HOME.
camp's been fun and enlightening.
and yeah, humbling, (in shuting's words) "to see so many outstanding people".
this year is my first foray into leadership, so i have a lot to learn from these people.

day 1, i was on my way to school on 190, happily thinking about camp and what we were going to do, when i suddenly realised that i freaking left my sleeping bag behind at home! too late to turn back, so i resigned to being scolded, on the FIRST day of camp. luckily for me, mr tan was nice. xD he said i could rent a sleeping bag, for FIVE BUCKS. i was screaming RIP-OFF! in my head, but what can i do, i didn't bring my own sleeping bag.

the bus ride there was boring. and i was in a dazed, stoned mode for some of the time, until weifen and i started talking about how camp may be like. our facilitators (facils for short), shuting and shiya, were sleeping. changi coast adventure camp was quite ulu and out of the way, if you ask me. it was located right beside the airport but it looks like it's been plucked off pulau ubin and sewn on the east coast of singapore.

off the bus, and first thing we did was to RAISE OUR ARMS (#1 Memory, as of our 1 minute presentation earlier this morning during the closing ceremony) and check that our shirts were all tucked in neatly. mr tan briefed us about how life was going to be like on camp, how we were supposed to manage our own time and resources. then mr chu took over the mike, and surprisingly, did not start his speech with his trademark macdonalds story. he rattled on about leadership for quite some time and went through the 5 C's, which i seriously NEVER heard of or knew about until then. nearly fell asleep, but thankfully i didn't, because half the time chermaine was leaning back on me. heavy. haha kidding. xD

after briefing and all we went to put down our stuff and had a session with our dear facils. other groups were playing some icebreakers but we were sitting around talking. HAHA. but anyhow, the game we played as a whole camp was big fun. instead of the squirrel and the tree, it was fish and pond. and there was tsunami, hunter, bird flu and drought. tsunami: everyone runs. hunter: fish runs. drought: pond runs. bird flu: everyone goes on their backs and wave their arms and legs in the air (#2 Memory). it was literally si4 jiao3 chao2 tian1.

got ready for our high elements stations + general stations. learnt how to buckle up our whatyoucallthems, oh harnesses! all over again. our instructor was TAUFIK! hahaha, he can't sing, sadly. just the same name. HAHA. the helmets there were in pretty good condition and half of them didn't stink. okay i didn't go and smell every one, but you can tell whether it stinks or not when you put the helmet on your head.

our high element was super chicken feet. it was the one with a cable across and two other cables higher up at the sides for you to hold on to as you make your way across on the sole cable. we completed it rather quickly, yep. and oh, i forgot to mention my group mates' names! from odac we had chermaine chee and vivian gan; from weiqi we had hongchuan and wenyu; from malay cultural society we had nurul and amelina. =) nice funky people, yes.

high element done, it was on to the zipline, better known as the flying fox! haha, my first try and i didn't die. yay me. xD it might have been more fun if the flying fox was longer! HAHA. and HIGHER! HAHAHA. shuting was singing I BELIEVE I CAN FLYYYYY! all the way down. nanana, and we had to "fish" the person from the flying fox cable, meaning to position the person directly above the staircase trolley. and oh, the place where your team mate flies down is called the RUNWAY. =)

talking about runways, AEROPLANES are in abundance at the camp. we probably saw more aeroplanes than mosquitoes at the camp. there would definitely be at least 3 aeroplanes in 15 minutes. it would go ROAARRRRRRRR past the camp and initially everyone would look up and go WOAHHHH! AEROPLANE EH! but sometimes the loud engines make it hard for us to talk and to be heard. in the end, some people from becky's group were taken to looking out for SIA planes and saluting the planes (#3 Memory). they even have a song dedicated to SIA. okay correction, one or more. LOL. xD

back to topic, after the zipline, we went to the general stations, where we did the spider web. we practically carried each other across all the time. we had the round where some of us were handicapped. i was normal, except that i did not have a leg. some were blind (weifen and chermaine), mute (hongchuan and vivian) or without an arm (chermaine). there was only ONE normal person - wenyu. but i ended up trying to think of a proper sequence of getting across with only a bit of discussion, and stupidly forgot that i was missing a leg and that wenyu was perfectly normal and should be the last to go. AHWELL! nevermind, i shall remember the lesson of making decisions and taking everything into consideration and also deciding what to risk/sacrifice. and i still remember thinking about how i should have done it during the debrief later on that night. i must have looked a bit serious and down (okay i was looking down at my water bottle on the floor), because shiya was like suddenly pat me on my back and said something along the lines of cheer up. nanana, at least it's something i learnt. =)

oh, here comes the fun fun fun part that totally lifted the spirits of the entire group! WE PLAYED ON THE LOG. where we ran from opposite ends, played scissors paper stone (which later morphed into hai3 dai4) and the winner makes her way to the other end. lollers. it was super fun. loads of screaming and tons of laughter. shiya and shuting were the ones who started the hai3 dai4 thing. it caught on really quickly and soon we were all doing the hai dai thing and looking like human jellyfish on the log. hohoho, IT WAS CHAO CHAO CHAO FUN. =) chermaine and vivian were especially funny doing the hai dai thing. ame was good at hai dai, wheee! and she was on the same side as me. HAHAHA. ay, but i'm not that bad: i managed to get across twice. xD HEEHEE.

after the log, we went to play at two other stations. and we had our little debriefs, which were quite uhm, quiet. hahaha, but everyone was still thinking about hai3 dai4, i think. i know i was. LOL. okay generalisation, i apologise. xD

at night we had CCA discussions. weifen and i kind of re-wrote our comfort timeline with our workplan together. LOL. xD HAHA. it looked quite uh, messy, if you ask me. lalala, but the all the more better to have a literally, BIG picture of the year's events. =) that was basically our first day!

day 2 and it was water activities! kayaking + rafting. groups 1 to 7 kayaked first, meaning my group was going to kayak. put on our PFD's (personal floatation devices) and carried our kayaks + paddles out to the beach. it was high tide and the water was very high up the coast, threatening to drag our kayaks out to sea. so we had to readjust the kayaks again and again. i was with nurul in the same kayak. =) finally we started kayaking. i was sitting at the back, for the first time! we were separated into 3 groups, and most of our group was in group 3, which turned out to be the FUN FUN FUN GROUP! because we had Instructor 1. =) NUMBER ONE! and Instructor Sky! we stood up on our kayaks TOGETHER (EVERYONE) and sang dedication and even cheered spirit (#4 Memory). xD then we switched kayaks twice, and i ended up with xiner in the same kayak. hahaha. was a bit apprehensive, honestly. nanana, but it turned out fun. =) because we formed a circle using the kayaks and those people sitting in front (ie like xiner) had to jump into the sea within that circle. they had to remount the kayak after that. HOHOHO. grace zhang was trying very hard to get back into her kayak, so all of us kind of put our kayaks closer together so she had more support to get back in. xD xiner was being very helpful, i recall.

I MAINTAIN THAT KAYAKING IS THE FUNNEST THING ON THE ENTIRE PLANET, AS OF NOW. HAHA. canoeing might be a good idea.. hmmmmm. xD

paddled back to coast and got hosed down by the facils before we went for lunch together. after lunch, it was RAFTING! the sun was bearing down on all of us by then. and that was when my face got burnt and my lower arms became five shades darker than my shoulders. 0.o our raft was simple, but stable. we were working very well as a team, meaning everyone had something to do and helped in every way possible. because we had ODAC people, they were the ones who were telling us what we should do and how to do the knots properly. =) GOOD JOB, yayness!! after finishing our raft like 20 minutes before 345, we went into the canteen for a snack: BISCUITS! we yum seng-ed using the biscuits and decided we should do that before dinner that day. other groups had their own little cheer before every dinner. for example the sports people would do the clapping thing on the table and the prefects and psls would do the funny cheer that ended with "jia" (hokkien for eat).

345 and we went out and carried our darling raft, which we named bada boom after our group's name, which was bada bada boom. xD HEH. and we tested the raft, which actually floated! ZOMG! hahaha. but getting people onto it was quite a problem, because we had like 6 people getting on. rather difficult to balance, honestly. but we did it in the end, after falling into the water repeatedly. in the end, bada boom made it to mr tan, and yayness! OUR RAFT DIDN'T FALL APART! hehehe. i tried sitting on the barrel but fell twice into the water. and once they deliberately capsized the raft. hahaha.

after all the washing up, we went up to shower, following the toilet plan devised by ame and arathi, mainly. it was effective and everyone got out in time for dinner, which was especially filling. after that we had some extra time on our hands, so we went back, took some brooms that have the brush head and set about cleaning up the toilet we used with group 2's chess chair (whose name i can't remember for the life of me). we did quite a clean job of clearing all the sand from the toilet. yay us! lollers.

again, we had the CCA stuff, which was mainly presentation by the various groups. yeppo. i was paying attention, for once. and got some brainwaves along the way, but decided that some stuff we should consider only later. so i am shelving them for a while, before asking fen at the appropriate moment if we should implement it. then here comes the BIG BOMB. mr tan told us that sec1s and 2s were coming down the next day to do what we did on the first day. so basically we became the facilitators and the juniors were campees. initially everyone sat in their own groups to discuss the program, but becky and the other house capts took the initiative to suggest that we have a mass discussion about things, which i think was a good idea, although there were too many people to have everyone concentrate. i was quiet during the group discussion, boo. but ahwell, i should speak up more, i figure, when work is concerned. fun, definitely no problem, my mouth would move faster than a machine gun. HEH. that was when shuting announced that the facils would be choosing us randomly to talk to us. so ahwell. she took me first and we talked for such a long time. it sorted out some of my messed up thoughts, because at that point in time i was feeling rather useless in the group discussion, not being too spontaneous since one, i was literally brain dead after the kayaking (which is no excuse since everyone was into kayking as well) and two, i wasn't used to such rapidfire discussions. then again, this is my second bite at leadership, and i shouldn't bite off more than i can chew, so i shall take it easy, one step at a time. it'll come with time, like shuting says. meanwhile i'll just watch and learn and try to do what they do. HAHA. =) yeah, can de. optimism dude, optimism.

returned to mass discussion and it was quite fruitful, although the period of the discussion was rather short. grace and becky, the most eloquent of the bunch of us, i reckon, were conducting the gathering of ideas, while arathi and yiyun were sorting out the details and rotational stuff. =) spiffing job, i must say, because the mini-camp the next day turned out to be quite a success.

- i'm skipping some stuff, because i have to go sleep, real soon.-

mini-camp ended at 1045 and set about clearing up what we left behind whilst holding the mini-camp closing ceremony. then it was OUR closing ceremony, where my group did a presentation on the 8 things we would remember about camp. hahaha, there was one where i impersonated mr tan, by holding the loud hailer like he usually does with his arms crossed and legs planted shoulder width apart, and chin up. and i said the frisbee thing he told us: "Leaders, some of you were laughing at me playing with my frisbee, and you think i wasn't looking at my watch, but actually, i was. Some of you were late. And i want you to know that punctuality is very important." it was something along this line, and hahaha, it was really hard trying not to laugh while impersonating him. xD HAHA.

closing ceremony done, i went to collect my bags and hugged shuting and had a bite off her ice cream before leaving for the bus. at the mrt, i met claire, who was on her way home as well. we took the train all the way to city hall then to bishan, where claire and xiner got off to go home, and i got off to go have some pasta mania. HAHA. i had creamy chicken, a coke and garlic bread. there was a 30% discount, so HAHAHA. xD I'M PRO! i was super full after that, and fell asleep on the train on the way home. i totally looked like some hobo on the train, i swear.

HOME SWEET HOME.

AFTER 2 DAYS WITHOUT TECHNOLOGY, COMPUTERS AND TELEVISION HAVE BECOME FOREIGN CONCEPTS.
but i'm glad to have my laptop back. =)
and my handphone. and my mp3.

YAYNESS.

sleeping time. hoho it's 310 am now.
but nevermind. i slept 5 hours just now. so three more hours should do fine. =)

<3

quote of the camp:
"you're a serene leong gone wrong!"
vivian to chermaine. HAHA. NICE ONE, DUDE. LOL.
3:12 AM