Not so much a party but a welcome ceremony for NOC returnees, repeat returnees, and generally all N-house stay-ees, Wednesday saw the start of N-house’s customary Wicked Wednesday activities for Academic Year 16/17 Sem 1!
We began, typically, with a welcome speech from Prof Teo who, typically, asked the same question that he poses to all new N-house residents.
“What does the ‘N’ in N-house stand for?”
Residents racked their brains to please the doyen of our NOC dreams but could only offer answers such as “entrepreneurship”, to which the professor complained in dismay.
“But ‘entrepreneurship’ starts with ‘e’!”
The professor then conceded.
“Actually, if you asked me, I also don’t know.”
To which the crowd laughed. Full marks for crowd entertainment, prof.
The speech then rambled on with particular mentions of Singapore’s entrepreneurial initiative that has been spearheaded by NUS (e.g. Blk71, Blk79), the many ways that NUS and NOC students can find resources to get started on their startup journeys (http://enterprise.nus.edu.sg/funding), and some homely advice on the do’s and don’ts of staying in N-house.
And then a photo was taken.
Speech done and photo taken, the rest of the evening was devoted to laying down the channels for communication — this semester, N-house is using Slack for the first time — and breaking down the barriers of ice that exist between strangers. But no man is an island, and the men and women of N-house were soon stomping, shouting, and clapping their way to newfound friendship through our innovative ice-breaking games (basically forming pairs to shout 1,2,3 at each other and replacing each digit with a stomp, shout, or a clap). Innovative, huh? Too bad ‘innovative’ doesn’t start with ’n’ too.
Then, we had new friendships cemented with each new pair of friends introducing each other to the crowd.
Friendships cemented, fun had, and laughter spent, the event then winded down with a door-tag decorating session, before a quick rundown of the activities planned for N-house’s AY16/17 Sem 1 was given.
All in all, great success. Stay tuned for the next N-house update.
