gollysmolly

One word: BORING!!!

That was how most of the participants described it… That’s probably cuz of the general mood set at the start of the camp, since all of them were bascially forced to come…

But for the facils, it was a whole different story…

Even Kenny Wong recognized it as an OT (Organizing Team) camp more than a participant camp… LOL, and we totally agree!

Basically, on the day of my last exam, I was supposed to help Ms Soh with some A maths stuff, and I could see the marks for half of the paper, and tell the whole level (if I remembered it), but I’m not likely to remember it, so don’t ask me =P

SO ANYWAY, after that, I went ALL BY MYSELF to SPS, where I was half an hour early, and basically the first one there… Cuz I thought I would be late, since I left only an hour before 2pm (the meeting time)… So, being me, I took a cab.

When everyone got there, we were basically preparing for the next day, so that was quite uneventful lah… Until that night, when Belmond, Lennon, Hwa Xiong, Mathias Lim and Jared Koh came home with me for a one night stay before going to SJI the next day…

So we swum for awhile, then they went up to watch TV, and Belmond, Lennon and I stayed in the pool for awhile longer to talk about weird topics (that u don’t wanna know about)… And slept quite little, cuz we got up at five (about two and a half hrs of sleep) to get ready to go to school…

At SJI, we were quite bored, cuz I didn’t join in any of the Icebreakers, and it was almost bascially a Josephian camp, cuz there were only like 7 Patrician participants; even the Patrician fcails outnumbered that….

SO ANYWAY, they had walk the talk while most of the Secretariat was ferried by car to SPS (in my case, a van in which we were playing cards at the back… LOL) so that we could settle ourselves in to welcome them…

Since Belmond and I were Makan King and Queen (I was the queen if u have to know), we had to take care of the food, and basically, the whole canteen was our responsibility…

So anyway, we prepared lunch, and there wasn’t much problems cuz it was prepacked food, (except that it kinda sucked), and ppl kept wanting to take more, cuz it wasn’t really enough for adolescent hungry teenage boys who just walked the talked….

And we will WALK THE TALK (clap clap)…

So that wasn’t too bad… After cleaning up, it was mostly slacking in the Sec (secreatariat) shop (try saying that out loud, fast) with Lennon and Kenny and all the other slackers in their… Who didn’t need to do anything else but play on the com and do something if a problem arose…

So when dinner came, we went out and found it was a buffet, with real catered stuff like those metal thingummies with fire underneath =P  as well as good food (or at least it LOOKED good, like lunch did) and so we tried a system where we dished out food for the group on a communal plate and gave it to them to distribute amongst themselves.  DIdn’t happen; the greedy ones took a lot, and left barely enough for the ones at the end of the feeding line….

So that was one of the major problems in dinner, and surprisingly enough, it caused enough stress for me and Belmond… Trust me, you don’t even wanna know how much =P  and therefore, this was a problem we had to resolve before tomorrow’s dinner. Thankfully, Belmond came up with a brilliant plan; to come up individually and scoop each dish on their plate, such that everyone gets around the same portion of food. This way, we could minimize selfishness and keep others from coming back for more….

So anyway, that night, we were really tired, and most fell asleep even before the facils meeting began… LOLZ, but other than that, the meeting was quite good in identifying such problems as the makan one, and suggestions to solve them (in this case, we already had some)… So that was okay, then after that, we went to bathe (in toilets with cubicles) and sleep in Parmenie (with air-con)…

Thank God for Parmenie =P

Anyway, we pretty much conked out that night, cuz all of us were quite tired, and some had to get up the next day at five to wake up their participants for the morning run (which most were excused from)… Luckily, the makan ppl were excused due to the arrival of breakfast, for which we needed to be present and fully ready for, not half dead like most of the rest….

So anyway, we served breakfast, and I doubt that it was enough for anyone, cuz it gave like three small pieces of food, like we were on a crash diet or something (that’s why Belmond and I shared a vegetarian meal later, which had six pieces, and a lot tastier)… And then they were off to different places for their service work, in tie with the value of Solidarity with the Poor.

That left us pretty much the whole school, and more importantly, the whole Sec shop to ourselves =)  and u can probably guess what we did (or maybe not)…. Basically, we played com for awhile and spent the rest of the time sleeping (or maybe that was just me =P)  cuz I was still a bit tired… Anyway, we served lunch, but all the groups came back at different times, so we gave them their food (and it wasn’t great as usual) and they went to sleep for awhile, waiting for the other groups to come back and for the afternoon sessions to start…

After we cleaned up, we went to slack even more (and were actually INSTRUCTED to go rest so that we could put up an energetic front for the participants) and I tried to sleep, but it was quite hard cuz of all the noise, but eventually we did… And I slept even more, so that I could have energy for that night (and the next day)…

So at dinner, our system worked, but there wasn’t enough for seconds though, just barely enough to feed everyone in the camp… At least everyone got to eat, but the poor participants were hungry =(  *sigh* i feel so bad for them, they pay for us, and they go hungry, and they’re the ones who have to do all the activites…

After dinner, we had Solidarity Lasalliana, which is basically a really nice reflection on the world around us, and ourselves…. So everyone attended, including LYNKsters and facils, and we had a nice reflection in the dim room, and after that it was the Affirmation Ceremony, but Belmond and I had to go prepare supper… So we left before the thingummy began, and we totally missed out on whatever happened lah =P

So nice right, Dieu Quang and Ian Chai wrote me an affirmation each… Of course I wrote back to them lah, but only after I received it cuz I was busy doing their supper =P  Thanks lots to them =)

Supper was quite quick; it was basically a bit of food (sth like breakfast) and some diluted Milo before bed, so after the usual routine was over and done with, we rushed to the facils room for the facils debriefing (that’s how long it takes to clear up) and had a good debrief before going up to Parmenie…

So anyway, we were stuck in the Sec shop for a while listening to captivating ghost stories, when we moved it up to Parmenie after we all had our baths and were ready for the night’s rest (cough cough cough)…  Crazy Lennon was too scared to bathe alone, so he hitched a ride with Kenny (nothing meant there…) in the same cubicle, and then after that, I had to bathe alone cuz Belmond snatched my cubicle…

So then after all the ghost stories (that freaked us out, but not a lot), there was some dance by Shao Ming filmed by Mat Han and supposedly posted on YouTube or sth like that, but anyway, after that, most of us went to sleep, cuz the lights were all off alr… Then there were the four of us sleeping really really close together cuz of all the ghost stories flying here and there, like four ppl in two mattresses or sth like that… LOLZ =P

So on the last day, Belmond and I woke up when the food arrived and he got a call, so I was a bit blurrer than him; I took time to find my specs and stuff and after I washed up, it was alr quite late, so when we went down for breakfast, it was alr there, and we had to start packing food and giving it out almost immediately… The groups were all taking their individual photos, and one by one they left for Heritage for their next session, leaving us to clean up.

After that, we were allowed to go rest before lunch while they had their whatever sessions, but no one could sleep, as we found out when we went up to Parmenie… Mostly, ppl were just like running all over the place, chasing each other (and it kinda started innocently) eventually leading to the tau pok of Alexstine and him being Char-Kway-Teowed…. LOLZ =P

Ooooh…. Char kway teow, oh char kway teow,
Roti prata, char kway teow.
Oh char kway teow, oh char kway teow,
Roti prata, char kway teow.
Teh tarik, teh tarik,
Roti prata, char kway teow.
Teh tarik, teh tarik,
Roti prata, char kway teow,

So the rest of that morning was just basically chasing all the facils down and having them Char-Kway-Teowed… Wow, they pretty much managed to get everyone (including Lennon, Kenny and other prominent ppl)… Poor innocent ppl like Eugene Lee and Dickson (SPS guy, dunno his surname) also kena, even tho they never do anything lor…

One pro guy; Mat Han… Never kena at all. Three attempts, three failed attempts. I am innocent though; no one would dare touch me, even Alexstine =)  So tell me, who’s more pro?

After that crazy session in Parmenie, we went down to Heritage for their last session before Lunch, and I was called out early by Belmond cuz lunch was there alr… So the same routine occured, now it was pretty much ritualized so much, but one thing was that it was the last meal we would be having as a camp. Never had I felt so much more relieved =P

‘Twas almost over.

The last session was called for almost too soon. It was time for their commissioning, and most of them wanted to go home. For me, I could live there a few more days =P…. But all good things come to and end, and this was it.

Commisioning and Farewell was beautiful; we celebrated and sang our hearts out, we laughed and smiled, but everyone knew it was the last time we would all be there together ever again. Then, when they left and all the cleaning up was done, the fun began.

We had a debrief session for the next camp, but I was busy piercing my lip with my school badge, so I couldn’t say much, if not I would’ve been more vocal than Amos =P  Oh well, let’s just hope they get me back for next year, then I’ll be as vocal as I want (provided I don’t come up with some other speech-impairing hobby)…

Anyway, it was time for dinner; pizzas and garlic bread with more bottles of soft drink than we could down.  Then it was time for dancing! Shaoming did his stuff again, now with a whole cast of background dancers, and there was even a nice surprise for Xian Yi, the bday boy! What a day for him to remember, the whole camp around him chanting Char-kway-teow to his torture as he received his Birthday Bash (quite literally)…

So anyway, it was finally time to go home, sadly enough… All the times we cherished were torn apart just like that =P  I know this blog post is pic-less, but for all the pics from the camp (maybe I might upload more soon) go here:
http://sg.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/beeto456/my_photos

Hope to see yall soon. and less of these extremely long blog posts!

Makan Queen,
<GABZ>

This entry was posted on Monday, October 16th, 2006 at 8:08 am and is filed under my life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.