2 Freshmen Orientation Camps back to back!
JShoxX 番組篇 (Bangumi Hen) with Japanese Studies Society and 展翅上腾 Fly High! with Chinese Varsity Christian Fellowship.
Both were far from being the Rah-rah type, and with full strength below fifty, they were really quite unique in the sense that we all got to know one another well, almost like in one single OG in an average faculty camp.
More importantly, a smaller group meant a less regimented camp, which meant that we had so much more time for free interaction, during which the seniors shared their experiences and the good, bad and ugly sides of life in NUS. The seniors in CVCF even did a powerpoint slideshow for the module bidding system, which to me was really an extra-mile effort.
JShoxX
The Freshies!
From right, Jingyi, Rindy, Jieying and I. My OG, named after Kira (Deathnote, not Gundam Seed.)
JShoxX was a gathering of Jap... erm, I mean Japanese fans, and so it was really a time for Japanese-speaking people like us to rant and rave in Japanese like nobody's business. Just to feel better about ourselves.
うっせぇよ おめぇ!!
We had Sado (Tea Ceremony) demonstrations and a brief introduction to the Buyo (Dance) Society, but the fun was mainly at Aloha Changi, where we played mock RPGs and walked almost the whole stretch of the Changi Village area. There was even a night walk at Old Changi Hospital!
It was quite a small world! I was pleasantly surprised to see Thomas at the camp, and he's a lot of fun!
The Depot Tristars. From the right, Kai Guan, Thomas and I.
Nick, now the president of the NUS Anime Club, came on the 2nd night
Music Station
They brought a projector set there and so we could watch all kinds of stuff ranging from the Nodame Canterbile drama to the recent X Japan Concert. We played a guess-the-song game based on the popular Japanese music programme called Music Station, which made me realise how out-of-touch with J-Pop I've become.
One single episode of Music Station was enough to show me how rich the pop music culture is in Japan. Compared with the mainstream Chinese market which is made up mainly of young solo singers, bands are of more common occurence in Japan. And bands meant a LOT more variations in the presentation and styles of music to choose from. As a musician, Music Station will really provide a wealth of inspiration for me.
To make things clear, I still don't like boybands. Not even Japanese boybands.
And Thomas could work harder with his pronunciation LOL.
Kat-Tun, Kat-Tun, on the wall...
Motteke!
During the mock RPG on Day 2, we had to go through stations and do some dances from either Lucky Star or Haruhi. Marcus and Peiwen from Group 'L' have memorised the dances before, so no one could beat them.
And then we had to solve puzzles based on observations we made of the NPCs (Non Player Characters), just like in RPGs. Except that there's no online game walkthrough this time...
Qianli the Afro Dance Man
Good morning, Nurse!
Whippy the Zombie
More on Day 2
The Treasure Hunt was, well, not exactly a walk in the park. We had to figure out clues along the lines of linking "Ten Nieces" to "Tennis" and relating Polo mint candy to a suspended tyre where our clue was hidden, and then we had to do some S-Rank listening comprehension exercise (courtesy of the Kacheow party).
Thanks huh.
I particularly enjoyed the game we played on the second night, in which we basically reveal our unique past experiences, like our travel destinations, schools, etc. We ended up talking about concerts we've been to, levels of the JLPT (Japanese Language Profeciency tests) we've cleared, having seen Mount Fuji, and other sugo~i stuff we've done before. Through that game we got to know each other a lot more. Plus, the game was rather... physical.
The Human Slot Machine
陪我看日出
A few of us decided to go watch the sunrise, a bad choice of location it was, but... we just didn't want to sleep!
The thing about the section of Changi beach we went to was that it had very little horizon, because of Pulau Ubin. So we had our fair share of light show, but no sunrise.
Blue Blue Sky...
Pseudo Mount Fuji
A splash of orange
What the Cloud?
Tortoise, Charlie Brown style
Watch the dove turn into a duck!
At least we got to see the final product: the salted egg!
The sunrise party!
展翅上腾 Fly High!
Just after one weekend of rest (I had a 12-hour sleep after I got home from JShoxX!) came the second camp with CVCF.
Just like the organising commitee themselves, I had a weird feeling when I heard that there would only be 6 freshies. Including me.
However I quickly felt at ease shortly after we arrived at the church where we would be staying for the camp. It's probably because the whole Chinese-speaking atmosphere that made me feel at home instantly. On top of that, I was in the same group as Jiamian who was from my church as well.
The amazing race at NUS was especially educational. From the very elusive biodiversity museum to names of flowers along the pavement (LOL) and the NUS 101 (LOL again), and ceilings of trans-faculty routes right up to Kent Vale (LOL yet again), I've probably learnt more stuff from that trip than I did from 4 months of working at NUS.
And I totally agree with 干事's sharing which I might summarise as not imposing our faith on others in arguements about ethical issues. After all I'm a Philip Yancey reader.
Most of us commented later that the whole camp was more like a retreat, but I guess that's the kind of camp I enjoyed the most... where camaraderie is built without the unnecessary rah-rah.
P.S. And then, tomorrow I'll be going off to Science Orientation Week camp, which I believe will be choc-fulls of rah-rah. But I'll never know how I'll fit into such an environment until I've experienced it myself.
