My Virgin Camp Pt II

Day 3 of camp started with Mass Games. 'cos I was too darned tired with only 12 hrs of sleep for the past 3 nights, I threw tantrums and refused to wake up, with the other guys doing all their best to drag me from my table-bed. Gilbert was so darned pissed at my morning sickness that he just ran out of the room. That made me so paiseh that I sped up my prep to go off.

Mass Games sucks. 1st, we were separated from our groups. 2nd, the theme of the item wasn't apparent throughout the game. I mean, you guys wanted this to be a session where the groups earn points to gain immunity from a disease right? Why is it that the actual thing was different from the concept? I don't know. But given that the games were carried out smoothly, every other things are insignificant.

The sun wasn't good too, so I didn't get much tan even though we were out in the stadium. And then, it was the string of 'talks'. DARN! I should have gone to catch 40 winks then. It was hard to sit down there and doze off. I'm not the young kid who could sleep anywhere le.

After that, it was the OC dance practice. cos I wore the HC shorts, I attracted the attention of Sheila and Zihui (my dance partner). 1st time in OC that girls took interest in talking to me, duh! Quite a number of us were from HC, but well, I don't quite like a lot of HC people, much less those who came out in the OC. On the other hand, it was the emergence of the RV gang in my group that was more interesting.

No matter what, I am still fundamentally RV-ian. It transformed and brainwashed me to an irreversible state, so I was able to click better with other RV-ians.

There were 3 other RV-ians in my group, Vivian, the councillor who looked like Apple Hong (hey jan! u've got a competitor) and Tan Ching and Chio Bu (who looked like Chen Jian Bin), the guy freshies. It was so farnie. There were actually 4 RV-ians in a group! yar...

After dinner was SP and I was asked to stand in as an SP again. Considering the hoo-haa I created the 1st time, I was rather skeptical of me standing in. But well, they couldn't find anyone willing to do that. All of them wanted to go kajiao the freshies, duh!

My SP this time had a serious problem of shyness, which was very apparent from the minute she started speaking. All the councillors from her group were like warning me to be gentle with her, as if I would eat her! Instead, I spent quite a lot of time counselling and trying to ease her anxiety for me and the camp as a whole.

It was quite a different experience from the 1st night, where my subjects to talk about was limited cos I couldn't reveal my identity as a councillor. I didn't want to lie, so I could only conceal facts. But this time round, being open about my identity, I was able to talk as much as I wanted, which was useful when talking to someone who had so few words to say.

But I must say because of her, Shiyun and I started to talk. Frankly speaking, my 1st impression of her wasn't good, in fact it was very negative. But I felt it was better to put our differences aside to discuss about the freshie and what knowledge I gained during the SP session so that she could make use of it and help the freshie even more.

Later that night was Fright Night, but due to OC protocol, we were supposed to call it Twilight Hunt to put the freshies off their guards. It worked, except that kids nowadays are getting less intimidated by the ghostly stuff. cos we're group 6, we were the last to start off, so we had plenty of time to spend.

Plaque

I was initially allocated to a group in Batch 2, so I played games with them initially. We got so bored with the 'formatized' games that we began to go freestyle. Alex suggested zero-point, which evolved into stunt-styled jumping over a line that was at eye-level. And then it became limbo rock, where we all agreed Zhenqin was Master of Limbo Rock.

The freshie I replaced soon returned, so I went back to join the Gp5/6 batch. It was a long wait. There was some cork-up and our set-off time was delayed. So much so the guys had time to prep for their talentime dance. duh!

Finally set off, but we were half dead. I went with Ziping and some-other-ppl-i-can't-rem-cos-i-was-too-sleepy. yup, they juz hid behind the counter at the engin co-op which was so stuffy dat I cannot tahan and went to join KM's roaming party.

It was hilarious that we saw freshies machiam like seeing ghosts like dat. We dodged and ran and siam whenever we spotted freshies in the vicinity. Finally, we made it to LT7A where I conked out while waiting for Batch 3 to return..

When they finally did, it was almost 3am and I was so blur le. We walked back to TH through the route parallel to Clementi Rd, 1st time I took that road. haha... but I just told KM to trust me and make the whole gp follow me lol lucky we didn't get lost.

The next day was Sentosa day, waking up to a thunderstorm. We were so worried that it would carry on, but it didn't. Something happened on our way there. 1st, Merv told me that the bus I was in charge of will stop at the alighting bay and the whole gp of us will take the shuttle service. So I asked the bus of Gp5/6 to unload their luggage and all.

Then the bus driver told me that since I was buying the coach permit (which Merv told me to buy), the bus could go in and drop us at wherever we wanted. So we loaded again and off we went to the 'Bus Terminal'.

However, when I reached, I couldn't see Mei Toon's convoy, which left before us. In actual fact. my bus over took hers and she came late. But she told me she reached the bus terminal already (meaning her bus reached), while I thought she meant she and her bus had unloaded. And since I couldn't see her bus of people INSIDE the terminal, I thought I was at the wrong place, while Mei Toon, on the other hand, upon hearing that I didn't see her, thought that SHE went to the wrong place and so asked her bus to turn off.

Finally, after much communications, it turned out I was at the correct place and the remaining 2 buses came to join us.

We quickly unloaded to start our games under a rather cloudy weather. But the sky soon cleared and we were literally grilled under the scorching sun.

That was not the day for Group 6, cos we lost all the games we played. At a point of time, I thought our morale was rather low, until TC came up with a lame cheer and the rest of us got the hang of it to come up with more lame cheers. We took consolation in our lame cheers and decided that our group wasn't enthu about being the noisiest, siao-on winning group. Instead, our contitution was based on the word 懒, reflecting on the type of cheers we came up with that conserved our energy and voice.

In fact, we gave up cheering totally unless requested by station ICs; the councillors just stood around and stared at our freshies playing while our freshies silently played defensive cos it's more energy consuming to take the offensive.

At ine point of time, we came up with the only racist cheer in the camp. Before the camp started, the council was basically debating over the issue of racism within the camp. There was Mei Toon trying to eliminate ALL possible suggestions of racism by being against having any chinese songs at all, while I tried to fend for the chinese-speaking group who were actually discriminated, thus suffering under the false name of fighting racism.

End up we still had elements of racism. I mean, it's a fundamental part of us, yar?

Unfortunately, a lot of CSC people were not enlightened enough to understand the racism part of our cheer. I wonder if it's good or bad for them. hmmmm...

I was burnt to a crisp in Sentosa, and it was painful to wear clothes. arrggghhh!!! We finally left Sentosa to East Coast where we would spend the night there.

It was SP revelation, which was quite boring for most of the councillors cos there were too many councillors and too few freshies to kajiao. So a group of us formed the Singles Club where the lonely councillors and freshies who had their SP revealed the day before come together for a talk-cock session. We started our Brokeback/Brokeleg scandals and such. haha...

And then it was off to talentime. Frankly speaking, it was very boring. To mimic 吴宗宪's variety show meant to have the gift of speech like him. The situation was just like listening to amateurs imitating Mariah Carey. I don't know what made them want to do that (heard there was a lot of behind the scenes stories, but as usual, there were a lot of ppl involved who tried to played it down for whatever noble reason they had. Basically, they just kept it within their own click)

Ironically, it was the session that required least of the ICs' efforts that saved the day. The mass singing was high, I also dunno why. A few guys just act high and the others will follow suit. Herd instinct.

After that, we left, but a group of us stayed to buy some drinks for the group, when it rained. The guys who reached the chalet 1st were kind enough to send JC to send some umbrellas over. Junli and I shared one and we shuffled back to chalet quickly while the rest strolled back. But according to zin, it was cos of the lovey-dovey couple rx and tc who were enjoying their stroll in the rain under their little pink umbrella.

tag for Ma'at councillors

Later that night, we walked to Mac's. It drizzled along the way, but only the lover-dovey couple strolled under their pink umbrella. So funny. It was along the way that tc unleashed his lame power which i supposed he gained during his time in RV. KM was laughing so hard at the lame jokes that I was wondering whether he could survive the walk to Mac's.

We stayed at Mac's for some nuggets, fries and drinks, chilling out on lame jokes when some of us conked out. We walked back only to find the gate locked. So we split, with me and LF staying outside to wait for sunrise while the others find their way back into the chalet to 'go to toilet' which ended up being 'go to sleep'.

The last 2 hrs to sunrise was unbearable, with practically nothing to do. After a light nap, we finally saw the sunrise, which was hidden behind some clouds. Darn! LF and I returned to the chalet where we napped outside cos the floor inside was filled with corpses.

The time finally came for us to leave. We had the standard 'Closing Ceremony' where the unexpected news of Ma'at being the best group was thrown to us. I bet those siao-on groups must be amazed that such a lame and lazy group like us could break traditions and emerge first. And cos of our unique way of winning, we believed that we won't be cursed to be the 1st group to split up.

gift for best gp's 'trophy'

The thing ended with a period of awkwardness when someone suggested that those people from the previous Ethelonter groups gather for cheering. yar, it's high and fun for those involved. But for the other councillors and especially the freshies, it was an awkward half an hour of watching those people acting happy and high. ok, perhaps they ARE high, but we're just like watching a bunch of monkeys thinking they're cool and fun-loving. Trust me, the expressions the freshies were wearing on their faces were speaking of total boredom.

It was a lousy ending to such a well-run camp.

Our group ended with a few silly photo-shots and finally parted.

All in all, I can say the camp was fun and well run, except the fact that councillors colluding in clicks made the whole experience unenjoyable. There were councillors who rarely showed up with the groups, hanging out with their clicks playing bridge and doing stuff that showed their exclusivity. An orientation camp is one that tries to bring in the freshies to our community, not to put them off with those actions of exclusivity.

There were complaints that a lot of OC members wore that I'm-oh-so-important face and I agree totally. I might have committed that act sometimes, but I definitely didn't felt the need to wear a stressed-out expression to impress on people that the others are enjoying due to the stress I take. It puts people off.

I don't know if stuch bad practices were typical in previous camps or they were just appearing this time round, but I definitely hope that it ends here, cos Ethelonter is too good a camp to spoil.