A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, it is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victor against the evil Galactic Empire.  Whoops, sorry  for the typos, my mind seems to be elsewhere. So.. now that I (hopefully) have your attention, let’s actually begin with the actual article.

Last Thursday, students from all 7 schools gathered for a night of music, food and fun. The aim of the event was to welcome the freshies to Monash and give them the chance to mingle with seniors.    This event was organised by the Publicity Officers in collaboration with all the school reps. Registration started at 6pm with students categorised according to their respective schools, and given stickers and ribbons.

Lakshmi kicked the evening off with a stunning performance, covering songs by Ed Sheeran and Boys Like Girls, to enthusiastic cheers from the audience. Ice breaking games followed, with different games played by different schools. It was at this point where I got distracted by the Engineering events (as usual) and ended up playing frisbee and dodgeball to get to know new people.

Alas, all good things must come to an end, and so did the frisbee. The game that followed involved all participants from all schools. The game was called human bingo, and basically involved people wandering around the room obtaining the signatures of people who have the facts listed on the bingo sheet, which included “Person with abs” and “Person who can fit their first into their mouth”. After the time limit ended, the emcee randomly pulled someone on to the stage and asked them to pick a trait from their bingo sheet and call the person who signed on that trait up on stage as well. The person with the trait then had to demonstrate the trait on the performance stage, leading to a giveaway including the exclusive, official Monash University hoodies!

After the giveaway, dinner was served by our very own MUSA members to the hungry juniors and seniors. In addition to the dinner served, free gelato was also given to the students (courtesy of Waka-Waka Gelato). The dinner and gelato was served for the students to eat on the field.

Our very own Monash students took to the stage in a series of performances varying from dance, singing and even rapping! Monash Street Dance Society kicked the performances off with a bang. Purple Label were the first group of students to begin performing songs, including a rendition of Bon Jovi and a Bangladeshi rap. Engineering’s very own Poe Wun and Chong performed songs by Ed Sheeran whilst Raj Mahal and the night’s emcee, Asyraf began a rap performance. To end the night’s setlist of performances, School of Arts representatives Samantha and Jaryl performed acoustic renditions of In the Name of Love, Say You Won’t Let Go and Let it Go (they should really make up their minds on whether they want to hold on to things or let them go). The performances really shined a light on the talents Monash has to offer.

Overall the night went very, very well, despite the imminent threat of rain. Hopefully this event will be held in Semester 2 so we freshies can enjoy the best Monash has to offer, free food!

Do check out our photos of the event here.

Words by Andrew Peter Lim and (thankfully) Nathaniel Low – We do apologise for any mistakes and hurt feelings, as we aren’t writers.

Photos by Andrew Peter Lim, Christopher Oh and Jenny Wong