My last Freshmen Orientation Project (FOP) came and went.
I only decided to join this year's Oweek barely a month before the actual day, after sending emails to the YOG Torch Relay team to tell them that Orientation is more important. I hoped it wouldn't be a silly choice.
Then dry runs for the camp came. The fellow councillors had great fun going through the games. Especially the scissors-paper-stone evolvement game. And I felt good being in Goldie House, which totally dwarfed the other houses in terms of manpower. I totally felt excited hearing about the secret weapons we were about to have: Vuvuzelas, caps, etc. Even the decisions made to name the OGs as "Good Morning/Good Afternoon/Good Evening/Good Day/Good Night/Good Bye" made us laugh very hard. Many jokes in dry run.
Then we met again to paint our flag. One by one the images emerged. Our House's flags were the nicest amongst all, and effort was 100%.
Soon enough, Day 0 came. We met to make identities, finalised cheers, played games and barely rested for the night before the actual camp started.
Day 1: 1st August. It was a Sunday. I was relieved to see so many freshies turning up on a Sunday Morning. It was raining very heavily somemore. So we made new friends in the morning, and played dirty games in the cool afternoon. We lost 7 out of 9 games, but I guess they had fun. I really was getting worried about whether they would start to feel bored after all the losses, but thankfully there were timely wins after 5 straight losses.
Then there was mass dance in the evening. I personally love mass dances. But I'd forget them very easily. Night games followed that. Everyone became tired. And finding a good sleeping place was difficult--we walked alot and settled on an air-con corridor. Councillors slept very late. 3am-ish.
Day 2: 2nd August. Monday. Morning was a mass game where they played Human Risk. Apparently the scissors-paper-stone evolvement game didn't resonate as well in the freshies as we did during Dry Run. Then there was Mass dance practice again. The freshies went for FIC after lunch, while the councillors relaxed and played cards while waiting. It was a rather short day, since we were to wake up at 4am the next day!
Day 3: 3rd August. Tuesday. Flag day. Morning was a little chaotic and we set off only at 6-plus. We were deployed to flag at Yishun. This was my 3rd consecutive NUS Flag day, and probably my last ever. I like doing Flag actually, and I was even more encouraged when almost 20 people dropped $2 notes into my tin. I even collected a $5 note! After a few hours, our OG went to play pool, before gathering at AMK to be dismissed.
Day 4: 4th August. Wednesday. Sentosa day. One thing I didn't like about this year's Oweek, was to make people pay for the Sentosa admission, after collecting so much in the camp fees. It was lucky that the morning rain stopped by noon, when the games commenced. Alot of games played, and even more dunking fun. We ran around dunking people from the Oweek comm. Then towards the end, we EnginCampComm'2009 had fun dunking our targets too. It was really to be the last FOP event we would be involved, and it ended with us happy.
We returned back to school and played more OG games with funny forfeits with the Flag day stickers. Then, the councillors prepared for our performance: Hey Juliet dance. And our OG had supper at FS.
Day 5: 5th August. Thursday. Engin Race. By the time we headed out of school, it was already 12 plus. We went straight to Marche at Vivo and had a good lunch. Thenafter, we went back school and changed into our semi-formal attire at PGPR for Finale Night. We celebrated Thomas's birthday briefly before Finale, then the councillors went in for rehearsal.
Finale Night was good. I just realised this would have to be my 6th Finale Night already. I can't imagine how Time flies. The councillors dance performers were largely made up of our EnginCampComm'2009, and this would be our 2nd time performing on stage, after our unforgettable 'Nobody' dance in June 2009. Dancing on stage in front of an audience of almost 500 people was way too cool.
Then the results of the Best House was to be announced. The suspense before that almost killed me. When I was a Freshie, I really didn't care whether my House is the Best or not. Then when I was a councillor in last year's Oweek, winning the Best House came as a good bonus to all the fun we had in Geek House 2009. This year, it was to be our LAST FOP: all of us put in alot of effort, be it in the secret weapons or other matters, hoping to end our FOP journey well. Our House is the only house with so many experienced seniors, with alot from the previous Management Committees and sub-committees. Which is why I was a little nervous and I thought I wouldn't be able to imagine how disappointed all our House's councillors will be. Great relief when our Goldie House was announced as the Winner. We cheered the loudest ever in this Oweek and it was a good full-stop.
Camwhored after Finale Night. There was supposed to be an 'After Party' which was called off. Our OG went supper again and I was so exhausted I felt like I was sleeping while walking. Back at our sleeping area, we played Psychiatrist till really late.
Day 6: 6th August. Friday. Engin Got Talent in the first half of the day. The standards dropped very much from last year's instalment. We had a good nap through some of the skits and songs. The 2nd half of the day was really a great highlight. Rag Day this year was held in conjunction with the YOG's Journey of the Youth Olympic Flame (JYOF), which I was supposed to be volunteering in.
The Faculty floats and performances were as good as previous years. But come the Hall segment, I really have to say that NUS had seen the best ever Rag Day it ever had. To coincide with the arrival of the Olympic Flame, the Hall segment was held in the evening, where we witnessed high quality floats that were lit-up, together with extravagant, colourful and lighted costumes from the performers. Each Hall represented a specific country in a continent, just like the JYOF international torch relay route. And in between Hall performances, they showed clips of the city celebrations in those countries when the YOG flame went.
Then the President arrived, followed by the arrival of the YOG flame. Then Ng Ser Miang lit up the cauldron, in a midst of pyrotechnics and fireworks in the sky, right at SRC. The series of events did have an effect to make me feel proud that YOG is happening right soon.
This is really the best Rag Day I've ever seen. I hope NUSSU continues to make Rag an evening affair too.
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That's Oweek 2010. I didn't regret coming for it. This will add on to the already-filled-up fond memories I have with regards to all the FOP experiences in Engin. All the fun and laughter will stay. Memories too, though the thought that this will never happen again brings some post-camp blues to everyone.
人生是黑白的.
3:09 PM <3
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On the night of 6th Aug 2010, Friday, 6 of us (Ah Mok, Vincent, Jen, gthui, Yehlin and I) gathered and headed for Golden Mile Complex.
11:50pm: Reached Alisan Express office. Long queues outside office. I went in and saw an impatient crowd in front of an empty counter. Probably the receptionist went for a long toilet break?
12:00am~12:30am: There was really a big group of affected people, all with baggages. The number of people could easily fit into 6 to 7 buses. People were starting to whip out cameras to snap at the signboard. Some went in and flipped at the booking records which were still on the reception table. I saw my name inside. There were people who tried to find their booking records on the receptionist's computer. But so what if there were records of your bookings, when there were totally no buses outside?
12:40am~1:20am: Police came. And more police came. And then more again. They flipped through records in the office. People were snapping photos away. After some time, the police gave us a Case Reference number, with which we would quote when making the police report. Crowds started to scatter. The security came to pull down the shutters. We decided to cam-whore. Then went to a neighbouring agency to check tickets availability. But 100+ people were already on the waiting list. We cancelled our hotel bookings. And thought of back-up plans.
After 1:30am: We took cab home. And arranged to meet later in the morning to lodge police report.
10:00am~11:15am: Made police report. Heard that even more people were affected from the morning buses after ours.
12:00pm ~ 11:00pm: Our back-up plan--took a bus up to JB instead.
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It's a lucky thing that this trip was supposed to be a 'travel-via-train' trip, and so the coach was only booked one-way. The damage amounted to about $50 for each person. What we got was an experience that was quite unforgettable. We've seen reports on private educational institutions, for example, defaulting on customer's money. Little did we expect that a similar case would befall on us. It was also a first-time experience to lodge a police report in Singapore for some of us. And I guess the same would be said about making a report to CASE soon.
We took the issue very lightly and laughed it all off. Memories of this 'trip' would probably last a lifetime!
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News on omy: HERE
News on CNA: HERE
人生是黑白的.
2:50 PM <3
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