*Lord, make me an instrument of your peace

Friday, February 04, 2005

Back from OBS! what can i say? OBS was fun, funky, exciting, exhilarating, crazy, tiring, cool.... ! AND we had a pretty instructor CINDY! ok, i'll start telling from day 1.

[Day 1]
We arrived at Punggol Jetty early in the morning. I remember all of us looking out into the sea, unsure of what was in store for us. We set off towards Pulau Ubin with mixed feelings. BUT, all turned out well. We were introduced to CINDY our humourous instructor and we started our activities for the first day. I was in AMUNDSEN watch. we were given so much food, and had to keep our own share!! We went kaYaKING the whole day, although we all did it last year at sec 2 camp, we learnt new stuff like "The art of capsizing" and how to get back into your boat if it capsizes in water! haha! My kayaking partner was sara chong, so there was once we had to help a capsized kayak! the capsized kayak was already in the middle of our kayak andCindy wanted me to peddle in nearer as i was siting at the back and was the only one who had a peddle! So i had to kayak with the weight of 4 people and 2 kayaks! hahahaha!! cool right? Yup, we kayaked longer than other people, but obviously there was a price to pay for that, we had to pitch tents in the dark and also had to cook in the dark! our first night's food was quite bad, agagaga, we had canned sardine and maggi noodles! We were very un-punctual on the first day so Cindy was quite pissed la, but she's very nice! So we came out with 5 commandments of Amunsend! "Thou shalt......" ghagagahaha! We got to bathe! the toilets were quite clean, surprise! It was freezing cold in the night i remembered, and i snored! hahahah! Oh wellz!

[Day 2]
Rise and shine! We started off with QT then we interacted with our buddy watch ARMSTRONG by playing stupid games! ahahah! Poor Nureen was the only one who wore an orange shirt that day and we all had to put our armpits on an orange object! so you know what happened...! ahhaah! Then we moved on to play TRUST GAMES, we started by standing in the middle of 2 friends and moved back forth without any control, we had to tally relie on our friend to push us! It was a nice feeling! Then, we had to try and JUMP to reach for a bell that was quite far, but in case you fell, your friends were there with a mat to save you! hahahaha!! Not bad lah! Then the highlight of the day was rock climbing and belaying! hahaha!! cause we spent most of our time there! We learnt a new skill about how to belay, so many belaying calls to do, like "am i on belay""that'sme""Cindy check""falling".... blah and blah! hahahah! After we all tried our hands on belaying we went rock climbing! I suck at rock climbing, but i climbed further than last year, but it's still very low! hahaha! Eliza n Nureen rock lah! They both reach the top! Well done! hahaha! I learnt that you actually need 4 people to rock climb, the climber, the supporter, the belayer and the assistant person to hold the ropes! how cool is that? hahaha! We ended the day with something very exhilarating, THE FLYING FOX, or was it FLYING FROGS?? dunno lah! anyway, it was so scary man, but fun lah! hahaha! Cindy likes to ask radom questions when you're walking up the ladder like "why does your parents name you Crystal"and she tells sarah "rapuntzel, let down your hair" hahahaha! so funny! It was a nice sensation to fall from the air, inthe end, Cindy also did it, coolCindy! hhaahahah! So did Hiap Lou, the instructor from armstrong, hahaha,, super funny, he was like doing stunts in the air! hahahah, then we were all on the grass when rachel saw AN ant, and we all thought what was it cause she exclaimed like it was something big! aggahahaha! Cindy taught us how to cook rice, it was a bad attempt for us, it was crunchy! hahaha! ate it with luncheon meat and campbelle soup, hahaha! We got to bath again! hahahahahah!!Then after dinner, we had a briefing for the sea expedition for the next day then we went to sleep!!

[Day 3]
We did the Sea -ex with Armstrong, Batutta and Cheng Ho! The intructor from Cheng ho NATALIE was super funny man! hahah! Each watch needed a leader so i was the leader lor. I was sweeper during the expedition, meaning to kayak behind and make sure no one is left behind! It was really tiring but fun! When we stopped for lunch, we all were so hungry that we gobbled everything up, Natalie was telling us, "Wah, this is like hungry ghost festival like that! Everyone just take the food and dun care, just eat! " she obviously did it with funny actions that made it so funny lah! Then she went to pick up a teeny weeny seashell and said "come Crystal, this is your ling pai as sea-ex leader!" I was laughing like mad, but i kept the small seashel;l, cause it's super memorable! Our timing was pretty good! We travelled 13-15km on the kayak! wow right? hahah! We reached our new campsite for the day! This campsite did not have toilet so all shitting and peeing ad to be done in the bushes! But although we didn't get to bathe, we got to swim in a freshwater quarry which is collected rain water, super refreshing!!! Our dinner was fab man! It was curry chicken maggi noodles with canned mushrooms and sausages and peanuts! nice!That night it was so dark, me and eliza and sarah wanted to go call Cindy to tell her we'd be late, and i stupidly stepped into this big pool of mud sludge! and those were my dry shoes and i threw away my wet shoes already! hahahah, so bodo la me! agagagah! When we all went to meet Cindy, we tried to call her, forming a dominant c chord, hahaha! Very funny! The floor was hard that night cause there were stones poking all over, but at least we had a place to sleep lah!

[Day4]
We all ate oranges for breakfast! Like the norm, we had QT and journal sharing! Then we had a super inteersting activity! we had to build a raft and every group crapped up something when advertising it to the instructors lah! hahahah! But AMUNDSEN's raft worked best ok!!! hahahaha!! It was super fun! and the male instructors are super disgusting man, they suck up water and spray it at you! hahahaha! To make our way back to our original camp site, the one we slept for the first few days, we had land expedition! Nureen was navigator with addy and Pei shan was sweeper! hahah! I was at the back woth her cause i couldn't walk so fast carrying that whole heavy bag of ponchos! We always missed the check point and had to turn back, but it was good exercise! i felt so accomplished! The sole of my shoe was on the verge of coming out totally so i kept tripping and Cindy kept laughing! hahahaha! When we reached back to the campsite, i felt so accomplished!!!!!!!! gagahahaha! W all stood in a circle and massaged for each other, wah, Cindy's massage was so good man! i happened to stand in front of her! hahaha! I went to get duct tape from Cindy and she help me tape back my shoe, so funk man, i took a pic of it! hahahaha! Dinner was THE BEST! we had klots to eat and we had orange juice too! It was too good! We hadto do the stores and pack the stores so things were quite rush, but we managed to do it! We could bathe again! hahahahah! sleeping was cold, hahahaha. I was thinking about everything that happened during obs last night, i couldn't help feeliung sad that we were leving the next day... hahaha.. saw nureen and rachel "bicker" about where to light the mosquito coil and that was like an expected thing to happen every night, so saddedning... :(

[Day 5]
Actua;lly i typed day 5 already, but it got erased, dunno why? Anyway, we had morning activity, had to walk through this tunnel blindfolded. We all had communication breakdown, Nureen was suppose to knockon the door not knock open the door! hahahah! She opened it, and cindy was actually sitting right above it! Sofunny, f only we all were there to see how funny it was. While we were walking inside the tunnel, mosquitos were feasting on Cindy's blood, poor thing, she had so many bites after that! Then, Cindy went to check stores,i had to clean this particular mess tin cause its sides were so dirty lah! haha, after stores were all checked, we did an evluation form. Then, we got our photos and certificates, Cindy was so sweet, she wrote a quote and a small message behind everyone's photo! We proceeded to buy souvenirs. The sole of my left shoe was beyond rescue so Cindy told me to yank it off, hahaha, and so i did, and she ended up laughing again!hahahah! So funny, felt weird and funny walking like that, but the shoe is till with me, it hold too many memories and can't bear to throw it away! haix! So sad, we didnt get to see Cindy before we left, we were suppose to see her at the jetty to take photo with her, but she didn't come, probably too busy lah, can't blame her, but SO SAD OK! So we left, arrived at the punggol jetty in time to see the arrival of mr ong, mr ling, mrs lim, ms cheong.. etc. I stood and faced the sea, exactly the same spot where i stood on the first day. The feeling was different, everything that happened during the past 5 days flashed through my mind. so sad. The journey back to school was "heavy", everyone was tired and sad, i looked out of the window only to see tall buildings, taxis and car, not rocks, not sand, not the sea. 5 days is indeed fast. I really will miss OBS, you could stay there forever, it'll take your mind off school work and everything, the power of nature! haha!

I really learnt a lot from OBS and these can be applied to daily life. I learnt how communication and cooperation is so important especially when working with a big group of people. Understanding too. This can be used to pull the class to gether, to understand everyone of them, talk with them. Perseverance and patience are also very important. You musn't give up when ever you do something, like when solving a problem in school or something... hahahah! Lastly, don't underestimate yourself, you won't know the outcome of anything if you don't make the effort to try! hahahah! yup, so much learnt, actually if you carefully think about it, everyone knows all these, it's just that you don't know the power of it unless you've experienced it, like in OBS.

OBS rocks, CINDY rocks, AMUNDSEN rocks, hope can go OBS again in the near future!

Crystal

crys the piano sounded @ 9:39 PM

-ThE EnD-