MEGAcamp 2008!

hello! it's been 14 hours since i have returned from MEGAcamp! rawr! n i loved it!! lemme journal the experience here! whee!

to be frank, i never knew MEGAcamp was such MEGAfun. but i think this MEGAcamp was an exception from previous years. this year, a different team organised it - synergy dynamics! and thus, the programme was much more enjoyable. although i had never gone for any MEGAcamp besides this one, i say this cos i heard from friends that previous years had workshops that took up lots of time and was boring. but this year's was much different, it was much of activity-based learning, so it was much more fulfilling and pleasurable. despite the time when i felt clique-sick, i still survived! thanks to joanna who was my partner for many things.

day 1.

i didnt have any sleeplessness the previous night, probably cos i wasnt at all excited about my grouping. i was in group A, janice, shariel, nadine and samantha were in group B, elyssa was in group C and diane was in group D. that's why i was really miserable, but i stayed optimistic and remembered that it was a leadership camp, so i had to mix around.

i even went to school about 15mins late, which was 12.15pm. haha, i still remember the griping thought in me that reminded me that my bag was megabig. yeah, n i was right, my bag was really big for a small frame like me, but those people who had smaller bags had their shoe bag and sleeping bag hung like decors of a christmas tree. for me, everything was in a megabig bag, so i think it's the same lah, i had to just bear the embarrassment on the way there and on the way back.

in school, i sat with (then known as) group alpha. the other groups were bravo, charlie and delta. in short, i was group A, B ,C and D. my group facilitators were benson and roanna. and uncle saneth gave us a briefing of the proceedings on the way there. then we went off to board the coach. i sat with jo. when we reached the singapore custom, it was smooth-sailing as there were minimal queues. then we boarded the bus again to head for the malaysian custom. there, we had to switch buses, so our large bag was carried down too. also, i received a warning to change my passport photo. haha, it was my pri 1 photo. i had compared it with my face in the morning i realised there was still resemblance. actually, if there wasn't it would have been far too late to change. but in all, both customs were easy to clear. the new bus was shiok! it was less stingy on the space, the middle aisle was much wider and the seats were wider too. the bus seemed like it wasn't even a year old. so the comfort level was an assuring 90% for the rest of the trip there. on the bus, benson and roanna gave their introductory speeches and benson wanted us to come up with a original group name and a group response. we took a long time to think and benson finally gained inspiration from the lays chips, so he said, "oley?" from then oley was group name and oleh was our group response, but actually they sound similar. we also had to think of a group cheer and claim responsibilty roles in the camp.

first stop was at yong peng. there i ate cheese bun and i had the first opportunity to meet my clique in proper. jo observed that we were like long lost friends meeting once again after a long time of no see, haha, my clique really loves one another. the second stop was at ayer keroh, it was more of a toilet break, i was lucky to be in the first bus, if not my group had to battle the queue. so after that, we travelled and travelled, in the bus, i slept, ate biscuits and talked with jo and made a few new friends. when it was nearing 9pm, everyone realised that we were seriously behind schedule as it was intend that we had reached the destination at that time, instead, the drivers were making detours and finally, to appease our hungry stomachs, we stopped at macs. there i met my clique once again. after eating, we headed for jeram besu, where the camp was held.

at 11.45, we finally reached. the place called countyview recreational park was infested with flies in the night. so it was a bad first impression. some of my teammates were screaming. my group went into the conference room to practice our cheer. while we were in there, the other group came streaming in, many were also petrified by the host of flies greeting them. after a briefing from the teachers, we went to shower then sleep.

day 2.

woke up at 6.3o. i had only 4 hours of sleep. so i was tired and a little blur. we had morning sharing by miss liang about the five aspects of leadership. then uncle saneth took over to lead us in a team bonding activity. we had to pass a small ball around within our circles with the least amount of time. we worked on it for about 10 mins and the record came up to 4 secs! it was truly remarkable. breakfast was up next. in summary of the food there, it was great, esp the curries! so i feel that food wasn't a prob there.

then oley packed off for adventure caving. we went to a place where there was an ancient cave. on the way in, a few of us took a mini truck and we stood at the back, whoo, i must say it was tonnes of fun, the guide would give a sudden blast of speed and we found ourselves clinging of our lives (inertia). lolz. in the cave, we learnt of stalactites and stalagmites. we also did some crawling and climbing in the cave. the experience was once in a life time! while crawling, i got dust on my clothes, while climbing, it was thrilling experience as im afraid of heights. but it was still so fun. then i took the same truck back, same thrilling fun!

for lunch, we headed to restoran remember. it was really a restaurant to remember because of a few incidents. the food sucked. jeanica gave some of the dishes ratings and the highest was 1/5. i declare that she is quite a gourmet and a 'seasoned' waitress. haha, and now for the funniest part, there were 2 houseflies which loved the mayonnaise, they flew into the mayonnaise and got stuck with the sticky texture, being really cruel people, my table mates buried them in the mayo! we even intended to buried more gullible along with their friends! but we only managed 2. lol, imagine the disgust the dishwasher had when he/she washed that dish plate! also, there was a power surge when we were there, so there was no light, aircon and even the electric fly-attracting light was turned off, resulting in more flies flying around...

after lunch, oley set out for the most anticipated activity of the camp - the 4 wheel drive! golly! it was darn fun! i was in a group with en ying , santhiyaa and staphanie loo. the bumps were really fun and the jeep was going at about 200km/h most of the time. we squished mud under us, rocks and sand. the terrain was really uneven and we were holding on for our dear lives. there were occasional surge of speed and we would be propelled forward! the experience was exhilarating! the end point was a waterfall. i had planned to just take a dip in the water, but since it was rare that i came to a waterfall, i decided to go all in. the water i say was 5-10 degrees celsius, really freezing! but since it was a one-time kind of thing, i guess i enjyed myself. on the way back, we took the 4WD again, it was so windy that my clothes were half dry by the end of the trip. but i remember being really sad when the ride ended, the 4WD was really great!!!!

in the bus back to the campsite, i was shivering like a lunatic, i was so cold! and it started to drizzle when we reached the campsite, imagine how freaking cold i was. i was shaking like mad, i think i went almost blue! the first thing i did was to change out into dry clothes. i will never forget the feeling!

at night, a night walk was in store for us, but since it was raining, it was cancelled. we prepared for the campfire night instead. well, team oley was really progressing with our cheer and our performance. we composed our song and added new elements into our cheer. next i and my sub group had sharing and reflection with roanna then we went to sleep.

day 3.

woke up at 6.45am. prerpared my self and the went for devotion. mr go led devotion, i missed a large part of it because of the leaders briefing.

after breakfast, team oley went for its leadership management activity. uncle saneth was in charge, as usual, it was funny under him. we had to build a bridge that would be able to support the weight of 2 people at a time using bamboo poles. my group had designed a bridge that had the purpose of a lowered centre of gravity and stability. we took in all about 1 and a 1/2 hs to build it. i was mainly tying the poles together. everyone worked well together and our bridge was very stable. :)

after which, we had lunch at the resort. i tasted the best curry in my life, non-spicy and fragrant! :) at about 2 plus, oley headed out for the jungle trekking. it was a great experience except for the fact that i obtained a scar from crossing over a log. it somehow had something sharp sticking out of it and my leg got scratched quite deeply by it, fortunately there wasnt any blood. something miraculous that happened was that no one in oley got leeched except sharon. i was so expecting to get leeched considering that i was wearing low socks and shorts, but thank God, i wasnt. i loved the challenges poised when there were logs and the steepness of the ground n there was a part in the hike when we had to cross this stream and it was thanks to the guides and the facilitators that we managed to get through. another thing i would like to thank God for is the weather. in all the activities, it was sunshine throughout. and for this activity, it was only when we stepping onto the bus did it start to pour.

after dinner, oley rehearsed its musical and cheer in the 14-peopler dorm. jo, jeanicca, et and i were the actors and we where to re anact 2 events, the 4WD and the jungle trekking. it was hilarious for the 4WD! jeanicca made me laugh so madly! btw, she's a real good actress!!

after that, we proceeded to the conference hall for the campfire night. we couldnt have it outdoors as it had rained heavy earlier. but that didn't dampen our mood. we started off with the campfire cheers like the flea fly cheer and another cheer which i forgot. then we had the bomb game. lol. it was hilarious, we mr go made a mistake and all th e teachers pretended to shun him and when the teachers bombed miss gan. also when the facily (facilitators) were bombed, they sang the song we got peace like a river. LOL! haha and the cc (campfire comm) called themselves sissy and did the sissy action. next up was the johnny bravo performance. su ann did a terrific job in acting as some bimboitic chick and xi min was great at being johnny bravo! i also loved the axe oil advertisement and all. we really had a great laugh! next up was wooooo-man they did a skit on how they got their name. not bad, but JB was better. after the performance, we did the shark cheer and played some enjoyable game. poor mr pang was the target of the teachers. we went up for all the calls. d cube was next, i cant really remember their performance. and lastly was oley! i think we did well too! i was darn nervous though!

finally, it was the teachers and facilitators' turn to perform. the teachers had some sense of humour and they said they had brought to us 'click five'. it was five teachers and miss gan, the click on the com. LOLZ! we sang pl songs and the pl spirit was at its 100% level! and the facilitators did a banana dance. the teachers added that mr koh cg could do very well in promoting fruits if he did the banana dance. lol! so that sums up the most exciting camp fire i had ever! sorry if im not good at describing things.

day 4.
last day in camp. we went to the building bridges area to take pics. and i had time to catch up with janice and shariel and nuts! nuts said im strong!!! and i love her for that!!! hehe. soon after that, we ate lunch, had area cleaning then we bade farewell to the place. i was really happy to go home.

in the bus, i slept from 2 to 4. after that, i was just stoning, i was really hungry for food and by the time we reached ayer keroh for dinner, it was 7. i ate A&W, i hadn't eaten that for a real long time. i reamember the last time was p4 when i went to penang. i was so eager to eat the waffle, but the machine had spoilt. so i ate fries, root beer float and aroma chicken. following dinner, jo and i did some shopping for malaysia snacks. i bought the banana chips which was introduced to me in the bus and i loved it, and i bought other stuff for my family.

okay, im very very very tired from typing all these. i had been making lots of mistakes in typing, so it has been really exhausting. yeah, so see you.