Monday, February 2, 2009

My first camp

I am writing this on the request of Shin Loo.(see, I am sacrificing study time for you). And also because last Chinese New Year, I meet Lee Eei, my old friend from the camp.

Yes, after so many years, i think it must have been 8 years or so, since i last saw Lee Eei in high school.. and suddenly, out of the blue, she found me on facebook!! After 8 years!! and she's currently working in Singapore... to think of it, what of the chances of two people in different parts of the world, lost contact over the past 8 years, and finally got in touch together again? i MUST give credits to facebook! facebook does wonders, you know.. it's a miracle that i met her again... sometimes, maybe it is fate...

So, we met up last Chinese New Year and had a great long chat. We went to Secret Recipe for dinner and chatted till they closed... all those good old memories... how i missed them very much... and guess what? Today, Lee Eei found some pictures of the camp Shin Loo and i attended in Form one... and she posted them up on facebook... oh dear, i looked really silly back then... haha! Seeing those pictures brings back those good old memories from Form one... that was the first camp i ever attended,.. allow me to share it with you here:


The first camp I attended was a camp during Form 1, organized by the Chinese Language Society in my school

, KGV (King George V). Which was kind of ironic, as I was not Chinese Educated. Anyhow, my zhi mui, Shin Loo, magically convinced me to teman her join the camp.. I did not know how she managed to convince me, but I am glad she did, as, we had a great time.

It was not one of those training camps which required you to drain yourself physically and mentally. Instead, it was a fun camp, meaning, a camp organized for a group of friends to go and have fun. Our schedule was mainly playing from day to night. The camp was in Port Dickson, in a rented bungalow house, opposite the beach.

I remembered I shared a room with Shin Loo, Lee Eei and Tay Lu Ping. Have you heard of ‘Tuan Kang’? it’s like group singing with some simple body movement. How I missed those.

And I remember we had this game of ‘breaking in to a house’, where we had to pretend to be a thief and steal something, while the AJK(committees) will pretend to be some dumb residents. Seriously, you can stick yourself on the wall like a ‘cicak’ and they will pretend they did not see you.

And I remember the senior AJK Ah Fatt, who used bilingual throughout the camp and translated the language, although I was the only participant who had poor Chinese command.

I remember, my group had to do a stupid sketch. It was a sketch of a teacher giving a lesson in class, which was suppose to be a comedy sketch, I suppose. Because of my lack of vocabulary, I had only one line in the whole entire sketch. And I was to wait for the signal, and stand up to say that line. Our sketch, must have been really boring, coz no one actually laugh throughout it. The teacher was lecturing his student not to go to Seremban Lake Garden, because there are lots of ‘wong kiok kai’ there. And this was the part I was suppose to stand and said: ‘Yellow Leg Chicken??’.. well, the audience laughed, I wasn’t sure whether because the joke was funny, or because they understood the reason why I had only a single line in the sketch. Haha!

Oh yes, I remember we were blindfolded, and we had to walk through a forest. You have to hold the shoulders of the person in front of you as you walk through the dark. Well, I didn’t really like the dark.. but luckily, Shin Loo was there. I guess we were suppose to learn about trusting others.

And there was the game where everyone was blind folded and you will be put face to face with a stranger, place your hands in each others and start talking. Really, I cannot understand why the AJK liked to blind fold us. I’m just glad I didn’t talk about too personal things, because, after a couple of years, when I became an AJK, I had a surprised. While the two person was talking to each other, the AJKs would be eavesdropping next to them!! Giggling, they were.. how silly, right? And when the AJK gets bored of your conversation, they started changing you with another person. Worse, some might just trick you by pretending to be blindfolded… haha! So ya, I never played the game again.

I remember we had to write letters to an assign person and keep our identity as anonymous. We were suppose to encourage each other. And we have to reply to each other. I remembered we were given the nicknamed ‘xiao bai tu’ (white rabbit). And I did a quite cruel thing, when I called another friend , ‘xiao hei tu’, which I wished I had not. Why was I so mischievous back then?

I remembered having fun with my housemates. They wanted to put toothpaste on those who did not wake up in time (evil right?). And I remember leaving our names (in Chinese) on the white wall behind a cupboard in our room.

I remembered playing by the beach, I remembered the beautiful sunset.. I remember many things, patches of them.. I don’t know why. I just do.

Okay, there you go, Shin Loo. A bit messy, as i had written this in a rush. I better get back to study now =)

4 comments:

  1. none of this, none of this, none of this ring a bell at all !!! except for the part we had to be blindfolded to walk through jungle... and i vaguely remember the part where we have to sneak into a house to steal... and the sketch, there was a sketch? what was my line? the names behind cupboard... right, i vaguely remember that too... omg... i think i'm suffering from amnesia... is there a cure, wu shin'n?

    ReplyDelete
  2. ho shin'o, hehe.. seriously, i think i remember events better than facts... how nice would it be if i can memorize the medical facts as good as this :) siGh...

    oh, there was one more game where we had to pass message along a line by acting it out and the last person in the line have to guess what was it... that was super hilarious... my group did something like a vampire thing... my chinese not good, can't remember the proverb..

    ReplyDelete
  3. hm...my 1st camp, i hardly rmb about it, had tooo many camps in the past,scout camps, school camps, taoism camps,haha. everything was jz nice...i like the campfires, the 'tuan kang'(games),'chang you'(dancing) etc...those r my sweet memories
    the thing is, when i was a member, i wished to become AJK and fool the members...after becaming AJK...i missed the time being a member,haha

    ReplyDelete
  4. sine nomine, yeah, i missed going to camps so very much too... those were the best days... the Guides Camps, the Red Crescent Camps, the Language Society Camps, The Brats Journalist Camps,... oh.. how i missed them so very much... wish to be a kid all over again...

    ReplyDelete

dear friends, firstly, thanks for leaving your comments.. they are very much valued :)

secondly, do remember to leave your name =)
i'll like to know how can i address you ^^ thx

oh yes, if you do not have a blog/URL, just select open ID and leave the URL section blank :)

Author's Note

Dear friends and readers, Thank you for dropping by and leaving comments/ shoutouts. More importantly, thank you for being there... please accept my apology that, lately, i may be busy with work and not have time to reply youir messages/comments, but rest assured, each and everyone is read, and highly appreciated :) have a nice day! ^^

of love

Today, i heard a story which was not a story of falling...
of living in the dark end of winter turmoil..
instead, it was a love story..
of a couple who did not live happily ever after...
but they live, loving each other..