NUS Arts Camp 2012

Arts Camp just ended less than 24 hours ago, and after hibernating for 13 hours (I think I could probably sleep for 2 more hours but I have things to be done and my throat was really dry), it's time to write this post. This will be a reflections/recap kind of post, and will be naturally long and windy. Let's go.

EDIT: It ended up taking more than a day to write this post, and I was waiting for photos too.

I had several goals for Arts Camp when I signed up.

1) Mingle around more

Last year I went for Arts Camp as a crasher, and I didn't really mix around that much. What that resulted in was in the OG card that I got in the end, many people wrote 'didn't get to talk to you much, but you seem nice' or variations of this. This year I wanted to interact more with everyone and try to talk to everyone and not just talk to an exclusive few.

2) Be a more proactive councillor

Being a crasher last year, I naturally didn't feel any inclination to take any responsibility or do anything. I mean, I am here voluntarily and I'm not an official councillor, so why work so hard? I was slacking around (with fellow crashers) and didn't really contribute much. Less tiring? Yes. Fulfilling? Maybe not as much. Thus this year I signed up as an official councillor, despite being the only one from my batch doing so (as well as being the oldest councillor).

3) Make new good/close friends

I believe in quality over quantity. I would rather have 1 close friend than 10 normal friends. I'm not particularly social (naturally) and am an introvert so I don't thrive in social situations. Thus it's not about meeting new people, it's about meeting the right people.

With that, let me launch into the recap. I will talk about whether I achieved these goals at the end of the entry.



Day 0 - Friday, 15th June

The councillors had to check in to school the night before camp started. I had an appointment at UHC at 4+ when the meeting time for everyone was at 10.30PM, so I had a crazy 6 hour period to burn. Luckily Jo agreed to come to school early to keep me company, and WX just happened to be around so we ended up playing games in the NUSSU clubroom till it was time.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="576"] Me losing at Reversi[/caption]

I wasn't particularly keen about coming for this but I had a cheer that I wanted to show the actions to so I came. The idea of sleeping on the hard ground and possibly depriving myself of sleep one day before a tiring 5 days of little sleep just didn't sound too attractive.

We ended up sleeping for about 4 hours because the crazy councillors wanted to eat supper at 1AM, and Day 1 began.

Day 1 - Station Games

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="590"] Before the freshies arrived[/caption]

I was assigned the duty (with 2 others) of picking up freshies from where they signed in and to bring them to the rest of the OG. I put on my 'hi nice to meet you!' mask and greeted the freshies as enthusiastically as I knew how to. It's just not really my thing, the whole introductions thing and being chirpy and cheery. I'm more laidback and chill and the guy who will talk to you about all your problems in a private setting. Anyway.

After everyone arrived I finally returned to the OG to get into the last few games before we had to go for some mass games.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="737"] Always ready for a picture ^^[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="737"] Forfeit: 7 Wonders[/caption]

I can't really remember what happened in between this and night time, basically many many station games where we had to run around Arts to play. Night time was SP (secret pal) time where the freshies are all blindfolded and paired up with their SP and they will talk for some time while holding hands, which was also the time where councillors disturb the blind freshies like mad.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="576"] Disturbing freshie 1[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="576"] Disturbing freshie 2[/caption]

Day 2  - Campus games

Games were all around NUS this time, which meant a lot of walking.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="576"] We were doing our patented Strawberry Shortcake cheer and my shirt got stuck! I'm the guy on the extreme right[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="516"] We had to put on some face paint and pose as zombies, in this zombie photo frame[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="737"] The hopping zombies look quite scary to me[/caption]

In the last phase of the game, the goal was to 'fit as many people as you can in the frame'. My ingenious OG won the round by doing this:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="737"] You can see the other OG doing it the noob way, while we cleverly included them in our shot as well.[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="737"] I look horrid but it's a nice shot of candice, so being the good friend I am I'm posting this[/caption]

Night time was Fright Night/ SP Games (also known as Councillors-disturb-freshie-as-much-as-possible time). Was quite disappointed that I didn't get to go through Fright Night again (because nella pangseh!! and went with wx without me) but oh well.



SP games was hilarious, I'm not the king of pranksters but many of the councillors disturbed the freshies like MAD. The whole thing felt like BMTC - as a recruit you get tekan by your sergeants like mad, so when you become a sergeant you'll want to tekan the new recruits like mad. Replace the words 'recruit' with 'freshie' and 'sergeants' with 'councillors' and you get the situation for SP games.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="737"] The best group shot of all the councillors[/caption]

Once again  I can't really remember the post-official activity activity (e.g. HTHT)... maybe there aren't any. This year the activities seem to end abit later and are more tiring such that everyone just wants to collapse and sleep. I remember there being more last year.. we even went out for supper!

Day 3 - Beach Day!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="737"] Before taking the monorail to Sentosa[/caption]

Beach day this year was REALLY REALLY hot. Like literally, temperature-wise hot. The sun was blazing and the sand was so hot that it was like walking on coal. I remember we had to cross a twenty metre stretch of sand and we all hopping like yelping in pain as our feet got burnt by the hot sand. After that some wise people went to fetch our slippers and we kept them on for the rest of the way.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="324"] jolenezhong[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="432"] georgina ! 안녕하세요! I learnt this camp that she used to be able to bench press 40kg :O[/caption]

There was the customary dunking (of girls) and later on some of the guys too. I didn't participate in most of them because these kinda things (dunking/taupok) aren't really my thing. Chill!  I got a dark singlet tan, along with some minor sunburn on my shoulders and apparently my nose - it only began peeling like after camp! Why so weird one!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="737"] Me helping to support the freshies in some water game[/caption]

At night we tried to have some OG HTHT but it was an epic failure lollol. The thing is the OG was so big and I have never been a fan of big group HTHTs, like who's going to be completely honest in front of 30 people! Plus we didn't really have a 'host' of the HTHT - someone who is damn buaypaisei to ask damn personal questions and will probe until you say something. After 30 minutes of awkward silence we just played truth or dare and the 'where's my twenty cents' game.

Day 4 - War Games + Social Night

The highlight of this day was of course the clubbing at night, but during the day we had the finale games of war games, in which S House once again dominated in spirit. I mean, it was pretty obvious which house had the best spirit and energy when we were cheering for the ENTIRE duration of the game like literally non-stop with no breaks, and the other houses only had periodic cheers.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="432"] I don't know where he came from, but this little darling was running around with us and taking our water guns to spray random OGs. Super friendly and sociable little boy, made everyone laugh everytime he demonstrated his cuteness![/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="432"] I am a cute little thing hear me roar!!![/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="768"] Post war games![/caption]

So later in the night, after SP revelation, it was time for social night! I didn't know what to expect; it was my first time going into a club! We made our way to Zouk in a chartered bus, and the first hour was just some mild music and we sat around doing nothing much. I drank this non-alcoholic drink which had some cool name like Windy Waterfall or something like that but I can't remember, it was basically lime juice with 7-up and a cherry inside.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="768"] Group photo before club[/caption]

At midnight there was a game for the house ICs and stuff to drink finish a large cup of a drink as fast as possible... and after that was over the real clubbing began!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="672"] Nicer group photo before clubbing[/caption]

My OG went outside to get some drinks from somewhere else; they bought 2 bottles of vodka and some 7up and stuff to mix with and after playing some drinking games, we headed back into the club.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="768"] group photo on the dance floor![/caption]

The music was now a notch higher, at the normal clubbing volume I suppose. The group of us went down to the dance floor and began grooving to the beat haha. It was quite fun as everyone was just dancing so it wasn't like too paisei or what. I couldn't help but remember this conversation I had with my friend chonghui about clubbing:

Me: I never club before, I don't know how to dance!
ChongHui: Aiya just anyhow shake can already!

And indeed, I was just anyhow shaking haha and moving my legs alot and twist twist anyhow shake. I probably can't replicate what I did that night now, I think it's the dim lighting plus the loud music plus everyone being high that leads you to be more uninhibited and just to enjoy yourself.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="672"] Anyhow shake[/caption]

Did I have fun? Yes. Will I go back again? Yes, but only with the right people. They need to be people who will dance along enthusiastically and are fun. And a driver to send me home lol. Will I go back again on my own accord? (e.g organize it on my own) No, I'm not THAT keen on doing it lol. It's just something that is fun (but extremely tiring) and I don't mind doing if I am asked along by the right people.





There was some HTHT after we returned to school but it was pretty lame and in a big group again so nothing much to write home about.

Day 5  - The End

The entire morning was spent card-writing - one of my favourite parts in camp. I always put in a lot of thought and effort in writing my messages, though of course for some people whom I've had very little interaction it's hard to write much. I just like doing it, as well as receiving my own card with well-thought out messages (if any). Sentimental me.



Some time after 1PM they finally began to announce all the best freshies/OGs etc, and simin won best councillor in S House! Proud of her :) And of course, the expected S House victory was announced, and we launched into our combination of cheers, including our retaliation cheer which was just lolzawesome as we spoofed all the other house's cheers.

----

Back to the goals I talked about at the start of the camp. Did I meet them?

1) Mingle around more

I did my best, and I don't know if I have mingled enough, but there was no 'didn't get to talk to you much' messages this year (though there were a few people I almost never spoke to). I floated around, cracked lame jokes everywhere, asked how everyone was doing, etc. I don't think I stuck to one particular person/group too much or anything. So... cheers.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="737"] Random group photo to punctuate this paragraph.[/caption]

2) Be a more proactive councillor

I was all over the place offering freshies water to drink when it was hot, was trying to mingle around more and make them feel at ease with stupid jokes. I was even lugging this goddamn heavy bag for the entirety of the camp:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="432"] The bag contained all the handphones/wallets + waterbottles of the freshies. Heavy ass shit. Btw that blue ball I'm carrying is our mascot!! Damn cool/cute right! Haha. Our OG's identity is 'Sombies'.[/caption]

I took the initiative to teach cheers, cheered like a lunatic the first 2 days to get them warmed up, helped out with the games, didn't slack (too much).

I don't know how I was viewed, but I personally felt really accomplished and had a sense of fulfilment at what I had done. I hope the freshies felt my effort too, because it was tiring as hell.

I had to keep reminding myself of this though - I also learnt this in my days as a sergeant in the army - if your men are not resting, you cannot rest. This means standing in the sun with them, running with them, training with them. As a leader, you put your load down the last, after you have ensured everyone else has put theirs down and is resting.

It is almost natural to seek the shade when the sun is blazing hot, especially when the shade is right next to you. But when the freshies are playing in the sun and the councillors are resting in the shade, it just didn't seem right! I was guilty of resting in the shade many times, but I caught myself several times and quickly hopped up and joined them in the hot sun to lend my support. I don't know if anyone even noticed this, but I did. I tried.

3) Make new good/close friends

Hmm. One out of three I guess. I made new friends for sure, but how many of them are/will become good/close friends, I really don't know.

There wasn't any intimate HTHTs like last year with jo/simin/sang (never really felt close to sang, am still close with jo, and good with simin? I actually didn't know how close simin regarded me, because we didn't really interact much throughout the past year. But a random whatsapp message after camp from her made me realize I meant something, and I was quite touched by it :) )

The closest freshie would be susu I guess, if we're talking about amount of personal stuff shared lololol. Not going to mention what it was but it's quite funny. She's a nice and bubbly person whom I seem to be able to get along with pretty well. Whether we will become good friends like the others in my inner circle... only time will tell I suppose!

[caption id="attachment_1614" align="alignnone" width="350"] I mimic her favourite pose

[/caption]

Other than her I don't think I really had any personal level discussions with other freshies, mostly just talk cock and tell lame jokes haha. I had SOO many lame jokes (which had mixed reactions, some said they were DAMN bad and some said they were so good and kept laughing) that I kept telling random people... best icebreaker really! Have to stock up on more.

Overall reflections

Camp was tiring but fun. I mean, sleeping 3-4 hours per night is sure to take its toll on you (and it took me 2 days of 12-13 hours sleep to recover ).  But because of the effort I put in this time, it makes it all seem worth it. Which is why... I signed up as a councillor for Union Camp!!!

ZOMG yes I've no idea why I did that. I think 2012 has been a really eventful year, and if it was really the end of the world I would be quite happy to end it on this note. I think when I do my recap post at the end of the year(e.g., 2011's highlights post) I'd be surprised at how many things I've done, and be like 'What?? This was this year? No way!'.

So yup yup. This marks the end of this blog post. Thank you Sombies (my OG's name) for a great experience and another entry to my life journal.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="768"] Sombies 2012[/caption]