GO TEMASEK GO
GO! TEMASEK GO!
Before you continue reading this. I recommend you to either go look at something far away or massage your eyes now. Cause this is a SUPER long blog entry. I think it exceeds a thousand words. It's better you hit the close window button now. Go on, don't waste time reading this long crap. =P
I guess I forgot to mention that my orientation was actually a 4 day 2 night camp. I thought it didn't matter. I didn't like the idea of spending 3 days with a bunch of total strangers. Like what Germaine said, "We're too lazy to make new friends, wave "Hi!" and force fake smiles,"
Like this.
So true.
But anyway, I did go. Was supposed to meet up with YK and his friend to go to the camp together. But he didn't turn up. So knowing YK and how he doesn't bother about keeping his dates, I took the bus myself.
DAY 1
When we got there, we were organised into our empires, and sub empires. (Empires were made up of 3 sub empires, just to let you know). And our sub was like the most un-united la. Everyone was keeping to themselves, and talking with their own clicks. Our group leaders were so infuriated with us. Lol. I bet when they volunteered to be GLs, they expected us to immediately click among ourselves. But that did not happen. Joshua, some guy I met there, was ranting that if you're a GL, it's your responsibility to make us feel comfortable and united. Well said man.
Anyway we slowly got to know each other. But I can't remember some of their names... lol. Let's see some of the people I do remember from our sub, Niran:
Nuraidah - Drama Queen/ Regina of the Plastics in mean girls
Riduan - Drama King/ Gretchen of the Plastics in mean girls
Michelle - Quirky Lass/ Karen of the Plastics in mean girls
Naomi - Half Philippino, half chinese. She can mimic maids very well
May - A girl from Myanmar whose dad is the Burmese ambassador here! Shhh. it's a secret.
Germaine - Track girl. Tall, dark, and easily frightened
Mark - Skateboarder, Indie listener <--- INDIE! Joshua - Track and Band guy, quite dao and nonchalant
Zhi Wen - Mr. IT Savvy who decided to take Visual Com when he didn't do much art
Lim Jian - Basketballer, dao sometimes and beng hair
Yi Long - Quiet, Anime lover
Regina - Okay, her name is REALLY Regina. Quiet Choir girl
Wynnie - It's pronounced Winnie, not Whiney... lolol
Lene - Always stuck to Wynnie
Snow - She's shock-prone, so I Booed her once and got a slap. Lol
Justine - Chinese speaking girl. TALL I tell you.
Michelle Tan - Quiet girl who looks like a sportswoman but really has NO cca. Her ear hole is the size of a peanut.
Ming Shi - Super niiice girl.. I mean it la.. haha
Pauline - Cute speaakkerrr
That afternoon, we were supposed to learn the design school mass dance. It was so complex I tell you. Jump here jump there, swing here swing there, I didn't know what the heck I was doing half of the time. And Miss Nuraidah was my unfortunate dance partner. She was being crazy and just flying around while we danced. And we had to hold hands and pull each other and she was screaming that I was pulling too hard. I didn't stop. Lol. And we were supposed to dance around in a circle with other people, and the circle went so fast, people started spinning off and falling down. It was such a funny sight.
That night, we learnt a sign language song in the lecture theatre. So we had to sign out the whole song. It was pretty stupid, cause the person signed out the whole alphabet with some weird hand signals. Some had two fingers up across the middle finger etc. But the letter "Z" was just waving ur finger in the shape of "Z". So can't they wave all the alphabet instead? Okay anyway. The song went something like this:
Go, Temasek Go
I Believe,
I embrace you,
and so on.
The tune was hilariously old-chinese-progaganda-music-ish. Lol. So we did it just to laugh and stuff. I saw Idil there, he was a 3rd year in design school. And I bet he thought how retarded we all looked as we struggled to keep up with the sign language song.
Night walk
We had this night walk programme, whereby we're suppose to walk around the school in the dark to solve a mystery. Before the walk started, the seniors came into the lecture theatre (after the sign language song) to address the whole design school, and they really freaked us out with campus ghost stories. This hunt was to go around school, and our only clues were to ask the "ghosts" with yellow glowsticks. Some of them were REALLY creepy. Like there was one whose head was a balloon, and he used his sweater's hood to hold it in place, so it really looked damn real. And we scared each other with our own ghostly encounters. I loved ghost stories.. so I really freaked everyone with what I knew.. ahahahaa.. I told them about the SAJC Forest trail I heard, the ones in school, and my own personal one. Thought I'm not really sure if mine was a ghost or not. It could be ethereal. *shrugs* Nuraidah was so scared that when we walked, she wanted everyone to be on her four sides. So she'll pull people by the sleeves to get them closer to her. lol.
In the end we found a few clues, and we could ask the ghosts anything. So some of us ask them stupid questions like, do you like being dead? Are you gay? Etc. It was funny cause the ghosts gotta pull a straight face no matter what you asked them. ahaha
DAY 2
That morning when we woke up, Germaine told us that Naomi, Nuridah, and herself were gossiping and chatting and complaining last night in the girl's dorm. Since we were expected Lights Off at 2 am, Germaine said someone came in at 3am. And they thought it was a GL. So they immediately stopped talking and pretended sleeping in a sitting position. How? They flung their torsos flat on the ground while still cross-legged. Lol... can you imaigne that? Found that hilarious...
We were expecting to go to Pasir Ris to do some other games, like the ones we did yesterday. but because it was raining, the GLs squeezed us all back into the Lecture Theatre. This was when SOMETHING drastic happened.
A girl started to freeze still infront of everyone. And she drop on the floor like a Newton apple. Then, her body began to gyrate and vibrate like crazy. And her face gave a crunched look, as though she was in immense pain. She started snortling and releasing short yelps. And she could stop. It looked like she was under a trance.
But we knew better.
She was having a fit.
Michelle, sitting beside me, was stunned. She asked me what was happening to her, and I just told her it was a fit. I've seen my brother gone through it twice. It was terrible. The doctor said that if he had it for the third time he would be permanently brain damaged. But those two times was because he was running a fever that hit 40 degrees, thus the heat would cause brain damage. I presumed the girl didn't have a fever, so maybe it was a genetic problem she suffered since birth.
Anyway, she began to relax. At first I thought she was dead. But then she suddenly sat up. By the time the first-aid people attended to her, she was completely normal again. Apparently she remembered nothing of her fit. But they still sent her to hospital anyway.
After that incident, we were sent outside to do our performance that night. And also to finish our T-Shirt Design. So a group of those who attended the optional camp - the one held by Temasek poly a week before this camp - went to discuss about our cheers. So the rest of us fit reluctantly into the t-shirt design category.
About the T-Shirt Design, Nuridah suggested we use coloured paper and coil out our blue flame design, I argued that we should just stick with fabric paint. So after much much debating, the guys gave in to Nuridah and the girls. We stuck with the coiled colour paper. But the thing is, we needed a model to showcase our work on stage that night. Right? I mean make T-Shirt no model also abit dumb. Lolll. And we didn't know who to find. It was Nuridah who suggested Riduan - our super feminine and funny guy - cause she said he could really strut some stuff.
We finished the t-shirt. And it looked amazing. Absolutely stunning - the intricate way of coiling it. Then we regrouped ourselves with the people doing the cheer. And the cheer was suuuuper complex and long. Let's see how much of it I remember:
Fuego, Fuer we don't care.
Fuego, and Fueko we don't care.
Cause we're gonna win and you're gonna lose.
Sooo... you better watch out (guys: YEA)
you better pray hard (guys: and DIE)
cause Niran's gonna be Number 1.
Who we gonna be ah?
NIRAN WARRIORS!
Who we gonna be ah?
NIRAN WARRIORS!
Whose the best?
Niran!
Si Shua shua Si Shua shua Si shua shua WOO WOO!
Si Shua shua Si shua shua Si Shua shua BANG BANG!
Si shua shua Si shua shua Si shua shua WOO WOO!
Si shua shua Si shua shua Si shua shua AH!
We kick Fuer in, we kick Fuego out, we kick Fuer in, and shake it all about.
We do the Hokey Pokey and we turn ourselves about.
That's what we're all about!
AHHHHHHH
Kamateh Kamateh NIRAN NIRAN (yeap, this is a Hakka.)
Kamateh Kamateh NIRAN NIRAN
Whose the best?
NIRAN!
Whose the best?
NIRAN
aaaahhHHhhHHHHHHHHHH
NIRAN!
Wow, I actually remembered the whole thing. Considering the fact that we screwed the whole thing up in the end when we were on stage.
Everyone encouraged Riduan to model for us. Since he was really super good at cat walking and screaming and posing. Lol.. He was the man who would scream "SAAARRAASAAHH!!" suddenly and make Nuridah and me bellow with laughter. Now the two of us cannot get that word out of our verbal language.
SARRRAAASAAAHHH!!!
We got third place among 15 sub-empires! Cool huh? Must be because of the intricacy of coiling all the paper and then gluing them painstakingly. It made us have fingers smudged in UHU glue. But we did it! Riduan really strutted all his stuff. He walked like those professional models man. Hats down to him.. lol. Va va boooommmm!
Then it was time to do our sub-empire's cheer. It was pretty crazy. Cause we didn't practice enough. So Wynnie led us up. There was this part where the guys were supposed to yell something. But it was dumb cause we forgot to yell at all. Lol, damn screwed la. And everything else was dull and monotonous. Cause we all forgot our parts and we were just mumbling moans and grunts throughout the thing. Big embaressment there.
After that, we had our CLUB NIGHT! Moses, our deisgn school director, hired a DJ and we had those shimmering lights and everything. Just like a professional dancefloor. Then we all squeezed in a small space below the school. So hot and sweaty la. Everyone was inching into everyone else. The DJ played those RnB songs like My Humps , Superstar etc.
There's the picture. Abit blur if you ask me, I looted this from hanif's blog. Haha..
Yup, so you can see how we all were shoved into this small space. Then there were flashing lights and loads of smoke. It was like a human oven in there. The girls from sub wanted to go dance, but it became so squeezy they decided not to. Lol...
Everyone was screaming at the top of their lungs man. It was crazy. Anyway, I got out of the dancefloor 30 minutes later, VERY sweaty. And I walked around to the other side of the dancefloor. And hanif and Joshua were there. We started to dance again. And Hanif was singing the tune of Pussycat doll's Beep. You should all check the lyrics of the song Beep at www.azlyrics.com. It has really stupid phrases. =P
Spooky Happenings
So after the club dance, some of us wanted to eat. We wanted mac, so everyone wrote down their orders on a piece of paper.. and Aini - our GL - was supposed to order. Naomi went to the toilet and suddenly called Aini and told her that she was cancelling her order. Weird right. order then cancel. So anyway Aini was waiting for everyone to get back before she called. When Naomi came back, Aini asked her:
Aini: "So you cancelling your order right?"
Naomi (shocked): "No, since when did I want to cancel my order?"
Aini: "But you called me just now and said you were cancelling yoru order,"
Naomi: "Huh, but I never called you,"
*spooky music in the background*
There was a long pause. And I flashed Naomi a shit-it-was-a-ghost look. Aini said it could be a prank call or something. She told us it would be too late to order Macs, so we decided to go to the business school's vending machines instead. So the group of us - Germaine, Naomi, Mark, Joshua, Nuridah, Riduan, Michelle Chong, Michelle Tan, Minx and myself - walked across the bridge to Business school. Once there, we saw the digital board of one of the lecture theaters flashing IN USE. But it was 3 am in the morning, how could anyone be still using it? Minx said maybe business school was having a camp too. But it was highly unlikely, cause business school was way too big to shove the whole school in one LT to sleep.
I told Minx if Aini suddenly called back the number that prank called her, maybe it would ring from inside that LT in use. Minx really got spooked. Haha..
Anyway there was an eerie vibe about that long hallway. So we walked down the LT to the vending machines. Anyway the place looks something like this:
--------------------------------------
---------- vending machines
seats here
LT toilet
-------------------------------------
So after we got what we want from the vending machines, we sat at the seats opposite of it. It was a study bench. But the 10 of us could comfortably squeeze into the benches. So we were eating and talking halfway when Nuridah pointed out that the toilet lights were on. Naomi said it was pretty creepy, cause those toilets ran by motion sensors. So if the lights inside were on, it means that there was movement inside.
But we knew this place was deserted.
....
Okaaayyyy, there was something moving in that toilet. We didn't really care. When you have the company of 10 other people, it isn't as scary as it looks. So we continued eating and talking. And from where I sat, I could see the hallway at the right of me. The bench was sited infront of a wall, so from where I sat, my visibility of the hallway was until where the wall started.
wall
--------------
Germaine vending machines
ME <--- hallway So once I finished my food and looked up, from the corner of my eye, I saw SOMEONE run pass this hallway, just beside where Germaine sat. There were no sounds of footsteps, nor did anyone see this person. I did. And my heart jumped. The person had short hair, and he was wearing a beige-ish T-shirt. So I kept mum. I didn't wanna freak the girls. And besides, it might be my eyes playing tricks on me. So we continued to talk and laugh and be merry. Half of the time complaining about how boring this camp is. But then Nuridah suddenly paused. Nuridah: "Did you hear whistling?" Germaine: "Yeah, I did," Me: "Huh? There's no sound at all," Nuridah: "Okay, it went something like this," *mimics whistle* Germaine: "Yes! That's exactly what I heard!" Nuridah: ".... Okay, I think we better leave," So that really freaked them out. And we decided it was time to go. Some of us went to buy a drink at the vending mahcines, while the others waited around the hallway. Suddenly, Germaine's phone dropped. We laughed, at her clumsiness. Then Riduan's phone dropped. Then Nuraidah's phone dropped. Then Michelle's phone dropped. Then Minx's phone dropped. Then Germaine's phone dropped again. This happened consecutively. I'm not lying, this seriously happened. Talk about being spooky. I thought it was an omen of some kind. How could 5 phones drop on the ground. All accidentally? Hmmm... So this really frightened everyone. And they all rushed back down the hallway towards Design school.
Since I was last to buy drinks, Michelle waited for me. She urged me to hurry up, cause she was getting really scared. That was when I told her about the man I saw running across the hallway. She immediately grabbed my arm and urged me to be quick. So we ran down towards the rest of the group and left business school.
DAY 3
The next day was an interschool sports day. Whereby the different schools , Design, IT, Business, Engineering and Applied Science gather together to compete. So the Design school was allocated at small portion of the specatator stand (since we were the smallest school - 500 ppl only), next to Engine. And we were damn bad la. We were yelling cheers at the top of our voices, and suaning Engine like crazy. Loll
ENGINE WILL LOSE THE WAR
ENGINE WILL BANG THE WALL and etc.
So there was a really heated thing going on among the two schools. But it was fun suaning engine, cause they had a thousand plus people cheering, and yet our design school were still louder than them. Ahaaha..
After that there was a dragonboat competition. And I was a participant, so Mark and I left to go prepare for it. Anyway we realised we were short of two people when we reached the reservoir. So Mark rushed back down the stadium to rally some other guys, while the group of us went to practice. Dragonboat's way fun man! But it's super tiring too. You have to exert alot of stomach power when you twist to a side to push the oar down. So yeah, I had to do that. By the time we compete everyone in the boat was really high. So when we left the starting line, everyone was going 1! 2! This was to coordinate our rowing. Then suddenly I got out of tune and I kept hitting the oar behind me. I bet that guy was damn pissed. Lol
We came in third place in the end. Hmm not bad la.
After twe were dismissed, Moses came and gave us this long talk about how we were still the best, though we didn't win best-spirited school. And then we left. There was supposed to be a mass dance with all the other schools later that night. But it was optional. So I decided not to go. Cause I was shagged enough... cannot dance anymore in my stinking shirt. Lol.... I was glad I met such great friends there, God has really blessed me.
I free-rode in Hanif's cab to his house outside and then took a bus back home.
The camp was fun! Way fun! I think it's better than the orientation we had when we were in secondary school. WAY better. Hanif agrees cause his group leader asked him to kiss the road in sec 1, or something like that.. haha. So DESIGN SCHOOL ROCKS! Ignite 2006 was awesome, thank you GLs and programmers and everyone who made this possible (yes, even Shawn Paul...).
EH EH EH EH EH
EH EH EH EH EH
EH OOSA EH OOSA OOSA OSSA EH
HEY!
Anyway, for those whose decided not the read all the junk and skipped to this paragraph, Bravo to you! At least you didn't waste a good 15 minutes of your life on me. =P What can i say? I'm being longwinded as usual. Yeap, this post is obviously for my future reference. Maybe when I'm 40 years old, I'll stumble back on this blog and say wow! I knew a girl named Regina!
Or something like that.
=P
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