Orientation Week at Waterloo

Today is day 6 of my Waterloo experience! Here’s a recap of my journey so far.

Day 1: I moved in to Village One on Sunday. The official move in day for my building was on Monday, so it was just me and another guy for the whole day. Moving in and saying goodbye to my parents was quite bittersweet. I’m going to miss living with them, but I’m also going to enjoy every single moment of this new lifestyle.

I participated in the scheduled orientation activities: Warrior Welcome and Playfair. Warrior Welcome was decent. It was basically a pep rally event trying to create Waterloo spirit. Playfair was surprisingly really fun. There were about two thousand first year students doing fun activities on the V1 Green. Some activities were really awkward, but that’s what makes it so fun.

Day 2: My floor mates moved in on Monday (which woke me up urgh). They are really nice people! I’m looking forward to living with them for the next 8 months. Our building had a introduction meeting and played icebreakers to get to know each other. I recall playing a LOT of ping pong on this day. Aside from that, nothing interesting happened.

Day 3: Tuesday was the first day of the orientation week activities. Since I’m in Software Engineering, I get to participate in both the Math and Engineering orientation activities. I was part of team Dark-Yellow in Engineering and Meme-Theorem Valley in Math. The day started off at the Dark-Yellow(“dellow”) headquarters. I met a lot of new and fascinating people from my team. The leaders, especially the Software people, were awesome people. Next up was a speech from the Dean of Engineering at Waterloo, Pearl Sullivan. She’s an extraordinary person and definitely embodies Waterloo’s values and culture. Out of nowhere, Edcom pops up and sends a message to all the Frosh. I’m not going to describe edcom because I don’t want to give any spoilers.

Afterwards, the Software kids from my group went to the Math Orientation team. We met up in Davis Centre and did a couple of sub-par activities. They were pretty lame to be honest. Whatever, at least I got the opportunity to meet new people. The day was filled with rain, so the orientation activities for Engineering had to be modified. Regardless, we still got our coveted Yellow Hardhat at the end of the day. During the night, I hung out with friends and checked out “Choose your own adventure”. There were activities planned such as Haunted House, hypnotist show, drag show, and much more. We had to wait an hour and a half to get in the two minute Haunted House. I would say it’s not worth it, but I loved bonding with the others during the long wait time. Apparently, the hypnotist show was epic.

Day 4: All Engineering students had Wednesday off, except the Software kids. I went to the Software Engineering 101 event and then had a department lunch at Mongolian grill. The food was amazing. The people were even more incredible. Then, we participated in various activities to earn our Pink Tie. During the night time, my friends and I participated in World of Waterloo, which was basically a tour of the city of Waterloo. It was decent, but was way too hyped up. Afterwards, a couple of us went to Chatime (never a bad time for Chatime).

Day 5: Thursday was a SUPER FUN day. The 1500+ first-year Engineering students participated in the aerial photo at St. Paul green. I’m excited to see how the picture will turn out. This type of stuff requires so much organization and creativity! Next, the 16 teams battled against each other in the Junkyard Wars. I don’t want to spoil this either, but let’s say a lot of collaboration and quick thinking is required. The highlight of the orientation activities was definitely the “Single and Sexy” play. It exceeded my expectations and made the entire audience go into laughter. Of course, there were also key lessons portrayed. If you’re going to Waterloo next year, you MUST watch this. It’s THAT good.

There was also the Monte Carlo, which started at 8:00 PM. Most people dressed up in a semi-formal way. I was impressed by how much effort people put into dressing up. The event was hosted at SLC, and was actually fun. There were a bunch of casino games set up. The Texas Hold ‘Em tables were super filled up. What I loved most about the event was the complimentary snacks! I left Monte Carlo early and then went to Frosh Frenzy at Pearl nightclub with my friends. I’m not going to disclose the specific details about Frosh Frenzy because I have a wide audience of people reading my blog. Let’s just say there was a lot of dancing and cheering. It was definitely one of the best nights ever. Well worth the money spent.

Day 6: There was a huge thunderstorm in Waterloo Friday morning, with some of the loudest thunder cracks and powerful lightning strikes I’ve ever witnessed. It was reported that a female student from the University of Waterloo was struck by lightning and later passed away in the hospital. It’s such a tragic event. I’d like to send all of my condolences to the student and her family. This event really got me thinking about life.

1. Safety should always be prioritized.
2. You never know when your last day will be so enjoy every single moment. Life is simply too short to be depressed all the time.

I’ll conclude this post with an interesting graphic.

Over the past week, I’ve lived by this quote. I haven’t had much sleep, but who cares? ‘Cause I’m having so much fun, and this is probably the last time in a long time, where I can afford to give up sleep.