Orientation Is About Cheering Yourself Hoarse

Arts Orientation is a time where it is compulsory to have fun. Am I enjoying it? Let's say I enjoy it as much as it is possible for me to enjoy playing brainless games (cunningly planned, though) and shout unintelligent things like pom-chi-chi-pom-chi (one of our cheers) in upbeat rhythms. As huien told a friend, "alissa is the kind of person that I'm amazed she even showed up for orientation."


Last night we had Fright Night, though Tyler the organiser said there was no such event as Fright Night. "This is called Night Venture." Yes, it's only a Night Venture when they screen The Sisters (Thai horror flick) until midnight and divide you into groups of three to hunt for clues to a body-parts murder mystery. I was in group of four with two other girls and a guy (it's the time for the guys to act macho and play it cool after all their NS training). The other girls screamed a lot. I don't usually scream when I'm frightened; I just seize up. Anyway, I had planned a ghost house before so I wasn't really frightened, just got periodic shocks when the people jumped out and screamed. It's not fun when you know they're going to stand behind you and hold your hand, or crouch and grab your ankles, or brush your legs with something. Kudos to the team for being great ghosts and getting it pitch dark in the room, though. I feel a bit bad because I laughed in the room--a little out of nervousness but mostly because I thought it was funny. I did scream once, but that was for fun. I wanted to see how shrill I could go, whether I could make the proverbial MGS girls's scream (no, I can't).

I am going to get a new handphone. Yes, finally. So it won't die suddenly, so it's ringtone will be louder, so I'll be more contactable than ever before. I must be more responsible and make the most of my uni life. That means getting into committees and planning stuff. I hate that most of all but I think it is necessary.

The best part of this whole orientation business for me really is being able to make friends. It is the only reason I come every day and put myself through all that shouting (makes me dizzy) and all that hanging around waiting for the next event. The best event so far has been inauguration. That would sound uber-lame to all this fun-loving ceremony-hating bunch of Arts folk, but really, I liked best the two minutes in which we stood to welcome the University's President, Masters of Hall and Faculty Deans. When I saw the old fogeys, some walking, some waddling, some doing a mincing little march like a bride going up the aisle--all in ceremonial robes and academic beret thingies--I thought: one day that's going to be me. I'll probably be very old when that happens, but I'll be an old fogey of an academic in a university, part of the establishment, a gargoyle in the fixed traditions, a master of the art of knowledge, one who welcomes innovations in my students's thinking. Yes. I would like very much to be there doing that when the time comes.

Oh, another thing: cheering is so mindless. I know all the arguments about how it raises morale,etc. They justify, but do not refute, the fact that cheering is a mindless activity. Our house chief choonghan led cheers last night till he got a headache. O_o Thankfully both my house chiefs are naturally sedate characters, so we don't cheer as much as the other houses (or as mindlessly either: one other house has a cheer composed entirely of very crude pelvic thrusts).