Part 1: by Gareth Ng, H1G

Last January 12, 2008, the yearly Xavier-ICA Interaction was held. For me, this was a good opportunity to meet new friends as well as those whom one has not seen for a long time. Arriving at the Sports Center, which was the main venue of the event, I saw lots of boys and girls already talking to each other and wondering who their groupmates were. When I saw where my group was, no one except the facilitators was there yet.

At the start of the activities, our group was very quiet, but after the numerous games and the Amazing Race, we all felt comfortable and we were able to talk about anything with our groupmates. The activities were interesting because mostly all of them required teamwork, which in turn helped the shy ones to talk with the others. Each station in the Amazing Race was filled with different surprises and every member of the group was participating. Some games even provided us the chance to meet people from the other groups.

The facilitators did their best to ensure that everyone would have a good time. Indeed, the interaction was successful in that one could see lots of students with big smiles on their faces. Some were even taking pictures and exchanging contact numbers. This is truly an unforgettable experience in my high school life.

Part 2: by Tiffany King, 1-Purity, ICA

A few days before the Freshmen Interaction, my sister gave a talk to our class regarding a few reminders about the way we should dress, the way we should act around guys, what to expect and to always remember we are carrying the name of our school. Our class (1-Purity) agreed to meet in Krispy Kreme before going to Xavier to make sure we would not feel left out.

When we arrived, the registration committee made us feel very comfortable and assigned us to our respective groups. Most of us were shy and did not want to go to our specific group unless we knew someone familiar. Since the heads were telling us not to hang around the registration area to wait for our friends, we all had no choice but to go to our groups. At first it was very awkward when no one in our group would talk to each other but then our facilitators (Ahia Roxas and Achi Crit) gave us pieces of paper to write our personal information and pass them to everyone in the group to make sure that we would all be comfortable with each other.

First we had the game “I like you”, then the “First Impression” game to help everybody get to know more about each other. Despite the rain, we were still able to accomplish a lot of things and had an amazing time. My groupmates and I had a lot of FUN because we enjoyed all the games while hoping we would earn a lot of “holi-points” and beat the other groups. I made a lot of new friends and bonded with my group-“MAY DAY”. My groupmates (Vit, Christine, Kelsyann, Jamie, Derrick, Michael, Tasha, Spencer, Douglas, Michelle Fong, Gab and Daylle) and I all wanted to win the Amazing Race, but unfortunately we could not finish the Easter Station. I did not expect the interaction to be this fun, so I would have to say I had a BLAST…and I hope that all my other batchmates did too.

Photos by: Huxley Yu (H2C), Stallion Photographer