Went for the orientation camp organised by the school. My roommate who is also in the same camp kindly offered to send there. No way I would be there by the required reporting time of 8am otherwise.
Journey to the School
I never expected to reach pulau ntu on time. Even more so when my friend Y told me he will be late. When he did arrive, there was the usual morning jam and the few traffic accidents only made the journey longer. When we finally arrived, we were late by a grand total of 1 hour. Surprisingly, the event has yet to start!
Talks and more talks
After about another hour of waiting, the camp finally started. For the next 2 hours, it was just talks by multiple parties which almost no one was listening to. At one point the emcee even exclaimed loudly when a large group of people just stood up and left spontaneously. Can’t really blame them, I myself was fighting hard to stay awake in the chilling lt. When the last speaker finished, the audience broke out into an enthusiastic applause which was obviously more about cheering the end of the boring talks than applauding out of respect for the speaker.
Bonding Games
After lunch was the formal introduction for all in the same orientation group, followed by a few rounds of ice breaking games. There was this game that involves saying a number and simultaneously putting up a certain number of fingers which cannot be the same as the number said. The next person will have to show the number of fingers the previous person said and also say a number of their own. All this within the 2 counts which can be fast or slow depending on the initial tempo agreed upon at the start of the game. So if any of the above condition fails, the person would have failed the game. As with any ice breaking games in camps, all those who break the chain will have to do forfeits. I must say I have a pretty bad coordination so most of the time I will get it wrong. Luckily enough, my og set the rule as 3 strikes to 1 forfeit, and usually before it reaches my turn, someone else would have gotten it wrong. Phewwww….
Mass Game
Apparently people love to draw inspiration from running man. A show I do not watch, hence I totally had no idea what the game was about when everyone else was pretty excited when they heard about the game. In a nutshell, we were all split into pairs and our hands tied together with paper. We have to go around breaking the paper chains of the opponent pairs and avoid getting ours torn. At the beginning, I had an agreement with my partner to be chill during the game. However, somehow when the opponent came chasing after us, we got into panic mode and started running around like deers avoiding being the predators next meal.
As the game progressed, we found more teams within our own group and we set off together avoiding everyone else. And that was when we saw our chance. This game has a side quest which is to throw paper balls through hoops to earn extra points. We located the hoops and the balls, and the best thing was the hoop was completely unprotected! And that was how we got a headstart over the other groups. For the next half hour or so, we repeated the same procedure of running in the opposite direction of the opponents until the message came along. Due to some miscommunications, only 2 out of the 3 teams started playing the game. Meaning we were happily running around clocking points while some team was still waiting for the whistle blow which never came.
And so we all returned to the starting point and waited while the programmers reset the game. We also got new wrist tags, however this time the tag was tied quite tightly, making my wrist pretty uncomfortable. When the second round started, the tag simply just tore the moment my partner started running. And that concludes our involvement in the mass game.
Day 2
Stayed in Hall 1 for the night. Decided to wake up early to explore the place and ended up at the canteen drinking milo. As reporting time was 8:30am, I had ample time to sip the extra hot beverage and still make it to the src. Upon reaching, I learnt the hard truth – when people say the reporting time is 8:30am, they don’t really mean 8:30am. When the group mostly arrived, we sat at one corner of the track to sleep and talk. The sun was too hot, and 3/4 of the group had qet so there wasn’t really any point in joining the games.
Wet Games
The afternoon segment was the highlight of most camps – wet games. First up was captains ball (ball is a wet sponge). My team put up a good fight, but still lost as the other team was undeniably more coordinated. The next few stations consist of a dodgeball styled game, a relay and a egg game. I was wondering how eggs could be involved in a game. Turns out the egg is placed into a tube about 1m long and both parties attempt to blow the egg into each others faces. This is pretty much a hit or miss station, and some were even suggesting pointing the end of the tube towards the opponent! When it was my turn, I just hoped my face will remain as clean as before I started.
The gamemaster started counting down from 3. I took in a deep breathe upon one and pushed it all out in a quick exhale directly into the pipe. All I heard was lots of noises and the sound of someone choking. And the person was not me! I looked up to see the opponent’s face decorated with dripping egg yolk looking pretty confused. Apparently I had blew so hard that the egg went in his mouth and out his nose….till now I still feel bad whenever I recall this. Sorry dude.
Day 3
Final day of the mae camp was at Sentosa. The whole day was beach games which were extremely mild. Meaning no paints, no seawater or whatsoever. The most memorable game was a four way game where each team sends 5 players with a clip attached to the back of their shirt. Upon the blow of the whistle, each team starts running and attempt to pull the tag off of the person in front. Catch is that all 5 players have to be linked together so the whole team is tied down to the slowest runner. When the whistle blows twice, the running direction reverses. Unfortunately my team got eliminated mid game. The trick is to survive long enough such that the team is left with one person, preferably the fastest runner, so this person can kill off the competition without being tied down by anyone.
Cheer Competition
The final part of the day was a cheer competition where each clan performed their cheers. As my clan was more of the chill kind than the hyperenthusiatic type, our cheer was just bare bones covering the minimum. The other clans creatively dazzled up their cheer, adding all sorts of dance moves and parodies which resulted in them looking pretty hilarious. The event was wrapped up with a slideshow, prize presentation and that concludes the end of the 3 day mae camp.