Sure, it was tiring, hot and at times slightly fustrating, but i wouldn't trade one second of it for the world. :)
From the Left to the Right:
Front Row: Kennedy, Hong Kai, Terrence, Lee Wa, Nadine, Sung, Bambby
Middle Row: Wonn Jen, ME, Jun Xiang, Annabel, Celine, Aless, Emily
Last Row: Sharon and Jiaying
And of coz, our AWESOME instructor Johanna! (the one in red)
HAHA so glad to have such crazy, caring, high, optimistic, determined and helpful watchmates! ^
So....back to what happened during OBS, will type more about FANTASTICAL watchmates later ;)
Day 1:
We set off on tues, a day right after our Chem CT. Whole class was super excited, the night b4 our class whatsapp was spammed with discussion abt OBS and what to pack etc. HAHA and then everyone was laughing at my super GL + BIG Leopard bag x) DAMN JOKE.
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My Leopard Bag^
I was like staring at everyone's camping bag, all so mainstream black and blue then suddenly look at mine, LEOPARD STYLE! RAWRRRRRR. LOL. Anyway, we went to punggol by bus and then to pulau ubin obs camp 1 by boat. Then went to the hall to put down our bags, and realise our group name. HAHAHAHA DHANABALAN. WHOOTS. Couldn't catch it at first so we had to asks the instructor to repeat a few times x)
We played THE CIRCLE OF LIFE after that. :) Demanded a lot of focus and cooperation on everyone's part. I think we were all quite frustrated for a period of time coz we couldn't complete the task as quickly as we expected. But WE DID IT! So yea, Congrats people :) Even though this is like a super minor task as compared to the expeditions of OBS, i think it's still something to celebrate. It was where we got to know each other a lil more, understand how each other think, learn how to cooperate. I think this game really marked the start of our OBS journey together, and all the other obstacles that we will overcome in the future :) DHANABALAN READY? xD
And we assigned roles such as Day ICs, Store ICs, Food ICs, Leave no trace behind ICs and First Aid ICs. Thank God that everyone took the initiative to take up roles x) it made the process much more painless and faster :)
OH. AND WE TALKED A LOT ABOUT FOOD. EVEN FOOD WAS THE MOTIVATION FOR US TO COMPLETE THE GAME. ^ Super epic! :)
We ate lunch provided by the camp's canteen, and it was really nubbad :) I think it kindda gave us the mentality that, ' hey, maybe OBS isnt as 辛苦 as we expected' HAHAHAHA we were so wrong but anyway, the main thing is that we enjoyed lunch. I'm really proud that nobody grumbled when we had to wash the dishes, dry them, clean the table etc. I mean.... WHO WANTS WHINY CAMP MATES?
Then we went to put our bags down in the store etc. Was introduced to various equipment and stuff then went down for kayaking lessons! :)
Capsize Drill was quite fun! But that wasn't the main takeaway from the kayaking lessons x) Emily lost her specs and everyone was desperately trying to help her find and offering their specs, contacts etc. to her. :) I'm really touched that everyone was so nice and helpful :) Nobody went like ' Aiya cant find one lah, ocean so big' So glad to have such wonderful schoolmates! ( Btw, specs was found in the end :))
Also wanna thank the guys for transporting almost all the kayaks down to the sea! They took the initiative to immediately get the boats whenever the instructor needed them without any complain :) and they didn't ask the girls to help either, even though there were quite a few kayaks and hence, they needed to make a few rounds. Just wanna thank them for being so gentlemanly and doing all the saikang :)
So we went to bathe and learned how to cook when it started to rain. AHAHAH apparently our class girls were afraid that we wouldnt have enough time for everyone to bathe and some washed their hair in the sink x) We made the whole toilet floor wet but OH WELL. Good Fun and i guess we kindda bonded over our crazy bathing plus trying-to-dry-clothes habits? HAHAHAH then cooking was great too. I'm hopeless at cooking so i wasnt much use but GOOD JOB PEOPLE OUR COOKING WAS EDIBLE :D
Went back to store to pack our bags for the next 3 days. Super chaotic and there was a fire drill. Again, SUPER EPIC x) We all thought it was the telephone and were shouting, ' PICK UP THE PHONE, QUICK PICK UP THE PHONE!' hahahhahahha OMG we never cease to amaze our poor instructor, eh. Dear Johanna had to come up to find us, to bring us down to the hall. And we were the last group OOPS ><
Then learnt how to pitch tents but that was more of the guys :) Really wanna thank them again for helping the girls setup tents and ultimately also keep the tents :) Then we went to sleep. Frogs and crickets were noisy but OH WELL. x)
Day 2:
Woke up at an unearthly hour of 04 30 and went to have a quick shower and wash up. I think we took really long, by the time we went down to unpitch tents, the guys were done with theirs and almost with ours. SORRY GUYS :(
Reported for PT after that. HAHA quite joke. it was more of a 'we-need-u-to-wait-for-canteen-to-open-so-we-make-u-do-all-these-stuff 'session. x) Basically, it was just a short run and some games before breakfast. Breakie was good too :) Then we went for trust fall and heigh elements.
Trust fall was quite meh. When u stand up there and about to fall, it's quite scary but when u actually fall, it lasts less that half a second, and then nothing happens.
something liddat^
Celine was really scared to jump so we were all cheering her on :) It was great seeing us all motivating her to jump, from encouraging to threatening HAHAHA. She did jump in the end so GOOD JOB CELINE :) We are proud of you x)
Then did height elements the tripod stand thing. Had to learn belaying first. And me the toot keep clipping my carabiner wrongly. So i went up there, was frigging scared for the first part, then when i had to change carabiner, i clipped it wrongly. HAIYO FACEPALM. Then, dont know why, cannot unclip it. OH MY 天 So i got stuck up there trying to unclip it, and in the process got use to the height. Johanna had to come up to unclip for me, and i completed the rest of the element fearlessly LOL. Thank you Johanna! x) So it was a blessing in disguise huh xD
Then we grabbed our BIG HEAVY BAGS and trekked to camp 2 :) Wanna express thanks to my watch that nobody complained at all about the bags :) Really appreciate it :)
Cooked and washed up then and then voted for our sea expedition leaders, Terrence, Charis, Jianhong and Zenghan. Had a short briefing before we went to sleep :)
Day 3:
Sea Expedition!!! Kayaked with Jiaying and Yixuan at first. Jiaying was seasicked but i didn't know then. So she kept stopping and whenever she stopped, Yixuan did too! OMG WAS DAMN PISSED THEN. I was like the only one rowing. So we lagged behind real bad, and the sweepers kept asking us to hurry up. Ended up switching places with Wonn Jen. And ultimately learned that Jiaying was seasick, was a lot less pissed after that and even felt guilty :( i guess im not good at kayaking either coz when i was rowing with aless and celine, i felt like i was slowing them down! :( REALLY SORRY. And i am really grateful that they didn't complain about me being a burden. And we kept bumping into Kennedy's boat! Another person im truly grateful for is Kennedy coz he's always so cheerful, no matter the task at hand. I really admire his positive personality that never fails to brighten anyone's mood :) Really glad to have such a great guy in the watch. Coz 3 of us girls could not take it anymore, i switched with Sung. HAHAHAH and it was so funny. Sung was trying to flop up the kayak and a dead fish flopped up instead! HAHAHHA we were all so freaked out hahha. It was squarish and even had a horn like thing. then i think Kennedy flipped it off the kayak with his paddle. Really good laugh that brightened up our day as we were all tired from kayaking.
So i ended up kayaking with Kennedy and Clara, all the way to shore! Clara lost her cap in the meantime but Thank God, Laura found it! :) I still feel that i was a burden to Kennedy and Clara too :( Me and my dreadful kayaking skills. To all those i kayaked with, IM REALLY SORRY FOR DRAGGING U ALL DOWN T.T
Since we couldnt shower as there were no facilities in our campsite, we got a dip in the quary! Quite an experience :) It wasn't saltwater, It was like really a water body full of FRESHWATER! :)
Then we had to cook, but it started raining. With no shelter and nothing, what did we do? WE BUILT A SHELTER WITH PONCHOS :D AWESOME WATCH. It was Celine's idea and we worked on it. Even though it stopped raining half way constructing the shelter, we put it up all the same! :) I think my watch is really innovative and funfilled :) Bonded a lot over dinner, cooked the BEST DINNER EVER!!! Cambell soup with curry chicken, sardine, noodle and bread! We were all sharing mess tins and even eating directly from the pot AHAHHA a sight to behold! :)
Couldn't sleep at night so i stayed outsight to feed the bugs HAHAH
Day 4:
Trekking with really heavy bags! Was kindda dead on my feet with very lil sleep from the night before. But still, it think we made really good progress! :) We climbed a hill and i was quite literally panting like a dog by the time we were up there. Then we went to a check point. On the way back, Nadine was still hyperventilating and so while we were doing a team bonding activity, Johanna pulled her out. In the end Nadine went into power saving mode and her limbs couldnt....how do you put it.... work i guess? It was very heartwarming to see people trying to make her well again! Eg. fanning her, massaging her limbs :) Then Emily felt dizzy too and Terrence had to force her to eat. It's really cool how well Emily and Terrence work together, no wonder they are good friends :) In the meantime, Johanna found LeeWa's sleeve and she was like (i quote) ' Is this real?' HAHAHAHAAH OMG DAMN FUNNY
It was Johanna's birthday too so we sang her birthday song :)
We then split the load of Nadine's bag and it was really great that everyone was so supportive and even eager to take the extra load. After some time, a boat came to fetch Nadine to Camp 1 and the rest of us trekked back to Camp. Thank God for Kennedy and Junxiang who took the initiative to be the navigators :)
Arrived at camp really late compared to the other groups. We were given extra ingredients for dinner! Carrots, onions, cabbage, chicken essence etc. Wanna thank the watch for allowing me to sleep while they were cooking! <3 And the food was really good :) I think we are all master chefs now huh ;)
HAHA and the Onion Story x)
So Junxiang tried to scare LeeWa with an onion and she just turned around and ate it AHAHAHAH. OMG. Coz she thought it was a potato chip hAHAHHA.
(Sorry can't really describe how funny it was here)
Washed up, unpacked our bags and went to sleep :) Was really tired so i slept thru til morning :)
Day 5:
Had Breakfast in the canteen :) Then washed all the euipment :) Ponchos, fly sheet etc. HAHAHAH our watch is so cool we hung our ponchos on a bush to dry x) BEST. Collected back our phones and valuables, then ate lunch in the canteen. Took some photos too and we were ready to go. Will miss OBS! :)
Note to watchmates:
HI GUYZ, most likely you won't see this and won't know about this, but i want to express my thanks to each and every one of you for being such a happy supportive bunch of people! OBS was definitely not the easiest journey, but the memories and friendships that formed during this experience made this camp an unforgettable one. I really hope that none of us will forget about our times in OBS, from cooking dinner to trekking to scaring Leewa. We have definitely matured and grown through this 5 days and i really wanna thank you all for being there throughout this program. DHANABALAN FTW!!! :)
xoxo
Beatrice
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