Level Camp 2008-Part 1

This year, the level camp was held at NS Home Team, Pasir Ris Park. Lacking any equipment in the campgrounds, I supposed they would be using the playgrounds (Spiderwebs etc.) of the park, which proved wrong for the next three days and two nights.

Upon arrival, the first activity was to create a class wristband, which almost no one wore later. This was followed by several group games not worth playing to me. Lunch was served later, and then we participated in an activity known as "the Big Event", which turned out not so big after all, somewhat similar in style to the group games played previously. Simply speaking I found it a BIG waste of time. How many times have we played games like blindfolding someone and guiding him around with words, or how many times had we played a game like passing a hoop through ourselves while linking hands? Values learnt from these cliche games included teamwork and communication skills, which thus became cliche too. Worst still, we learnt about the importance of time management from a game with no time limitations(at least that was what the instructors told us). They lacked originality.

After three gruelling hours of fun and games, we rehearsed a class skit we were supposed to enact during the campfire the next day. After that, we went to wash up. One chalet with 4 rooms and a living room, had two bathrooms(there were three but one was meant for instructor), and yet accomodated the entire year 2 males-at least 60 people. Of course, there was no hope of queing for the slightly cleaner bathrooms in the chalet thus more than half of the population was forced to the muddy public toilets. This made wash up time drag very long. Camp of last year at changi had facilities such that bathing the entire cohort took less than half an hour. Comparing the camps, last year's camp had facilities thrice better than this year. It is no wonder we did not need to pay for this camp unlike last year.

Dinner came and went, and then we learnt non-sensical campfire songs which had no proper melody. Even Spongebob's Campfiresong Song was better. While we were 'engrossed' in the songs, one of our classmates was taken away and asked to be chained in a place for the next game secretly. My friends and I noticed it and the reason is self-explanatory.

The game was called "Kidnapped" and we had to find keys and the kidnapee to unlock and save him, like ina treasure hunt. When that was over, it was 10:30pm. We had supper and knocked off to bed(literally-the ground was marble and my sleeping bag did not have any cushion). All for now. Part 2 coming up next.