hmmm. feel soo helpless, cos cant change my templates! so cant link to my gbk or imood or anything. what should i do..? anw, i just came back frm obs yesterday! =] haha. wanna hear abt it? ive repeated the story so so many times, heheh.
so, the first day, we were split into our watches[grps] by classes lah. i was a munshi member. he is some intellect person lah, forgot what already. anw all watches were named after such ppl. =] then we did campcraft, stuff like how to tie knots, attempted building a basha [tent] and learnt navigation lah. like practical geog lesson. it really was esp on the expedition itself. first 2 days were basically prep for the expeditions. oh btw, i got residential with both sea AND land ex. special one! =]
anw every night after dinner we have sessions with the instructors lah. so its during this time tt we talk abt more serious stuff like setting goals, what we'd like to schieve thru the course and stuff like tt. and play some simple non-strenuous games too! examples are the dotty and bingbong game, haha. hmm, shall not be too specific, or else i'll be typing for hours on end. =]
then day2 in the morning rite, we had quiet time you know. yah i know tt sounds weird but we were sorta given time to think on our own. but in the way where like you think about your life and all.. well, hope everyone really had a good time on their own lah. i was praying, staring out into the ocean. and had abit of time to nap. =] wellwell. i think overall, obs was a really good learning experience.
then after qt we did rockclimbin! i climbed twice, once normally and the second blindfolded! =] haha, so glad i managed to reach the top both times. yay, i reached my target but not success. if success is trying your best and achieving what you didnt think you could. yarh. hope what i learnt will always remain lah. now.. i must really try to SUCCEED in any goals i set up for myself.
after rokclimbing we had lunch and then kayaking! whee, i was waiting for that for quite long man. we did capsize drills, learnt how to rescue and all.. the diff paddling techniques. fun lor! hee. that night, we started planning for our expeditions! we set off on day3 mah. land then sea. so we talked to instructors, got briefed, etc.. shall not divulge details. =]
day3 we set off for checkpoint one for land ex! each carried a gigantic backpack with our personal items, basha and cooking equipt. not to forget rationed food! and all the water. so heavy! first checkpoint was the ex-quarry. built raft, lauched it. plonked in the middle, hahah! then came the quarry story which freaked us all out. vivian, great ploy to get us out of the water, haha! =] so so fun. then we had lunch and set off. anw to cut the whole thing short, we reached at 8, 3 hours late. trekked from 8 in the morn to 8 at night. it was pitch dark and we hadn't even found our 4th chkpt! wow, tt was exciting lor, that part. hmm. so we rushed our basha and food. basha kinda failed. that night, it rained. i kelly and peishan were sleeping plainly on groundsheets in the open lah. so we rushed to squeezeinto the 2 bashas. imagine this: rain, lousy leaking overcrowded bashas. result: we either slept drenched and soggy or sitting up. i think i was pretty selfish tt night, haha. just lay down and refused to sit up. thanks alot kelly for she-ji-wei-ren-ing. =]
next day set off for sea ex! haha, started loading off at 7. then jetty jump! whee. so exciting, so so cool. a high scary jump into the pee-water [sea] down below. fun lah. =] cool. then we set off with life jackets loaded with muesli bars, milo packets and sun protection. water bottles in the kayaks! paddled with kelly in the double turner kayak for 3+ hours. stopped at frog island for a half hour lunch of bread and biscuits. to prepare us for the torturous journey to come! chek jawa. i tell you, it wa baad. really hard to describe in words, you have to experience it yourself. the continuos paddling for the next 5 hours over the choppy waves. once you paused, you would be drifted to the channel. and tt would be dangerous. so what to do, just keep going lor! yup, that was the part we really tested and pushed our limits. beyond our limits. =] anw it was a reeeaally good experience, everyone was polished physically, mentally and of course emotionally. indu, peishan, chenfeng, alps, hope you guys learnt frm it. i bet you guys did. congrats on getting thru ok? i admire your spirits. =]
well yeah just soo many things happened on the sea ex, its yi-yan-nan-jing. well you all out there go try it, wan? paddle for your lives for 8 hours straight. =] yah so tt night we washed up after not bathing for the day and before.. twice arnd of course. =] then kept equiptment. wow, we were bushed. haha, then vivian told creepy stories and all. hee. duuh i escaped rite. anw it was really fun... hey i didnt tell you abt vivian and chew, our instructors yet rite? argh, hahahah.
next day was fri lah. i actually volunteered to be i/c for the day. hmm, didnt mean to. oh yeah anw i was equipment i/c too. we lost 2 bottles in the end but nice lil vivian said we did a good job of cleaning up the bunk so she helped us replace. i tell you, she is nice. =] day5 not alot of things lah, cos last day mah. most impt was the sharing. we shared everything we had to within our watch. things like our most memorable, what we learnt and how we could apply them. was pretty emotional. quite afew cried. =] cos of the kayak thingy mah. wellwell. we formed a web in the centre with the cottn twine, a symbolism of the bond we formed. hmm, hope it applies and sticks as our class value. =] hmm.
then we climbed the inverse tower! wow, the weather was madness. rain shine rain shine. climbed in pairs lah. me and kelly only had the last few min to climb cos the others took quite long. anw kelly gave up at the rockwall part. oh wait, the whole vertical obstacle is actually made up of a rackwall, logs, cargo net and tyres. so we had to climb over and up them lah. hmm, kelly gave up so i was on my own. well, i think i was not too bad. i conquered the tower! haha. and i was at the top of the world, literally. but i knew i could do it, so it wasnt really success. hmm. =] we had no more time after tt left for souvenir buying lor. but well, we do wonders. rush here rush there, in the end also managed to purchase lah. =] but had to pay $5 for the cracked jug. haha.
hmm so well we had a mass de-brief. then we split in to our watch to do last min farewell. WOW. that was THE most sad part. i mean, the last time we would be with vivian and chew, so yar, we were kinda teary and all. =] we got our photos and a farewell talking to. hmm. did evaluation. hahahaha, after tt was funny. we got them both to sign our shirts and pics. haha. said they felt like ming-xings all of a sudden. haha. well you guys are, in our hearts. =] and took a last photo. hmm, we will miss you guys, basket and THE her. -winks-
well the camp was definitely more than this, more than any amount of words can describe. you have to go feel it for urself. well i'll say, i learnt a great deal. [i hope] i know i can face challenges lah. and the thing is, as long as you persevere, it can be done. celine, apply this is every aspect okay? =]
hey, i went thru the whole course. it was enriching, and doubly rewarding. it will be for you too, i promise. -grin-
and everything else i keep to myself. -beams-