Hello friends :-)
So, what can I say? JC has officially started and one of the most memorable events I'll ever get to experience in my JC life has already ended. The four-day Orientation programme for the J1s is definitely something I'll keep close to my heart and I'm so thankful to have been given the opportunity to have had the company of a group of people I have grown to love and care for, hopefully for a long time to come. It's insane how my Orientation group, BW01, grew so close so fast - in a mere span of four days.
Initially, I must admit I was really afraid of JC life in general because I've heard so many strange things and rumours about it but I think Orientation truly helped me assimilate properly into the school and well, JC so far isn't that bad at all in terms of the previous fears I had about people being all judgemental.
That aside, I'll be recapping the things that happened all through Orientation, probably in chronological order because it's the most I can do to make these memories last forever. Oh, and none of these photographs belong to me - most of them are by Wei Yang (thank you!) Here goes :-)
Day 1 (6th Feb)
Met BW01 for the first time and of course, as with meeting new people, it was slightly awkward and everyone hasn't really warmed up yet. Somehow though, I knew that I was in for a great time, because the energy of the Orientation Group Leaders (OGLs) was undoubtedly infectious. We had ice breakers to start off the day!
Before the ice was broken - look at our faces!
Afterwards we had Storyline, which is actually a play that lasts through all four days of Orientation and the nature of it is definitely something incredibly difficult to pull off. I wouldn't say that it was great because it's an uphill task to sustain a performance for so long but major props for the effort put into it. I can't imagine all the work that went into putting up something like that for us. We also learnt the batch song that day which is amazing and 1000000 times better than the one we had as Year Ones in RG. Then came lunch, another round of Storyline and probably the most exciting activity of the day - Station Games! :-)
A game I was so bad at - I was the "auntie" for at least two rounds whoops.
Attempting to build a tall tower with ice cream sticks - my group kind of cheated stole masking tape from the station master when he wasn't looking! By that time, we were actually really quite comfortable with one another already :-)
One of those outdoor games that try to pair girls and guys together!
Vinay and I paired up - this was only day 1, before he found out how crazy I could get! I think it's super funny looking at photographs and thinking about the first impressions you had about people before you really get to know them.
Yijiang and I at the really awkward balloon game!
Continuation of the awkward balloon game, though this time not as awkward because we weren't facing one another :-)
BW01's four OGLs - Ryan, Fang Ning, Grace & Wei Yang :-) I truly appreciate them a lot - and look at that gorgeous kit kat fixture! Ryan's also the Bayley Waddle House Captain so that was pretty cool too.
For dinner that day, our OG headed to Burger Shack at the Botanic Gardens and we were such a hipster OG, travelling all the way there while most chose to go to Serangoon's nex or Bishan's J8. While travelling there, Ryan asked me if I was the Waddle Captain which was rather humbling and then the competitive side I used to have last year emerged from him which was so funny and he started asking what my batch of Waddlians were good at. Heh, we used to exploit talents for Inter House Games too. I'll honestly miss being a part of House leadership over the next two years sigh, especially with House spirit so strong over here.
T'was a great first day :')
Day 2 (7th Feb)
Had dance first thing in the morning which isn't a very good idea because my brain usually doesn't function that well so early but it was actually a lot more fun than I expected. They taught the dance at an insanely fast pace though, which is understandable because we had four dances to learn but only four one-hour sessions. I got paired with Chan Wai, who is probably one of the most high-energy guys of my OG which was great because one of the fears I had about Orientation was getting paired with some dude who wouldn't want to dance with me.
Both of us weren't very good at dancing or rather, we didn't take it too seriously and just had a lot of fun :') And yes, we were trying to make a heart shape there - I think we used the wrong hands.
My QT OG dancing :')
After dancing, some talks, the learning of school song and cheers (which reminded me so much of my time as a SIMU member - teaching the Year Ones school cheers ahhh), we had House Hour which was our first exposure to Bayley Waddle officially and I must say, I was blown away. The House spirit is so damn high, the House cheers are so damn good and the House Captains carry themselves really well on stage. So much to learn from the RI(JC) House system honestly and after that mere one hour, it seems as if everyone just miraculously has House pride bursting from within them. Perhaps we should just bring Waddlians to RI for one hour to experience a bit of the House spirit there and they'll return to RG full of it. Anyway, House Hour led up to War Games and everyone basically transferred their new found House pride into energy and played hard for BW :')
ROUGH but FUN :-) Our House/ OG had Chang Kyu so we were pretty safe most of the time!
"COME COME COME"
And this is a really pretty OG photo :')
We were all pretty tired from War Games so we didn't bother to travel that day for OG dinner - just headed to Bishan J8. We stayed there for a really long time playing games with many other OGs who were there as well.
T'was another great day, but thank goodness for the weekend break :')
Day 3 (10th Feb)
Back from the weekend break for Day 3 of Orientation and the highlight of the day was most definitely External Activity where we got to venture out as an OG to various parts of Singapore (well, limited to the Circle Line but still).
The first stop was Buona Vista - I don't normally notice this particular MRT station so it's nice to have been able to explore this area a little, though I must admit there wasn't anything very interesting there. We headed to a hawker centre and had to match several riddles to the stall names.
:-)
Us after we've completed the task (quite well, I must add)!
Second stop was Haw Par Villa, a place most people shy away from. I'm actually a pretty huge fan of that place, as one may be able to tell by this post here. So I was actually quite excited to go there again. The task given there was to take selfies of several of the statues situated around the park.
Cute :-)
And this was one of the selfies we took for the task! :-) Ryan's actually not too bad at this, though there are several where only his eyebrows are featured.
The third and final stop was Habourfront - we had lunch there first though before heading to the Sentosa Boardwalk to receive the last external activity task. We were required to be tied with someone of the opposite gender and go around taking selfies with certain iconic (or not so iconic) things such as plants and signboards along the boardwalk.
Paired with Chan Wai for this! By then, everyone didn't have any qualms being paired with someone of the opposite gender already unlike the first day, which was really good because everyone was so comfortable.
Such a cute scene HAHA I love it.
Unfortunately, just like our dancing, Chan Wai and myself are really quite bad at taking selfies and we both have really crappy front cameras so here's one of our best attempts, which is supposed to feature the "sentosa" sign in the background.
At the end of the task they didn't even check the photographs so it was more like a keepsake for all of us which was a little weird. It was fun though :-)
Yay!
We had a bonus round where we were required to stage a proposal so here's feminine Rachel Koh proposing to the ever manly Chang Kyu - our OG is quite a joke ;-)
Headed back to school (some of us slept on the MRT) and had to continue with Internal Activities where we chased OGLs and did tasks for them. Insanely tiring but still fun and it's definitely worth it doing it for BW. Afterwards, we had dance again and it's really hilarious because it's the third session and the first two dances were long forgotten.
Candid shot that's actually quite nice HAHA
The elation one feels after finishing learning one dance.
The back gang (i.e. the taller people) - missing Vinay though :-(
For the third OG dinner, we headed to Plaza Singapura because we needed to get costumes for O'Nite the next day as well as presents for our OGLs! We hobo-ed under the escalator and played games like Murderer before some dude came and wanted to enlighten us on "some truths" and he started speaking about religion, which is quite a sensitive topic but I'm glad we managed to get him to stop - though grudgingly - after a while.
T'was a great day yet again :')
Day 4 (11th Feb)
Started the most tiring day with War Games, which wasn't that much of a great idea because no one's really in the mood for intense physical activity in the morning but everyone still went all out for the House again, which is something really heartwarming. Honestly, I wished I could've worked with this sort of House spirit back in RG.
I thought my shirt got ripped at one point during the game and was so worried but thank goodness it wasn't.
:-)
And then I met Shermaine during the JEDI game in the Multi Purpose Hall - I really miss the Boings :-(
In my opinion, I feel like the War Games are amazing because the games actually make use of fresh and new ideas and concepts and are the right level of difficulty and complexity for our age group. It was really fun.
I think I was doing a forfeit during one particular war game but I don't look too happy oo-er.
BW01 after the last round of War Games!
It was a jam-packed day and we had dance immediately after War Games, which was so crazy. Plus, it was our last dance session before O'Nite itself but we still didn't take it that seriously and instead had a lot of fun, which was the most important I guess.
Sigh thanks Chan Wai for actually bearing with me as your dance partner throughout the course of Orientation :')
Wow we are the only ones practising amongst everyone HAHA shucks this photo is hilarious - or maybe we were too late in standing up I don't even know.
After lunch, we had things like Song Recap and Storyline before O'Nite Preparation. Our group, called Kit Kat decided to dress as kittens because Kid Cats! :') We basically wore cat ears we purchased from Daiso, yellow and/ or black and Rachel worked her face paint magic on us.
Thanks Rachel! :-)
Super cute OGLs :') Thank you guys so much for everything and all the effort put into making Orientation such a fantastic experience for us - honestly can't thank y'all enough!
BW01 - Kid Cats! (Kit Kats)
With Kim Tsai, the only one in my OG from 104/204 - really glad I have her with me though, always full of nonsense all the time and annoying me so much.
Anyway, O'Nite was incredible - the spirit, the atmosphere, the performances! Everything was amazing especially Dance Off and the dance performances put up by the Song and Dance committee of Orientation. Thank goodness the batch dance was a really small part of everything.
We almost got a nice heart - or maybe we did except it didn't get captured on camera! :-)
After we did the dance, we were both super happy because it was one of the best series of dances we did together and definitely the one where we had the most fun. When we all started singing the batch song, the atmosphere all around the hall was incredible and I just had chills all over. It's really things like these that make one's journey in JC beautiful. Not sure if it's going to be something that lasts though or simply a one-off emotion sigh.
Louisa - hehe I love you, you'll forever be my wise mentor! :-)
I love you guys omg thank you so much for everything :')
For the last night, we headed to nex at Serangoon for dinner and it was a beautiful way to end everything, though I definitely wish it didn't have to end. Truly blessed to have been placed in an OG like this and I really hope we don't drift apart that much even though Kaleidos is over.
Thank you OGLs - Fangning, Grace, Ryan & Wei Yang.
Thank you Chang Kyu, Chan Wai, Clarissa, Emmalene, Gabriella, Gabriele, Josiah, Kimberly, Jia Qian, Lorraine, May, Nanxi, Natalie, Nicholas, Nigel, Peter, Rachel, Shang Rong, Vinay, Wilson & Yijiang.
You guys have given me four fun-filled days that I'll never forget :')
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