凍結の時間: SUTD Orientation'14 Pirates Ahoy!

7 – 10.5.14

Exactly a year ago, I was walking to SUTD from One-North MRT in my red shirt. A year later, I was wearing a red shirt standing-by at the concourse, waiting for the fellows in red to report to me.

Exactly a year ago, I was one of the blur dudes walking into the school campus, having not a single idea of what was going on and where to go. A year later, I was the one guiding the blur kids, pointing them in the correct direction.

Exactly a year ago, I was the one who was lost among all the strangers, knowing no one. A year later, I was acting like a catalyst, fostering friendship between people who just newly met each other.

Might & Magic come and go, it’s time for Pirates Ahoy!

Due to the lack of sleep from the previous night, we were all spamming coffee in the morning. Sitting behind the counter set up at the concourse, we were so excited to see the Freshmore arriving. It was interesting to guess which house were they from and spot which of them were our OGLings.

Kraken 1 – Crujido: Wei Kiat, Mike, Endy, Jai, Kenneth, Sida, Lam, Su Xin, Xing Ling, Jisu, Yaqi, Xuefang, Jean, Iffah, Hetty. All cool and chill, yet fun and crazy, awesome people. Wasn’t apparent on the first day, but the traits eventually showed. Of course, Cullen’s presence helped too! 15 of them excluding Cullen. Don’t you think that the size of the OG was a bit too big? Definitely. It is almost twice the size of other OGs from other Houses. I would say that the arrangement was a bit terrible. Red House needed the most manpower, yet some of the Red House OGLs were transferred to other Houses. Some dissatisfaction arose among the Red House OGLs regarding this matter but there was nothing we could do.

OK, back to the “kids”. It was kinda weird that the guys are actually same age as me (and one of them is actually two years above my age). As I mentioned, they appeared rather cool and chill on the first day. The adjectives could be interpreted from a positive perspective, yet they also have a small negative implication. Orientation is a place/the time to have fun and go crazy, too cool and too chill were a no no during orientation! That was why I was worried at first that Crujido would turn out to be a terrible OG. Well, to be fair, I didn’t do my job as an OGL well in engaging them even though I couldn’t say that I didn’t try. Fail whale OGL …… But thank God they started to get enthusiastic. That helped me tremendously, whether the effort was intentional or not.

Anyway, starting the second day, the dynamics of the OG got better. While the guy-girl divide was still there, the interaction between them became more natural and they became more comfortable with each other. Phew for Shan and I! OK, part of it was because of Edward Cullen who helped to build up the atmosphere, especially with his unfounded stirring of Shan and me. I didn’t even know how that stirring started haha. I can’t deny that both of us are close, but both of us knew the best that it stopped there and not any further. We are close friends and the friendship was built up since Might & Magic. I actually used this as a point to prove to them that the friendship from orientation lasts! And they should keep in touch with each other even after orientation. Shan eventually became the mama of the OG (motherly Shan). And NO! I don’t want to be and am not the papa. I am cool with being the OG’s friend haha.

Now, about the mass dance. Mass dance was fun. The Dance Comm spent quite some time to choreo the dance. We didn’t do all the fancy and technical moves because all we wanted was for the freshies to have fun. And indeed, they had fun during the orientation! Nonetheless, the second chorus was slightly challenging. Even some of us, the choreographers, also couldn’t do it properly. Other than that part which few could get, the freshies generally managed to remember most of the dance steps, which was really a big achievement for us!

However, mass dance session was rather terrible for me. Maybe I am just not meant for being on stage. I wonder if my lesson was boring or what, or was it just me who couldn’t communicate well. Lawrence was doing a great job in teaching, what with his funny random noises and his lame jokes. He managed to hype up the atmosphere and find ways that help the freshies in remembering the steps better.

Games. I guess I’ll just pick a few major ones to talk about.

Treasure Hunt (originally Fright Night). Was quite sad that Singapore banned Fright Night for all uni. And the announcement was only made after the Prog Comm had planned everything for Fright Night. I could understand how frustrating it was for them to have to replan everything. The OGLs went through the game during dry run and it still contained certain scary elements. According to Adi, it was already toned down because they couldn’t outright scare the freshies as they originally wanted it to. Listening to Adi’s explanation of what they originally wanted to do, I could imagine that it would be the most frightening Fright Night so far had it not been banned. Nonetheless, OGLings said it was fun and satisfying. Well, expect no less from the Prog Comm that was was filled with all the cock people.

I was one of the pirates in the MPH! Mega shagged almost fell asleep during the game

Secret Pirates. Both guys and girls from different Houses were blindfolded and paired up. They had about 1 hour or more every night to sit down and chit chat. Since Red House had a lot more people and hence a lot more guys, some of them had to do an intra-house pairing. Instead of a guy-girl pair, they had a guy-guy pair. Oh well, some people might find it sad, but the main point of this activity was to make friends, not to make couples, so …… ;) I was awkward to start with, but it eventually got better. Hope the activity really brought people together and make lasting friendship.

The rest of the games such as dry games and wet games were similar so I won’t be elaborating more. But nonetheless they were fun! Kudos to Prog Comm! No surprise again! :)

One thing that I wasn’t satisfied was that I spent too little time with my OG because there was always duty for the OGLs to do. Yes, I found it that tad bit awkward to hand around with them, but still that didn’t mean that I wanted to stay away from them. Really wished that I had more time with them and could know them better.

Now, Finale@Sentosa! Same as last year, the awesome band 53A! As low energy as I always am, it was surprising that how I could survive the whole duration on the dance floor during orientation finale! Really glad that the Org Comm managed to get sponsorship to book Sentosa. Can’t imagine how it would have been if the finale were to be in the MPH :S

Finally, it was the end of Pirates Ahoy! Mega sad that it was over. Didn’t really say much to Crujido before dismissing them, but compensated by writing them a mega long note, giving them advice and thanking them for being awesome these four days.

Alright, this is a mega long post, I am so tired of writing …… OH WAIT! There is something that I must note down!