I'm Back!!!!
These few days were packed with activities and they were nuts man...... So, expect this to be a long post.Tuesday, Start of OAL camp:
Went to school about 7:30am, realised that I had forgotten to bring my sleeping bag. I had actually prepared it and left it with my stuff to bring but guess went rushing out I kind of forgot it. Lucky my Dad managed to come and pass it to me. Thanks Dad! :) The I/Cs came and we went into our groups. My group members were as far as I can remember: Ivan, Warren, Samuel Ng, Xing Yu, Terence, Myself, John, Timothy, Li Song, Clement, Alvin and Rong Yang. We were given a chinese map cause we had to WALK there. Yes, walk there. The map was in chinese some more and my chinese is like not that good? We sort of planned a route in the end but didn't actually use it cause Li Song knew the way to the Expo on foot. The teacher accompanying us was Miss Zheng and the our two I/Cs were Ryan Hong and Shun Yu sir. We went on and were like quite near Benjamin's group. Lost them eventually but we had a route so no problem. We walked a damn long way, eventually reached some place near Ubi I think. A coffee shop where we had lunch. Terence, Xing Yu and Myself ate $1.50 chicken rice. Still felt hungry after that so I shared another portion of chicken rice with Terence while Xing Yu ate another plate to himself. We sure were hungry. It started raining heavily while we were eating and we waited till it lightned up before continued our journey. One of the more memorable breaks we had was when we stopped at some place with a KFC. We wanted to go in to rest but was afraid to get chased out cause we didn't buy anything. Then Miss Zheng asked us to go in and treated us to drinks! Thanks! There was a point where we had come to a dead end along the road and the only way was to cross the road and cut across expressways, which was not allowed. We were debating like crazy. Guess who we met? Mr Victor Tey!!! For some reason, he was driving along the road and apparently saw us and talked to us, blah, blah, blah. We made a decision and crossed the many roads which were expressways. It was like the craziest thing that I had ever done and I personally feel that it was quite dangerous, but quite fun. :) Alvin actually suffered the most cause he had a blister on his toe earlier and was asked to change into his slippers. Those expressways the grass patch that divided them, you know what I mean, was like thick with grass and Alvin had to trudge through them, must have been real uncomfortable. We eventually reached the campsite and we were like cheering our heads off. We reached there about 5:20pm, the second group. The first group was Bemjamin's group who reached at 4:20pm. We rested for a while then had some more ice breakers and reflections. We had settled into our bunks after the third group arrived. Just before dinner, the last group arrived, Mr Goh Kee Yong's group. From what I heard, they had to go back to Bishan over and over again cause some people could not remember their group mates' names. When we were in Serangoon, they were still in Bishan. WTH. Still, they managed to reach the camp. I really admire their peservereance. Anyway, we had dinner then went to do some first-aid and campcraft. There's this joke going around in the camp that when there was once when the I/Cs asked us how much time we needed to get our utensils, Samuel Lim straight away said without thinking cause nobody answered and shouted:"Twenty minutes I/C!" We were like sniggering cause of that. Lol.... Lights out was at around 12 I think, but no one could sleep cause we were near the airport and there were aeroplanes landing like every 5 minutes. WTH. Then after about 15 minutes, Gabriel I/C pooped his head in and said very casually:"Fire." He had to say it twice berfore we got the message and everyone rushed down. It was short and sweet then we went back to sleep.
Next morning, or should I say that morning, was woken up at around 5 by the aeroplanes landing. Good alarm clock. :) After falling in we went for morning P.T, which was to repay the 22 rounds around the campsite that we owed Mr Goh KY. Long story for that. We ran 10 rounds then stopped and went for breakfast. After that, we went for kayaking. I must sya that was something that was quiute fun. We kayaked for quite a distance. At one point, we were asked to beach and we were like lectured on quite a number of things like leaving people who were stuggling behind. Mr Goh YH then scolded some people for not bringing their water bottles. It was not their fault though, some of them lent their bottles to others while some lost their cap etc. He can really be unreasonable sometimes. When kayaking back it was quite tough cause we were going against the current and salt water kept getting into mine and Xing Yu's eyes. Besides that, I couldn't drink water properly cause my lips were full of salt. Sian.... Cleaned the kayaks then went to wash up. I showered but didn't use soap cause there wasn't enough time to do so many things as I neeeded to do something else. Twenty minutes for everything? WTH. Had lunch after that. The funny thng about us was that whenever we were in the canteen and an aeroplane passed, we would all turn around to look at the plane. Lol...... In the afternoon, we planned some orienteering activity for the Sec 2's next year at some park. Wasn't really interesting and I nearly fell asleep while Mr Goh KY was explaining something to us. Nothing much on that then we went back to camp and presented our ideas. We had dinner then planned somethings for next years' Sec 1 BURST programme and Sec 2 camp. We did the planning for the Sec 1 BURST programme and we listed some do's and dont's and I presented on behalf of our group. Nothing much after that then it was lights out at 11:45pm.
However, Wee Siong sir wanted to see us and us NP people gathered in the canteen and at about 12 we started. The reason Wee Siong sir called us was let us reflect on ourselves during the camp so far and other things. Firstly, the person would say what post he wanted and then the others would comment on him during the camp as well as with their personal opinions. When it came back to the person he would give his own comments and his rating for himself. Then Wee Siong sir, Darius sir and Shun Yu sir would give their comments. Darius sir also told us the comments of the I/Cs as well. In a way you could call this a confession session. One by one it went around. Apparrently, Wee Siong sir thinks that Yi Bin should aim for something higher than the Logistics head. Go for it Yi Bin!!!! For me, my squadmates gave comments like I was brave or something like that. ???? Still don't get that part. Of course, they also commented on my old problem, which I was at times a spoilsport and dampened people's moods by being too strict or something. Sorry guys, I'll change that. My post that I was aiming for was quite obvious, something I had been aiming for for quite some time: Sec 3 Drill Instructor. It's like the Part C UDI for NCC. Some people are asking me to aim for higher though. Not sure whether I can make it to my desired post...... Who knows? I'll decide next year. Wee Siong sir's comments for me were quite good I think. Darius sir said the same thing for me as I said for Benjamin, give others a chance sometimes. I agree on that. I think Shun Yu sir said something like I was sticking too much to my own squadmates and was not mixing around. I agree with that as well. After that was our comments on the sirs. We talked all the way until about 3am. We were quite tired but I feel that it was worth it as we found our strengths and weaknesses and for some, gained more confidence in themselves.
Wanted to wake up at 5 later but ended up waking up at 6. Finshed our remaining 11 rounds during morning P.T, had breakfast then went for the confidence course. We were taught how to belay and I felt it was a bit difficult if you don't do it properly. All the more, it was quite fun. Started raining after that and the teachers set up a mock belay system under the I/Cs bunks. After that was area cleaning, which was done in a jiffy. We then had our lunch and got on the bus back to school. On the journey, Mr Goh YH kept asking us to sing songs so we sang Ain't No Mountain High Enough over and over again. WTH, on foot from Catholic High to Changi Coast Adventure Centre we took about 7 hours while the bus ride back took about only 20 minutes. Then in school, Mr Goh YH kept ranting on about the notebooks etc, a whole lot of crap. Then dismiss!! Yeah!
I felt that the camp was quite good and we probably gained a bit more proper leadership qualities. I also made quite a number of new friends. However, I felt that the camp was very slack compared to our NP Annual Camp, especially when there is ___ and ___. NP guys you know who I'm talking about.
Woah, this is a long post, I'll post about Annual Hike later.
To tell the truth, I was quite disappointed to see my tagboard so quiet when I came back. Until now it's still quite quiet. Thanks to Dennis, Melvin and Ling Li for livening it up a bit. START TAGGING PEOPLE. :) Check back later!
Boy, this post took a hell of a time to type. :)
mentally challenged @ 10:08 AM
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