The final series of the summary of my polytechnic orientation activities. I was barely starting to regain my energy after a camp and a chalet (see Singapore Polytechnic - ROCKING MY WORLD! - Parts 2 & 3) when I went for this event. So, as expected, I was EXTREMELY worn-out.
[21 May 2005] || Organised by SP Community Services & Cultural Club
Hmm... I was supposed to at least put some photos of the event in this post - but I haven't managed to get them in digital form yet. Yawn. Where's Foodcourt 5? *blur* Oh now I remember. Grabbed a sandwich from a nearby shop and registered my attendance. Then it was the usual routine of icebreaker games again - in groups. We were split evenly later however - my group was El Draque. Guess it's some pirate's name or something because all the group's names were centered around the theme of "Vikings Showdown" - which was the event name anyway. Our first assignment was to paint our group emblem/flag. Like most of the other orientation activities, we were to carry it around with us wherever we went around Sentosa. Again, I don't have a photo of our completed banner. Ack. That aside, the team spirit for my group was rather low at first when we later decided upon our group cheers (which I contributed - seeing that I could do my part to gel the team together). This was to change gradually in the course of the event when we needed lots of teamwork to get things done.
We had lunch at 11+ and took a chartered bus to Sentosa Island, singing silly songs and filling the bus with laughter along the way. Upon landing we were given a quick briefing, after which we took off to the Visitor Arrival Centre to catch a bus to our Game Station (different teams had to go to a different station first). El Draque (my team) headed for the Carlsberg Sky Tower, our first stop in the leg of the race. It was a flip-the-card memory game. Seems easy but don't forget we each had 2 cards and there were 10 of us - which makes for 20 cards. The climax was when my poor team leader Xiang Ming found out that - to put it in Singlish - he "kena tio" bird shit. In other words, he got bird poo on the back of his shirt. We were like pitying him but laughing at the same time because of his "misfortune". Returning to the game, there was a forfeit for us because we finished the memory game too fast. Sitting in a circle in alternating gender (boy-girl), we had to pass a tiny slip of plastic with our mouths to each other. Which meant KISSING (separated by a piece of plastic)! I decided to be enthusiastic and did it anyway.
The Merlion was our next stop. Just that it took a bit of time to find that the gamemasters were actually at Merlion Walk instead. Two cards, pictures of animals, were given to us again this time - we had to keep them secret. Then we had to act out one animal and give the other card we had to another person who was acting out our other card's animal (sounds confusing? read again. if not, never mind). All without mouthing or any verbal communication. Then we stood in one line, passing a Mentos sweet from mouth to mouth (again, boy-girl alternating). More enthusiasm needed. I did it anyway. As always, a forfeit out of the blue was bestowed upon us again. We stood in the shallow "fountain river" of the Merlion Walk and sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" - while the inquisitive eyes of the public scrutinised us.
Next stop - Siloso Beach - was agreeably the worst experience for us. Given a pail filled with holes, we had to lay down on the sand and cover the holes with our footwear as they poured more sea water in. And we had to remove our footwear one by one at the same time. The pail, being suspended, caused great distress. Worse than that was that we got completely wet when the gamemasters poured sea water all over us. Later we went into the shallow part of the sea, separating ourselves into two groups, facing each other. We played five rounds of a game similar to scissors, paper, stone. If you think that wasn't wet enough, we had to roll in unison over the sand next.
We walked to Underwater World with wet sand on our clothing. Luckily Underwater World was near Siloso Beach, or else we would've gained even more stares from the public as we trudged on. Separated according to gender again. Then we got little cardboard cards with different body parts written on them. We were supposed to transport various fruits in the fastest time in pairs, using our respective body part combinations. El Draque was one of the fastest teams - we clocked a timing of about 4 minutes plus! The forfeit this time was well - yummily sour - savouring a slice of lemon each. Then we had to do our group cheer (like what we did for most of the game stations), because lemon was supposedly able to help us to soothe our throat, making us able to cheer louder.
Cable Car Station was next and as usual, we ran into a bit of trouble finding it. Having eventually discovered it at the foot of the now non-operational Cable Car Station, our task was to all cram into the masking tape-tiled shapes on the floor with the given number of feet and hands. Thankfully we had no forfeit this time because we completed the station quickly.
Back at Siloso Beach, we discovered we had to complete three inter-group games. Just a quick summary of them. The first game was at some mini play fountains at Siloso Beach. Holding the shirt of the person in front of us, we had to cover the nine "water holes" of the fountain according to the called "fountain number" (there was a fountain number layout). Any water that shot up above our knee level because we failed to cover it lost us one game point. El Draque won! So the other team had to do a forfeit of - what else - being splashed all over with more water. Ended up we were all wet - AGAIN. Second was a game that I'd briefly describe as "Shoot-a-hole-through-the-paper-using-paper-bullets". Self-explanatory. Which led to the third game where, since El Draque had lost the second game, had to face a water bomb bombardment by the winning group. We felt like Prisoners-Of-War as we crouched face-down on the sand and got bombarded by the winning team. Anyway, we got our revenge later when we won a game of "Bird-Water-Stone" (like "Scissors-Paper-Stone"). It was evil fun hitting back at them with water bombs like they had previously did to us.
The FINAL VIKINGS SHOWDOWN @ Palawan Beach. The rain was starting to get heavier, and we were starting to feel cold and hungry. But we still had to play this "telematch". The first task was for the group to run, one by one, to get one article of a pirate costume each. After that, we had to dress one of the members in that costume, and that member had to run across the suspension bridge to the island (South-eastern Most Tip of the SouthEast Asian Continent) and up one of the two towers to get coloured flags assigned to our group. While that member was still somewhere about in the towers, the rest of the group had to fill water bombs and transport twenty to another pail some distance away. After accomplishing that and once our "pirate" had come back, we had to all roll in the sand - AGAIN! Next, a few members had to go across to the towers to retrieve our group flag. Upon their return, we all dashed towards the finish line. EL DRAQUE EL DRAQUE NUMBER ONE!!! We came in 1st! It was a tremendous achievement for us - we felt that it really made our day - and it was totally unexpected, anyway.
We took a group photo all together to preserve the memories there (and I blogged this post, or for that matter, other posts in this series, for that same reason too). As said earlier, I haven't seen the photo yet. Guess they didn't make it available online. Following that was washing up and having dinner at the Seah Im Food Centre in mainland Singapore. Then it was time to bid adieu. Home sweet home, rest for our tired souls.
Footnote: The series of "Singapore Polytechnic - ROCKING MY WORLD!" is a recollection of the great times I had during my various polytechnic orientation activities. As you can see, fun is always guaranteed by joining these events - especially so for those of you reading this who have also gone for any of these activities. It is with great pleasure (and much fatigue) that I end this series here - the full 4 parts of the "Singapore Polytechnic - ROCKING MY WORLD!" series are available through my blog's archives as well. Having a great time in Singapore Polytechnic (SP) and hope all SP students out there will enjoy their time here as well!
Credits: Certain parts of Part 4 - this post, were copied/modified from my ex-secondary school classmate (and present SP schoolmate) who also went for the event. Really needed her blog posts about the event, which helped me remember the time I had there as well (you see, it's been quite some time between the event and typing this so I can't really remember all the details). Thanks Jessica!
