As you enter the hall, pictures of your favorite childhood cartoons surround you, flooding your mind with nostalgic memories from back then. Seeing new friends in their old uniforms, fondly remembering their pre-CN Yang days, it was truly a night to remember. The small trinkets like the loom bands and bubbles took us back to our early childhood days, as we relived those gleeful carefree moments in the warmth of the function hall.
The event started off with registration, where we all got small goodie bags where we could put in the small snacks we chose from a basket. This was followed by a chill dinner, a usual sight in our CN Yang events, with groups of friends chilling on the floor of the function hall, except this time, on cute picnic mats.
There were a total of 6 performances, ranging from instrumentals, bands with guitarists to just a solo by everyone’s favourite Chinese singer, Meldon! And of course how can we forget the freestyle beatboxing and dancing duo; Nitin and Darren, blowing us all away with their sick moves.
Nitin droppin’ some beats, Darren bustin’ some moves
Not forgetting all the great games played during the intermission! Oh man I wish I hadn’t emceed for the event because if I could have played, I would have totally nailed ‘Don’t forget the lyrics!!’
I guess everyone’s favourite part (aside from the performances of course) was the lucky draw! (Another familiar item at CN Yang events!)
Being a performer is a special experience. I guess it gives you an avenue to be able to share your feelings and memories through something deeper than just words, but rather emotions and an interpretation of a work of art. What felt even better was when people in the audience seemed to see eye to eye with us as we sang, creating a bond that’s both strong yet strangely and inexplicably distant from oneself.
A winning performance of “Safe and Sound” by the Luo Lin Fan Club
Being a part of the small and rather familial CN Yang community brings a certain warmth with it, especially to SnW events. It’s really a comforting feeling now, and I guess that’s because it’s home.
The Crespion Function Hall was still the function hall that I knew when I got there, but the decorations made it somewhat different. For that night only, the spirit of Halloween was in the air (although some might be amused that it was a regular Thursday night on the second of November). There were Halloween designs on stage, spooky masks all around the walls, and even a make-up booth. The most impressive piece was the photobooth backdrop, which featured a dark design with a sinister dog looming over anyone standing in front of it. No surprise, considering the event was named The PUrGe (get it? Pugs).
CNYSP Physics 2021
But then there was the buffet table. It seems to be a recurring theme in many events I attend nowadays. In any case, during the pre-event feast, I noticed the people. There were many interesting costumes – a zombie, some guy wearing a beach shirt and carrying a duffel bag, a well-built male wearing a dress, a flight attendant and even Slenderman. The Social and Welfare Portfolio committee members were even more into it. One made a striking replica of Harley Quinn, while the other looked like he was bathed in blood. It was a once-in-a-year opportunity, and it was interesting to see how people’s personalities shine through the costumes they chose.
After some contextualization (through amusing videos featuring the 10th EC members), we were divided in groups and a game session resembling those in Orientation camps began. The groups were then split up to play different kinds of games. And it was then that I entered the night’s Escape Room – a full-blown chamber of horrors from which players must escape in twenty minutes. It is of worth to note that I remember going in with at least ten people, and none of us knew what we were doing. We crashed around in the almost completely dark room, tried to read hundreds of words of clues on the walls and spun locks for twenty minutes. The hilarious thing was that we celebrated every small success like it was our greatest achievement, only to realize that we were still way too far from escaping. And so we failed. The organizer laughed and told us that we had only completed the first out of three stages required to get out. Oh well.
Mind-boggling escape room clues
The rest of the games were various station games, where we were pitted against other groups to win points for the prizes. In the end, the winning group was rewarded with a large prize. The S&W event was a time for fun, a night when we indulged in the creativity of the S&Wportfolio to de-stress ourselves from the strenuous daily absorbing of knowledge that is the common experience of all university students around the world. It was fair to say that I immensely enjoyed myself and being able to unwind with Halloween. Thank you, S&W!
Those who know me know that I like shopping, and that I really like food too. Hence, participating in Social and Welfare’s very own rendition of the classic game, Angel and Mortal (A&M): Poker Face, provided me with the perfect opportunity to not only shop without guilt, but to receive many goodies from my anonymous guardian. Well, after a month of active participation, the game came to an epic end – in a poker-card themed event aptly called Suit Up!
Ironically, as participants, we did not actually wear suits. Most came in casual clothes in the colours of red, black, and white as encouraged by the Committee members. The decorations of the function hall provided an even more enthralling ambience – posters of upsized poker cards, card-strung streamers and handmade-poker cards decked the walls (pun intended); it did make one feel like Alice in the Queen of Heart’s throne room.
Scholars dressed in colors of red, black and white
The activities planned for the rest of the evening were also very much related to this central theme. One thing that S&W aims to do right in every event planned would be to encourage cross-batch interaction. Hence, all participants were assigned groups consisting of other scholars in the same ‘suit’, whether we participated in A&M or not – and to find this ‘suit’, it was indeed not easy. Remember the gigantic poker card posters? Well, they had many missing parts, and each group had to complete the posters by blindfolding ten volunteers, who would each paste a piece onto the poster, while the rest of the group members guide him/her along. Another activity involved solving several clues to find the whereabouts of this ‘suit’. It was funny to see everyone frantically going through every nook and corner to find the answer, and desperately giving wild guesses to win points for their group.
Completing the gigantic poker card posters
As with such group-related activities, a dash of competitiveness is a must and never does much harm… or does it? The next game was called ‘Exploding Scholars’ – thankfully, only a garbage bag filled with balloons was harmed in the process. This up-scaled poker card game involved each group to take turns taking a card from a common deck, and subsequently play a card from their own ‘hand’ as well. Drawing certain cards can cost the group a forfeit, which involved doing slightly mortifying yet amusing moves like ‘flop like a fish’ and ‘do the Emily walk’. Throughout the duration of game, music was played in the background, and a ‘bomb’ (the garbage bag of balloons mentioned) was being passed from group to group. This continued till the music stopped, and the group last with the ‘bomb’ was penalized with a forfeit as well. It was amusing to see the bag being passed frantically around the hall, with some doing their very best to sabotage other groups.
Passing the bomb around
Rachel’s team’s forfeit – flop like a fish!
Finally, it was revelation time! “But it’s not going to be so easy; you have to work for it.” (Koh and Kow, 2017) Apparently, the many luggage tags with ‘poker cards’ stuck on the wall were not merely decorations; they were our door gifts, which each contains a clue to the identity of our angels. Hence, after flipping over countless tags to find the one customized with our own names and finding our own mysterious angel, a hearty gift exchange between the month-long pen pals was well-deserved. A prize presentation also celebrated the works of angels who were best at ‘trolling’ their mortals, and decorating their doors, among other titles.
Angel & Mortal revelation!
The evening ended with a group photo and the much-anticipated Exam Welfare Pack (EWP) handout. I could sense the eagerness as we all swarmed towards the front of the stage right after the announcement was made. I guess the idea of getting free tidbits and offer vouchers does give a more cheerful note to this stressful exam period.
Group photo
Rachel (left) with her abundant EWP
Indeed, as we strive to complete this marathon of university life, avoid getting drowned under the currents of endless assignments and wave after wave of deadlines to meet, I feel that an event like this provides a momentary reprieve – a rest point to recover and remind ourselves that we are not alone. As the semester draws to a close and the summer break begins, I am sad that yet another exciting academic year is coming to an end – thank you CNYSC for all the hard work, please reward yourselves with guiltless eating and shopping during the holidays!
The CN Yang Scholars’ Club (CNYSC) is set up and run by the scholars of the CN Yang Scholars Programme. The management committee is elected by the scholars on an annual basis.
