The Story of Stuff

Something which all of us should be concerned about. Do take about 20 mins to watch this clip.

The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

M2/05



After winning Treasure Hunt Orientation M2/05

Last Movie Watched : Silver Hawk - Michell Yeoh, Richie Jen
Now Listening : Eternity - Dreams Come True (Disney's Swan Princess)
Now Playing : Radiata Stories

And so Eve, Chu Kin and I decided to become Orientation Officers. To be sure I actually wanted to meet some juniors and make new friends (and I hope I did achieve at least that), not because Deva kept pestering us to....
(OOs are basically guides to the juniors, as someone put it, we're their surrogate parents for a week. And we usually suffer similar fates as they do during some events :D)

Well, when we met the juniors, it was predictably polite and formal. Of course that would be the case seeing how neither of us know them and vice versa. We told them what orientation would involve - that in almost all the past orientations things have been almost directly obscene and vulgar (for some really weird reason that the seniors enjoy it). Fortunately they agreed to be as 'clean' as possible because that was actually what we, as OOs, were hoping to do, in a (probably vain) attempt to change orientation...

Eve asked them, whether they would rather win the orientation events or have fun. The result = Have fun but must at least get better than 2nd last place (the last part was thanks to Eve). Then it was pretty chaotic deciding what to do, what to wear, who to wear what, what to perform etcetc. We were all really surprised at our group, as the soon enough took charge themselves, referring to us for guidance mostly. Haha, most of the work was done by them (as it should be) but that didn't stop us OOs from feeling a little useless too :)
The usual crappy stuff happened on the 1st few days - dress codes, signature hunts, ice breakers. And I'd like to think that the group really did bond over the few days they were together...and most of the time they seemed to have fun too, and for that I'm really glad, as that is how orientation is supposed to be - FUN.

The fun parts were on the last few days, especially Treasure Hunt. This is the day when the students are allowed to run around Bukit Jalil, heading to a station, doing some silly things the SMs (Station Masters, not the other one) asked and in the end receive a clue to the next station and 1/15th of the treasure map. Of course this is also the day when you would get really dirty and, unfortunately, complaints have been made before...but that's another story.
Chalk it up to a stroke of luck or whatever, but I'm inclined to believe that mostly it was the team's strong spirit and Eve's constant(ly increasing) hyper-ness that kept pushing us on that led us to win the event. Whatever the seniors threw at the group, they took it with great sportingness and were having fun too. And from station to station I hardly heard any complaints or whines about how far it was and having to run etcetc. In fact they just kept running...
...the scary part was Eve. People normally get more tired the further they go. She got more energetic and hyper the further she went...
After all the stations we pieced together the treasure map (thanks to Wei-Yen and gang for extra lighting) and rushed to the spot. We were the 1st there and eagerly pestered the SM for the treasure. He, with some flair, made a horizontal wave with his arm and proclaimed that "The treasure is somewhere in this area!"
Soon enough another group came in hopes of grasping the elusive treasure before we could and hopes (well, mine at least) fell. Fortunately, shortly after their arrival, Chu Kin found the treasure!

...we were told, as we were looking, that the treasure is really obvious (even at night for it was dark then), it's green and organic. So most of us were thinking along the lines of a dead frog or some such. Well, it was nicely wrapped in white cloth so it was obvious. And the 'green and organic' part turned out to be a cactus, which was in the box in the pic above. Hahaha, well we can't really be blamed for thinking that way since from our experience, pasts treasures included lingerie and a bull's heart (which the winning team had to kiss - yeuck).

Btw yes that is a tofu we're holding. It gives us some points at each station we go to...as long as it is intact. And yes, you are perfectly entitled to whatever opinion you're having at this point.

We were absolutely elated. For us OOs, having won the Treasure Hunt is a big thing. Even more so for the group that actually worked for it. We definitely earned some bragging rights :)