Orientation and YEP

For most schools in Victoria (or as far as I know, anyway) there is a End of Year (or Year End) Program (YEP) usually consisting of activities such as sport, city excursions, music and art. We get an individual timetable after listing the activities we want in order of preference, and we can also to chose to partner up and have the same timetable as a friend. (Most people go for this option). It’s a lot of fun, espeically if you’re with your friends, and doing what you chose to do.

So for the past week and a half, I’ve gone to IMAX, to Museums, to Art Galleries, viewed Street Art, gone to the Botanical Gardens, Zoo and RSPCA and shopping in Chadstone. I partnered up with Olivia (DUM DUM!!) and we decided, before YEP, to buy a respectable amount of POCKY (asian biscuits) to eat while at YEP. (At the end of YEP, we were extremely, extremely sick of Pocky)

We had a lot of food… and exercise! We had to climb up the hill to the train station almost every single day, and up to the RSPCA on one day! (The people who live in Mount Waverley around the Stephensons Road/Dampers Creek area know what I mean)

So… rundown of what YEP was really like:

IMAX Theatres
We watched a 3D Underwater Creatures Documentary. Although the actual film was rather boring, the 3D Jellyfish, 6foot long squids and leering sharks sent the whole female excursion population screaming. No kidding!

After that we went to some museums and had lunch. Interesting, with lots of cool things like Bugs, Marine Life and a rainforest section.

Inschool activities
The second day was full of incursions. We basically just did Drama O Rama (inprovising) and Origami work. I liked Drama as I already did Theatresports Impro Drama as an extra curricular anyway. Origami is surprisingly fun, but all my hard work got crushed by my bag on the way home.

Explore the Zoo
Now this was craze fun! We basically got released into the wild the minute we stepped into the zoo. I was with Maxam, Chris and Olivia.

We walked so much that day! We saw the elephants and giraffes and orang utans! One orang utan was peeing on the viewing platform! =D There were zebras and giant turtles as well. We also walked through the Great Flight Aviary with tons of birds just flying around us! There was also another similar thing, but with butterflies instead. After that we collapsed into the cafe for lunch.

After lunch we saw the reptiles, lions and the other bigs cats. We were already really tired, though, so we didnt enjoy it as much as the other ones. At the end of the day, we were all exhausted. Good thing I had a note that allowed me to take a different train line straight home instead of back to school. (Cutting my travel time in half)

Christmas Shopping in Chadstone
Tiring, tiring, tiring. Okay, first, we had to walk from East Malvern station to Chaddy! That’s… long! But it was pretty fun, in chaddy itself. We shopped and had food. Maxam and Rebecca (a French and Canadian) tried the Shanghai dumplings I bought for lunch. They liked it! =D

RSPCA Visit
This one was actually… quite boring. We had to walk all the way to the RSPCA! That’s really far, especially when there’s a bus route from right outside the school to right outside the RSPCA (The bus I usually take to get home anyway). All we did was walk, see animals, walk, watch boring dog video.

Okay, the animals were cool. We got to see a few happy ending dog stories first hand. But the video… Let’s just say I slept through it (literally)

City Art Experience
This one was interesting. The day is broken up to exploring the NGV (National Gallery Victoria) by ourselves in pairs or groups, and viewing street art after lunch.

NGV was pretty good. There were really cool exhibits. One thing, though. There was a Vietnamese guard whose middle name is annoying! Seriously, he kept going on about the “loss of asian language in australia”.

1. We’re in Australia. The main language is English anyway. If you want Asian languages to be used commonly, go to Asia.

He was so infuriating! We eventually ended up in an argument about the borders of Asia! (He got it wrong. FYI: Asia does include India!) The argument… let’s just say it wasn’t the friendly type. It was more of a heated, you’re SO wrong, get over it type.

2. Don’t argue about Asia with students who just spent 2 months studying about it full on in geography. Especially if you’re going to state that India isn’t in Asia.

The second part of the day was cool! We walked through a back street that’s meant for graffiti! The art was amazing. But this is when something went wrong. Quite wrong.

Olivia, Sherri and I stayed back to take one last photo. We turned back to the group and saw that they were crossing the traffic lights (you know how it is like in the city) and we missed the lights. By the time we crossed, they were no where to be seen. So we were stranded in the middle of the city. (Actually I know perfectly well where we were and how to get back. We just needed to find the rest of the school group)

We walked, checked the train station entry, and panicked. Finally, I called Mrs Pap, another teacher who takes the chaddy group. If this sounds weird, it is. I only called her because she was the only school-related number I had. So I explained the situation and she told us to check the Glen Waverley platform in Flinders Street. We found the group. But it was a scary, scary experience.

Botanical Gardens Walk
Another free free activity. This was our last day of YEP. Olivia and I just walked around the Botanical Gardens. At this point in the week we were tired and just wanted to relax. So I (who just happened to be the one navigating -_-) had to get to the lakeside cafe. It was a 33 degrees max day and a very hard walk. The gardens had annoyingly weird signs that didn’t co-ordinate with the maps very well.

We finally made it to the lake, taking the long way round through the Fern Gully and Rainforest Walk and had cold drinks. And just relaxed in the cafe.

At the end of that day, all students in every activity had to go back to school for an end of year assembly. There were speeches and we got our reports (I did OK =D) and we were released! In a few days time, when the exit form is handed in, I won’t be a student of MWSC anymore… officially. So sad! =(

MacRob Orientation Day
The day before YEP started I had orientation in MacRob. I met my classmates and some really friendly people. The atmosphere was surprisingly really good. It feels like a really good school to go to!