OAC Day 3

Worst day of all three days, but still fun I would guess. Worst of the best. How bad can it be? There were no activities arranged for us today. Instead we spent the entire time, or almost 75% of the time cleaning up. Since we had finished all our outdoor cooking sessions, we were able to finish breakfast early. Not a good thing at all.

When we woke up and met with our instructors, we were told that we would be cleaning the dining hall. What a relief, at least it's not the toilet. So we ate breakfast heartily. Who knew, after we had breakfast, one of the leaders came and told us to clean the toilets. Oh well we didn't make a fuss about it as we were all sporty people. We cleaned and cleaned, quite having fun as well splashing water and screaming at the sight of cockroaches. After some time, the toilets were cleaned to the satisfaction of the leaders. We thought we were done for the day but again, who knew, we were then asked to clean the dining hall.

This was met with confusion, because we thought that there was a miscommunication among the instructors and leaders and we were indeed assigned to clean the toilets. So what were we doing cleaning the dining hall then? Nevertheless we still wiped the tables and chairs, lift the chairs onto the table, arrange the tables, swept the floor blah blah. Until the other class who had outdoor cooking finished their breakfast. Their instructor asked them to start cleaning the dining hall. I stared at her with disbelief. What? We just cleaned it! Was she trying to insult our bad cleaning or what?

So that other class began sweeping the floor, when we clearly had just finished sweeping it. We were unhappy about it. Now they asked both classes to arrange the tables together. We stood to our grounds and did not want to budge. The other class, seeing us stationary, decided not to do anything either. My friend even overheard someone saying since they (referring to us) had been cleaning, why not just let them continue cleaning? After seeing this 'commotion', the instructor decided that they should just let us rest. Finally one sensible thing they did. In the end we found out that the other class was supposed to clean the toilets but because they were still eating, my class was instructed to do so. They escaped a much worse chore and are still here complaining? I was aghast.

After that we were lazing about, then packed up and left Labrador Camp Site. After a short debrief back at school, we were dismissed. I had post camp sickness after that. My legs were itching to climb things, and I developed some rashes. All in all, I really enjoyed the whole course of the camp.

OAC Day 2 (Part 3)

Campfire.. what can I say. It was a total disappointment, despite everyone saying that it's the highlight of the event. Well not really, they said it was supposed to be the highlight of the event. But didn't turn out that way huh.

It was very dark, but it did live up to its name and there was a fire in the center of the ring. Even though there were campfire performances, and my class being one of the classes to perform, it was so dark that we couldn't really see anything much besides hear the people who were singing. As for campfire singing, we spent a whole two or three weeks to learn the song and I even embarrassed myself with my horrible voice but in the end, we only ended up singing like less than half of the songs. And as we were singing a capella and no one really remembered the lyrics, we were just humming all the way. It was quite messy. At least we sang the longer songs like Top of the World, If We Hold On Together, When You Remember etc and didn't sing some of my disliked songs like Cannibal King, and the OAC song that our school wrote themselves (this is an assumption based on the lyrics and melody). The teachers were so boring. They had been sitting by themselves, talking, sleeping, eating, enjoying, stoning, whatever among themselves throughout the whole camp and didn't even join us during campfire! We were doing a cheer and invited teachers to do along with us but they were just stoning there, sipping their drinks. Gah.

I guess the main reason we didn't enjoy campfire much was because we were expecting too much from it but only got so little of our expectations met. Also, we were all tired out from the day's activities. It was really a heavy day for us, or at least my class. I went back to my room feeling a little empty. It was the last night too, and I was feeling a little campsick already, but nonetheless, I managed to catch a good night's sleep.

OAC Day 2 (part two)

After a tiring morning, well not really, most people I suppose had their energy eaten up by fear. Anyway I was hungry, with the breakfast which was insufficient. But lunch was a packet of instant noodle. Great. Even at home, one packet is not enough for me. So not surprising that I was again hungry after lunch. I started to wonder, was this an adventure camp or a famine camp? Probably a combination of both.

We had low elements and flying elements left. Not too bad, they didn't require much energy, or so I thought. Low elements were quite fun. We had activities that included sending balls across an 'acid pit', balancing a see-saw, walking some whatever thing and climbing a wall. This was one time when we got to spend some more time with our classmates, solving problems together and being mad together. You know how much I enjoy being active.

I was exhausted after low elements. Not because of the activities, but because of the amount I was talking. Bad thing really. Next was rock climbing. At first glance, the rock wall looked really really threatening. I didn't even dare to go try the first rock wall. That was the first and only time I did not have the courage to try out something throughout OAC. Anyway the leader said everyone had to climb at least once, so I went to the other rock wall to climb, which looked milder and non threatening. Did I ever discover how much fun rock climbing was! Yes it was tiring, hanging halfway there, while you feel like giving up. But giving up is not in my nature. So I went on and on and on to the top. Didn't feel anything much about it. I just felt like I could continue climbing endlessly. And even after OAC, I still had the urge to climb things for quite some time, before time washed it away. After I climbed the rock wall, I turned to be an anchorman, where my finger's skin got peeled off from pressing down onto the harness too hard. Ouch. My third visit to the first aid room. Am I injury prone? Well unlikely I think. It got me worried I couldn't continue the other activities, having an injured finger. I was afraid I couldn't grip on anything. What if my grip slacked while on the zip line? It was one of the activities I anticipated the most. But as it turned out, all activities I anticipated were a let down, whereas the other activities where I didn't get my feelings all hyped about it, left me with immense satisfaction after doing them.

Finally, our last activity before camp fire, was flying elements. These were a disappointment. Well not really. The zip line or flying fox, whatever it is called, was a huge disappointment. I thought it would be quite fun, but realized it was the most boring activity in the whole camp. You just jump down, end of story. Boring, no? I shouted some lines, which made it a little interesting but still, it was boring. Abseiling on the other hand, was fun fun fun. This is my second favourite activity, after rock climbing. Do you notice the similarity between these two activities? Yes you climb. One up, and the other down. I wonder what's with me and climbing? So what did I like about abseiling, besides the fact that I got to climb walls? During abseiling, I had the sensation that my life was tied onto someone else's and I could do nothing about it besides letting myself fall, fall and fall... and I kept banging into the wall. Oh I failed it miserably, but I still liked the activity on a whole.

End of the day's activity. Lucky we had no more outdoor cooking session and could eat as much as we wanted for dinner. Not that the food was very appetizing, so I still didn't eat quite so much, even though Mr Chue asked me to eat up. But I just couldn't, much as the hostel food was even worse than this.

OAC Day 2 (Part 1)

Today was the highlight of the whole camp. We did high elements, low elements and flying elements. Today was campfire night too! I absolutely loved all the activities we had today, plus two sessions of outdoor cooking. I think I am one of the very few who really enjoyed all of these, even though they made me a little exhausted. But not exhausted enough that I hated everything we did.

We started the morning early, with a flag raising session. I was rolling my eyes when I saw the word flag raising inside the booklet we were given. It was unbelievable. I thought we would be able to get free of flag raising here at the camp, but apparently not. Not surprising though, since it says it's MOE Labrador Adventure Center. And the job of MoE is to instil loyalty towards the country amongst students. Flag raising is known as a common practice which can promote social cohesion. OK enough of SS. It's annoying to hear a national anthem go everyday, which is not your country's, to quote my friend.

Anyway after flag raising was our outdoor cooking for breakfast. We were to cook fried beehoon, which would last us till lunch time. We needed the energy for high elements, said the instructors. I didn't see why we would need it. My friend even felt nauseous when we were approaching the high elements, because she had quite a lot of food. If she didn't, maybe she wouldn't feel so sick at the stomach. The cooking session was as messy as ever, even though it was already our second cooking session. People were running everywhere, with of course, people doing nothing. And they were not willing to change their roles from yesterday's cooking session, which consisted of preprarers, cooks and fire starters. Eventually they did change, though I was still stuck at fire because no one knew how to operate that lighter. Never mind. At least today I didn't burn myself, and I got to eat quite some helping of the beehoon, despite it being quite salty and having a heavy pepper taste.

On to start the day. We were divided into 3 groups for the high elements. My group, having quite studious girls, with me being the most active one, of course started off the activity with me. Oh I volunteered to go first. I love doing things first. We climbed the broken bridge. People said that was the easiest of all, but I believed every activity has its own level of difficulty, or it wouldn't serve its purpose to be there. Checking my harness, helmet and every safety precaution, I started climbing up the steples onto the bridge. Being the first one, I was a little unclear of what to do, so I kept awaiting orders from down there. Wow, was it scary up there! Ok not so scary, but my legs began shaking on its own accord. Still didn't stop me from crossing the bridge. Halfway there, I heard the man saying he had set up the thing wrongly. I panicked, and instinctively stepped backwards. Then I heard him telling me to step forwards not backwards, so I assumed things were still alright for me. If it had not been, they could just pull me down from my harness. I continued across the bridge without any events, with my friends cheering me from down there. To go off topoic, this is what I love about girls school. No immature boys jeering at you. Until I reached the pole and got ready to climb down again. The man said I should climb up. The leader said I should climb down. They were disputing down there, with me halfway up the air. I didn't mind to be honest, if I was asked to climb up. But in the end, no, I did not climb up, so I climbed down, safe on the ground again.

When I got down, the man immediately climbed up. It confirmed that there was something wrong with it. Luckily I didn't fall and nothing happened to me. So then he went to fix it and blah blah. I wasn't there later because my friend had a splinter in her fingernails, as she had scratched the wood while coming down. Sounded like a cat to me! When I came back, they had switched stations and were now walking criss cross steel wires on the air. That was really scary, with only 2 persons in my group successfully crossing it all the way, and I was grateful I didn't have to do that, though I really wanted to do it, and almost got to do it. I told my leader I only did one and she asked me to do this, but time ran out. Too bad. I am not sure if I want to do it or not, but I think more of my heart is leaning towards yes.

Next station was called the challenging pole. I did not get to do this again because firstly, we were the last group to go do it so of course there would not be enough time, considering how slowly everyone was climbing up to the pole. Not that I would be very fast though. Secondly, I had to be backup belayer to the instructor because no one wanted to be. I was quite bitter about that because this challenging pole looked really fun. There were two, one where you got up the pole and the other the platform. I wanted to do the platform one and was going to do. The pole one looked fun too, but it was very scary because it was higher and you had nothing to hold on to. Did not get to do this, did not get to feel the exhiliration of flying down from the air, so nothing to comment. Can you hear the resentment from my writing? I bet.

OAC Day 1

I just came back from OAC, my school's outdoor adventure camp. It was so much fun. This was the first time I've ever attended a camp like this. Sure, I've attended many camps before, but mostly we went around visiting places and not do extreme activities! I had never done any of the activities we did during OAC, which made it all the more so much fun.

We went to school as usual in the morning and had a session of ice breaker before departing to the camp site. It wasn't much of an ice breaker since we have been classmates for at least two months now and roughly knew each other already, if not a lot. And my classmates weren't all that in to playing the games, so the responses from them were sort of cold.

After a short briefing, we left for the camp site, which was MOE Labrador Adventure Camp. It was the least of what I had expected. In my mind, I had imagined it to be a place surrounded by forests, has a lot of mosquitoes and ants and what not, very run down, no beds, the usual cliche camp site. But it was way better than that. There were very little trees, almost no mosquitoes since I didn't get bitten at all, little ants, and beds for us to sleep in, though the mattress was hard. It was quite a good place really.

We proceeded with some small talks, settling into our dorms, a bit of campfire performance practice, then it was lunch time. Food was very much anticipated among us campers. We were all starving, and shall know that it would be the same for the next coming days. We were not allowed to bring our own food. They said they would feed us well -rolls eyes- as well as no handphone, no mp3, whatever, you know. Which got us bored. Anyway lunch was nasi lemak, with not much of lemak taste but still acceptable. Considered a luxury after going through all other meals.

Moving on to the next activity, we packed up our stuff, like umbrella, insect repellant, sunblock etc for our wilderness activity. We had to walk oh so far to reach the Labrador Nature Reserve. The walking part was more tiring than the actual activities itself, plus the sun was glaring hot. There were actually 10 stations for the whole activity but we only managed to do 2 full ones, 1 forfeited, and 1 half way done when time ran out. On our way walking, we suddenly all had this weird urge of singing nursery rhymes. I think I started it first xD. It was thrilling to be singing out at the sea breeze. My team mates complied by me too, so I didn't feel like I was singing alone. When we got the 2nd clue, we read and reread, and thought that we were at the right place. Our leader told us that no, we were not at the right place but my friend said it doesn't matter. We shall not listen to them and just continue walking our way. What cheek! It was funny though.

There was one station here that we were required to make a raft out of twigs. The raft had to have a sail and my bandana was used as a sail. It fell onto the cliff as they were throwing the raft down. The raft broke free of the string. We had no way to save the raft, but my bandana was quite important to be saved and the leaders spent more than half an hour saving it. Poor leaders. At 3:45pm, a slight drizzle started and we promptly went back to the camp site, dragging our tired body along.

A quick shower, where we only had like 3 minuts for each person and people yelling at you to hurry up each time, then it was outdoor cooking. I quite anticipated this, since again, I've never tried it before. We cooked pineapple rice. I was in charge of the fire. As I was the only one in my group who knew how to operate the lighter, and they didn't understand that the metal roller was scorching, and they kept asking me to quickly light up everything, I burnt my fingers then. Ouch. That made my first visit to the first aid room. Dinner was not much left when I went to eat. There was only rice and pineapple left, with very little chicken. I didn't get to eat the scrambled eggs which I heard was very tasty. Pity. Had a headache too, from the heat of the sun and the fire worsen it.

At night was campfire preparation, where there was a fire drill midway. I had a feeling that they did the fire drill on purpose so as to get us to assemble quickly. After that was sleep time. I slept quite soundly and only realized the leaders and instructors coming in to check on us once in the whole night. Which was a good thing, as I was quite tired on Monday.