Psych camp 2010 Cirque du Psycho

My last psych camp... Really have mixed feelings about it. There was both good and bad, and it was another long journey as usual, but i’m glad it happened and that i was there for it :)

It was odd not being a perm this year after being one for the past 3 years. I have to admit that at times i felt like taking over since i’m a lot more experienced in this, but i tried not to. And it feels odd that i don’t seem to know the group as well as i expected to, just because i’m away as station master for all the games, but this really should be expected lah. At least they know who i am this time...

And i really ended up working for every single one of the games thanks to the lack of responsible manpower.

Day 0

The day didn’t start out too well. It was raining! And then everyone was late... And so things got delayed etc. Good side is, because of the rain, we shifted from the forum to ADM, which was a much better place instead.

The bigger problem was that so many people were late. REALLY late. And it had nothing to do with the rain anymore. The situation was so bad that there were some groups missing their perm facils for most of the day and so the temps had to come up with group name and identity. Seriously, the quality of facils this year was disappointing. But i shall not go into that here...

My group was Toothless, so named after the dragon from “how to train your dragon”. It was completely random how the name came about. We are the fire-breathing group and our group colour was blue (why blue was given to a group related to fire is a mystery. I think it was just randomly given), then somehow or other, they wanted something cute and memorable associated with our group, so we ended up being called Toothless even though Janet is the only one who’s even watched that movie. Haha.

We made our identity and came up with some cheers. It was really funny to see how the normally quiet Justin suddenly became so enthusiastic over the course of camp! He came up with some cheers and totally surprised us! Haha!

Day 0 was like any other day 0, played ice breakers, trialled a few games and did identities. Shihui also taught the facils cheer that was done last year. I finally got to see it. Haha! Wish there was a video of last year’s one, though.

I did facils briefing again this year with Annabel, but i think i did a really lousy job of it :( After giving Annabel a long list of what should be talked about during facils briefing, i myself could not deliver... It was really disappointing. I did a much better job last year and i hate that at my last camp, i am unable to perform :(

The night ended earlier than i had expected cos we ended up not trialling the MI stations in the end, even though i thought we would.. My group facils stayed up to come up with more cheers and be further amused by Justin :D

Day 1

I was at KR terminal as part of the welcome party, same place as the last time i was not a perm. Very few of the freshies turned up there, though, so Jerlyn, Phyllis, MT and i were pretty bored and ended up playing games to pass the time. Haha.

At that time, i was actually feeling a bit sick. I really don’t know why, but i just felt very uncomfortable and lacking in energy. And at the start of camp too! Terrible! Instead of going to join my group, i just sat down with Dennis for a while and tried to pull myself together.

In the end, although i was still feeling sick, i just pushed it aside and went to join my group. Adrenaline is very powerful. Haha. I managed to last through the rest of camp, but i ended up falling really sick after :P

Mass ice breakers were up first. Anthea and Beatrice did a really good job of it :) Everyone got really high, especially during the scissors, paper, stone game :)

There was also Angel/Mortal this year. No accompanying lame SDU games, thank goodness. Haha. But i think the freshies wrote a lot of rubbish for it, or at least mine did :P

I had to go for station master duty for wet games after that. Transporting 25 chairs to SRC is no joke! And the field was all mushy cos of all the rain recently D: Definitely not the best condition to play games, especially wet games! At least the weather was good and it didn’t rain as was predicted. But it was so hot that i think the freshies didn’t mind getting wet at all!

The games went pretty well, i think. Slight glitches here and there, as expected, but the worst was the 25 chairs that were sinking into the ground! Clean up was a terrible job after that...

While i stayed to help with the clean up, the groups went over to the basketball court for the mass game. Again, transporting 25 chairs was a pain. Even more so when there are people who are in themselves a pain around...

Somehow the mass wet game wasn’t as exciting as expected. The freshies seemed so reserved about destroying each other’s structures. Heh. Totally not the havoc i expected. I was able to safely walk right through the middle of the game with my camera numerous times. Haha!

After a quick bath and break, it was time for MI. I went to help them with MI prep even though i wasn’t really required there. I actually just wanted to hang out with the old people who were there :P And anyway it was fun to be part of the action :D

When i went back down soon before MI was to start, i found that my group had painted a really fantastic flag! It was so good! Best flag i’ve seen so far! :)

MI was, as usual, highly entertaining :) I’m glad i videoed it this year, although with all the time drags, i ran out of battery before the whole of MI was over D: And i had purposely charged it right before MI! It also used up an entire 8GB memory card and more. This totally needs a proper video recorder.

Acting was superb this year. Tok really outdid himself! Anthea put on a pretty good show too, despite having lost her voice. It was really fun to watch everyone’s performance :) Videos are on the camp facebook page if anyone is interested.

In all, the first day of camp when so smoothly that i couldn’t really believe it. Or perhaps it was just that everyone perceived it to have gone very smoothly? There were definitely things that weren’t very good, but we didn’t waste time nitpicking with the next few days ahead of us.

Day 2

The day started off with CORS bidding. Since YY wasn’t around to do it this year, we ended up back to a more primitive method. It was kind of messy with everyone having to line up to bid and all. And then there was not enough manpower since so many facils signed in and out so much, so even though i was supposed to go off for station master duty, i ended up staying till the end of CORS to help my group out.

And then it was off to be a station master for photohunt. I was at SRC with Tok and the whole 4 hours (i think) that we were there, only one group came right at the very end. So i ended up taking an hour’s nap without being disturbed at all! Heh. But it was super boring... Thank goodness CS and ZM came by. And then Dennis came along with his camera too, but too early to catch the one and only group that came.

Next up was war games. Somehow or other, since there were not enough people, i ended up having to play. And this game was indeed havoc! And it was again played on the muddy field :( We were really cutting it close here cos the lightning warning actually went off while we were playing and it was threatening to rain...

Later during dinner, we had an emergency camp comm meeting due to certain things that came up during the day. Now it started to feel like camp. Haha. It just isn’t camp without the drama :P

This was followed by senior’s talk. It was really great to see all the old people again :) I wish i had more time to chat with them, though. While senior’s talk was going on inside, facils were having an emergency briefing outside regarding things that were discussed during the emergency camp comm meeting earlier. Haha. First time i’ve seen this happen. I really wonder what when on outside.

I again spoke this year on the only thing i could really talk about, the society. And just like the facils training, i disappointed myself :( Somehow, i just didn’t have the ‘feel’ to do it right. I think i ended up talking a lot of rubbish... Sigh.

Debrief that night felt a lot more like the way it should be. Haha. Last minute changes, complaints and so on.

I joined my group for a short while after that. The other facils had bought instant noodles on day 0 and so we took over a kitchen in hall to cook. First time i’d ever done that. Haha.

Day 3

Lecturer’s talk was the first thing for the day. I didn’t go for this cos i was again preparing to be a station master for Amazing Race. It was quite worrying that it rained in the morning, but thank goodness the rain stopped before Amazing race began, so all was good :)

I was station master with Taky and Laura at Holland V. Strategically located. Haha :P We were the first station outside of school and faced a sudden influx of groups since most of them ended up on the same bus out of school. Yet our station ended pretty quickly and then the 3 of us went to TDS to have ice cream waffles for lunch! :D See, it’s a strategic location! Haha :P

We went over to Clementi when we were done to meet up with the next station’s station masters. From there, seeing that my group was pretty dead, i decided to join them to push them on. Amazing race is supposed to be a very high kind of activity, but they were just strolling here and there and not enthusiastic at all! By the end of the Amazing Race, my group had risen from 5th place to 3rd! I’d like to claim credit for that :P Haha!

By the end of the race, everyone was tired out, mainly from the heat, i think. So we took a break at macs while waiting for the other groups to arrive for showdown. After being defeated last year, the facils won again this year! Haha! And i videoed the cool seniors cheer too. The freshies weren’t too bad either :)

Once showdown was over, i had to rush back to prepare for finale night. Pene and i were the emcees and we didn’t prepare at all! To be honest, i somehow couldn’t think of what to prepare. I don’t know why i was so ‘off’ throughout this camp. Somehow or other, we managed to pull it off, although i must have been a very boring host. I know that i was really exhausted by then and definitely did not do as well as i should have :(

We were back at Munchies this year for finale and thanks to a change in management there, we got better food :) But we also had to vacate earlier which totally sucked. There really wasn’t enough time to do much :( The skits were fun as usual and a whole bunch of seniors turned up too :) I really love when the old people reunite, although it’s sad that most of my seniors weren’t there.

Later, my group da-baoed food to AS7 to chill. I was with them at first, but then the camp comm was having their own supper at Fond Seng, so i went to join them first. Really, the camp comm feels more like my group to me than my actual group does. The way they have gelled together is just great! :)

I was totally falling asleep at Fong Seng cos i was so tired, but even after that, i still went back to join my group cos there was some guy there who is a friend of some of them who was making the situation kind of awkward. So i went over with the other camp comm in my group to try to make things better. I’m not sure if it really helped or not, but i think it did. Anyway, we just played a few games and then went back to rest. Although some of them wanted to stay up all night to chat, i totally couldn’t take it already and just went to sleep. Actually i think i fell asleep accidentally while still talking to the others in the room :P

Day 4

To me, this is possibly the most important day of camp because of ribbon ceremony. Even if the whole camp sucked, if done right, ribbon ceremony can turn things around. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as well done as i had hoped.

Angel/Mortal revelation and card making went ok, then i had to brief the facils for ribbon ceremony. I wish i had briefed all instead of just one per group. Even though i had personally chosen the people to be in charge, it still wasn’t good enough. And then during the mass briefing, i think i was talking rubbish again :( What was wrong with me?!

Well, ribbon ceremony wasn’t as good as expected, but i do hope that some things got through to the freshies. I hope that even though they may have experienced a half-baked ribbon ceremony, that it was good enough somehow.

Camp ended on a good note after prize giving and then my group headed to Clementi for lunch, all of us half dead and not thinking straight. Haha.

It’s my last camp, but i can’t help but feel dissatisfied. I could have done better and so many things could have been improved. I should have accomplished much more than i actually did.

I supposed it’s this sort of dissatisfaction that brings me back year after year. That and strong attachment i have to the society and my juniors. It made me so happy to see so many of my ex-freshies back again this year. I was especially happy to be in the same group as Janet and Dennis again, even though i had actually requested it. And, well, i just love psych camp in general :)

While the camp this year wasn’t the best, it had the best camp comm. I’ve seen so far. Everyone got on really well and bonded with each other, even though they may not have been the best at actually running the camp. That’s why i feel that the camp comm is probably the most successful OG to come out of this year’s camp. Haha! I do hope they continue to stick together from now on :)

It really sucks that i won’t be able to come back for camp again next year, but i think it’s probably time for me to let go. I can only do this for so long, right? Even now, i can feel the difference when i work with the camp comm. There’s a bit of a generation gap... Going away forces me to let go and i suppose it’s time to move on and find my next ‘psych camp’ :)

Thankful for: being able to work with a great camp comm and being able to experience what a really bonded comm is like, meeting new juniors and making new friends, the feeling of ‘psych camp’ that i love :)