Friday, April 20, 2007
Camp Radical
It all starts with yours truly trudging his way to school. Takes an hour and a half to get my ass there. And I'd have to admit, it's been forever since I've woken up at such an, seemingly, ungodly hour. The time I awoke was the time I've been been going to sleep ever since I stopped working.
Day1, Tuesday
Arrived in school round 8.30am? I wasn't really sure how long it would take me to get there so I figured I'd rather be early than late. [Duh?] Met up with Jill and YuYan after they arrived. Stood around waiting for further instructions and for entertainment to keep our friend Boredom at bay, there were seniors cheering all around us.
What's-her-name, as it appears, is in design as well. Right, Rahimah. She now sports a moehawk and though perspiring profusely, she continused to sit under the sun. Smart much. Either she was really tired and desperatedly need to rest her legs or she mistook sunlight for limelight.
Moving on, it was at this point that I got to meet Christine, a friend of Nat whom Jill met during one of her churh's events. Was estatic after finding out that she was in the same course as me. A fellow course mate! On the first day! And the first friend I made! It's like a triple whammy.
As it turned out, it took a million years before everyone could get registered, no thanks to an evident lack of planning. Okay, maybe the lack of space played a big part as well but whatever.
With everything done, we freshies, as the seniors like to call us, were whisked away to the auditorium where cheers were forced upon us in a attempt to get us all hyped-up and stuff. I swear, it felt like forever in there. Kept checking my watch while willing time to pass quickly but alas, 2 minutes seemed like a light year.
It's like the what's-it-called song...Right, Unchained Melody.
-And time goes by so slowly, and time can do so much~~
Yeah, at that point in time, the only thing it did was making my jaw sink lower and lower by the second. Okay, that and bringing whatever little IQ I have right down into the negatives.
Moving on, the director of TP's Design school, Mosese gave a talk. It was a long one, 1 hour and 45 minutes to be exact but it was entertaining, mainly because he was really funny, though really agressive as well. The whole talk was just filled with digressions and if they where removed, it would have taken him what? 10 minutes? 15 caps.
Apparently, in poly, we don't call our lecturers MrX/MsX/MrsX/MdmX. We call them by name. So every time we answer Moses's questions we go "Yes Moses" which makes it sound as though we were speaking to THE Moses and if anything went wrong, he would call forth something horrible upon us. Was half expecting him to part the BedokReservior but that didn't happen.
Anyway, it was followed by games of which I had zero interest in. Started with run of the mill icebreakers. Then lunch, followed by a brainstorming session which was a REAL eye opener. Our empire was Vader and sub-empire, Vader[T] so we had to come up with a name starting with T [no shit]. Names such as toilet, toothbrush, toothpaste, teletubies etc were thrown out. I was shell-shocked, so much so that I stood there, my flabber? Gasted. They settled on Toilet. Seriously? No comments.
Well, it was changed later, possibly to my greatest relief, to Twiggy! Yay! Thanks to Sheryl. Seriously, smart much. Was thinking "Why not Tyra?" but Twiggy rocks anyhow.
Next? More games, outdoor games. So being the evil me, I prayed for rain and true enough, rain came shortly after and the seniors had no choice but to throw us back into the prison that is the auditorium, where we were taught some hand signals to some TP song. No idea if that's the school school song though. In any case, anything's better than games.
That lasted for quite a bit and after what seemed like an enternity, they decided to let us go. I never felt such relief in my life. Okay, overstatement, scrap that. I haven't felt such relief ever since I got my O Level results back. Right. It was like I was freed from something akin to a torture chamber.
I felt so drained, mentally, emotionally, physically etc. And there was this emptiness in me that I've never experienced before like my very soul was sucked out.
Oh well.
Day2, Wednesday
Reached school REAL early. So I thought I was going to be late when I woke up so I decided to cab to school. Since it was rush hour, I was sort of expecting long queues and a complete lack of cabs but as it turned out, I was wrong. Was wondering why it was so till I got on the cab and saw that the $2 surcharge had already kicked in.
Not surprisingly, though there was an excess of cabs, there was a massive jam on the expressways. It happened that we were in the same lane as an obviously undecisive driver who couldn't well, decide, if he wanted to change lane or not. Either that, or he just didn't have the guts to change lanes which really makes you wonder why he was even granted his license in the first place. As a direct result of his indecisiveness, it allowed for other cars to cut into our lane which really didn't help with the jam at all.
The driver eventually cracked and started sprouting vulgarities in dialect of which I completely didn't understand. So when his sentences ended in a raised pitch, I assumed he was directing questions at me so I just went "Haha" in very half-assed manners.
$16. That's what it cost me. Vulgarities, and lots of time to kill. I could have done it for free, but whatever.
I can't really recall every single thing we did but it was quited a relaxed day compared to the day before. Sat around playing games and the like, followed by brainstorming for a perfomance item and a design for our flag, both of which revovled around our group name, Twiggy. Our performance was a model show sort of thing like ANTM and our flag's a picture of Twiggy.
Then it was lunch. We were sent to out caregroups to have lunch with our care leaders. But when I finally out the room I was supposed to go to, there wasn't anyone there. Same thing for Enn. So we were told to have lunch together at the Design canteen where I got to know a few friends. Really cheerful people, and I would mention their names if only I could remember them. When lunch was done, we went up to their bunks and so happened, a care group came in and it was for VSC. So I joined them even though I wasn't sure if they were the right group. Oh well.
Then there was a human table soccer match.
It was at this point that I talked to Joleen. Think we clicked quite well. And it was the first time I was talking as myself and not through the guy I didn't like. At all.
The day ended for me after the treasure hunt, which was really screwed up cause all the clues were placed at all the wrong places. And because I didn't stay over, I left when they headed for Sentosa. Apparently, quite a bit happened there. They weren't all good but it was fuel for more conversation the next day.
The Next Day
Day3, Thursday
Pretty much a slow day, with nothing much going on compared to the first day. Probably so cause everyone was shagged after coming back at 4am the day before.
Had mass dance in the morning, which was quite fun, got to know Lina and a few others better. Got partnered up with Lina which wasn't bad at all. Gossiped a lot.
After which, our really nice sub-empire heads bought lunch for us. McDonalds.
Then it was to the auditorium for more cheers and stuff. The whole session was led by some alumni. It was all for the Final Clash that was coming up and like before, it was quite painful. Not surprisingly, it came as a relief when we were sent to meet our lecturers. All the lectures of VSC gave a small talk about what he/she will be teaching. Introductions and stuff.
Pretty much the end of the day for me, the rest still had performance day to go through.
Last Day, Friday
The last day! Was gearing up to get it over and done with. Reached school early. Everyone had just gotten up and were just going for breakfast so I followed the guys to Cheers located in the Business block which I realised, is far. Like far. Very far. While walking through the school, Farhan and KS were doing the Business tei cheer and I was so afraid we wouldn't make it out alive but evidently, we did.
Gathered for games and the like. All of us got camo-paint thing to make us look fierce or something to that effect and it was really fun to see how people painted their faces some by themselves others for each other. Quite cool.
With our faces coloured, we were dismissed for lunch. Joey, Joleen, Lina, Christine and I headed for Cheers thinking maybe we could get lunch there. Cup noodles were on my mind, but alas, it was packed with students, design students. Practically everyone was colour-coded. Each school has their own shirt, Design's being a dark turquoise of sorts. Fancy design students going, "dark green". If my memory serves me right, AS[AppliedScience] had shirts that were reseda [go search that up], an aubergine shade for Engineering, bright yellow for Business and dark ultramarine for IT. I think... So, it was really easy to tell the Cheers was packed with students from Design school. Had drinks, that's all.
Moving on, we gathered for a little talk by Moses. He had us write down what we wanted to acheive by the end of the first year. A stunt that didn't surprise me. What I was thinking was that after we wrote them down, he would have us keep them and then at the end of the year, we'd have to remember to open them letters to see if we had done them. What surprised me was that he collected them instead of just leaving it with us. Cool.
Okay, so I'm not sure bout the chronology, if we had lunch first or the talk first but whatever. Let's just move on.
FINALCLASH!
Moved to the stadium for part one of the FinalClash. It was like a poly version of SportsDay, except most of the events were games. Being the smallest school, we were allocated the least space, space enough for approximately 2 hippopotamuses. We were literally shoulder to shoulder. Pretty much sucked. Everyone was perspiring so it wasn't a surprise that it was humid. Any more humid and I would have drowned.
Jo was nodding off half of the time while the other half was spent standing and sitting standing and sitting. Every time there was a cheer, someone would go mental and start screaming "STAND UP! STAND UP! LOUDER!" Gosh, the last time I saw such enthusiasm was when currypuffs were going for 50cents at OldChangKee. I joined in anyhow, though with not as much zest. Moved to BedokReservior for the Regatta after that, where lots of cheers, shouting, dancing and whatnot ensured. At the end of it all, Design school won Best Spirited, exactly what Moses wanted.
Strolled back to school where we were debriefed by the seniors and Moses. He ended his speech by telling us how its customary that the freshies group hugged. So we gathered in the center though many of us already knew something was going to happen. Was standing with Jo, Lina and Joey intially and they conspired, so to say, to run away. Jo and Joey made it out but alas, Lina and I were pushed back into the center by those oblivious to what was going to happen next.
Then it happened, water came pouring down
Shared a cab with Jo simply cause I had no choice, I was completely soaked. Tsk. And the LTA should seriously do something about the lack of cabs in within a 100 miles of TP. It took forever to get a cab. Some smartass blatantly cut our queue and hopped on our cab. We where like "What the [expletive deleted]!" Some people. To think we were pitying him cause we thought we'd get a cab first. Blegh.
Judging by the way I've been talking about CampRad, you'd think it sucked. Acutally, it did quite a bit but that's isn't the point. The point is, though I'd never thought I'd say this, it was actually fun and I enjoyed it for the most of it. Come to think of it, I actually LIKED the "chicken wings up" cheer. Don't say nothing.
What started out as an obligation turned out to be not-so-obligation-ish and I wouldn't care less if they told me I didn't fulfill my APEL or if I found out that those who didn't attend got the credit...Okay, I would. In fact, I'd blow up so bad Hiroshima would be thankful that they got FatMama, or whatever it was called that ended WWII, instead.
Though I wouldn't attend the camp if you told me it wouldn't the affect fulfillment of APEL or if I would still get the damned credit if I didn't go, I would if you told me about the friends I'd make if I went. All of which would be quite impossible seeing how nobody really knows and as Moses puts it, hindsight is always better than foresight. Or whatever it was that he said.
PHOTOS!
Our flag! How cool's that?
Human table soccer.
Human table soccer too. Yay puns!
Twiggies with GL, Eunice. The one with the dyed hair? She's hawt larh.
"Let my people go!"
Twiggies!
Before group hug.
After group hug.
More here. Save for the first 2 photos, all others credited there as well.
One word: ROXXORS! If that's even a word.
Lina: Hey Sherwin!
Me: Hey what?
Lina: Introduce yourself!
Me: No way!
Lina: Introduce yourself!Me: Okay...
1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
Hi I'm Sherwin, I say "Hi"!
6, 7, 8 , 9, 10,
Back it up and meet my friend,
Hey Lina!
-Lina
A game brought to you by Lina. For more enquires on how to go about doing this, ask me! Or her. Haha.