Orientation Week in Labuan Matriculation Centre

Lone crept slowly and overthrow the joy in me. I was lonely, sitting on my bag and looking out of window. I had no idea what I was doing, perhaps filling my time. Now I realized that I had nobody to talk to. That night, I ate my meal alone and the meal was quite lousy. Then, we had our first session of orientation at 6.30pm. We were asked to wear the college tee provided and slack. The talk was rather boring and I almost fell asleep.

“You thought you are having your vacation here! You have been misbehaving tonight. As the punishment, dress formally for the rest of the orientation. One more thing, all of you must be at the hall at 4.00am tomorrow.” The head facilitator shouted at us through the microphone. Gather at the hall at four meant I need to wake up at three since it took me half an hour to walk from the hostel to the hall or else I wouldn’t be able to brush my teeth. What! I never woke up that early since I was born.

We gathered at the hall at four just like what we had asked before but there was nobody there except us. The orientation only started at five something and the facilitators pretended nothing had happened. Oh great!

“You also misbehave in front of us!” I whispered to my heart.
This was my daily routine for the whole week.

4.30am- wake up and get ready.

5.00am- walk to the hall.

5.30am- a short talk about the experience of the alumni and lecturers. *Boring

6.30am- aerobic exercise at the field. *Don’t see the whole point of exercising.

(Breakfast in between)

7.30am- gather at the lobby of the hostel. It was the time we “express” our love to the country

and the college by singing both the national anthem and college song. *The college

song is not that bad, just too many words.

8.30am to 12.30pm- talk, seminar and speech by the principal, head of departments, lecturers

and those staff who were related in the hall. *It was sleeping time.

(Lunch time)

1.00pm to 5.30pm- talk, seminar and speech by the principal, head of departments, lecturers

and those staff who were related in the hall. *It was time for a long nap.

(Rest, shower and dinner)

6.30pm to 12.00am- talk, seminar and speech by the principal, head of departments, lecturers

and those staff who were related in the hall. *Too much sleep during the

day and just listen to the boring talk and those nonsense thing.

Meal of the orientation week. It was pretty unhealthy but time was precious. What to do!

Breakfast- a can of 100Plus. *To so call gaining energy for the day.

Lunch- a can of F&N and some biscuit. *So that I could take a long rest instead of wasting

time and money for the “decent” food in the boys’ canteen.

Dinner- ordinary ‘nasi campur’ *It was really expensive even though it was extremely ordinary food.

Despite all the hardship and bored, the intention of the orientation was good but the methodology did not suit me very much. However, I was glad to make a lot of friends during the orientation and I was not alone anymore.