NSO

For the past three days, I’ve been participating in Lingnan’s New Student Orientation or NSO. All incoming freshmen/first-years and exchange students are required to participate as it introduces everyone to life at the university. We were divided up into groups of about 15 students with 4 peer mentors, or Year 2 or 3 students. I was in group 42 and there was a girl from South Korea, two from Mainland China, and about 12 from Hong Kong.

NSO started off with a dim sum lunch at a nearby restaurant followed by a welcoming ceremony in one of the school’s auditoriums. The ceremony was very interesting. The hostels here are very energetic/competitive- it kind of reminds me of Hogwarts Houses- but the hostels here compete with noise (?). At lunch the executive board of Hostel F taught us the Hostel F Cheers, which are used to show their pride and such. When we got to the auditorium every hostel was cheering and singing their cheers. They had these huge boxed cut-out letters and flags to represent their hostel. Each and every time we were in the auditorium everybody sang and went crazy.

For dinner, my group had High Table, which is a tradition where students eat with the university’s senior members. The dinner used traditional forks and knives, which allowed the Chinese students to practice using these utensils.

Day 2 started off bright and early with breakfast in one of the common rooms in our hostel. Let me just note that only the rooms have A.C. here, the hallways, common rooms, bathrooms, etc. do not. So for both mornings, we’re eating in this common room and I swear its 100+ degrees-not fun. And at one point a boy opened the window-not that it would help because it’s just as hot outside as it is inside.

We had a 3-hour session in the auditorium. It started off with an Official Welcome from the school’s president followed by a group photo- where everybody got together on the ground floor in the auditorium and the photographer stood on a ladder on the stage. Then came some boring talks about the G.P.A. and academic policies. Most students either fell asleep or talked through the speech. It amazes me- in every single presentation the Chinese students would have side conversations and wouldn’t pay attention. It would get to a point where it was so obvious nobody was paying attention and you could barely hear the speaker. In the afternoon we had more talks- but this time they were in Cantonese. Yep. Couldn’t understand a thing.

Later that evening there was a Campus Life Carnival where a lot of clubs and activities had booths set up where you could learn about the club and join. I joined the Rowing Club and got a free t-shirt and bag!

The final day of NSO comprised of a tour of the library-which is absolutely gorgeous and has so many books I could spend hours there- and a fitness test, which I barely had to do because my blood pressure high. The one part I had to do was a skin fold test- they like grabbed part of your skin on your arm, waist and leg and measure it. And, as most of you know I am very ticklish so I was basically dying during this and the lady thought I was absolutely crazy.

Classes start on Wednesday so I have a few days to explore!