Saturday, June 6, 2009 @ 3:01 PM
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Yay me, I immediately turned on the computer and signed in to blogger as soon as I got home just so that I could blog about my 3 days of camping :D I will not include emotional stuff that I wrote in my notebook in this post 'cos its really um... emotional and you know me, I'm self-conscious so... yeah :D

4 JUNE was great. Sherry told me before the briefing that she wanted me to be in her group, but I ended up in Ming En's group instead. My group was group B. My group members (Aderic, Kah Wei, Desiree and Mick) were really shy during the first few hours of camp. They weren't very participative or enthusiastic at first but they soon began to participate in the activities after we got to know each other better and they were really cooperative when it came to group work :D Woohoo group B! Anyways so I ended up bunking with Sonia, Tiffany, Yi Jie, Desiree, Ming En and Sherry (Sherry joined us on the second day of camp. Apparently her bunk mates locked her out of the room or something :O). We played some games after that. The games that we played required a lot of planning and team effort, plus they were really fun to play. My favourite game was the mummy game which required us to wrap one of our group members (We chose Kah Wei. Actually... I think he volunteered) in toilet paper until he/she looked like a mummy or something. However I feel that the most exciting game is the game that Justin, Raymond and Marcus (Chua) were really good at, which is the balloon game 'cos it was like, a lot of chasing plus someone fell into the BUSHES after Raymond unintentionally pushed him, or so he claimed. (AHAHA I SOUND LIKE A NEWS REPORTER) Anyways It was super fun and super cool, woohoo! Lunch was beehoon :O Hardi gave us a really short time (3 minutes if I'm not wrong) to run to our rooms, get our utensils and mugs from our bags and assemble back at the canteen after that. Aderic ate 2 servings of his meal 'cos he thought it wasn't enough when I couldn't even finish eating at least 3/4 of what I had. Oh my gosh. Games continued after that I think, then after the games we went to the AVA room for a lecture by one of the seniors that touched on simple truths and leadership. I found the talk really inspiring and motivating, haha :D I think (Sorry for all the "I think"s 'cos I really can't recall, so those who went for the camp and are reading the blog, please do correct me!) we had dinner after that. After dinner, it was SHOWER TIME! Shower time was... oh-em-gee. The minute I entered the cubicle, the SLNs started knocking on the cubicle door, begging me to hurry up. Oh my gosh I got annoyed 'cos they were like knocking on the door every 5 seconds when I was already trying my best to hurry up but I TOLERATED and woohoo I finished bathing after 10 mins or so :D After bathing, it was the NIGHT WALK! :O Night walk wasn't really very scary. Desmond's attempt to scare us with his supposedly horror stories were really 失败, but at the same time entertaining haha and I shan't tell you why I find it entertaining because I don't want to. And then it was supper/bedtime so... yea nothing exciting happened then so I shan't include it in my post :(

5 JUNE was, in my opinion, the best day out of the three days of camping :D The campers assembled at the parade square early in the morning for physical training (PT). Raymond and Kah Wei and someone else (I forgot) were the ones who volunteered to lead the warm up session before we started PT, and I feel they did a really awesome job 'cos the division of workload (In this case, who was to say what. Both of them took turns to lead the warm up session instead of relying solely on one person to lead the warm up session) between the three was fair... so yea that's just my opinion. After the warm up session we did some sit ups and after the sit ups we ran 4 rounds around the school if I'm not wrong. Then after PT was breakfast :) After breakfast was... I forgot. ANYWAY we started with the Amazing Race later in the morning. Amazing Race was really fun. Kah Wei's really street smart so he knew exactly where the first clue led us to (Compass Point). Apparently he lives near Compass Point so he's really familiar with the place and such. When we reached Compass Point's Library, we were required to search for 4 leadership quotes from 4 different books to be able to receive the next clue and to move on to the next station. There were many stations but my favourite was the one at the Serangoon Community Park because that was when my group and Willianto's group merged as one group to count ALL the stones found in the park. Marcus (Marcus LOW from 201. Not Marcus Chua) and I decided to pair up so I started counting from the entrance while he followed behind me so that he could double check. Then while stepping on the stones I tripped and fell and ALL OF A SUDDEN, I lost count. So, I was hoping Marcus could still remember the number of stones we had counted in total but it turned out he had forgotten as well so we had to restart again. (By the way Marcus and I had to start counting all over again for 4 times 'cos somehow the both of us kept forgetting :P) Ahahaha probably like me, Marcus has short term memory as well! :O Anyways so after the Amazing Race, Willianto's group and my group went back to school together. Dinner was bleah- I ate David's leftovers for dinner 'cos I really had no appetite to eat and since David couldn't finish I just ate from his packet of chicken rice :P After dinner, everyone headed to the Aesthetics Room to watch BOLT :D Its a great movie, I really liked it :P My group did our reflections after that and presented them to the camp. Hongyou gave his comments on our presentation as soon as everyone was done. Sad... he told my group he thinks our handwriting was too small to read from where he was which is erm, not good. BUT WE SHALL WORK ON IT AND IMPROVE ON OUR HANDWRITING! :D Lionel announced that there was to be fire drill later in the morning ('Cos when he announced it it was already 12.45am) after Hongyou ended his lecture. Then blablablablablablablablaBLABLABLA.... *fast forwards in time* it was time for the fire drill.
So... Tiffany woke me up and immediately I ran out of the classroom with my shoes on and continued to sprint along the corridor of classrooms but stopped at class 107 as I realized that it was the only classroom with the lights out. SO I asked the 105 bunkers if the 107 bunkers had already left for the car park (Which was where we were instructed to assemble during the fire drill) and they said yes, so I continued to sprint towards the car park.

(No link so I shall start a new paragraph) (I shall get emotional :O)

During the fire drill, from the moment everyone woke up to the moment just before I realized that Raymond was still sleeping and had been left unattended all along, I was honestly half asleep but tried my best to listen to every word Clement and the other SLs said. The moment I finally completely woke up was when Clement called all of the campers a group of SELFISH people. We were selfish, our actions at that point of time were selfish. Why? Because firstly, we underestimated the importance of the fire drill. Even though it wasn't the real thing, the purpose of the fire drill is to prepare all of us for the future if a real fire were to happen. And because of our lack of sense of urgency and alertness we actually left those who had to be attended unattended. I mean, what if they died? (I don't think I'm overreacting by the way). I mean, what if it was a real fire? Wouldn't Raymond be gone? As a friend he means a lot to me. Not only have we underestimated the importance of the fire drill but also the importance of the LIVES of our peers. We cared too much about ourselves. I wanted to, seriously, slap myself in the face. I didn't mind the Buddha claps because personally I felt that we deserved that punishment even though, yea honestly my arms were aching and I felt as if my veins were about to snap after doing 20+ Buddha claps and yes when we were given the choice to decide for ourselves our punishment for not being able to answer their questions, the Buddha clap was definitely the last thing I wanted to do. But we still did it, and it was worth it. So... I can't exactly get my point right at the moment but yea this is just how I feel. Yea but anyways we did much better at our second attempt so... we went to sleep after that.

1.30PM++, 6 JUNE- which is today, marked the end of the selection camp. Like yesterday, there was PT today as well. But this time, Justin and I were the ones who led the warm up session. After the warm up session we did 20 push ups, 20 sit ups, 80 jumping jacks and ran 5 rounds around the parade square (If I'm not wrong) Breakfast was wow. I played truth or dare together with Xin Ying, Raymond, Tiffany, Kah Sim, Cindy and some other people (Again, I forgot :P). Lunch was great. I tried to walk around and make some new friends while I could, or at least get to know my new friends better haha. The interview came as a great surprise to everyone :P some people were panicking and hyperventilating before the interview. I'm sure the others felt as anxious but just didn't show it heehee. Clement was bombarding me with questions throughout the entire interview. The rest were keeping real quiet while he was the one shooting questions at me like a machine gun :O And when I answered he was like smiling at Colin so... I don't know if that's good or bad! :P I really hope I'll pass the camp, and if you went for the sc then I hope you pass the camp too lol!

Overall, I feel that the camp has been a really awesome experience for me. Through this camp I've learned a whole lot more about leadership, friendships, persevering, having a strong sense of determination, taking the initiative to do things, having a strong sense of urgency and alertness, responsibility and a whole lot more which I know can put into great use in the future woohoo :D