By Zara Karimi (18A01A), Ianni Tan (18S03C) and Jeslyn Tan (18S06R).

What do you get when you take 1270 O-packs, over 300 students, 6 months of planning, and countless dry runs? It’s simple: A kick-butt Orientation programme that promises to deliver.

In case it wasn’t obvious by now, Orientation is happening in a week’s time! As one of the defining events of J1, Orientation celebrates the arrival of a new batch of the senior-most Rafflesians, and marks the start of your next two years in junior college. J1s can look forward to a variety of fun-filled activities, ranging from song and dance to station and war games, all carefully put together by a team of dedicated councillors and orientation group leaders (OGLs).

The theme for this year’s Orientation is Fjäll (pronounced fi-yell), which means ‘mountain’ in Swedish, which represents the metaphorical mountain that lies before the incoming batch of J1s. The Maerie Mountain in the logo symbolises the challenges of starting out on a new journey, as well as those of the two-year climb that lies ahead.

Orientation will be held on the 2nd, 5th, 6th and 7th of February, with the weekend in between meant for orientation groups (OGs) to consider organizing fun out-of-school activities. Besides this, the programme promises to provide ample opportunity for OGs to have fun in school, familiarising themselves with the campus and their batchmates, as they race around to play both inter-OG and intra-OG games.

This year, the newly revamped House Hour will feature games designed to strengthen House spirit and get J1s pumped up for War Games, which will pit the houses against each other in four all-out battles. J1s can look forward to two intense war games, A Song of Ice and Fire, as well as Jedi. We won’t elaborate much, but just know that everyone has a shot at glory– should they choose to accept it.

Besides the War Games, the Batch Dance remains a mainstay of Orientation, where J1s will be paired off with a member of the opposite gender. All of the practice (and ensuing embarrassment) will culminate in the Dance Off, a showdown between the best pair of each House on stage, happening during O-Nite.

After months of tiring dancing, meticulous planning, and gruelling dry-runs, it all comes down to the grand finale – O’nite. This hallmark of Orientation is unarguably the enduring efforts of the planning committee – from the OGLs to the Councillors and even to the Audio Visual Unit – to achieve the technical proficiency needed to curate just the right atmosphere of the night. O’nite will certainly be the highlight of your Orientation experience. Featuring dress up competitions, skits, performances and the batch dance, Orientation is guaranteed to close with a bang.  Ultimately, O’nite comes down to the each OG, where the sum of individual personalities directs the energy and humour through vibrant performances.

In summary, orientation I/C Chua Ying Xuan has this to say: “Everyone has put in a lot of time and effort into ensuring the success of Orientation far beyond the bare minimum of what would be absolutely necessary, and as we see everything falling into place so well, we really hope that the J1s enjoy and appreciate what we have to offer.”

For more updates, you can follow Orientation Comm on Instagram at @rifjall2018, as well as visit their facebook page. There will be more articles in coming up as part of our Orientation series, so stay tuned to find out more.

We at Raffles Press wish all of the J1s a fulfilling and enjoyable time during Orientation 2018: Fjäll!