.Friday, October 30, 2009 ;
10:30 PM
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Each day is special and unique .
Yoyo people~ I'm back!
Yeah, it's been 8 days since the Secondary 3 cohort Adventure/Expedition Sarimbun Scout Camp from the 20th - 22nd October ended. Words can't describe the feeling of being in the camp, but I must say that it has changed my views on camps (within school premises and outdoors) a LOT. I used to think camps were boring and a waste of precious time, but this camp has showed me that if you know follow the instructions, make full use of the given time and enjoy yourself to the fullest, the camp will be worthwhile and meaningful. Even though I was being chosen to sleep in the wooden tents with schoolmates from 3N2, and not with my actual classmates from 3N1, it only reduced my mood by an inch. Also, even though the food available for us during the camp weren't much in quantity, they had enough nutrients to keep us full, energised, up and going.
I'll keep this post short and sweet, and so I'll do a quick summary of the activities that had taken place. Basically, my class was divided into 2 groups; those with even numbers on the class list and those with odd numbers. Mine was 40, and was therefore with the even-numbered guys and girls.
Day 1:
Our very first activity was a deliciously sumptuous lunch with sweet and sour fish, one of my favourite dishes!! After that, there was a heavy downpour for 30 mins before we went on to our wet activities(not sure how to phrase this.. trying to say activities involving water). The first was rafting, where we were provided with 4 large floats, 4 long wooden poles and a few thick ropes used to secure the poles and floats together to make a raft. After all the hassle, our 2 groups had a mini competition to row across a small pond supposedly filled with milo powder, to the end and come back.
Next, we went to scale a vertical wall about 2.5m high. We had 2 classmates to lift us up and those who had already gone up could either come back down to push more of us up or help those who are being lifted come up more easily. A simple yet dangerous activity, as a small mistake could result in a disastrous fall, especially to the head.
Following that, we went to an area with 2 paths for us to take. We had to form groups of 3 - 4, and go through each path at least once. The difficulty was that as the paths were filled with ropes coming across in all directions, we had to be careful not to touch ANY rope or else we'd have to redo the entire path. This made us demonstrate teamwork, integrity and adaptability.
Subsequently, we went to the next activity involving tyres. The tyres were closely brought together and were each suspended to a strong metal chain about 50cm off the ground. Looking at this, we decided to call the activity Tyre Tunnel. Haha! We then had to crawl through the tyres, with our classmates supporting the tyres and preventing them from swaying around uncontrollably. Quite a novelty this activity is.
Following this, we had the next activity called the Obstacle Course, involving 3 rope activities and a final one which was to go down a slide into the milo-powder-filled-pond. The first rope challenge was simply to "climb" up a spiderweb-like rope. After that, the other 2 rope activities were quite similar, with one being a strong rope for us to walk across and 2 ropes beside for us to balance with, and the other being another rope for us to walk across and 2 ropes criss-crossed to both ends of the middle rope and we had to pull those 2 ropes to keep our balance.
The last activity was Blind Man Trail, where we had to use an extra T-shirt to blindfold ourselves and walk through an open field. We were put in classes and the connection was such that the first person had his/her left hand on his right shoulder while the second person put his right hand on the first person's right shoulder for him to grab on. This follows the same until the last person, where he/she doesnt have to use the left hand to hold the right shoulder as there isn't anyone behind. Meanwhile, in the middle of our walks, we were made to stop while the trainers/teachers shifted our positions. Some went from the back to the middle/front and vice versa. We had to whisper silently to find out who's in front or behind each of us. The difficulty was that no one knew when there'd e a slope, a left turn or a right turn, and had to follow the person in front very closely.
Day 2:
Woke up, gathered for breakfast and our activities for the day began. They were mostly high-element activities, meaning that they involved heights.
Our first were abseiling/flying fox. The odd-numbered ones did flying fox, while the even-numbered did abseiling. Only 3 lucky ones from the even-numbered group did both, as there was just enough time for them.
Secondly, we had rock climbing to do. 2 different paths as well, We could choose to do either one, or even both if we dared to and/or if there was enough time. It was quite difficult for me, as my hand couldn't grip small objects very well on a vertical wall, and so I couldn't climb VERY high.
Next, we had another activity called Challenge Rope Course, or CRC for short. I volunteered to go first and went up to the second-highest climb, which was a wooden plank suspended in mid-air by 2 metal chains at each end. Four ropes were also suspended from a thick string at the top of the course for us to balance on. At the start, my legs were already shaking and wobbly. Then, I was just very afraid of accidentally losing my balance and held onto the ropes very tightly, making tiny footsteps and dragging my feet across very slowly. When I got down, I was relieved that everything was finally over. But well, it was an unforgettable experience for me :D
After this, we had our lunch and then went for our final day activity, called the Great Sarimbun Expedition. We had activities called Trolleys, Furthers Reach, Tent Pitching, Leap Of Faith and Water Boilers. It's a lot of elaboration needed to fully describe all 5 activities and so I won't go further. I'll just say that the one which I thought was the most fun was Leap Of Faith and the most boring, Tent Pitching :)
Finally, the night activity, which was the one and only CAMPFIRE. An extremely fun night with a lot of singing, cheering, entertainment, interaction and excitement. The night was joyous and action-packed.
Day 3:
Woke up, packed bags, ate breakfast, gathered at campfire site and did a good cleanup of the tents and the whole camp area. We had our last good talk with our trainer, Priya, who commended us and said how wonderful we were and how strong our class spirit was. We received our camp booklets which we already had since the first night of the camp, did some autograph signing for friends and had our booklets signed on, and returned back to the trainers.
After all that, it was back to school and finally, HOME SWEET HOME.
This next part will be on last Sunday, 25th October. It was the wedding of one of my cousins and his girlfriend at swissotel's Merchant Court ballroom. It was like an ordinary wedding, just that, for me, I ate a bit of every food except for abalone. Normally I would skip the appetisers, shark's fin soup and the noodles, but this time, I managed to finish the bowls of each dish served. It made my stomach full, at the very least. Haha! Alright, that's all for last week.
For this week, it wasn't very exciting or boring. All the talks about behaving well in public places during the school holidays, be cautious of water bodies and don't get ourselves into any sort of trouble. Also, there was an emergency exercise conducted by the school to ensure everyone knows what to do during an emergency, and a case was being made to make it seem real. Lastly, we had our Report Books returned to us for 1 day on Thursday. I failed Chinese badly and had a borderline failure for Combined Humanities, with 49% overall. The rest, especially F&N, I passed surprisingly. Perhaps it was due to the practical exercises that pulled up my marks :O
Overall, I'm glad with whatever has happened recently in the past 2 weeks or so. A very eventful time of my my Secondary 3 year and probably in my Secondary school life. Not that I've no life or anything, just that it's more upbeat for me. Haha!
Next week is simply Bridging Programme for the Secondary 3 students while the lower sec have their holidays and the Secondary 4s take their O Level Examination papers.
I'll end here. You're probably sick of reading this or haven't made it to the end. If you did, however, I thank you for taking your time to read what I've to say. Have a nice day :D