Prologue: RJC Moving Ceremony
Under the encouragement and appeals from Headmaster and Mrs Koh, I went down on 29 dec to witness the historical moment when RJC combines with RI to become one. lol, for an event of such magnitude, the school obviously had to make it a grand affair, so the students and staff of RJC set off early in the morning with their school colours from Mt Sinai, taking a non-stop train ride to Bishan, courtesy of SMRT. For the RI side, we formed a welcoming pathway all the way from the MRT station to the main entrance of the school. Well...the rest were rather boring, we went to the parade square of RJC where we were treated like second-class citizens, occupying the lower levels of the parade square. The band then played a re-arrangement of the school song which I think was arranged by Mr Oura. Well.... my impression was that it sounded rather violent then grand. Whatever, so after the whole ceremony, went back to RI to sit in RICO comm meeting. The efficiency of the comm seems to have dropped....rather worrying but nothing we can do. After lunch, played badminton with xq, ben ang, zj, marcus, jj, kb. Recalled Xunqi asking a question like why do songs like to have a climax, for pop songs, a chorus. Well...the only answer I can give is that to provoke a feeling, the music itself must be intense, just like in real life itself, only when we experience something intense, then will we be able to feel our emotions welling up. If u think about it, our emotions and feelings are nothing more than electrical signals no difference from those coming from ur electrical appliances, then why do humans put so much meaning into these electrical signals? I dunno, yet I dun wish to find out....
Orientation Day 1
Yay, I'm back to cover the first day again, now that I'm in a clearer state of mind after a 10 hrs sleep last night. The morning started off with my trying another route to school, taking bus 39 and changing to MRT at Khatib, with beloved Cedrick going to AJ. lolz, the traveling time was somewhat the same, yet it took an extra 45 cents out of my ez-link card, therefore decided against the route and stuck to the normal MRT route for the next 4 days. Reached school at around 7.10a.m. Went to the triangular hall and found my OGL, Wenxian. Checked my subject combi, no surprises there, got my first choice, pcme. Soon after, met the other OGL, shireen and the rest of the OG. Only knew Kiat Weng out of the 21 of them. Obviously being the all-so conservative ppl we all are, the Great Divide was knowingly formed. As reported by Mr. Hodge, 90% of the RJ J1 cohort came from single-sex school. Thus, the OGLs had the insurmountable task of bridging the Great Divide. Their futile but valiant attempts were to be applauded, yet most of them were rendered ineffective. The first day went by quickly enough with ice-breakers and some games, was rather tired upon reaching home so slept quite early....
Day 2
Day 2 was almost similar to Day 1, with us playing Cluedo in the morning. The highlight of the day was Silent Movie, a forfeit we had to do to get an extra clue. So we had Gautam and Orlanda as the leads of this movie whereby the male lead runs towards the female lead and proposes to her, after which the female lead would reject him. The catch was that the OG had to shout out the lines of both the leads so that everyone else could hear. It was a humorous sight, a definite classic memory. During lunchtime, the OG through RI to get to the music labs exit to go to S11. Walking down the driveway to RI and walking through the corridors was a nostalgic experience for me. The Junior block where I spent my lower sec years, the atrium where I've performed countless times with the orchestra, and the corridors which I've walked through many times before not knowing that 1 day I'll be walking through them not as an RI student. ...
The rest of the day was spent practicing dance, singing songs and cheering. The dance moves were quite cool, especially when executed together in a group. Unfortunately, as I do not have an flair for dancing, I ended up doing clumsy, awkward movements to fit in the beat of the music. But oh well...everything's worth a try, at least I've tried. The batch song was fantastic and well-composed. Lovely catchy tune with meaningful lyrics. Great Job! At night, went for OG dinner at Pastamania, was a quiet affair till, Wenxian and Shireen came and we went to macs to play lame games. And yes, we spent at least an entire hour playing lame games. Ended with most of us getting a brainmesh and start to limp around...
Day 3
Day 3 was amazing race, which supposed to be the the most exciting part of the whole orientation, yet it was rather disappointing due to some logistics problems. First, we went to the Singapore Expo and yes, on the train we started playing lame games again. It seems that our OG could never get enough of lame games. lol. at Expo, Wenxian "suddenly" went missing and we were supposed to look for him. After a few straightforward clues, we found him in hiding with a coffee cup containing "foam" as he calls it. The next stop was at Suntec City, where we were supposed to find the "empyrean meadows". Turn out to be the Sky Garden. So we went up there to have lunch. Ended up playing "Truth or Dare" with Huiling naming Gautam as the most attractive male of the OG, Mark shouting “I love you” from the top of the building and Shireen spending 15mins to decide on either truth or dare. She chose Truth initially but avoided questions like “Who’s the hottest guy in RJ?” with an unconvincing excuse that she never had a crush on anyone b4-.- lol, in the end did a dare, played “Honey, if u love me, pls do smile” with Hazwan. Another classic scene tht will remain in my memory for some time. After the hasty lunch, We rushed off to East Coast Park, which is the final stop of the race. However, when we reached there, we had to wait for quite some time before we could play the station due to some logistics problem. That delayed our return journey to RI and we ended up reaching school at 5pm when we were scheduled to come in at 4pm. Went out for dinner at S11 with zj, bjourn, deng and xl. Talked about quite a lot, the old days at RI and our experience thus far in RJ. The fact that we were no longer in RI finally sunk in…
Day 4
Early in the morning of Day 4, when I was still in half-asleep mode, I had a agreement with Shireen that if Alves won to make things a tie, she would have to treat me to ice-cream. When the story-line slowly revealed and war became a “all or nothing” situation, I changed my stance to a draw. My suspicions that the story-line was rigged caused both the OGLs to have undue worries. For that, I have to apologize, but to make clear on 1 fact, I was always very clear on my stance on orientation, I would fight for a lost cause just to gain the experience, just tot that u ppl should have more faith ….. War games were rather interesting, and some of them violent, like the territorial beacons. Got scratched by girls on the other k’vae… bleah… War ended and guess wat, I think I lost the bet and owe Shireen an ice-cream. Lolz, though it ended in a draw, I guess I missed out on the subtler message that the whole war was trying to bring across. Unity in diversity. In our differences, we can always find similarities, if we try hard enough. Draw strength from the past, look for hope in the future, but most importantly, treasure the present. K’predorus- the dimension of present, suspended elusively between the past and the future, is waiting for us… Carpe Diem. Seize the Day.
Day 5
Day 5 started off with faculty initiation, meaning that we were separated into our classes and we played station games again. Well…after spending 4 days with the OG, was thrown into a totally unfamiliar environment again. The whole thing passed quickly enough and we rejoined our OG for the fund-raising activity. My OG went down to Raffles Place to conduct the fund-raising and I was drafted into a pair with Junbo, turned out that it was his first time doing flag day. Hmm…we did a rather good job I must say though there were definite ups and downs. The low side of the whole event came early, while we were 15mins into the activity. A middle-aged man who wore blue shirt and black pants walked past us. Junbo courageously stopped him in his tracks, despite his attempts to side-step us. When we explained our mission and cause, he burst into unexpected fury.
“Where are u all from?”
“RJC”
“Now tell me, do u know the difference between a tidal wave and a tsunami?”
*Junbo tries to explain that there was no difference but was stopped by me.
“Sir, we do not know…”(Me trying to be diplomatic)
“I’m sick of u a*****es coming here claiming to be fund-raising for a disaster yet not knowing wat happened. You are from RJC, yet u know not the diff between between a tidal wave and a tsunami. A tidal wave is caused by tides as the name suggests, whereas a tsunami is caused by earthquakes, basically seismic movements. Blah…blah…blah…”
*note that he practically shouted this whole part in the middle of Raffles City.
“We’ll go back and read up on it Sir”
The above convo is purely my own recount of the event…..
Well…being a responsible person, I went home and read up on Tsunamis and tidal waves. From search results from google and yahoo, 9 in 10 respectable websites state that tidal waves basically had nothing to do with tides and that tsunami is the scientific name for it. Only 1 website chooses to differ. Well…the man might be rite after all…
After fund-raising was basically o night. Again I’m thrown into nostalgia whilst in the midst of merry making, especially when the k’zars sang the k’zar song, a silent tear welled up. Unknowingly, I have formed a bond with Zev’ Feior in 5 days and I think I’ll miss orientation. Just like in the thank you card or get well card for Wenxian,
5 days ago, we were like a pile of ashes, gathered from different parts of sg. Yet, through the unforgettable experience of orientation, Zev’ Feior is reborn, just like a phoenix, engulfed in flames. A magnificent phoenix that rose out of ashes, that weathered all trials and tribulations and is forever united. Though the Great Divide still stands today, it is only a physical barrier, no more a mental barrier, for we have bonded to become one. Zev’ Feior will continue to burn, till the very end of time…..
After o night, we had a final moment together at the k’cove where goodbye seems to be the hardest word to say. And yes, thank you Wenxian and Shireen, for making orientation successful and thank you, Zev’ Feior, for everything in the last 5 days.
Epilogue
“Don’t u think stars are beautiful? On a clear night even when the whole world seems to be ignoring u, they twinkle and blink at u innocently without fail.”
I wish upon a star tonite…. U ppl out there, take 5 secs out and look out into the night sky. Choose a star and wish upon it. With luck, we might wish upon the same star. Even if we dun, at least we saw the same moon…