Harness your skills at overusing phrases semantically related to the development of friendships at the grassroots during Monash’s very first student orientation event this year. This would be one of Monash’s biggest orientation events with a record number of students joining our university. 

We will probably never escape the dreadful cycle of trying to make new friends and mirroring a quasi-positive facade while all trying not to have our social batteries be drained at the end of the day. Regardless, it’s a rite of passage for all students and talking to the person sitting next to you during orientation would potentially be a choice that defines your entire university experience. 

It’s a make or break framework and this time, the February orientation event streamlined the harsh realities of being a new student on a new campus in a new environment and made it extremely easy for all students to acclimate to their new daily routine. A communal orientation between all schools and all programmes was held during day 1 and day 2, while school-specific sessions were held on day 3 onwards. The university campus was once again revitalised back to its original form- no seats in the library, a queue at Mad Alchemy, and friendly exchanges between acquaintances at the piazza. 

The students first had a brief introduction session of university life in Monash and the MUSA departments. All office bearers were present to introduce their respective departments and to tease their flagship events happening on campus throughout the year. After each department has said their piece, the students embarked on a scavenger hunt-esque campus tour with stations placed at imperative parts of our campus for them to explore and revel at the soon to be mundane life of being a student during assignment and exam weeks. There were many activities being held simultaneously and the campus was absolutely pulsing with excitement and eagerness. 

Day 2 was rather eventful due to the Global Escape event occurring at the badminton court. It was a miniature display of culture from a few countries across the world with each country representing one booth of games. Students were able to play these games to accumulate cash from the ‘Bank of Monash’ and claim prizes at the prize booth. Prizes started from 50 bucks all the way up to 200 bucks. 

Each booth had games and activities that were culturally relevant to their country. For instance, the Canadian booth had minigames surrounding hockey. They had air hockey and hockey puck sliding which allowed students to earn currency. Likewise, the South Korean booth featured ddakji which you might have recognised from Netflix’s original show ‘Squid Game’. Just like in the show, the same rules applied but instead of winning South Korean won, you once again earned the coveted Monash cash. 

We’ve now entered white territory with countries like the United Kingdom and the United States. Despite the claim that American and British white culture does not exist or that fragments of white culture is defined by capitalism, fast-food chains, and being denied healthcare, both booths stood strong with a line constantly extruding out. In true American fashion, the United States booth featured the shootout challenge. Players had to shoot down cups at a distance to potentially win 6 bucks. Ironically enough, the guns given were fairly faulty. 

The Global Escape event hosted a pizza eating competition as their Italian destination. Rules were simple enough, participants had 10 minutes to finish the slices of pizza in front of them. The first participant who does it successfully, wins 100 bucks. 

With the arrival of orientation day 5, the campus begins to calm down just a little bit. Expect it to be up and running as soon as week 1 of the semester starts with freshmen flocking to classes for the first time and logging into moodle to finish pre-workshop quizzes. 

Welcome to Monash Malaysia! 

Written by Yashven Jayabalan

Photos by Daven, Thong Chen, Xiao Qing and May Ping