i think. i haven't quite figured her out yet. she's very hyper when she cheers.
J - nice, helpful guy. (oops looks like my list is going to be made of up nice & helpful guys & girls)
C - nice, organised, patient girl.
E - friendly girl who was the first few to say hi to be an acknowledge my presence when i knew v few pple at the start.
N - sweet & soft-spoken girl. who's not afraid of flying. i'm impressed.
Y - i'm ok w/ her too. i've gotten over the station games thing. i think she's ok, if straightforward.
HY - a shy girl. i think she's bit like me, trying to come out from her shell. she always seems to be alone and look worried. like me. her concerns are usually self-centred. like me.
F - my OG freshie. shy and sweet girl. she's the only one who will talk to me when the others don't. she's really nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hope can become frens w/ her next sem. i wanted to know who could fold hearts cos i needed one for one of the Cluedo tasks. and she promptly taught me. So cute! And she's deservedly attached too. To a shy guys, she told me. Oh yeah, and she said she can rmb my name easily cos it sounded unique, like she'd never heard the name b4. Wah! i was so flattered. First time someone told me my name was unique (other than my mum) :D
D - i used to not like her but now i'm ok w/ her. Her face always v black. i knew her (not personally) in RG and later on she went to ACJC and i tot she got attitude problem. But i think on the 1 st day of camp i exchanged friendly words w/ her, i forgot what was the situation and ytd she talked to me looking at me straight in the eye. We never made eye contact b4 and i usually avoided her in sch so this came as a plesant surprise to me. Hey, she's pretty ok after all.
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Yeah...so that's the BIG lesson i'd learnt from my camp. That pple are generally quite nice. If u make the initiative to talk to them, chances are they'll reply you and talk to u next time. And, first impressions can be wrong! (!!!!!!) i also found out things about myself. i'm very absentminded. when someone gives me new instructions, i promptly forget what i was abt to do earlier. i'm not really efficient. like when i do things, i dun pause to think of what should take priority and do them first. instead, i go along w/ what i feel at the time. bao! - no discipline and no brain! I also learnt that i should speak up. it doesn't kill. it helps me, in fact. It helps pple to form impressions of me and in future, they would be more likely to communicate w/ me. And having the guts to ask qns in order to clarify doubts is an impt habit.
"BF is always wrong."
A guy from my OG said that. When i heard that, i was quite hurt. I don't wanna be the BF who is always wrong! *NOOOOOOOO* I pride myself on following schedules strictly and stuff so i was wounded when he made his comment. It wasn't unjustified though. On the 3rd day of camp, i kept screwing things up. First was leading them by a long route to the place to dump their bags. i tot that the door nearer to the location was locked so i brought them to a far door. Then when we got to the location, we found out that it was the wrong place! Later that day, when they went for their Talentime rehearsal, one of the OG girls took the lead. she went to a staircase which i hadn't used b4 and i tot maybe it was the 2nd entrance to the auditorium. but it turned out to be the wrong door! then after the actual performance, i brought the guys to get their bash clothes. Then i led them to the toilet on the 1st floor where the girls were. but the guy's toilet was locked! It's not my fault cos the girls' toilet
was open but still.....And that was when the guy said what he said.
Arggh. i dun want to be blur. i hate to be the blur one! i want to be the one who is clear abt instructions and knows what to do and where to go and can communicate my instructions well. i want to be trusted and relied on.
Another thing i learnt from my camp is to treat pple as pple. I realised that not everyone is as chop chop as i am. And not everyone is as rational and as sticky abt rules and schedules as i am. i have to realise that they are human and have feelings. When dealing with pple, not only do i have to deal with them per se but i have to take into account their feelings as well, just as i would to those that i care about. Instead of barking orders at them and expecting them to comply immediately like sheep or robots do.
ok. too fucking tired now to continue.
Pictures
OG 5 in their fashion show costumes & hairdos. That's Daphne on the right, in the orange tee.
The 3 guys of OG 5. The guy in the centre is Steven. He and 'James', on the left, were the onces who ran after Z on cluedo night. 'James' is called 'James' cos he wore a t-shirt w/ the word 'James' on the front on the first day of camp. The guy on the right is H. i call him the 'Master of Pauses. His pauses are potent, man. He was the one who paused onstage b4 flipping up his raffia-string tube top.
Me & F. I like her! She's so nice and sweet!
At the Bash
Jass w/ my sunglasses.
Me looking v kateh. i look so short and fat here.
Me with Annette.
Me with F again. F - my fave OG member.
HZ, the host of our Talentime item. Chio hor??? We were trying to pose w/ the banana but it got cut off.
Take #2.
HZ, the infamous banana girl!
Me w/ the banana.
Can't believe there's only 2 weeks left to sch. Shit i didn't get the french module. Dun care i want to take it. Am oing to apply for it again in the add/drop period for electives in August.
Good night.
