We were talking about deciding on the class motto the previous day, when I gave this "proverb" as a joke.
'Build a man a fire and warm him for a day, set a man on fire and warm him for a lifetime.'
But Eugene gave me a further insight deeper into it. It could also mean to ignite the flame of learning and independence within a person.
***
Day two started with the station games which were no good, possibly other than tagball. Games like fighting to blow a ping pong ball to the other end of the floor, leaving the ground in a salivary mess, or the write-with-a-marker-by-tying-strings-around-it game. Oh whatever is the world coming to?
For most of Day two and three of orientation, it was house meetings. House meetings in preparation for the campfire. We had to make a costume related to the theme of ignition, and although I am not any professional critic, I could positively say that their design was not very well...well-designed.
On the morning of day three, people were busy making the garbage bag costume, which to cut a long story short, turned out rather much like a chicken suit rather than a fiery display. Too many cooks spoil the broth, and as no one gave us any jobs, a group of us kept out of the way. We started drawing, playing chess, reversi and connect with pencil on paper, origami, and any other scrap-paper related activity you could think of. After all, scrap paper was sure to be lying within hand's reach every moment.
Then, this girl came over to our group and saw that we were not doing anything work related, the closest work related thing being a checkered costume very good for playing board games. But as I have mentioned, we were minding our own business based on the justification that 'help would be given when you ask', and since no one asked us for help, we inferred that they were doing perfectly fine without us.
However, just like any other enthusiastic house leader, she would hear none of it and told us to do a cheer, and we would be then left alone. All was silent, not a single cheer was heard. Personally, I was thinking at that time, why should we cheer?
Aren't cheers just exhibiting the competitive nature of mankind dominating over the peaceful side of them? If cheering would be of any purpose, it would be for encouragement, and of all the times I have seen the school cheering, it was to make noise most of the time because someone would think that the silence is too peaceful for him.
Back to the story, great minds think alike, and all of us refused to waste our breath and 'practice' cheering. It isn't as if we were a cheer-leading team who needed rehearsals which included complicated footwork and stunts like double backflips and arm levers. When we kept silent, she insisted on us cheering, otherwise, she would complain to the teacher to stop us from playing, or lazing or doing whatever she does not like to see us doing.
A really long argument ensued, between her and a guy who stalled by telling her that we needed time to rehearse. After much recurring argument, the girl took my cheer sheet which I have neatly boxed, and tore it open, passed it to him and made him recite the stupidest cheer(or should I say one of the stupidest).
Lunchtime. A simple lunch, followed by a session with friends at the fitness corner. We did pull ups, monkey bars, dips and the classic of sitting on the top of the monkey bars. Wc, Jorg, Jk, ben, tl and cmc were there.
Jk tried doing upside down sit ups, followed by me, beating his number of times by a few, then he did it again, beating me, and I did it again. It was quite tiring, especially if we set it such that each time we are only allowed the beat each other by 1. Fortunately, our minds were in the right state at that time, so we did not do that.
House meeting again. Having finished that hilarious chicken suit, we slacked in class. Then, we proceeded to the concourse for further instructions which were issued untimely as I was in the toilet.
Having left my bag and all other belongings in my bag with my friends, who mysteriously disappeared, I searched from the 1st to the 4th floor, where I finally found them in the auditorium gasping for breath. In the auditorium, Eugene read his book about calculus, with me occasionally peeking with interest, and I scribbled on a piece of rough paper, trying to make ambigrams.
Dayna kept on asking us about who some people like in a really pursuing manner, and when the subject turned to you-know-who, she said: "Help me pass the message back to him that I don't like him."
That was rather funny to us.
The house leaders made us do cheers and we did it unenthusiastically just like normal. Then came a series of people in weird, lame, atrocious (you name the descriptors) costumes, one of which they claimed to be 'fibo man' or some sh**, but appeared rather like mickey mouse.
Dinner came and left.
***
NUSHS' first campfire, big deal. I was hoping it would rain, but unfortunately, the sky was clear. Then this teacher was up on stage asking the school.
"Is everyone having fun?"
An equal number of yes and nos came out from the audience. However, this teacher would not take no for an answer, so she repeated the question until the yes were louder than the no.
We spent quite some time in the hall learning children songs and stupid games which mostly involved clapping and singing. I mean, a few would be okay, but that was like making up most part of the activities.
Finally, salvation came (compared to what we were experiencing in the hall), and we moved off the the track for this campfire thing.
Dusk fell and the campfire did not fail to pollute the fresh evening air at the field. Activities were the 'fashion parade', 'cheering' (more like shouting and fighting) and performances put up by year 1s and 3s.
The bomb game (supposedly part of the cheering), was nothing but wasting of breath.
The 'fashion parade' was so boring I was dreaming.
And all I know about the performances was that it was something that involved a lot of shouting and punching the air. Fortunately Keat Mun, I do not know how he did it, but he just walked up and took over the limelight and started singing this Beatles song, which was the first thing that caught my attention that night. I am impressed.
However, the more interesting activities included:
-Pretending the lightsticks were light sabres and waving them around and 'fighting'
-Going to the toilet in the middle of a performance
-Counting the number of stars in the sky
-Sleeping
From time to time, just when the joy and contentment of seeing the fire burning out was seeping towards us, the people added more fuel into it, sending a cloud of billowing smoke towards us. The smoke dispersed itself into the distance, roaming about freely into residential complexes...Oh man, what happened to saving the environment?
The noise, amidst...more noise turned everything into nothing. It felt like the surrounding noise was just normal, part of everyday life, and the perfect environment to sleep in once you get used to it within the crowd.
Although it was not 10pm yet, by the law, no one can sue the school for making so much noise at night, when the poor residents of clementi are trying to get some sleep. Morally, however, there is all the inconsideration in such an act. People have campfires in more rural areas, like the park, not in the middle of a housing estate.
But I could still see that some people thought that it was awesome. I don't know about them, but I thought that it was a waste of time and it is the worst thing the school has ever done (Perhaps other than the turnstile). Tell me, what good this campfire had brought.
Perhaps just pleasing some majority of the school.
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