After so very long of not blogging, I'm back from an awesome God-blessed orientation at SAJC. Frankly speaking, it's still a little surreal to realise that I'm a Saint, that I'm finally in SAJC. It's one of the few things I really put in a lot of effort to achieve. I never really put in effort into studying and usually I still get my grades, though not As. So it feels really great to know that the time I spent poring over books and literally marrying my notes has not gone to waste.
First up, a huge thank you to the Student Council who did a smashing job of organising the whole orientation. It's gonna be hard to match your unity and unlimited energy...
Okay suddenly I don't know where to start talking about orientation. The past 5 days have rushed by so fast; I can only remember having tonnes of fun, serious muscle aches and falling asleep within 5 minutes of putting my head on the pillow (a major miracle for me cos I usually take 2-3 hours to fall asleep. INSOMNIA SUCKS TTM!). Oooh, yes, Donny and I are both Saints, and we're prolly gonna see each other every freakin day of the week. Sunday, church. Monday to Friday, school. Saturday, open cell (my group combined with his). Total omg. I'm so ignoring him when we meet along the corridors or in the cafe!
Day 1Was superrrr tired cos I slept at 1am. Came back from sending Dione off really late. Thanks much to the guys who helped me get back (: Dad sent me and major jam on the way there cos he went by the highway. Anyhoo, met Don and his friend, Sean, who happened to be in the same Orientation Group (OG) as me. Woohoo. Sean and I were in OG 8 and our Orientation Group Leader (OGL) was Joel. Sean and I met for the first time only but we totally clicked (:
Some funny bonding games and there was this really cute guy, J, from ACSB with lashes so long he looks like he went for eyelash extensions. I was smitten till he revealed himself to be a dickhead, intent on getting out of SA to go to AC so he can be with his friends. Throughout his brief time in OG 8 (thank God), he kept disappearing to look for girls in other OGs. Just whatever you, I'm wasting bytes typing about J.
Joel is the kingdom head for Auryon, my awesome YELLOW kingdom (: Everyone's split into 5 kingdoms:
Strizeo,
Auryon,
Ixodus,
Nezaro,
Thyadius. 5 to 6 OGs make up one kingdom. And for the observant ones (like yours truly), the first letters of each kingdom make up the word
SAINT. Teehee. Strizeo people are sorcerers, Auryon people are vikings, Ixodus people are sneaky refugees, Nezaro people are archers and Thyadius people are knights. Supposedly, we're fighting each other for the king's throne...
Didn't take pictures on the first day cos no one brought cameras!! Alamak. Anyhoo, games really brought the life out in us and I'm so damn glad to be in OG 8, where people come up with the best and most creative ideas and strategies ever. I'd never have thought of them myself, so really hats off to those with brilliant ideas (: We didn't lose a single game at all. Yay. Learnt the mass dance, Shake It by Metro Station. Super fun, and I think I lost weight!! Don says the song is about sex... Hmmm.
BLG was mad awesome. Putting my experience into words would be too tiring. But I really don't like getting squashed like mad ):
Day 2Met Don and Sean again before moving to the Cultural Centre (CC) for subject talks. Subject talks really freaked me out and apparently I wasn't the only one. I heard someone say, "Uhhh, I wanna go poly now..." HAHAHAH. I'm an arts student so most prolly taking H2 Literature, Geography and Economics, H1 Math or Biology. After that played some shit funny stage games involving telephone charades. Each kingdom has to send representatives to play the games. Basically, the stage games are solely for entertainment purposes, to make fun of the unfortunate people who have been volunteered by their OGs. Teehee.
Learned the school song, hymn and cheers. Super propaganda-ish can. It's like they're trying to brainwash us and make us believe were "saints". Indeed. I ain't no saint, if you know what I mean. Teehee. School song was really upbeat and I liked it but I could only rememeber one line:
Up and on!! Hah.
Had some kingdom time to learn kingdom cheers. I think Auryon's cheers are the most hilarious. For example:
As we sail the seas of the oceans round,
S-T-R-I-Z-E-O's going down
I-X-O-D-U-S never gonna get the crown
Cos they all will drown!
Part two!
As we sail the seas of the oceans round,
All the "awesome" knights just float around!
All the archers just go oh oh oh my gosh...
And they all will drown!
*In the knights' signature cheer, they use "awesome" to describe themselves and in the archers' cheer, they're supposed to be "sexy" and their cheer uses "oh oh oh my gosh". Hah.
Let me hear you say!
We, the vikings, V-I-K-I-N-G-S!!
We, get horny, V-I-K-I-N-G-S!!
You, go crying, V-I-K-I-N-G-S!!
Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah AURYON!! (x2)
*"Horny" because vikings wear horns (:
More brainwashing after that, with this really cool song "Mark of A Saint" written by Gabriel Low, one of the OGLs. He's pretty cute too. Eyecandy much! The song's really catchy and it got stuck in my head, but not for long, cos we had mass dance again, which got Shake It stuck in my head. Tsk.
Played games involving water around the school. Yet again, we won everything and had massive fun. Cheered like mad and scared the other OGs off. Mass waterbomb fight after that. Imagine 700 over students throwing water bombs, some filled with coloured water, some filled with barley water i.e. my group, screaming like crazy and running like mad on a football field. By the way, SAJC has fake grass on it's football field; astro turf. Good, then no rashes after sitting on the field (: I was absolutely filthy after the whole thing. Not very wet cos I managed to dodge most of the water bombs, just very sweaty, sticky, smelly and dirty. Learnt a new mass dance, Rockin Robin by Mcfly. Super hilarious dance that involves partners. Eh, Don, one day I do with you kay. I be the boy, you be the girl!!
Clean up and debrief after that. It was then that I decided I officially am in love with my OG (: Rushed for cell at Sheryl's place. Travelled with Don and Sean. I was super tired and fell asleep on the bus. Bought dinner with Sean at Macs where he almost lost his wallet.
Watched "Night At The Museum" at Sheryl's place.
QianYi: So which JC did Glen go to?
Ashley: Oh, he was posted to TPJC but he's appealing to SAJC.
Lianne: What! Glen's that old meh!
HAHAHAH I can't feel sympathy for Glen somehow!
Mum and Dad picked me up, thank goodness. Headed home, showered and hit the sack.
Day 3Started with some boring briefing followed by mass dance. Practised the new dance Rockin Robin. I was pretty excited for the day cos up next was the Amazing Race. Cliche as it is, I prolly enjoy anything with my wonderful group. The Amazing Race was terribly awesome. First stop, Dhoby Ghaut for a dance off with another OG outside Plaza Singapura. We won, duh. Oh, one thing to add, throughout the race, if we meet another group, we can shout "SKIRMISH!!" which means we're challenging the other group to a mini competition decided by the OGLs. The group that loses the mini competition will be detained for 3 minutes.
Next stop was at SMU. Played a memorising game there. 24 of us had to memorise 3 different sequences of playing cards. And yay, we did it!! While going off for lunch (I was so darn hungryyy!), we saw another group so we shouted "SKIRMISH!!" OGLs conversed and decided to do arm-wrestling for girls! Knowing I'm a netballer, my group sent me as the representative. My opponent was a canoeist. Huge, strapping. Amazonian lookalike girl who's bigger and taller than me, and even more tanned than me! Omg, I freaked out. Even better, my group put the pressure on me by saying, "Our lunch is in your hands." Cut the long story short, I won and gained the reputation as a man. Yeah, the guys decided I was one of them -.- Oh well.
Settled lunch at Plaza Singapura food court, before heading to the underpass going towards Esplanade. On the way there, we skirmed another group with girls' arm-wrestling again. This time, my opponent was a rugger. Another round of freak out again cos she's so much bigger and muscular than me! And I haven't trained in eons! Won the rugger and I literally shook with relief. Maybe because I play with guys that's why I can win them. If they had wrestled with boys before, I prolly would not have been able to beat them.
Played a hilarious and tiring game at the underpass which involved transporting everyone across a "bridge" using pieces of cardboard. Only can step on the cardboard, if not, restart the whole thing. We were provided with only 13 pieces of cardboard and there's 24 of us.
WeiRen: Okay, who's in the 40 plus kg range?
*some girls put up their hands including me*
WeiRen (to me): Aiyah, you put your hand down ah. You man, you carry the girls!
Alamak, so this is what I get for winning the skirms. Tsk.
Perspired like mad while playing the game but I was really happy with all the cheering and singing we did during the game. Although Joel removed a few pieces of the cardboard, we still managed to complete the challenge (:
Headed to Suntec next to eat some supposedly yucky food. Turned out to be quite nice tasting cos it's a combination of Macs' curry sauce plus barbecue sauce. Looks gross but tastes pretty alright except for the saltiness. Skirmed another group but decided to do guys' arm wrestling. And for the first time, we lost. Awwww... Headed back to school thereafter. Debrief and headed homeee!! Tireddd much.

During lunch

Clockwise left to right: JunWei, Sean, Joel, YaoHong, Mervyn, Ashley, XiaoQian, XinMin

Group photo is the love!
Day 4Started with temperature taking which was so secondary school-ish! Had stage games again, followed by banner making for each kingdom. Auryon's banner is a yellow A wearing a viking hat (: After that, had something similar to chapel for the Christians. I'm surprised to know that about three-quarters of the cohort are Christians... Good to know, but there was this niggly feeling that majority are Christians in name only. Lunch, and then mass dance again, where we learnt the final mass dance, Beat It by Michael Jackson. I think that dance is the coolest dance (: I like doing vigorous dancing. Makes me feel skinny. Teehee.
Played games organised by the House Council after mass dance. It was relatively fun and major amusing. Another OGL took charge of the OG while Joel joined us as a member. The new OGL was called Zoe. She has a dimple near the corner of her left eye!!
Zoe: One interesting fact about me is that I have a dimple at the wrong place!! *points to dimple*
Ashley: Ohhh, Wei Ren, she can join our freak show too, right?

Mr Koh Wei Ren, president of the Freak Society! I wanna learn how to climb that rope!!
Wei Ren's feet can face the opposite direction plus he can place his hands on his hips and bring his elbows together so that they touch, while I have bendy fingers and double-joints. Together, we form the freak show of OG 8. Hah.
More brainwashing after the fun games, debrief then went to wash up. I think I'm buying into their brainwashing. I actually feel like I'm part of SAJC and that I'm a Saint (as silly as it sounds)!! Travelled to Bedok with Sean, Don, Benedict and Ben aka Girly Voice, another St. Hilda boy that S and D don't really like. Ahah. I think I'm more man than those 4 guys! In a new school environment, people from the same school hang out with each other. Me, I'm weird. I hang out with SNAGs from St. Hilda's -.- Oh well, I prefer it that way (:

I think Joel could be a bengsie if he tired.

Kelvin, a mentor with the chaplaincy. Ruined the awesome picture!!!!



Ashley: Ben is heavy and nasty!
Met Dominic at Bedok macs. Supposed to refresh his mind on some chemistry stuff but I was quite late so just passed him my books and notes. Prayer meeting was awesome. I brought Ben, a watermelon, along. Actually, Ben the watermelon was part of the games organised by the House Council. None of my group members wanted to take Ben back so I took him back. Sheryl, Sally and Karen were so amused by it, they did a lil photoshoot with Ben. Oh and I dropped Ben on the way to prayer meeting, which resulted in a cracked Ben. Oops. Home-ed thereafter. I was so tired I contemplated going to sleep without showering. But my OCD for showering and not letting any dirty thing touch my bed won, so I showered and waited for my hair to dry ):
Day 5Omg I can't believe 4 days of mad fun orientation have zoomed by like that!! For the life of me I can't really remember what happened except for finale where the storyline of the kingdoms, albeit cliche and predictable, was filled with emotion and drama and I could totally see the hard work put in.
As WeiRen, president of Freak Society would say, "I'm not going to say anything about orientation because words would do injustice to its awesome-ness. Besides, I can't think of words now. So darn tired... I don't know how I'm gonna survive JC life... I guess with lots of Starbucks!!

Posing with the viking horns we made with newspaper, aluminium foil, masking tape and hairbands (: Frankly, it looks kinda slutty.
THE most gorgeous banner ever, completed by the whole JC1 cohort. Each kingdom did a portion; their own letter and colour. But each kingdom saw only one-fifth of the whole banner, which looked like it was a personal kingdom banner thingy. Didn't know they'd paste the whole thing together to form a huge breathtaking banner.

Left to right: XinMin, Ashley, Sean, Vivien
Alright, back to the present. School has officially started. Oh yes, I'm mighty glad J won't be in SAJC. HAH. Go to your
Act
Cool
JC! Teehee. I'm staying in my
Super
Awesome
JC! Glen, I feel sorry for you cos you're in the
Terrible
Poonani
JC. HAHAHAH. Plus you came from
Shit
Hole
Secondary
School. QianYi has been thrust into
Hardworking
Cheenas
JC. Ann is hating her
Mental
Institute. Okay, just some funny stuff I came up with while crapping with D, S and B (:
Lectures are pretty alright, and I've discovered that the chairs have been built in such a way that it is extremely uncomfortable to sleep or put your head on the fold-out table. Anyhoo, I'm a contortionist and I managed to catch a few winks. Teehee. Ended up with very bad pins and needles. Oh well. Supposed to buy uniform today but my size is out of stock!! Grrr, I want my chio uniform!! ):
Burberry sale at Expo with D, S and B. Everything was soooo damn chio, I wish I had the cash to get this awesome pale yellow jacket I saw. Love at first sight. Plus a suede bag going for about $600 after 80% discount. Damn. So we moved over to the more affordable side: Robinsons!! Ahah, the downside of being students. I bought rings, a top and moisturisers. Goodness, I'm a sucker for moisturisers...
The guys left after that. They didn't want to do Frolick with me... So by myself, and in a pretty sad way, I finished a take home tub by myself. I think the yogurt looked sad cos it was lonely...

Cell at Sheryl's place was great (: Dinner at East Coast. Htht with Sheryl and XinJie. I'm surprised that I really don't feel anything regarding the whole issue. Maybe it's just buried deep down, so deep I can't get it out. Or maybe, hopefully, I'm really alright; that I'm really okay with everything that's going wrong. Then again, who's okay when things go wrong. Damn.
Uh-oh, they dye on my hair is fading and my hair looks ultra brown now! And there's spot check on Monday! Sianzipua ): Oooh, I just realised this is a super long post.
No I am not confused. I just wanna have the time of my life, so that when I look back, I won't regret and think "what if".