The two weeks of orientation are over! D: I've been enjoying myself so much over the past week and time has been flying by as a result, and now orientation's over ): It seemed like such a long time, one week with OGs and another week with CTs, but it also felt so short! Really don't want proper lessons to start; I'm sure most Hwachongians would be feeling the same. Orientation has really been a very very fun time for me, and I'm sure for everyone else as well! But all good things must come to an end. ):

8 Jan (Wednesday)
We had a few lectures, and a few really long breaks, but that was about it. For orientation it was the usual, having our flag-painting and skit preparing session as well as learning our faculty dance. Can't really remember much of the details now because like I said, time really passed very quickly. But the time spent with 12S73 was very memorable. :) Finally warmed up to them after a few days and everyone in my class is so fun! :D Not in the really HIGH way but rather there's a mixture of different personalities and characters in my class which is good!

What was really memorable was that night. A number of us signed up for NUTS (Night Under The Stars), a stargazing school event organised by the Astronomy Club :) I went with D and Rachel. That night was so memorable because it was the first night I spent in the HC campus at night, and it's beautiful, especially the clock tower. :) We lay under the stars at the high school terraces, on the track. It was so amazing that that night's sky was so absolutely clear without any clouds whatsoever, and we could see the vast dark blue sky, with splattered glowing stars. It was such a wonderful reminder of God's existence and power, and how He loves us. I was also reminded of how God created everything - the whole universe. Lying on a blue tarp on the track, looking up into the night sky, I felt so small in the universe. Earth is already such a small planet amidst every other wonder of the universe, those discovered and those that aren't, let alone me, one ordinary person. But this ordinary person has such an extraordinary God, who cares for all His children even though we're so small and insignificant! :) Thank You Lord!

Anyway, we managed to see and identify so many stars that night, including Venus and Jupiter (which are planets not stars), Orion and Orion's Belt, and also the star Sirius. It was really an eye-opening session that night, albeit a really relaxing and cooling one. So glad to have spent it with D and Rachel. :)

9 Jan (Thursday)
We had orientation the whole day!! It was really tiring but fun! The best part of that day was WARGAMES!!! It only lasted for 40 minutes altogether but it was the most fun part of orientation! I wasn't too hyped up about it at the start of the day but as the time went by the atmosphere in school was so infectious, especially during the prep time we had with our faculties! And the video which Zhao Yong produced for Wargames! :)



Apollo is famous for its "screaming wall of girls" haha and I was a part of it that day! Voice became really hoarse as a result though... Those 40 minutes at the side field seemed like the four faculties were really going to war which was quite cool in my opinion haha. Everyone's faces were covered in facepaint and the four faculty colours were very clearly represented in the field because all of us were wearing our own fac shirts! :)

I remember I was standing at the left end of the defence wall and that was pretty nearby the Ares boundary. And the Ares people were REALLY FIERCE. Jay actually dashed right into the defence wall and really pushed his way in. The girls are no exception haha, they started scratching anyone who came near them which is really rough. :/ There were probably a lot of injuries but all in all Wargames was really an integral part of HC orientation :)

Photos:












Credits for photos: Nathanael Tan from HCSC


10 Jan (Friday)
We had the selection for our faculty's class skit and class flag which were to be presented that night during our campfire. Most of the skits were very entertaining and funny :) I particularly liked the two HP classes' skits which presented many smart jokes and puns. :) By this time Apollo was getting so high which was really good! And my interpretation about how our faculty will warm up to one another was right hehe. My CT's performance was actually quite bad because all of us forgot most of our lines on stage due to stage fright or something HAHA. But the one thing that made our skit good was our wonderful Selffar actor: Peter!! :D Really didn't think that he could act so well but he just knocked the audience dead with his humour! I was laughing to the point of tears! Well obviously we didn't get chosen to perform the skit HAHA.



Highlight of the day: CAMPFIRE NIGHT!!! That was one of the best times in my life :) The campfire really spurred me to love HC even more. I really love the HC spirit. Even though we are made up of four different faculties, we are together one Hwachong. :) The four faculties were cheering like mad during the campfire and everyone was just so high! Sang, danced and cheered the whole night long. And it just feels so great to be spending time with your friends, and with the people you love in this manner. It was a truly memorable night. :) Spent most of the time upstairs on the third floor with D, but even though we were only watching from the top, the view of the Central Plaza with all the C1 students was really magnificent. :) And we cheered and danced together with everyone else downstairs! :D



Results for the Wargames, class flag and class skit were released during the campfire. Artemis won the class flag, which was honestly not a surprise because the flag they presented was truly beautiful, with the wolf in the middle with the three colours yellow, red and green, and the significance of the theme "One HC" was prominent. I thought the Apollo flag was very pretty too :) And guess who won for class skit? APOLLO!!!!!! :D That wasn't much of a surprise to me either because our skit was obviously the best of all the faculties!! It was the skit that made me laugh the most haha! The last one was really a very big and pleasant surprise though. For Wargames, Zhao Yong made another video to present the winning team for Wargames. The suspense was SO TENSE. At the part where they showed us the two Fac Heads, they made it in such a way that we could only see their shadows at first, which was such a pain! Then the faculty's name came out really slowly: APOLLO! That moment was one of the best moments that night!!!! I honestly thought that Athena would win because their shirt was almost completely dry after Wargames, but instead Apollo's name came up!!! :D :D I love Apollo!!

11 Feb (Saturday, today)
Went back to school today for fac dance practice, and it was pretty much just cleaning up everything because we've already finished learning the whole dance. The unison in Apollo is amazing, especially when you see everyone dancing together with the same dance. I'm looking forward to POP already! :)

Went over to D's house for a while after the practice, and actually fell asleep on his bed next to him, even though I'm a really light sleeper. Probably because I've been building up a sleep deficit over the past two weeks and I was so tired haha. But it was nice taking a nap with your loved one at your side :)

I realised that some people are changing. Perhaps it's because of the sudden change to a co-ed school after four years, or maybe it's because we've reached the last two years of tertiary education before university. Some people have changed so much, so drastically, just in a period of two weeks, for better or for worse. But I can't judge people. Maybe they're just grasping the various opportunities there are in school, and that's an important aspect of JC life too. We just have to embrace whatever there is before us, and God will prepare us for all the trials and temptations ahead over the next two years. Faith!

VOTD:
"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;" 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 (ESV)

The two weeks of orientation are over! D: I've been enjoying myself so much over the past week and time has been flying by as a result, and now orientation's over ): It seemed like such a long time, one week with OGs and another week with CTs, but it also felt so short! Really don't want proper lessons to start; I'm sure most Hwachongians would be feeling the same. Orientation has really been a very very fun time for me, and I'm sure for everyone else as well! But all good things must come to an end. ):

8 Jan (Wednesday)
We had a few lectures, and a few really long breaks, but that was about it. For orientation it was the usual, having our flag-painting and skit preparing session as well as learning our faculty dance. Can't really remember much of the details now because like I said, time really passed very quickly. But the time spent with 12S73 was very memorable. :) Finally warmed up to them after a few days and everyone in my class is so fun! :D Not in the really HIGH way but rather there's a mixture of different personalities and characters in my class which is good!

What was really memorable was that night. A number of us signed up for NUTS (Night Under The Stars), a stargazing school event organised by the Astronomy Club :) I went with D and Rachel. That night was so memorable because it was the first night I spent in the HC campus at night, and it's beautiful, especially the clock tower. :) We lay under the stars at the high school terraces, on the track. It was so amazing that that night's sky was so absolutely clear without any clouds whatsoever, and we could see the vast dark blue sky, with splattered glowing stars. It was such a wonderful reminder of God's existence and power, and how He loves us. I was also reminded of how God created everything - the whole universe. Lying on a blue tarp on the track, looking up into the night sky, I felt so small in the universe. Earth is already such a small planet amidst every other wonder of the universe, those discovered and those that aren't, let alone me, one ordinary person. But this ordinary person has such an extraordinary God, who cares for all His children even though we're so small and insignificant! :) Thank You Lord!

Anyway, we managed to see and identify so many stars that night, including Venus and Jupiter (which are planets not stars), Orion and Orion's Belt, and also the star Sirius. It was really an eye-opening session that night, albeit a really relaxing and cooling one. So glad to have spent it with D and Rachel. :)

9 Jan (Thursday)
We had orientation the whole day!! It was really tiring but fun! The best part of that day was WARGAMES!!! It only lasted for 40 minutes altogether but it was the most fun part of orientation! I wasn't too hyped up about it at the start of the day but as the time went by the atmosphere in school was so infectious, especially during the prep time we had with our faculties! And the video which Zhao Yong produced for Wargames! :)



Apollo is famous for its "screaming wall of girls" haha and I was a part of it that day! Voice became really hoarse as a result though... Those 40 minutes at the side field seemed like the four faculties were really going to war which was quite cool in my opinion haha. Everyone's faces were covered in facepaint and the four faculty colours were very clearly represented in the field because all of us were wearing our own fac shirts! :)

I remember I was standing at the left end of the defence wall and that was pretty nearby the Ares boundary. And the Ares people were REALLY FIERCE. Jay actually dashed right into the defence wall and really pushed his way in. The girls are no exception haha, they started scratching anyone who came near them which is really rough. :/ There were probably a lot of injuries but all in all Wargames was really an integral part of HC orientation :)

Photos:












Credits for photos: Nathanael Tan from HCSC


10 Jan (Friday)
We had the selection for our faculty's class skit and class flag which were to be presented that night during our campfire. Most of the skits were very entertaining and funny :) I particularly liked the two HP classes' skits which presented many smart jokes and puns. :) By this time Apollo was getting so high which was really good! And my interpretation about how our faculty will warm up to one another was right hehe. My CT's performance was actually quite bad because all of us forgot most of our lines on stage due to stage fright or something HAHA. But the one thing that made our skit good was our wonderful Selffar actor: Peter!! :D Really didn't think that he could act so well but he just knocked the audience dead with his humour! I was laughing to the point of tears! Well obviously we didn't get chosen to perform the skit HAHA.



Highlight of the day: CAMPFIRE NIGHT!!! That was one of the best times in my life :) The campfire really spurred me to love HC even more. I really love the HC spirit. Even though we are made up of four different faculties, we are together one Hwachong. :) The four faculties were cheering like mad during the campfire and everyone was just so high! Sang, danced and cheered the whole night long. And it just feels so great to be spending time with your friends, and with the people you love in this manner. It was a truly memorable night. :) Spent most of the time upstairs on the third floor with D, but even though we were only watching from the top, the view of the Central Plaza with all the C1 students was really magnificent. :) And we cheered and danced together with everyone else downstairs! :D



Results for the Wargames, class flag and class skit were released during the campfire. Artemis won the class flag, which was honestly not a surprise because the flag they presented was truly beautiful, with the wolf in the middle with the three colours yellow, red and green, and the significance of the theme "One HC" was prominent. I thought the Apollo flag was very pretty too :) And guess who won for class skit? APOLLO!!!!!! :D That wasn't much of a surprise to me either because our skit was obviously the best of all the faculties!! It was the skit that made me laugh the most haha! The last one was really a very big and pleasant surprise though. For Wargames, Zhao Yong made another video to present the winning team for Wargames. The suspense was SO TENSE. At the part where they showed us the two Fac Heads, they made it in such a way that we could only see their shadows at first, which was such a pain! Then the faculty's name came out really slowly: APOLLO! That moment was one of the best moments that night!!!! I honestly thought that Athena would win because their shirt was almost completely dry after Wargames, but instead Apollo's name came up!!! :D :D I love Apollo!!

11 Feb (Saturday, today)
Went back to school today for fac dance practice, and it was pretty much just cleaning up everything because we've already finished learning the whole dance. The unison in Apollo is amazing, especially when you see everyone dancing together with the same dance. I'm looking forward to POP already! :)

Went over to D's house for a while after the practice, and actually fell asleep on his bed next to him, even though I'm a really light sleeper. Probably because I've been building up a sleep deficit over the past two weeks and I was so tired haha. But it was nice taking a nap with your loved one at your side :)

I realised that some people are changing. Perhaps it's because of the sudden change to a co-ed school after four years, or maybe it's because we've reached the last two years of tertiary education before university. Some people have changed so much, so drastically, just in a period of two weeks, for better or for worse. But I can't judge people. Maybe they're just grasping the various opportunities there are in school, and that's an important aspect of JC life too. We just have to embrace whatever there is before us, and God will prepare us for all the trials and temptations ahead over the next two years. Faith!

VOTD:
"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;" 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 (ESV)