Animo La Salle! My experiences during the 2-day orientation in my newest school, the De La Salle University (DLSU)

It was the night before the 1st day of the freshman orientation. I found myself lying on my bed, thinking about what could happen on my very first time that I will mingle with the people in La Salle. Yes… here I go again… meeting again new faces, and hopefully, new… friends.

I woke up later than the exact time that I should have woke up; at least 5:00 am. The orientation was set to start at 7:00 am. I’ve got a long long way to go to get there in the campus which is located in Manila. So from my home in Muntinlupa, the trip should last for more than 30 minutes. This was my first day, so I was still accompanied by my mom.

As we got there, we immediately looked for the Central Plaza (the meeting place) which I first thought was a place located outside the university already. I thought it was the same as the Harrison Plaza located just near DLSU. But heh, okay La Salle has their own plaza… so my mom and I had to get separated for a while. She looked for a bench to sit in and where she could wait for me.

There I was, looking for my block mates. I signed on the registration form, and I was assisted to where my block mates were, until i was able to join their line. I didn’t see any familiar faces; everyone seemed completely unfamiliar to me. We proceeded to the elevator, heading to the campus auditorium, the first stop.

Oh how amazing was that… La Salle has its own cinema house?! Yes, and it’s called the DLSU auditorium, with 3 floors. Our block occupied some of the seats on the 2nd floor. I sat down, just looking around. My seatmates? Oh, they didn’t mind to talk to me just yet. After a few minutes, the program started.

We were given a manual to serve as our guide for the flow of the program. We first had the 3 usual prayers of a La Sallian. Those were ought to be sung, actually, and I had fun when the hand movements and dance steps were taught to us. The songs were melodically beautiful. “Jesus, live forever in our hearts!” - once you happen to hear that particular line from someone, that someone is guaranteed a La Sallian.

Then we headed on to some long speeches. Speeches have always been the most tiresome part of any program, surely. There’s the speeches from a priest, a student, a lawyer, and the pretty student council president who certainly loves to smile even while she’s speaking, hehe!

We also viewed some video clips. Various dance clubs had their performances respectively. After the program, we had our first break, wherein the foods and drinks were free for the mean time. I just chose a seat beside anyone. i didn’t just care who my table mates could be. i just ate my snacks quietly.

Until someone called my name as she read my nameplate… “Hi… Chamy?” said a long-haired looking very modest lady named Alex. I greeted her back. And then we continued eating… sigh.

Next, we proceeded to a certain room. I chose to sit there at the back. There came Atty. Henry, the discipline office head. (usually known as the school guidance counselor) His real name is Hilario… okay, very close enough to his nickname Henry.

He first let us introduce ourselves briefly. Oh, what was my exact line? I recited, “I’m Charmaine Abes. I graduated from Muntinlupa Science Highschool. You can call me Chamy to make it sound more cute.” And nobody reacted… sigh.

Then, he had his next activity, which was the “getting to know” sort of game prepared for us, wherein we were asked to bring out a pen and a piece of paper, and write adjectives starting from the letters of our nicknames that will describe our personalities. We worked on with that for about 5 minutes. I was thinking about what to write when suddenly, the long-haired very tall guy sitting at my right asked some help from me to give him some adjectives. He was experiencing a mental block, he said. And so I gave him what he wanted. He was satisfied with what I shared… Heh, okay that should be my very first record of a good deed done in DLSU.

Then, we were asked to form 2 circles, one inner and one outer circle. Each of us was matched with a partner. Within around 2 minutes, we were tasked to share what we wrote to our respective partners, and after 2 minutes, the circle rotated, so we had different respective partners again.

I had to be confident showing my work to those new faces and explain every single adjective that I wrote to describe my personality. Hey by the way, here were those adjectives that I’d come to think of;

C-heerful, H-umble, A-miable, M-usic-addicted, Y-EHEY!!! (I couldn’t think of any perfect adjectives that start with letter Y… just to make fun, you know. =p) I hope anyone who has known me a lot eversince doesn’t comment about these adjectives that I wrote! You know it really describes myself!

But how come I wrote “amiable” for letter A… if I know to myself I can’t just be… to these “too matured” gals who happened to be my block mates… You see, I am CHILDISH; still much of a kid about to study in La Salle. Do I have to change my old self just for them to be my friends? No… I won’t. My long-time friends will surely miss the usual Chamy that they’ve known, so I won’t change.

Back to my story now. I didn’t have to speak to them in English, but it was still a lot of pressure. I tried to overcome this shyness… I guess it worked out for them. “I’m Chamy… sana maging close tayo” and then I shook cold hands with them - that was the same thing I did to every partner that I had.

After that, we left the room and took our lunch which was all free again. I happened to sit near my 3 wacky block mates; one rich girl, (because she studied in Miriam college before) and two boys. (one chubby guy wearing eyeglasses and a slim guy with a charming face) They were making fun of the plastic spoons and forks that DLSU supplied for our lunch wherein the ulam was pork chop, and the rice was as hard as cement! And there is this fact that we couldn’t just eat the pork chop using our hands so we could still eat those hidden laman-laman because you know… sosyal dapat sa La Salle. Well, I joined these guys on their jokes! “Kapag kinamay mo ung pagkain mo, ma-D-DO ka!” I said while boistering slightly. What I mean on ma-D-DO right there is completely similar as saying “maguguidance ka.”

Well, I was able to make them laugh with my joke. But… it didn’t mean they’re my friends already… At any point, they could have surely forgotten that particular moment. They only don’t know I can give them hundreds of that joke. I wish they could be my future barkada… sigh. Anyway, these barkada seemed like they’ve known each other for so long, but one of them said they aren’t.

Next, we headed to another room. Oh, I forgot to tell you that each block has its facilitators. On our block, we had Ate Apple and Ate Yan with us. They were the ones who came to think of a game just for fun while waiting for the time. We played the game called “Do you love me?” Heh, how’s that sound?

Here are the rules of this game; The players are in circular form. There will be a taya. He or she will choose anyone who has to be OPPOSITE his or her sex, and he or she will, then, ask the one he or she chooses, “Do you love me?” When the one being asked says yes, everyone shall leave his or her original seats and look for his or her new seat to change everyone’s positions. But when the one being asked says no, he or she will have to say the line “I want someone…” then think of your own descriptions. For example, he or she says ‘I want someone wearing eyeglasses.” Those who are wearing eyeglasses are the ones who will have to leave their original seats and look for new position. The one who is left in the middle with no seat will be the new taya.

The tall long-haired guy that I mentioned earlier, (the one who asked some help from me to give him some adjectives) was our very first taya. He was upset there in the middle, looking for his “victim”. Remember he’s a male, so his options should just be among us, the girls. I-I was totally surprised and frozen up when… he suddenly rushed in front of me, EVEN KNELT INFRONT OF ME, and asked me “Do you love me?” Then everyone just cheered “uuuuuuyyyy” C’mon, this is just my first day! I can’t have a lovelife this early yet, okay!!! I said a big NO, of course! (Oh, that may hurt to him, hehe! He’s busted? Joke!) I even responded delayed, thinking of what description to give! It was really humiliating! Until I chose to say those who are wearing pink, because I suspected they were a lot of them wearing pink. So many had to change their positions. They were “victimized”, hehe!

On those new positions, he was again the one sitting beside me. Soul mates? C’mon! “I was completely surprised there, huh?” I whispered to him. He smiled. I said that there’s nothing serious about that, and the only reason that I see why he had to choose me was because I was the only one that he knew at that point. And then we did a high-five. We’re rooting for a friendship now there.

And then we had this taya; a white guy with Chinese eyes but not a Chinese, actually. He first turned around there in the middle and looked for his victim. He first chose the girl beside me who was one of our facilitators, but she insisted he could not choose her because she got victimized earlier, and so… his eyes just went straight on ME! I heard what he whispered; “Ikaw na nga lang!” Ah, so he chose me just because he couldn’t just choose no one… BUT ME? Well, whatever! Of course, I replied him NO! Then, change positions!

But I was still actually thinking about why he chose me… well anyway, that was one of the most memorable experiences I had… full of surprises!

Okay, I will just fastforward my story to the last activity that we had which was the campus tour, wherein the different buildings in La Salle were introduced to us. Well, it’s totally confusing. It’s so easy for me to get lost in my own school!

That ended the day. It was nearly 5:00 pm. I approached my mom who was sitting on a bench having conversations with a mothe, too. Home sweet home!

—–+—————-+————–+—————+———

Now, I’m about to share my experiences on the 2nd day of the freshman orientation, wherein we were required to wear only white or green. Our block decided to wear white to make it uniform. And this time, I was not accompanied by my mom anymore; I was able to travel my way to DLSU ON MY OWN!

I saw some of my block mates hanging out on one corner of the Central Plaza. I first signed in the registration, and I decided not to join them. I chose to be alone just 1 meter apart from them. Suddenly, I got surprised… to see LEVON, my highschool classmate, and one of my closest friends! I actually thought he chose to study in St. Benilde, but how come he was there? I was just happy about it. I called his name aloud, and I ran to him with such excitement that I even managed to hug him, haha! He joined me for some while. We shared stories about our respective block mates. After a few minutes, he had to go and follow his block mates. And so I was alone again.

We started the day with the discussions of the campus rules, which was actually made into a game wherein we were grouped. I didn’t contribute much to my group. Our group had no points, so heh… what a good start! =p

After that, we had the mass. I was supposed not to join there since I’m a non-Catholic, but ate Apple asked me to just join there because I’d got nowhere to go aside from the mass, so i had no choice. I was able to experience how a normal Catholic mass goes. Heh, lots of songs of praise and recital, huh? I was even wondering about another male block mate sitting beside me, because like me, he didn’t also know what to do next, but I asked him if he’s a non-Catholic like me, and he said he is a Catholic! But he said he has never attended to mass eversince because he doesn’t mind to, anyway! Heh, oh I see! I was even laughing about that guest priest (or I mean just a simple brother, as he mentioned about it) who mentioned some nasty stuffs about studying in Ateneo! You know… it’s like GMA and ABS-CBN, nagsisiraan… Heh!

After the mass, it’s lunch time. Thank God our ulam was not to be chopped anymore like the one on the 1st day, so no more victims of broken spoons and forks this time! Our drinks? It’s FAB! You can compare fit and right to that…

Next, we continued the campus tour, where we were brought to the buildings outside the campus but still La Salle buildings of course. We were brought to the Andrew building. It has 21 floors. Wow.

And then we proceeded to the sports center of DLSU, where we had to use the stairs and climb more than 10 floors because we were disallowed to use the elevator to make it more organized. Yes, you heard it right… 10 FLOORS, with no “time first”, no break muna! So when we got there, we were all wet chicks!

We were able to experience the very warm welcome of the different organizations and clubs in DLSU… as in WARM WELCOME, because they have really prepared it well; different styles, different costumes, different set-up of the setting, and different souvenirs that they gave us freely. I really enjoyed it!

And finally, we headed to our very last stop. This was the main highlight of my day, actually. We’re in the ANIMO building! To be able to be understood by the non-Lasallians what this ANIMO building is, it is simply the basketball home court of the DLSU basketball team, the DLSU Green Archers!

First, the cheer/yell prepared by different blocks were heard. And then there were some question and answer portion, then some fashion shows promoting the chromosome bags, and then the blah blah blah’s…I was already half-asleep on this part, actually… OKAY I’ll just fastforward this to the most memorable experience to me… Some of the DLSU athletes appeared on the scene, along with the cheering squad… They are going to teach us the different cheers of DLSU! (which are used during a basketball game in the UAAP, for example)

First, the different cheers were taught to us one by one, step by step. After learning them all, it’s time for us to experience it real… They had set-up something that will put us freshmen into an actual DLSU game! The drums were set. The drummers were in and started hitting their drums. The ANIMO cheering squad came out. They led us to the cheering, and we began!

D…LS…U… ANIMO LA SALLE!!! (with matching hand signs…)

Woooooooooh….. GO LA SALLE!

There were more cheers than these two, but these are my most favorites! We really cheered as if we were in the Araneta Coliseum, cheering for the Green Archers! It was so great for me to be able to experience that… I have actually watched some basketball games of DLSU on TV before, most of the time against the Ateneo Blue Eagles, their archrivals forever. Before I was only seeing those people wearing green and white, cheering aloud for DLSU, at this point… I saw myself being one of those people now! Really really a wonderful moment!

And after the loud cheers, the DLSU alma mater hymn was sung. All of us raised our right arm with closed fist, that is what is usually done. Whenever we pronounce the line “Hail! Hail! Hail!” we will move our fist… wah, it’s hard to describe thru words how it is done, but whatsoever, everything just felt so real to me… especially after the hymn being sung, there was a pop sound heard. The green and white balloons fell down from the ceiling, and the green and white confetti rained down the court… as if it’s a ceremony for DLSU’s victory.

Woo! I really had fun sharing these experiences I had during my first two days in my new world. I decided to share this one for my friends during my highschool days in MUNSCI to be able for them to know what has happened to me during these times that we are no longer seeing each other because we all have our own new lives by this time. I guess a lot of them should be missing me now… Well, I miss you all! You heard a lot from me, I wish to hear from you very soon, my dear Munscian friends!

And of course, to the other readers, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! Thank you for allotting some of your time to read my story. Bye now!

Animo La Salle!