Saturday, January 19, 2008
{ 9:16 PM }
YES WE DID IT. WE ROUGHED IT OUT AT OBS (OUTWARD BOUND SINGAPORE) DURING A 5 DAY COURSE!
301'08 FOR THE WIN!
CAMP 1
Watch: KURT
Instructor: VIVIAN!
Day 1
- reached OBS at around 10 plus in the morning
- admin matters such as allocation of watches
- played ice breakers with buddy watch (Bo Seng)
left left left right right right forward backward forward forward forward :D
- store check and ate biscuits for lunch
- learnt how to pitch tents
a must-know skill for survival in the open RAWR
- was supposed to play "fallen angel" to build trust within our watch but it rained so we seeked shelter and had a recap on how to belay climbers
- cooked dinner and packed haversack
- trekking delayed till about 9pm due to the rain
I LOVE NIGHT TREK! Amanda, thanks la for scaring me. (:
- pitched tents in the dark at some ulu campsite by the reservoir, slept on some slope full or rocks
SO NOT THERAPEUTIC, sleeping bags were rather useless. LUCKY IT DIDN'T RAIN IN THE NIGHT if not we'll have to hold on to our tent poles and sleep in mud puddles.
Day 2
- woke up, packed, unpitched tents and had breakfast in the dark
DIRTY. Eww.
- played morning games
Amanda style jumping jacks. Hee.
- sang Jonathan (Bo Seng's instructor) a birthday song
- cleaned up the campsite and natural toilet
- morning circle and reflections
- trekked back but stopped halfway to play a stone game
Basically we had to throw a pebble at the same time with the same hand and catch the pebble from the person next to you. Coordination and cooperation yo! Kurt's record: 4 CONSECUTIVE TIMES!
- capsize drill
I hit my head on the kayak. Ouch. LUCKY LUCKY we beached up and bathed before the cat 1 storm.
- walked to some tunnel in the forest and 26 people had to squeeze inside it to find puzzle pieces with only 6 light sticks
- ran back in the rain with a SMELLY poncho sticking to my face
- bathed again in less than an hour's time
- supposed to play games to chill but we were too engrossed in watching other watches climb the log ladder that we rejected our instructor's games
Got scolded and made to do a reflection. :(
- food rationed, pitch tents and slept at camp 1
Day 3
- SEA EXPEDITION: KAYAK TO SEMBAWANG!
- woke up at 5, planned to set off at 7am but some watches had not completed their capsize drill so we waited for 4 hours, standing by the beach
- loaded our camping stuff onto the powerboats
- had to say a line of encouragement to everybody before launching off
- paddled really fast against current cause we had to reach a checkpoint by 2pm (with that delay, we were afraid we had to turn back and also there were signs of imminent storms)
You know it's not at all comfortable to remain silent while others talk about their expeditions right.
- took 6 hours to reach sembawang and had an enjoyable evening though I was feeling feverish
- night circle
Jenny was freaked out by the instructor's not-at-all-scary story cause she acted as the amplifier for him. HAHA.
- sentry duty without excitement
Day 4
- the usual morning things: waking up, packing and unpitching tents
- played games to help foster bonds within CAMP 1 BRAVO
aye aye captain! Charlene's style jumping jacks. (:
- kayaked back to camp 1 in 3 hours, half the time we took to get there
LUCKY LUCKY LUCKY WE WERE WITH CURRENT AND WE REACHED BEFORE THE CURRENT CHANGED DIRECTION.
- had to swap partners in the middle to speed things up and where we paused, the water was only waist deep =.="
- cleaned and stacked the kayaks
- bathed
- climbed the "inverse tower", camp 1 Bravo had to earn 1000 points in order to eat in the cookhouse
WOOTS, WE ATTAINED 1128 POINTS! Yay thanks Amanda, we reached the top!
- got scolded for pitching our tents too slowly but it started raining
Almost had to cook dinner. LUCKY LUCKY LUCKY LUCKY!
- reflections then supper
- went to medical centre to check out if I needed eye wash for my really red eyes
- it rained heavily during and after dinner so we didn't have to sleep in tents, WE SLEPT IN THE MULTI PURPOSE HALL!
LUCKY times 5! Only then did the sleeping bag really came in handy.
Day 5
- usual stuff
- morning reflections about the course and chit-chat session
- store check
Kurt had to pay $16.95. WTH LA.
- played one last activity, "diving angel"
- closing speech by Vivian! and some presentations by several watches
- boat ride back to punggol jetty
- bus ride back to school
- car ride back to home
- slept for hours
"You cannot discover new oceans if you do not have the courage to lose sight of the shore."
Abigail, Amanda, Samantha, Ser Yee, Ser Gin, Wynne, Wan Ting, Jia Yi, Khaing Zin, Rachel, Zhang Jie, Zann, Vivien, Jonathan.
I LOVE YOU PEOPLE! <3
You all made OBS a memorable experience for me!
Though OBS was kind of unhappening except for some watches, I still miss it. It sure beats studying in a classroom. :D
OKAY THAT'S IT! PICTURES SOME OTHER TIME WHEN I GET THEM!
