Bohemia Bunny

Orientation Damage

August 9th, 2007 by lynnylchan under Blogroll

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.