Monthly Archive
Browsing entries posted on August 2007
Going Down Under
*Paid Post*
I’m dying to get away for my midterm break in September, somewhere far enough to fly to. If money wasn’t an issue, I’d head down south to Adelaide to visit my friend whom I haven’t seen since January. If she’s too busy to visit us, we’ll go see her! And because Australia in general is chock-full of Malaysian students, I bet I could find someone to visit in Sydney, Perth and Queensland as well.
There are several budget airlines offering flights to certain parts of Australia, but if you want the budget price without the budget experience, you’d be better off with a travel agent. DialAFlight, a UK travel company, offers personalised travel consultation to help you find flights to Australia, as well as help you plan your holidays in Australia. Their website has comprehensive travel services, from cheap flights to hotel room bookings as well as car hire and information on holiday activities.
Depending on your personality, you can head to different parts of Australia for a vacation. City rats like me won’t wander far from the bright lights of Melbourne, but those inclined towards marine activities would probably love to scuba-dive and see the Great Barrier Reef, or pick up surfing at the Gold Coast. DialAFlight also has package deals, to save you the hassle of putting together an itinerary. Packaged doesn’t mean regimented, though. The Free and Easy tour includes 7 days in a motorhome, so you can explore the wide expanse of the outback on your own.
Creating a backstory
This is only superficially related to hall life, actually. It relates what I discovered about delving into your character, while I was acting in one part of the EHOC programme.
Basically, one part of the 5-day programme was a whodunit, involving the kidnapping of the famous star, Girlyman. (Pronounced girly-mahn). He was due to perform at The Big Show on Friday, but had been tragically kidnapped on Tuesday morning. The freshies were given a list of suspects to interview, and I was one of them. I suppose it says a lot that they wrote in a part for a crazed stalkerish fan, and the first person they thought of to play that part was me. *sweatdrop*
I wasn’t given all that much info or backstory about my character, I made up a lot of the little details myself. Add to that the fact that I had to tell the same story 6 times, so coherence was important, otherwise I’d be unintentionally misleading the freshies or giving the game away.
All I was told was that my character was a crazed fan of Girlyman who attended every performance and had been accused of kidnapping my idol, in order to have the ultimate collector’s item. As for plotline, I had been stalking following my idol to the band room where he was having a rehearsal with Screaming Girl. Unfortunately I had to run to the bathroom, and when I came out, he was gone. My accuser was Girlyman’s brother, also under suspicion. Basically all the suspects were pointing fingers at each other. The brother didn’t like me because I set his shoes on fire, but I wasn’t told why, so I came up with a very elaborate backstory tying together lots of disparate threads. I’m still very proud of that.
I started out with a pair of scissors, since I was told to be cutting up Girlyman pictures for my shrine to him. When we did the run-through during Counsellors’ Camp, I discovered that threatening to cut people’s hair pretty much freaked them out, so I added in a hair fixation. Just for fun, I saved one of my own hairs (it was especially curly) and preserved it with cellotape, so it would be the highlight of the crazed fan’s collection.
As for setting the shoes on fire, this would be the crux of my entire backstory. I decided that I would frantically defend it as an accident, and spill the story if the freshies asked. This is pretty much what I told them, group after group:
I didn’t mean to set his shoes on fire! It was an accident! It was the 12th death anniversary of Girlyman’s hamster, and I was lighting a candle for the poor thing… but the wind blew, and my hair caught fire… I used to have hair like yours. (At this point, I would pick out a long-haired girl.) But I lost it in the fire. (Cue maniacal looking and caressing of girl’s hair.) So I didn’t really set his shoes on fire, I don’t know why he keeps accusing me…
The next thing they usually tried to do was to convince me to give up my scissors, which I was wielding quite dangerously. (Indeed, I injured myself, but no one else.) Then they would ask why I was cutting up all that waste paper. At this point, I would reply, “If I didn’t cut the paper, I’d be cutting hair.” *cue more maniacal gazing at hair*
I decided to wear a red hoodie, simply because Girlyman is wearing a red jacket in the video. If anyone asked, the hood was up to cover the bald patches on my scalp, from the fire. One particularly naughty orientation group tried to pull my hood down, so I decided to freak out and chase them out, then sniffle about this to the next group.
As with most orientation programmes, the freshies had to do something for me before I would give them any information. Their task was to follow Girlyman’s dance steps, presumably to cheer me up since I’d lost my idol. I just refused to answer their questions if they wouldn’t comply, by curling up into a ball, rocking myself and muttering “I’m so depressed…” One smart-alecky group eagerly agreed to dance for me, and then performed the Macarena. I turned my back on their “performance” and proclaimed that I was even more upset, because I hated the Macarena. Wahaha! At the end of the questioning, one group (I forget which) slipped up and asked “So who do you think killed Girlyman?” Upon hearing this, I started wailing “He’s dead???” and huddled in a corner sobbing, so they had no choice but to leave. Their time limit was up anyway. That was a pretty good performance, if I do say so myself.
I actually didn’t know that one of the other suspects was lying, and that my testimony (if true) was the one that proved her guilt. As it was, I was busy trying to defend myself, and I guess I do a very good innocent act, because the freshies decided I wasn’t the kidnapper after all. And although my character is slightly obsessed, not mentally challenged, some people insisted on speaking to me as though I had the mentality of a 5-year-old. That’s not to say I didn’t take advantage of this confound to play dumb when I was asked something I didn’t know how to answer. The concrete evidence linking the perpetrator to the crime was sequins, presumably from Girlyman’s costume. One group asked if I remembered what Girlyman was wearing when he disappeared, and of course I didn’t know what the other suspects had answered. Plus our Girlyman wouldn’t be dressed the same as the dude in the video. So I gave a gormless smile and said “Shiny suit!” since as his biggest fan, I couldn’t convincingly say I didn’t know. Luckily, they chose to interpret my mutterings as confirming the sequins as evidence.
All in all, I had a lot of fun acting, although there were times when I slipped out of character, or rather, into a character different from the one I originally envisioned. I took Bellatrix Lestrange as portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter to be my role model. I kept my room dark, so I could peer at them from the door and ask huskily, “Are you here to dance for me?” Unfortunately, by the 3rd or 4th group, I’d lapsed into Singlish and wasn’t quite as darkly menacing anymore. Bah. I have a newfound respect for theatre actors now. It can’t be easy giving a consistent performance night after night.
Sometimes it’s better to hate.
Angry post after the jump. Continue Reading…
Orientation Damage
I’ve been gone a long time.
Orientation really takes it out of you, and trust me, it’s even worse if you’re the responsible, organising seniors rather than the turn-up-as-they-like freshmen. I’ve been on both sides of the fence and I certainly didn’t feel horrible frustration and pissed-offness on this level when I was a freshman.
But it’s all over now, and none of that means anything anyway. Nope, let’s just talk about the physical toll that Orientation takes out of you, because at least I have pictures for that.
First up: the bruise that was so huge and such an angry purple that people’s eyes boggled when they saw it. It didn’t hurt that much, so I usually forgot about it, but their reactions were quite amusing. It was inflicted on me while we were trying out an orientation game that involved slapping and pinching. I suppose the bruise started from a minor bruise I had prior to the incident, and the force of the slapping just broke up the clotted blood and it spread out over a larger area. Also, the person responsible for it was my co-leader, and I didn’t want people thinking he was some sort of violent psycho, so I was quite dismissive about it. But peruse the picture below, and you’ll see why I received so many concerned comments.
The only manipulation done to the picture was adjusting light levels. There wasn’t any need to touch up the bruise, the real thing was already impressive. It took 3 weeks to fully clear up, by the way.
Also, during the actual Orientation last week, many of us got severely sunburned during war games on the basketball courts. I, too, had unwisely neglected my sunblock, and suffered a burnt neck and arms. However, my cap and sunglasses meant I got off lightly compared to others who suffered burnt faces. And to top it all off, later that night was our beach bash at Cafe Del Mar, so some of us might have looked a little odder than usual, since our makeup no longer matched our skin tone. For some days after that, you could hear people going “ouch” after absent-mindedly scratching an itch on a badly burned body part. Still, at least we didn’t peel as badly as one of my freshmen - he was shedding skin flakes all over the floor, and we were eagerly speeding up the process for him, if you get what I mean.
Finally, still under the realm of “damage” although not quite as personal, my old Reebok running shoes had their final burst of glory at the end of our proud tradition, codename “Trail of Fire”. The rubber sole had already been coming off for quite some time, and my efforts at supergluing it back on met with marginal success at best. During the final sprint, the entire sole came off, and I had to go back later to pick it up. (I wasn’t going to stop dead in the middle of the best part.) Still, for something that saw me through junior college and most of my uni life, that’s pretty impressive.
So, yes. Cost of new shoes: $110. Cost of sunburn cream: $3.00. Surviving yet another orientation without going insane: Priceless.
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