Salient

President Geoff

By Geoff Hayward | 26 Feb, 2007

What will you do with your Orientation?

I’ve been thinking about this for the past week. It all started when a couple of my flatmates saw me carrying the Orientation edition of Salient about the house:

Flatmate 1: Ah, Orientation issue is out again, huh?

Me: Yeah. You remember your first Orientation?

Flatmate 1: Just lots of drinking.

Me: And that was good or bad?

Flatmate 1: How the fuck should I know, I was off my face!

Then another flatmate chipped in:

Flatmate 2: I dunno, I thought mine was pretty good until I heard of some of the stories about the years just before I went to uni. I never got to see keg parties in Weir House, man. I feel so empty inside.

I asked a close friend about whether Orientations had gotten better or worse over time:

Close Friend: Well, I’m not sure how much I enjoyed mine, I don’t remember parts of it, I don’t even remember last year’s one. But yeah, I get the feeling that they get worse each year.

So I’ve been pondering this for a while: why do people think Orientations get worse over time? It puzzles me.

First, I think that the whole thing is based on the idea that more booze is good. It’s not always the case. Now if you think after reading this that I’m a teetotaller, you’d be wrong: I will so be at the Suburban Safari next week! But we have moved on, binging isn’t as cool as it seemed to be. And besides, those who think it’s harder to have a big night out on the booze, who complain that the PC army has banned booze from halls, the overpricing of local ales, the stupid dress codes in bars, the meat markets, sausage fests and expensive rides home, just haven’t been ingenious enough to find out how to have a good time without some effort.

I am so very proud of the Orientation acts on over the next two weeks. We have very nearly sold out of tickets for NOFX on Friday, Wednesday’s lineup at the San Fran Bathhouse with So So Modern (who maybe the craziest act in fluoro in NZ) is a goer (and with Disasteradio, A Low Hum and My Disco is perhaps the best bang for your buck), Monday’s OdESSA and The Aviators concert in the Union Hall is free…FREE for students, and, of course, Ori regulars Katchafire and The Offbeats hitting hard on the Tuesday with dDub.

But look at the daytime events: Monday’s bathtub racing, hacky sack comp and cricket in the quad, Wednesday and Thursday’s clubs day (check out the quad for the funky stalls, maybe you’ll find one to join), the Pipitea Carnivale on Friday (which will be massive, lots of free fun, food and giveaways…plus “Dunk a President”, unless I have any say in it…I have just been informed that I don’t) and the Naked Bus Deck Series, which is going to be fun, with five different shows over the week (watch the timber floors, they’ll be hot in the sun, so I recommend that you bring a towel), and the slip and slide, back again in ’07, down at the Hunter lawn.

What about SKA-B-Q? I hear the one in Auckland was great, but it won’t have a chance of beating Wellington on a good day.

Maybe I was thinking that I was being caught up in the hype and it was clouding my judgment, so I went to look at orientation.org.nz to see what our fellow campuses were offering. To be honest, I couldn’t find one campus with more events or vastly different acts. This is a big orientation. I think if you can’t find fun, you really weren’t looking hard enough.

Finally, I want to give a shout out to The Establishment on Courtney Place, who have been so fantastic in their support, both of Team Vic, but also Orientation 07 as a major contributor. I highly recommend going to their after-parties…if their Hurricanes after-match functions are anything to go by, then I don’t think you’ll ever find another opportunity to see Jerry Collins mixing a Shirley Temple to Juliette Lewis!

So get out there, make the most of Orientation! What will you be doing?