House Comm Camp 2014

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Channel Barney strikes again hehehehe (also I apologize for attempting to wink)

Hello there friends :-) 

If there's one thing that changed my life forever and impacted me the most during my time in RG, it's undoubtedly being the Waddle House Captain. It's definitely something that made me grow and mature exponentially, and also allowed me to do so with people who have grown to become some of the most amazing and precious people in my life. So, as Term 1 ended for all of us on Friday (14 March) and as the March holidays beckon, instead of going somewhere to celebrate the end of term, C5 headed back to RG to conduct House Comm Camp for our juniors and it was officially the last event we'll ever plan and execute as House Captains 2013. 

Before heading to RG though, we went to J8 to get some last minute logistics plus a much needed ice cream break :') 

Matcha McFlurry is gooooooooood! 

Pink cone - very nice marketing gimmick to get people excited to eat simple ice cream again hur hur 

To be entirely honest, planning for this camp has been quite a pain - our busy JC schedules didn't give us much time to meet up properly to plan and it was a lot more difficult to gain access to manpower to help us for the camp. Communicating with the teachers was a challenge as well - we couldn't simply walk to the staffrooms in school and expect to find the House teachers waiting for us. It was terrible and even on Friday, none of us felt like we were prepared to run a 2D1N camp - we didn't have everything in check and our manpower kept pulling out one by one.

Tired and jaded :-( 

Nevertheless, this was our last responsibility as House Captains and the least we could do was to give our juniors an experience that they can take with them and remember forever. Our camp didn't want to focus on the fun aspect too much and honestly as students, we're sick and tired of attending camps that are one-off and don't serve much purpose or cause any impact on our lives at all. We truly wanted to create a camp experience that would stay in the House Commers for a long, long while; a camp that we'd wish we'd be given the opportunity to attend if we were still serving the school in House. So yes - we were determined to give our all for this final task. 

Blob being our guinea pig as we prepared for night surprise! :-) 

And while I was there, I paid a visit to another family of mine that accompanied me through my four years in RG - the Guides! They were having March Camp as well and I crashed Outdoor Cooking for a while with some of my batch who were helping out, though most of them were Young Adults (YAs).

I've missed doing this sigh :') 

We started House Comm Camp with some ice breakers and a short introduction before going straight into the first activity of the camp - the Blindfold Dinner! We had wanted the House Commers to trust one another and practice true empathy.

Maria! :-)

Van & her successor Chow hahaha :-)

Oh, and at this point of time, Mel had to leave for Rock Camp back in RJ so it was left with Channel 4, which was really quite sad because we didn't get to carry out the entire camp as a complete group. Unfortunately, we didn't order enough food and we had to go without dinner and that was just one of the things that went wrong that night. Somehow, the locations we booked for our night walk were taken up by the Chinese department for meet-the-parents sessions and we had to shift everything back and bring an activity meant for Day 2 forward. Honestly, it's as if everything that could go wrong just went wrong that night and to be honest, throughout the whole camp. 

Oh dear what to do :-( Well, we were legitimately extremely worried and scared that the entire camp will just crumble into pieces. 

Candy to fill our tummies temporarily! 

Preparing for night surprise in a hurry - trust me, those smiles are pretty fake and forced heh 

Yet, at the same time I think the three of us - Van, Huiying and myself - were genuinely quite happy because we were laughing to ourselves how this would be the last time we'd be slogging for an event like that since amongst C5, we are the ones who didn't try for Council in JC. 

Whoops jam :-(

It was honestly crazy because Huiying's laptop went missing all of a sudden and we couldn't play the original video we intended to show but night surprise finally started after all the mishaps and although it didn't go that well, it happened and I just hope everyone was able to take away something from the experience. The night surprise was followed by a heart to heart talk under the stars on the track, which went pretty well for Waddle, in my opinion. 

That summed up the day and when we thought that everything could go wrong has already gone wrong, the sleeping location (KS Chee) was occupied with chairs and House Commers had to squeeze for the night. It was insane, but at least we survived Day 1 - not without major problems, but most were overcome and covered up pretty decently. 

Donuts for supper from Ms Cheong for the J1 facilitators :') 

When everything was finally done and settled, C5 order McDonalds for our (extremely late) dinner and we were so excited for it because we could finally sit down to eat and talk and rest. 

A very happy Van & I collecting our food in the middle of the night!

S A L V A T I O N! 

Van & Minglu! :-) whoa blue matchy-matchy

Huiying & I! :-) So happens that we were both (kinda) wearing green HAHA I just noticed that.

The four of us had a heart to heart talk, one we haven't been able to have in a long, long while and it's amazing how far we've come - I am truly blessed to have been able to work with this bunch for slightly more than a year and to have them as my friends. It's crazy how genuine we are about each other and how vulnerable we are able to be in each others' company. Somehow, when we are together, there's no need for airs, there's no need to wear masks, there's no need to conceal who we really are and that's something I really appreciate about them. I think it's slightly ironic because a lot of the things we do as House Capts involve carrying an image of some sort but I love them so much honestly. 

SO MUCH LOVE FOR THIS - it was around 3am when this photo was taken - pity Mel couldn't join us sigh. 

Then we bathed and it was sleepy time! We barely had any time to sleep though, since we headed back so late. I think we had around four hours tops. 

Fortunately for us, Day 2's programme was a lot less taxing on us because there weren't physical things we had to do such as setting up but it was more focused on insightful things, which we didn't have to do much about so that was a lot better on our part. It resulted in less complications too :-) 

Good morning from Cai Minglu - Nutella is her favourite!! 

It's been a while standing in front and speaking to people :') To be honest, I kind of miss it. 

Fangmin & Beijun - two of the very kind J1s who agreed to come back to help facilitate several of the camp activities - we truly appreciate you guys; honestly this camp will not be able to work without the help and manpower you guys are able to provide!

WUCKLE :-) Such a lovely photo. 

Shermaine & Minglu! :-) 

The highlight of Day 2 was service and this was mainly led by Positive Intentions, an organization which Minglu volunteers a lot of her time to. The speaker, Ethen, is the co-founder of the company and he is one extremely powerful speaker. I honestly learnt a lot from him and although he does come off as being a bit too direct, the technique actually works. It's amazing.

I do hope the House Commers were able to take away something meaningful from what he shared with us.

Waddle House Comm heading out to embark on service! :-) 


Due to media sensitivity issues, I'm unable to post a lot of photos from the service trip but it was a service unlike any other. In my opinion, it truly affected many of the House Commers who were there, especially those from my service group and the impact was insane and personally for me, the experience is something I'll remember forever as a reminder to myself. The service location that emotionally affected the majority of us was the Institute of Mental Health's Women's Ward. Many a times, in casual conversations, we like to joke about things like sending our "crazy" friends to IMH and stuff along those lines and laughing about it. However, sometimes we fail to realize that there are really people in need of medical attention for mental issues and it's thoroughly insensitive of us, even when we don't really mean it. 

The service trip was overwhelming, to say the least. It was so heartbreaking but I think it served as a wake up call for many of us. Ethen managed to round everything up very well at the end of it and he allowed us to truly consolidate our thoughts, to showcase our vulnerable side to our fellow House Commers. Majority of us cried, including myself - I do think we've managed to provide House Commers with food for thought to last them for a while. 


The camp ended on a high note and I'm so glad we managed to pull everything off. It's amazing how House Commers told us that this camp was the most meaningful one they've ever been to all their lives and it truly means so much to us. Great job Channel 5 - we've done it! (for the last time ever) 

I really like this photo of Karyn and myself :') Jiayou for the rest of the year!

Scored a selfie with one of my favourite teachers in the school - Ms Cheong! :-) 

I'm seriously going to miss working with this bunch so so so very much but at the same time it's such a relief to get all responsibilities off me. It's bittersweet, really. 

After House Comm Camp 2014 ended, I headed back to Guides Camp and joined in for the campfire! Unfortunately, they had to hold this year's campfire in the hall but the atmosphere was still there and it feels so amazing to be back, to sing the songs I know too well from my Brownie and Girl Guide days :') While I love my JC life at the moment, it's so difficult to deny that I miss everything that I've been through in secondary school.

With some of my favourite juniors in Guides - 02 Ixora! 

(Kinda) full 02 Ixora 2013 photo - missing Wei Xuan though :-( 


It was an amazing two days spent back in RG, reliving every moment and taking in so much. Thank you so much for the final memories and it's been such a pleasure serving this school, honestly, solely because of the people.

No comments

Post a Comment