It's been a hectic July, and it's mostly spent on going for camps and celebrating birthdays. It's been a tiring, but fulfilling July.
I've finally got time to settle down and blog about my camps.
The very first orientation camp I've went for was Efinity camp, which is an orientation camp for all EEE/IEM freshies.
After I knew that I got into EEE, I dreaded every single day to the start of school. However, it came to a point that I couldn't run away from the fact that i'm matriculating as a student and I'll be staring school in less than a month time.
Before I went for the camp, I was dreading it.
Because,
1) Im not a camp person
I signed up for Efinity camp, the sole reason being I didn't want to be and feel alone when school starts. I'm not the kind of person who exactly love camps, in fact I would try my very best to avoid them and give excuses not to go to one.
I remembered the only camp I've ever went for back in TPJC was OGL training and that was because I wanted to be a properly trained OGL to my OGMs.
The thought of stinking like crazy because we wouldn't be able to bathe properly with 20 people sharing one toilet, hearing an orchestra of snores at night and needing to be super enthusiastic for all activities just turns me off.
I'm kind of an introvert and I like to have my own cool down period after going out the whole day with friends. In camp, there wouldn't be times like this because you will always be surrounded by people. When you try to find your little corner to whine down by yourself, people would think you're being anti-social.
I'm sure that isn't the impression you would want to give off, especially in the midst of trying to make new friends which is what camps are about.
So, camps are definitely not my thing.
2) NTU is far and huge
As an Eastie, the travelling is crazy. It takes 2 hours to get to NTU from my house. It's so far to the point that when I sit on the MRT and got down at Boon Lay my butt cramped like crazy.
NTU is so huge that it's so intimidating. I didn't even know how does NTU even look like. I've only went to NTU once and I got lost trying to find my way to Crescent Hall to stay with Jana.
I just really hate the feeling of being lost and don't know my whereabouts, it's so scary to think that getting lost in your very own school is a possibility.
3) Camps are boring
Other than the typical ice breaker games to get the ball rolling and catchy cheers to bond the OG, the highlight of every camp would be amazing race which we get to go around singapore and travel from station to station. Structures of camps are basically just like this.
Though many told me that uni camps would be so much more fun, I didn't expect much because I don't know whats installed for me.
After going through this camp, I didn't regret at all. To be honest, I've truly enjoyed myself throughout the whole of the camp.
Summary, Expectations VS Reality:
The very first day, we met at BoonLay MRT station early morning and made our way to NTU. My first friend I've met there was Yun Kai. We had this instant connection with each other. In my words, 'Eh our frequency like same sia'. My Og's color is blue, so everyone was wearing blue!
I didn't feel so alone anymore and started to feel better.
We arrived at NTU and played our icebreakers game, painted our flag and learnt some cheers.
Blow wind blow!
This is my CGL in white, Eric, better known as Mr Triple E.
AGL, Michelle
AGL, Zheng Long
1) DIFFERENT KIND OF CHEERS
Expectation: Back in pri/sec/jc days most of the cheers are kept at PG level. This means that whatever we cheer cannot be offensive, vulgar and must be in english so that everyone could cheer.
Reality: Here in Uni, cheers are usually in mixtures of english, chinese and hokkien. The cheers are not exactly PG friendly, but it's all for the fun of it.
Cheers like this is my banana, nananana, All those who mess with us etc. are definitely not PG friendly. Those who have gone for camps should know what cheer I'm talking about. In uni camps, I guess people are more sporting and more open. So do keep an open mind when you go for camps, it'll do you good and you'll have a fun time!
Due to little restrictions on the cheers, most of the cheers are pretty catchy!
2) CHALET
Expectation: I thought the whole camp would be held in NTU because after all, it's a school camp after all yes? Before the camp, I really wonder what we were going to do in NTU for the whole of 5 days because I couldn't think of things to do because it's so constrained.
Reality: To my surprise, we were heading to Aloha Chalet.
I've never expected us going to chalet. A part of me cheered silently because we were heading back to the east. It made me feel a little less home sick because I was in a territory that I'm familiar with. The feeling of gazing out the window and looking at foreign road signs and unfamiliar sky scrappers made me a little wary, for all you know such a blur person like me I could've easily gotten lost.
In the evening, It occured to me that there's fake freshies among us.
Fake freshies are seniors that are already students in NTU but were among us introducing themselves as freshies, playing around with us.
The objective of them was to lift the whole OGs spirit and energy level up. Freshies being freshies, everyone would be quiet and awkward on the very first day. They would usually be the ones interacting with everyone and the ones who are more loud and hyped up.
I've found out that my dear Yun Kai was a fake freshie and I felt so deceived, but eventually I got over it and we're still real good friends. I realized that in every camps there would be fake freshies so I kept an open mind about it.
Highlights of the camp:
- SP Tekan/Day
SP stands for secret partner. All of us are being blindfolded in a concourse and brought to meet our secret partner. We were asked about our traffic light color at the start of the camp. Evergreen means that you have never dated anyone before, green single, amber it's complicated while red is unavaliable. They would usually pair people of the same traffic light color together. The guys would need to go through a series of things to do in order to get their secret partner, and the process is called SP Tekan. We would then go out on a date the next day to get to know each other better.
We were all blindfolded and seated to talk to our secret partners.
We asked questions about each other to get to know each other better while being blindfolded. These questions are important because it's being used to identity your secret partner for the guys during SP Tekan.
At midnight, we all went back to our respective chalet after interacting with our SPs and the tekan began. Different OG had different method of tekaning. For Asgard, they were made to eat bitter gourd, eat oreo with wasabi and being tasked to do silly things like praying to our OG flag. The guys would then go to the girl's OG to get their girl.
After going through all these tasks, the guys had to identify their SP among all the girls by asking one question. They had to say a pick up line and identify the correct girl in order to pass.
It's quite entertaining to watch the guys getting punished and do silly things, and it's even more fun to mess with the guy's head when all of us put our hands up when they ask a question in order to identify the girl so that they wouldn't find out.
SP Day was when we went out together on a date. The Asgard girls went out as a group and we went to cineleisure to catch Ted 2 and ate at Tokyo pancake house downstairs. We were all so exhausted from the camp that most of us slept during the movie.
I guess it's a platform for us to know people from other OGs as well because all the guys come from different OG. This not only made us bond within our OG as asgard girls but also with other people out of our circle.
It's a new thing that I've never experienced before so I guess it's fun because we get to meet more people. Some people would even get together after being paired up as each other SP after camp!
- Beach day
Yay to singlet! I've never had a school singlet before, hahaha sorry sua-ku. Games are pretty fun and most of us got pretty tanned after spending the whole day at Sentosa.
Asgard flag lookin' good
the 'who-has-the-most-dry-newspaper-game'
All so tanned under the scorching sun
We got introduced this term called photo formation. Whenever somebody chants 我要看到我的脸, the guys have to lie flat on the ground, with the girls lying on top of them.
I was like shit, isn't this very heavy for them? Especially when I'm not exactly very light HAHAHAHA! Sorry guys.
- Initiation Night
The infamous, yet one of the more memorable event. This is the night where the seniors get to blindfold you and take you to 'somewhere' and throw stuff at you.
For Efinity camp, initiation was quite mild. The seniors poured soya sauce, sweet drinks basically anything watery on us. By the end of the day, We smelled like stink bombs and had to throw away our shirt.
- Campfire/Cheer fight
My expectations for the campfire is just sitting around the campfire and watching performances by different OGs, which was part of any campfire.
Apart from the performances, we have this cheer fight whereby we have to come up with as many cheers as possible. The first OG to run of cheer would be eliminated. The last OG standing would be crowned the winner.
In this camp, instead of individual OG, we were separated into two groups of 3 OG. It's really exciting to be part of this because the seniors who had been with us guiding us throughout the 5 days camp won't be with us at all, meaning to say we freshies are alone in this cheer fight.
In this event, we will all get to see another side of everyone. People who are usually more outspoken would step up and be the leader of the group leading the cheer. People who are more introvert and quiet cheered their lungs out because they don't want to disappoint their OGs. Some people even initiate cheers that weren't even taught by us throughout the camps.
I feel that it's a very heart warming event because it's where the seniors would get to see how far their freshies had come. From distinct, awkward individuals to a united, bonded group. It's also an event where we interact with people from other OGs even though we have never met or spoken to before, breaking out of our own comfort zone within our OG.
-Amazing Race
Basically running around the whole sg completing stations as well as side tasks!
Gardens by the bay
Chinatown - side task: taking a 2min vid without moving
- Pool day
We went to SRC and played pool games there. The pool games were fun, especially the one you had to do a confidence jump from a platform.
one banana two banana three banana four...
1,2,3 annnnd jump!
Efinity camp culture:
It's the 2nd year that this camp is running so I guess it's been a wonderfully carried out camp. I feel that within the next few years this camp would get even more exciting and event-packed when it's more established like Insinyur camp.
If you are someone who's going to study EEE/IEM, this is the camp you would definitely not want to miss.
I guess the most important thing to take away from this camp is the friends you make there.
There are going to be there for you over the next four years because they are in the same faculty as you.
There are going to be the ones there for you when you need any help and the most amount of time you are going to spend with them going for lectures and tutorials together.
This camp gave me the most family feel, the times where we sat in circle in our chalet and have heart to heart talks.
The buffer time between activities gave us the opportunity to talk among ourselves to know each other better, more than surface level.
What to expect on your first uni camp:
I guess you've got to keep an open mind because it's a really fun experience. For someone who detest camps, I've truly enjoyed myself.
I've made many new friends who are going to be my course mates, meaning to say they would be there to guide and go to the same tutorials/lectures with me for the next four years. I dread less going to uni now because I know I'm not in this alone.
Ending Note:
Thankyou Main Comm of Efinity camp for this amazing camp and the camp to kickstart my uni life and subsequent camps.
Thankyou Eric for being caring and doing his best as a CGL to keep our spirits up throughout the whole camp.
Thankyou Michelle for being just like our Asgard welfare mother. She is always there keeping track of our whereabouts, checking us up from time to time if we were okay as well as being the most approachable and friendly to talk to!
Thankyou Zhenglong for taking the time to interact with us even though he's busy juggling with his other commitments.
Thankyou Proggies for making the games fun
Thankyou Seniors for sacrificing your holidays just to mingle around with us and guide us throughout the whole camp!
Thankyou to Brenda for taking all these photos for us for us to look back to for our camp!
Last but not least, thankyou all Asgardians for making this camp so memorable!
They always say, the first of everything would always be the most unforgettable. This is one of the camps that I would definitely remember.
