Just came back from a 2D1N camp at moe dairy farm from saturday to sunday: SyMBIOSIS 2011. It's organised by the YP school for young pap(YP) and young ntuc(YN). i enjoyed myself, didn regret not giving up the opportunity. have to thank budi and ralph i guess. :)
honestly speaking, just the night before the camp, i was quite reluctant go for it cuz its over the weekend and it would mean less free time and homework time. and i was unwilling to do the high elements since it was an adventure camp. but luckily im not alone cuz jonathan, zitian, weekuang and steven were going too. =) at least there was company be whether we're in the same group or not. hahah. im also quite thankful that im not the youngest and honestly age doesnt really matter. :)
reach there on first day and as usual sat with the ndp group for breakfast that was provided. was looking ard for girls who are ard my age but it doesn look like there were any. while waiting for the camp to start, abner dropped by campsite cuz he's one of the YP exco. got to talk to him but not much thought.. we only found out who's out groupmates right before the icebreakers. weekuang, zitian and i were in the same group: 4. there were many other ppl too. :) there was a boy at the age of 18 called augustine. he kinda got along with us after icebreaking cuz he would hang ard with weekuang. (and he believed jon when jon said he was 38 years old and had done plastic surgery! super funny!) haha im not the youngest! im getting old... X) there were a few females in the group too, mostly from yp.
after icebreakers, it was time for sharing and learning session with martin from yp and mp alex yam from yn. learnt about history of ntuc and pap and their values and mission. interesting time. its smth new i learnt. :) then its time for lunch and later, high elements(OMG). at the high elements, it was time for rock climbing. i told myself, it was time i attempt to overcome my fears. do my best! and yes, i climbed the wall up to about half its height and i told myself, im good and ready to get down. and i'm happy and proud of myself that i did it. :) as least i made an effort to try cuz i didn do it when i was in jc or sec sch.. then it was the ropes courses. well for that, i only did the 1 of the course which is walking on the tight rope from one end to another. i could feel my body trembling when i was up there. but similarly, i did my best and i was happy i made an effort to overcome my fear of heights. :) then we also had team building games with slight trustfall and also spiderweb. well, i pulled out of the spiderweb game cuz it was really smth out of my comfort zone and im not ready to say yes to this game. so yupp, i backed out. and thru this game, we somehow became known as team/group TITANS. hahaha. there was also sunny side up game about tossing a ball with ground sheet and catching them as a team. interesting but it kinda made me realised how important is communication and agreeing on wad we wanna do.
finally it was dinnertime, HUNGRY! hahah! yupp then we had our meals tgt as a group before moving the benches out for a campfire and sharing session with mp alex yam and advisor to gro(hougang) desmond choo. had a insightful time listening to their talk and experiences. and i realised, i'm not political enough/at all! =X its time to learn i guess. to learn to agree to disagree sometimes. and learning about accepting differences. had a mini night hike to the singapore quarry. really nice and scenic place in the day i guess? cuz we went at night, there was nth to see except the sky with few stars. nice to have a walk and not think about anything. :) when we came back from the quarry, there was supper and time for lights out. many were thinking of going out to have supper. initially i wanted to do. but then i changed my mind cuz i didn wanna shower alone in the toilet and also cuz i was tired. =X yupp so i went to sleep instead! had a pretty good sleep despite the hard ground. woke up even without the alarm! :)
freshened up and went for breakfast! sat with the girls and weekuang said i jump camp. and i said i'll be back! hahah oops! must spend time with girls also mahh. yummy porridge for breakfast. =D
then it was time for some sharing from camp commandant, friends and new friends that just joined us. we're supposed to sit in our groups and at the group 4 table, there was this guy in red. new group mate. during the sharing he introduced himself, he's called zhen yao studying in smu. and kexin from yp exco was there too and she came over to talk to zhen yao cuz she was an alumni of smu. well i was sitting opposite them so during the break i kinda joined in there conversation.. yup, that's how we started talking. i know kexin from GE times but didn get to talk to her cuz i was stuck at the branch most of the time. after the break that was a short game. it was funny cuz the group was split into 2 and each side needed a girl and each side was pulling me over. then in the end weekuang's and zhenyao's side decided to sacrifice themselves so that the whole group wouldn't lose. well in the end, we decided one for all and all for one and we all did the chicken dance. haha. there was some fun times like one of the YN doing the split!! OMG!! zhen yao and i were kinda laughing at some jokes tgt cuz we felt more comfortable with each other, i guess. i think he's kinda the first friend besides zitian and weekuang in the grp to make me feel pretty comfortable. haha. :)
it was time for group discussions, on 2 points - a better life for and a new political environment. everyone got to share their experiences and opinions. :) we came up with a skit to act out for mg chan and mp teo ser luck. yupp we overran on our time for discussion and had a late lunch. haha. but at least we're all as a group. :) then after lunch, we had free time waiting outside salvation army before being able to use their facilities. we then use some of the time for chit chatting before we move on to further discussion for our skit. after deciding on the plots and stuff, we moved on to breaking up in smaller groups for our different scenes. haha zhen yao ask me to join him so i did. haha. it was so much laughter tgt with colin, lina and zhiwei(i hope i spelled correctly. XD) we ended up relating to the chicken dance we did in the morning. hahaha. wad a joke! during the rehearsal of the skit, i just couldnt stop laughing! haha.
it was then time for the dialogue and presentation to the guests-of-honour. it was a delightful and insightful time throughout the groups presentation as well as when mg chan was sharing with us about the how the party works and wad's policies and politics. i learnt smth new again. :) soon, it was over. and time for a group photo before the camp was broken. :) then yp had to collect our certs and badges after filling up the evaluation form. :) and finally, TITANS group photo before we left! =D (during the chit chat session, zhen yao and i had some funny moments tgt. laughing at each other for evesdropping on others convo! we just looked at each other and laughed. and thought that it was bad of us! cont'd below)
Photo Time!
SyMBIOSIS 2011 ^^
(while we're waiting to collect out badges and certs, zhen yao was with his bro while jon, weekuang and i were queuing tgt. wasnt really comfortable going up to him to talk. so we just made eye contacts with each other and smiled. cont'd below)
Group 4: TITANS! ^^
(when i got my cert, he hasn't and i wondered why. i guess finally he still did got it. hopefully we'll get to meet again real soon! or talk on fb. :) it'd be cool.)
Labels: jesslyn enjoyed symbiosis 2011
