March 1, 2008
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O-week 2008, Critical Mass and all that...
Wow, I've been out so much during the past few days that I haven't been on IRC for four days!
This week being ChocSoc's first O-week, I've been busy. Let's see...
This is ChocSoc's stall on Tuesday, before actual O-week started. Look how clean and dry it was. It didn't stay this dry all week...
Donna and I were waiting for the library to open on the first day, and then I somehow followed the EWB people away. (Sorry, Donna.) xD I even helped put up the EWB banner.
I forgot why, but JieLei and Lucy seemed to be very happy.
Now, back to helping ChocSoc. Donna and I went to buy balloons. Helium balloons are fun!
Actually, delivering them to the stall was fun too. Well, I know that riding back to the stall with the balloons tied to the handlebars on my bike wasn't the most sensible way to deliver them, but it was definitely a lot faster than walking back. This also makes random people (such as those who were doing the roadwork on Glebe Point Road) stare and cheer, but I don't care. (Never mind that this is dangerous.)
It's been raining on and off all week. It actually rained a little in the morning so that I had to decide whether to ride my bike or not (I obviously did). The weather did clear up for a while, but the rain soon returned. With all the people in the ChocSoc stall, we decided to do an "umbrella service" for people who come past the stall. This definitely gets their attention.
Later in the day, when the rain stopped and the stall was less busy, Zinah decided to sign up herself. Here's the dramatic moment when she paid her membership fee.
ChocSoc was also in charge of selling cakes at Swing Play in the evening. The cakes were free to ChocSoc members though. They were yummy.
The stall was outside, but there were still a lot of people who went there. I took one and went inside, and I had someone ask me where I got the cake first thing after I sat down. More people signed up.
Here's a random action shot of Peng's magic show at Swing Play.
Later on in the evening, there was a circus performance outside. Look at those rings of fire!
After selling all the cakes, Richard and David decided to have a tray of Farah instead.
All that, and it was just the first day. ChocSoc apparently had more than 300 members in that one day. Yay!
The Red Cross bear came to visit ChocSoc on the second day.
However, the weather wasn't so good later on in the day. It was very awkward when everyone had to hide from the rain while also keeping everything dry. The stalls didn't really offer that much protection from the rain. It was also important to get rid of the water that accumulates on the top of the stall. The worst thing was that we had to postpone ChocOlympics.
Later on in the day, the rain stopped, and I saw the bear hugging a penguin (which I think was a SPOC, since I saw another SPOC dressed as a penguin later in the day).
The good weather didn't last though. The rain became really heavy, and it was really muddy behind the ChocSoc stall. The Quad actually looked quite pretty in the rain though.
Well, despite all that rain, ChocSoc got another 100 members or so on the second day.
Friday's event didn't go so well either. Quite a lot of people turned up, but most of them left before we could sort everything out, so we didn't even show the movie. We got more members though. In fact, we were so popular that we still had more people coming at 4 o'clock when we were supposed to pack up. We ended up arriving "fashionably late" for the wrap party an hour after it started.
Being the last Friday of the month, there was of course Critical Mass. I left the wrap party early to go, and even then, I was worried that I would be late when I was going through the heavy traffic. I got there on time at the end though. Even though originally I was quite looking forward to going to Balmoral Beach as someone suggested to the list, I'm glad that we ended up going to St. Peters instead. The graffiti at May Lane was interesting.
Look at Helen and her doll dressed up for a party!
Being bad with directions, I lost track of where I was after just a few turns. I only knew that we ended up at St. Peters, and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find my way back to San Churro for the late-night party. Tim actually drew me a map of how to get there. Now, that was a map that I really shouldn't need, because it's pretty much one straight road all the way. xD
The way back was much more straight forward than the way there. I went through Newtown, where the traffic was so bad that I could beat it. xD There was a gap between the parked cars in the left lane and the traffic jam in the middle lane, and it was just wide enough for me. Poor car drivers. Then again, it serves them right for driving. xD The party at San Churro started early, so I ended up being late, but I'm still glad I went to Critical Mass. This month, there's no dizzying "Mass with Mousy" video because my video camera ran out of batteries. This is the first time I got to use my membership card at San Churro. Yay!
And that's a week. Yay for ChocSoc now having more than 500 members. I also added an extra subject for this semester. Even though summer units don't count towards the year's limit, the online system counts them towards that limit anyway, and so I needed to get the extra subject manually added. That was annoying. What's more, now the timetabling page won't give me a timetable that I want, not even with the "customise your timetable" thing. I'll just go to the classes I want from the information on the central timetable though. I've made myself a much better one. xD
