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.
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.
posted by Twilight at
12:40 PM
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