Yeah, just like what Junni said, this post is meant to enlighten those faithful followers of this blog.
I'm currently in NTU, Singapore, living in a hostel (Duh!). NTU is pretty big, I shall say, but I have not been to other campus before so I can't really make a comparison here. My room is rather big compared to rooms in other halls of residence. And tell you what, NTU is all about hill slopes and staircase so you can imagine walking up the hill slopes and flights of staircases. You'll really get muscles in your legs.
The first week here was so so. I was basically running walking around and slacking with my other 3 friends, who came to NTU with me. All classmates. We signed up for this orientation camp by the Malaysian and it's called MSA FOC 2011. MSA stands for Malaysia and FOC stands for Freshmen Orientation Camp, not Free of Charge. Because we need to know our OG (orientation group) members before the camp, so we had quite some activities together - OG Dinner, banner painting etc. It's fun, seriously. Probably because the GLs (Group Leader) are really good at creating the right atmosphere. And yea, the seniors taught us cheers and during the process of learning, I felt I was in kindergarten, learning how to sing.
FOC lasted for 5 days and in these 5 days, the earliest time I sleep was 2am. In spite of the lack of sleep, this camp makes us Malaysians, or maybe it's just me, feel very homely. Unlike other camps, in which seniors torture freshies, the seniors were really indescribably caring. They have a welfare committee in each group and they'll always be asking us "Who want to refill water?" and all we need to do was to shove them our water bottles. Cool, isn't it? Before I forget, MSA is actually a voluntary club. The organisers and the committee gets nothing in return...maybe some sense of satisfaction.
And we actually have a TWO photographers in our group so pictures were taken throughout the camp! However fun this camp is, there's this part of the camp which made us girls (maybe it's just me again) really uncomfortable because they had this thing called SP - Secret Partner. They pair up girls and guys from the sister group. For this SP thing, they had games and there were physical contacts (mostly holding hands) and the girls from my group was 'married off' to the other group and during the whole thing, we were all desperate to get back to our own OG. And they had this SP Walk. Sounds romantic, I know. But this walk scared the s*** out of me because it was a walk along the very big school building with your SP and another pair. The seniors made the school like a haunted place and there were 'ghosts' lurking around to scare you. The seniors really spent a lot of time preparing this and the props were amazingly good. Even now, when I'm walking alone in school, I'll feel a little bit scared. Thanks to a senior of mine who always tell us, especially ME, ghost stories. ==
The last day of the camp was the best day of all. We had this AmaSing Jalan-Jalan around Singapore. It was public holiday on that day - Singapore National Day. For the whole day, we went to Dhoby Ghaut, Orchard and that's where we went on a few really long escalators. We called it stairways to heaven. Of course, there were task that we had to complete. In Orchard, we have given out free hugs at the public. We sang in the public and etc. We took pictures with the wall in MRT station and we went to Universal Studio!!! We went quite close to Marina Bay before we took MRT to Vivo City. Sad to say, it wasn't cloudy on that day so I'm now tanned. == This is all about the daytime only. Night. We had sketches and all ended at around 3 am though the camp was scheduled to end at midnight. After the ending of the camp, our OG had this sharing session in which we shared our thoughts about the camp. Emo, I know but it's good to know what other people think about the camp and the group. I got booed by the seniors when I told them frankly that I used to doubt them because they were just way too nice and I thought they might be having some evil plans to torture us during the camp.
That's all about the camp. School started last week. I still do get lost in the school buildings. I'm the only Malaysian in my tutorial class. Pathetic. The food here, undoubtedly, sucks if I compare them to those in Ipoh. We still have OG meet up and activities rather frequently because the OG is similar to my family in SG. Libraries in here are awesome - they have very good facilities and you'll always need a sweater. The sun is a blessing to you after you stay in the library for hours. Toilets are, obviously, clean and the switches are controlled by motion sensor.
For now, the only problem I have is to get a position in a committee, WITH ENOUGH POINTS, to secure me a place to stay in next year or else I might end up squatting in other people's room (which I know I will because most Malaysian seniors are/were experiencing it). Sigh.
So that's all from me for now. Will tell you all more when you all ask because I can't think of what to tell anymore. Adios.
Just a little bit of pictures to make the blog nicer? LOL
Banner painting..with only 3 brushes for 20+ people. |
Yeah, our OG wore yellow. Bersih? |
In ADM (Art, Design & Multimedia) building. The design of the building fits the name. |
Us doing the 'Turn on the music' cheer in the sea at Siloso Beach, Sentosa. Water splashing like crazy. |
Yeah, this is what we did in the MRT station. Madness. |