Of Recruitment Drive and Taekwondo

Admittedly not as much effort was put into recruitment drive this year compared to last semester. I was more gung-ho then and did things like site map and registration forms and tags... The cultural clubs had their recruitment drive a day before sports and by the time I went to put up those papers, clubs had already "booked" their tables with display boards and all. I guess I should have done it earlier. Will put that in the post-mortem report.

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Taekwondo prepared for a demonstration one day before the recruitment drive. The pharm gang had a full schedule but came anyway for the 2-hour training. I was really very touched. The medic gang came and changed their KK visit sessions for the demonstration. I was about ready to weep already. Anyway, we trained and trained and trained... until my lower limb ball-and-socket joint pain already.

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Amazingly, we pulled it off... with minimum catastrophe la. Bushra's plank didn't break, someone from the audience accidentally broke our plank, Jack broke only on second attempt, Tam2 did her punch on wrong hand, Aida did on wrong leg, Khang Hee forgot to cross his legs when pulling his stunt on Vincent, Vincent was not exactly confident before kicking, I forgot to yell for the sidekick... quite a long list. But we had a merciful audience who did not boo. *phew*

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And so we got 15 new members excluding Kin Tong, Yovahn, Leong and Bushra. If half of them stay, it would be already a boost to our membership. Maybe I should really leave things to Joan. She is, after all, president. And since I'd be around for another year, I really should step back and let her take charge. She's really too polite to tell me to back off. I guess I should have let her conduct the demonstration and trust her to pull it off just as well, if not better than what I attempted. It's time to sit back and fade into the background.

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Hospital Visits

Why must Seremban Hospital be an hour away? It was quite a fun bus ride with Iona's cookies to keep me company though. Man, those chocolate cookies just rock... it's more chocolate than cookie for one thing...

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The JPA scholars are really upset that they were ordered to rank Canada 1st and Ireland 2nd in their matching process. Since there are 18 of them and 12 seats in Canada and Ireland, we can safely assume that all the seats in these two countries would go to them. On the bright (and selfish) side, it also means that I cannot get into Canada, leaving US my only choice. There's nowhere else they can send me if I pass my EOS 5 la. I feel bad for them but it's a blessing in disguise for me. Wonder if it's wrong to feel that way.

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The patient (who wasn't exactly a patient since he no longer has the problem he came in with) my group was assigned to was Mr. Joseph Matthews. I thought the name was familiar... until I found out that he was a former national football AND hockey player. This 72-year-old appears amazingly healthy for his age, has a very good sense of humour and my group probably got annoyed that I was more interested in his life stories (which he was more than willing to share) than taking history. After all, how often do you come across a great man who played with the greats like Mokhtar Dahari in the days when Malaysian football was a lot more than politics. He said that they had no formal training, allowances, accommodation and special privileges. He was a schoolteacher then and dedicated time to train for the two sports. There was even once when he chose football over hockey when two international meets clashed.

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I feel like I met with an amazing sports personality today. Worth the two-hour bus ride (to and fro)

Orientation

I started out like everyone
I was so unprepared
They told me that it would be fun
To break eggs in my hair

They made me wear a skimpy dress
It was no pretty sight
And then they gave me droopy breasts
During friday night

Oh-rien-ta-tion
What have you done to me?
You stripped away my clothes
Along with all my dignity

- written by Chow and Chuks sang to tune of Oh Suzanna -
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Was not around for day #1 and day #2 but came later in the week to give out signatures and actually get to know the juniors. Group 1 under Sidd was fantastic - with their great spirit and excellent sense of humour... they took it all la. Then there was Group 2 under Tim and Matt and konco-konco, featuring Wei Yen's sister-in-law (to be not married yet la! she says) as group leader.

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Like all orientations, there were some problems here and there... but it still is probably one of the best orientations I have attended so far. The juniors were great, the seniors weren't that fussy la... so the ragging was more for the fun of both parties than to fulfil the sadistic needs of the seniors. Kah Heng probably ragged the best with his "shoot the bunny" task. It involves two hand signals: (1) the peace sign and (2) the gun sign. The hand doing the peace sign hops up and down like a bunny with the other hand chasing it with the "gun". Then they change roles... which is where the juniors start hopping the gun or having two bunnies or two guns... basically confused la. The group members who fail will have to kneel shouting "sorry Kah Heng kor kor, I couldn't shoot the bloody bunny" as loud as they can. Mega hilarious case.

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Personally, probably one of the most memorable orientation memories on my part this year is the British bulldog. It involves a team of juniors trying to run past the seniors to reach the other end of the football field. The seniors try to stop them by grabbing them or pinning them to the ground. Then change roles. I prefer the second option because it involves significantly less energy than trying to grab onto the junior all the time. When you pin her down, she's down... that's it. At least that's what I thought la. This year's junior probably weighed at least 10 kilos more than me... (which is at least 70 plus la)... didn't look that big from far but when she approached... wah, I felt ready to get steamrolled.

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After efforts to lock her wrist... she struggled so I cut some slack to prevent a wrist fracture... and trying a choke... she coughed so I had to cut some slack again... she rolled around trying to throw me off because I could neither lock nor choke. I just took the easy way out. I just sat on her. Mega high on embarrassment factor man... but yeah, I probably can't do British Bulldog the same way again.