After the bride&groom left the seat we went to take a picture of the picturesque stage!
A token of appreciation from them (a towel inside).
Monday 29 September 2014
Malay Wedding
Went to Teacher Hana's wedding on the 28 September 2014. This was the first malay wedding that I had attended!! We didn't know if we're suppose to give money in a packet cause we're still kiddos so we decided to just buy a pair of wine glasses as a gift for them,SAFEST (quite ex). Due to our lack of experience and knowledge about Malay wedding we had lots of doubts like what are we suppose to do and what are they doing, how long are they going to continue dancing etc LOL. When we were hearing the music, we were like, "so these were the sounds we kept on hearing when there was a malay wedding under or nearby our HDB blocks." I am glad to receive the invitation even though i wasn't really close to her but the good thing was I am finally able to get a good look A CLOSE UP LIVE of a Malay wedding right before my eyes. We were able to see how the ceremony goes, another experience added onto our journey!
Guessed the theme is Pink, as many people wore pink!
Beautiful ceiling with a chandelier
Pink, Purple and White
Pretty cake and small cupcakes!
Monday 22 September 2014
What I Am Up To
I came to realize that I must try things out whenever there are and not just let them pass. Life would be much more fulfilling if I dared to try the things I didn't want to or dare to do during my secondary school days, missing out loads of stuffs that I could have done. That time I had the mindset of just doing what I need to and not find extra trouble by giving myself other things to do. Just going through everyday with no other outside activities. Maybe at that point of time, I wasn't exposed to much activities or events. Not much achievement and I felt that I had actually wasted my secondary school years. This realization made me thought of doing more things in my life. Now my mindset will be, if I don't try this out i will never be able to experience how it is like and my life will not have much accomplishments. My friend said, " After go poly become so bold" but its not really because I have became braver but I just have a more YOLO mindset (of course not too absurd stuffs) now. The more I think the more hesitant I would be so sometimes I would just go for it and try not to think too much. We might not have the chance to try out the things we're able to if we don't do it now. I will always regret not doing or participating in something after it ends then I would kept on whine like "why didn't I.." at the start and now the chance is gone etc. Questions like "whats is my goal, who am I, what I want to do in the future and what am I good in", always make a tie in my tongue. I don't know what to say as I do not have a answer for it. Still trying to find that out!
Look at the rainbow sprinkles!! [CLOSE UP]
Holidays are going to _ _ _ (guess what word *smirks*) soonnn!! I signed up for some workshops, when to do two jobs on and off during the holiday. 1. Health screening (friend's uncle company) 2. Facilitator, bring students for excursion (went to some of the briefings and did one actual trail which was a total disaster). Some other days I would be going out with my friends to catch up and other days where I have no events I would just be chilling at home watching drama. Some of the weeks feel busy while the other weeks felt boring and restless.
SO Paper Prata looks like this! GIGANTIC!
It was served like this!! I wonder how they cook this! Waited for another one as the other one fell while serving but they can just give us actually!
Entire view of the prataaa!
Thursday 18 September 2014
NP Youth Empowerment Camp (8-9 Sept 2014)
NP Youth Empowerment Camp is a two day event in school. It's called a "camp" but it doesn't require us to stay overnight. We spent our time from 9am-9pm, two days straight (8-9 sept). Felt totally shag as we only had a few hours of sleep and we had to wake up early the next morning.
I missed this similar program the other time as I was rather hesitant if I should signed up for it because if you fail to attend the full 2 day you're required to pay $200!! I felt slightly regretful for not signing up initially and there were no more run left (they split it into different dates; Run 1, Run 2 etc). SO when I received an email from NP Youth Academy where one of their activities had YEC once again, i decided to SIGN UPP!! Since I am free during the September holiday. Some of its activities were the best of what I experienced up till now. Mainly because their activities really provoke interaction, communicating and force us to think. They constantly test our ability as to how we work as a team and how we react/response to the things they said. It's a leadership camp so they also judge based on our personal values, like how we treat other people, the way we spoke and it also wants us to speak up. They also taught was that little gestures can also be an act of empowerment. We can empower ourselves and at the same time empowering others.
Upon reaching the location, feeling kind of lost as i came alone and seeing peeps with their group of friends.. And the registration counter was still setting up SO i try to act cool and unaffected by looking around first and then sitting down between a group of people at the corner and a bundle of bags. Only to find it weird to sit there as i am like in between but its my only choice T_T cause i can't go to corners or too far away from the crowd or i will look like i am a loner or emoing... Beside each attendance list there were these bunch of similar metal necklaces beside it. The symbol of the necklace is different for each attendance list. I automatically grabbed one of the necklace that is beside the list and only to think i should had chose the sword one. However, shortly after that I realised we actually cannot choose cause its already been chosen for us. The different necklaces (4 Symbols) actually signifies the tribe that we're in. I found out about this when they told us to gather with the others that have the similar symbol on their necklace. It was totally awkward, so even after i saw some similar symbols i didn't went over and just remained at where i was. Straight away, upon gathering at the area where they told us to find our tribe, a colour game was played. We had to listen to their command where they would tell us where to place our body part on a colour they mentioned. For example, put your finger on something green or put your chin on an orange colour. There were two walls where there was this orange light that illuminated upwards so they all placed their chin on the light source. Those who didn't manage to find it within the time limit will be called out to do a forfeit. SO I can't find any orange to put my chin on, and i actually wanted to escape and continue finding my orange despite the time had ended but I was caught and got signaled to the forfeit gathering spot. It's just the starting and i got a forfeit to do but it was alright since i got to experience how it was like. Fortunately there was a group of people who didn't managed to find an orange colour too so we did the forfeit together in one row. While doing the "Peel banana" song in front of the rest that had seated down on the floor carpet. The facilitator told us to follow the their moves and the version of the song was changed slightly as it was different from what i know previously. There was this camera on a tripod stand videoing us while we're doing it. They told us to do in a sexy manner but i still did it rather stiffly. The colour tagging game did break some of the ice. After the forfeit, we all went to gather at our platoon. A circle is formed, before the facilitator came a guy try to start the conversation first by introducing himself. At first i thought he was the one that was in charge of our platoon but he was actually just a camper like us too! He told us what year and course he was from. I kinda admired his courage for doing this as its not easy to start talking with a bunch of strangers. We did the typical introducing of ourselves in a circle, one after another. After that we went inside a room where we were split into two tables but still in the same platoon. I was pleased with the table i chose as there were a few hyper and cheeky ones making the atmosphere less awkward. One of them was constantly disiao-ing the facil like "Hey! Bro..Bro!" with a slang. We also did a personality test known as the DISC test where we got our results later during the day.There's a stack of post-it slips on the table where they told us to answer two questions. They are then being pasted on the whiteboard to form our own platoon logo. Next, they want us to get to know one another so they randomly tested us a question about the other person. The cheeky side of our table members start to show up, one of them suggested to "cheat" using the post-it slip, its just there why not make use of it? HEH HEH. Then we were all like OH GOOD IDEA! Upon hearing what the other platoons were being asked we quickly wrote somethings about ourselves and stick it in the middle of a hollow circle that our table combined to form so that everyone could see or just take the sticky note if a question was asked. We tried to use our hands to cover it up when the facil came by. After awhile we feel that it doesn't really work so we discussed like ok your birthday is 1st Jan, 2nd Feb, 3rd March, 4th April, 5th May..., Our favourite food is prata ah prata, favourite drink is teh bing, favourite idol G Dragon, favourite colour Blue, OK OK SETTLE SETTLE LOL Then our facil that heard this said "this won't work", but you know there's ways to keep getting the correct answer. We got two question, first one was "What's his birthday?" (so the person was counting like what we planned earlier) then the facil say "Come show IC!" in a joking manner so we passed for this round. Second question was who is his favourite idol? : G Dragon of course LOL, and we got attacked by the facil that asked what songs you like? Then our member was slightly hesitant and then the facil requested to sing some part of the song. GG!! Then he sang Hua Meng Ti and say its Big Bang version LOLL. The facil was like : "Wah since when Big Bang got this kind of song" Then he was requested to dance to the song Fantastic Baby in front of everyone.The music was being played immediately! He didn't dance until it reaches the "DANCE" part he did a totally mind blown move!! He held both of his hand above his head in a ballerina pose and spin one round. LOL that cause the entire room to be laughing uncontrollably, that was really unexpected. It satisfied the audience well enough with that SPIN ! Next, we were required to think of our group norm. We have no idea at first but after hearing our other platoon's norm was to be ready to pose whenever there's camera (the camera man try to take photo of them and some of them wasn't ready, he was like: Ah, not ready, only one person), we came up with a brilliant one!! LOOK AWAY FROM THE CAMERA :D Then we was doing a mini cheer like this was a damn good idea. Whenever there's camera we will always look away from it.
Our platoon got back as one again for the following activities, 19 people. We were not allow to use any objects when building/creating a tall tower, refrigerator, television and a car that could moves for 3 laps ( for the car we are allow to use certain objects like our handphones, but not chairs/tables). Thankfully, my group have people who constantly have ideas and ways to accomplish any tasks, and not just the usual where a whole big group just stands there and doesn't know what to do. There were a few of them that seem to have already thought of how to make it work or build them. While for some parts i still did not understand what we have to do. They were fast thinkers!! For the tall tower, we stacked our feets and carried people on their shoulders to reach the highest point while some act as a support for the people who are holding on to someone, making it as high as possible. We managed to reach 234cm or 243cm which the facil told us that he thought the previous record was pretty high already but we broke the previous record. With the mindset that we won, we went back to our seats, BUTTT THENN the other groups managed to get even higher like almost touching the ceiling so we was the last. THIS IS WHERE IT ALL START ( I think ), one of our group members which just stands up among us like a leader says: PROCESS PROCESS! So every time if we struggle or didn't win we would all be like PROCESS PROCESS. Then one facil was like you will know later if your "process process" will help you. There were criteria for the fridge that we needed to build, like there must be a door, air conditioned when you open the fridge ( they want refreshing air gushing out not bad air), must have a power source and a person to promote it. Phew our group have many eloquent speakers so we don't have to be worry about anything. If only i am capable of that... Our fridge got compartments and "sunflowers" that act as solar power to supply electricity for the fridge. We also have an automated voice that will talk to the user like " SHUAI GE NI YAO SHEN MO" We didn't win for this as the judges like the other refrigerators better. As some have walk in fridge where you can sit down and it will start to play music and just request for what you want or help you massage while you're waiting for your food and another one was just request for what you want and the fridge will cook for you. Next on, we have to create a TV that have The Noose channel and Channel 8. For the Noose channel two of our members were siting against the wall and another person was situated in front of them acting like their desk and they were talking about pepper lunch can only to be eaten during lunch. One of them did those flexible arms thing with his hand above his head like exercising where you need to stretch your arm. His arm can turn and take the drink from one side to the other!! He was just like moving a few muscles in his shoulder and TA DA he manage to get to drink to the other side of his hand and drink it. For channel 8 i can't remember what we did but for other team they did the typical scene that you will see in channel 8 drama where the lovers quarrel and pulling of hands to prevent the other party from leaving them. Whilst acting, one of the judges (facil) say" 3D" then they ran out of the tv box and held the facil hand and sobbed, like the scene came alive. DAMN... didn't thought of that! The facil still rewind, replay lol. Two guys were acting in a breaking up scene and it was damn funny with those girly voice they used. One was a girl putting her hair in front of her face crawling in the tv then she climb out of the tv and it was scary so one of the facil say replay so the girl was like moving backwards, getting back into the tv screen haha. I am amazed by everyone's creativity! It was endless! For the building of a car part, the conditions were it must have at least 2 wheels, with a seat belt and headlights. Then i don't know how they thought of transformer so they try to turn the guy one round then he was suddenly on a motorbike instead of a car. Then the facil say by the time you are transforming the rest of the group have already finish. So they was like ok ok we do 3 second transform so they practice turning the guy entirely one round. After that we went out of the room and used the space outside to race our "cars", screening, drifting and engine sounds were needed as we would be stopping and making a U-turn back to the starting point. We went to have lunch that were provided for us as a platoon at our own corner siting in a circle. So we started chatting we the ones around us and half way through our facil told us to inform him about any of our medical condition and all so they could take note. One of them have throat infection so he wasn't able to eat any food and he was just drinking his water the whole time. As, if he swallow, his throat will be really painful and he can't talk too much too. I asked him if that's really ok and he said he brought some sweets so it could probably last him throughout the day and he had been doing this for 3 days so he should be fine. We then proceeded to play games, working as one platoon. Activities like two person holding a rope that was straightened out and raised to a certain height (height of our facil shoulder) and each and every one of us need to get transported to the other side of the rope. So the guys were carry us girls to the other side while we just stay still and lie straight and the guy that manage to get to the other side would carry us back to the ground without touching the rope. We all need to have trust in them in order for them to successfully transport us to the opposite side. At the end of this session, we need to eat wasabi a small amount of it!! I have never eaten it in my life after hearing reviews of those who have eaten. Those that cannot eat the other members would have to the take that potion too. Again I did not have to worry about this, my group have people that wouldn't force us and they would just volunteer to do it. They told us how to control the choking feeling in our nose by not breathing and blowing air out of our nose instead of breathing in. Before eating it we took a photo (looking away from the camera) with the green paste on one finger. The facilitator say our facial expression must maintain or else we need to restart again. I didn't breathe at all and immediately swallow the whole thing into my mouth making sure there's none left before i started to breathe again. Surprisingly, this wasabi was not really strong as it subsided quite fast and it was a relief, at the start it taste slightly bad. My first wasabi experience spent with Panoplia *peaceful face*! We proceeded to the next stage in a dark room where we can only use 6 or 7 paper plates to cross from one side of the room to the other end without touching the floor. So after failing a few times we tried to have some strategy. Some plates that were too far away, we had to try jumping to it. The people that had reached the other end will be lending their hands to you as a support for you to grab on to, to the safe zone. Before starting any of the games, each platoon gets a sabo card and a taboo card. The sabo card was to be used to add on to the difficulty of a challenge that the group is doing or make them restart again. While the taboo card is the most powerful card, we can write any word we want on it and if anyone says it they would have to restart all over again from the first station. Our scheming and cheeky group decided to put the word "Taboo" so when others tabooed others we would taboo them for saying Taboo! After failed attempts in the dark room, with one other platoon also in the room doing the same thing, i guessed one of us said the word "You" which is the other platoon's taboo word. So they immediately tabooed us and we tabooed back at them so they were rather unhappy as we all have to restart again. To make us feel better our "Process" Leader told us it's alright, its just a game so just enjoy it, enjoy the processs! So we just did the rope thing again (second serving of wasabiii) and decided to proceed to the other game station and to return to the dark room later on. This game also involves a rope which was abit disgusting as after we have chained ourselves together with the rope like through our clothes behind our shoulder we have to shove a banana through our shoulders from the first person to the last. Half way through the banana flesh was expose as the head of it came off and the cooling sticky sensation you get when the banana is being moved across. Then after we're done we passed the banana to our facil to tell him to eat it LOL but he threw it into the dustbin. Then one of them say : Waste food sia! Then the facil wanted to take the food out from the dustbin to give it to him. Then we were require to lie on each other stomach with the rope still there, we said how are we suppose to do that it was rather impossible so we ended up lying on the carpet in one straight row and we had to say "HA" a couple of times depending on which position we were at. For example, you are the 8th person lying on the ground from left to right, you have to say " HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA" 8 times so it was quite funny to hear the others that are behind saying it. We then went into a Sabo room to use our card, some suggested to use it against the other groups that are leading but then one said we shouldn't bother them since they never bother us so we decided to sabo back the one that sabo us. It's kind of like running man.We then proceeded to the dark room and did the same thing but with more strategy. After that they needed 5 volunteers to have their entire face painted with a certain green cream that was not easy to remove. The guys immediately volunteered when it was helping the "victims" to apply. It was all the girls and one guy that got the green cream on their faces. They were enjoying it, until the facilitator has to say "why you all so happy ah you really think you're really putting on make up is it?". We got back the room again for a briefing session, and the facilitator told everyone that "there were two groups who had to restart and one of them was not really happy, i shall not say which group was it. Then the other group was like bo chap bo chap everything just "Process Process!!" I will definitely remember that for life, "Process!". We had dinner after the briefing and the rest when to wash away the green cream on their face. Some of them cracked jokes like, "为什么你脸青青?" One of the girls brought a facial wash upon the advice from her friend to bring it so that they could clean the greeny thing off. While the poor guy didn't manage to clean the excess off so his face was still slightly glowing in green.
The last segment of the day, was THE INVASION, which was an activity that was a unexpected one, one that shows your limit and ability. All the platoons gathered together in rows of two in each platoon. While the 1st and 2nd leader of each platoon was called up. They were getting scolded by the facilitator about time management and saying we were suppose to be gathered here at this timing but we were late and he said "i have given you many chances and you know i am very particular about timing." Then he said " Second/First leader DOWN" (in a push up position). Its like they are getting punished on behalf of us. This always make me feel so guilty when our leader had to carry out the punishment for us for the things we did. Hmph they always use this tactic -_- 28 Specialists were called up from all the platoons while the rest stay put. I was one of the 28 which i was rather surprised cause i was thinking i confirm won't get called. So the 28 of us proceeded back into the room with a dim light this time and with river gushing sound effects. Here was where all the shouting starts, the facilitators were all fierce and demanding, they kept on shouting commands and telling us to be faster and stand inside without crossing the boundary. First thing we got in she demanded for 4 intel officers (i have no idea whats that) who are the ones that will lead the rest. I just stepped out of the boundary line as i wanted to try doing something but hell no did i expect to be doing such a task. The rest have to be blindfolded while only us the 4 officers were able to see and we had to bring them to 4 huge boxes that were created by taping the masking tape, with materials in the middle of each box. We officers cannot touch the materials, only the blindfolded one could. They had to build the company logo and all 4 platoon logo using domino. There was a blueprint in each envelope that tell us the measurements of the logo that we could use to give instructions to the person building it. I just knew we had to get them to the different boxes. It was a damn difficult challenge, first they are all blindfolded and second all of us cannot touch the ground and we had only 4 paper plates to step on. The officers were all struggling to think of a way to transport them. As time passed, some of them whom were waiting got rather frustrated as they didn't know what was going on. The facilitator asked them " Do you know what you're doing? Do you? Do you?" ," They all don't know what's going on, what're you guys doing?! Time is running out do something! Are you just going to stand there? People are waiting, don't know what to do, at loss!" They just kept on saying harsh words to us non-stop. The pressure and the tension on us was high. I tried to let them crossed to the the box by stepping on my feet where i am currently on two of the paper plates but it didn't work well as it was taking too much time and effort to do it. Then one of them that reached the box (blindfolded) asked what she was suppose to do but i had no answer to that and she suggested she could help bring the others across like standing in the middle or something, but i didn't quite get what she meant and it would be hard to guide her to where she should stand. I only knew she wanted to help. While I was in the boundary with the rest, they kept on asking how many people are there now, why aren't we doing something. Both of us officers were stuck with them too cause the paper plates were being used by the other two on the other side. So we were rather hopeless too. Facilitator : " How can you lead these people? You guys seem to be at loss!" After futile attempts, one guy from our platoon stand out and start getting the attention of the rest who were blindfolded, clearly saying all the instructions and situation that was ongoing and what they needed to know. Me and the other were just standing there astounded by the sudden approach. While he was saying that in a clear and steady way the two other facilitators at the back were looking at him nodding their heads in admiration like he's not bad that kind of face. I was quite shocked, he's blindfolded and just by hearing all the hassle he could calming get information about the situation and do it on our behalf to get things clear to the others. I was touched, impressed, a mixed emotion surfaced when he did that! I was totally thinking that if they were the ones leading us everything would be much more in control than me being in control. No matter how hard i tried to think how to get them across, i can't. I think i wasn't trying hard enough. So the next round we repeated but changed of officers. There was slightly more progress then the first batch of officers and they were clear at telling us what to expect and calming us down saying they are here we don't have to be afraid. Here comes the facilitator sprouting non-stop again: " People here are getting frustrated, there are still 20 of you here, some are stranded on an island don't know what to do, have no idea, they are just standing there doing nothing, do you think your leaders care about you?! Your leaders just have the mindset that they can just repeat and repeat and repeat" I feel like slapping them!! Our officers were already working really hard to do the best that they could for us. I believed we all trusted them so we're ignorance to what the facilitators were screaming/reprimanding loudly at us. THEN, at this moment when the facilitators were saying all these stuffs, one of the officer (from my platoon :D) shouted back at them "We won't give up on you! Do not listen to what they say, they doesn't know what we're doing!" That was one instant touching moment and i thought why didn't i thought of talking back when they did that? I was smiling at his words as the facilitators are trying to decrease our morale by discouraging us but our officer tried to encourage us. During the debrief, they told us that a platoon without a leader can collapse easily. Why? Because of the morale. Without the leader the entire platoon will lose their morale. That is why there's no ranking shown when they are in a war cause the enemy would kill the leader first. The leader is the one that gives us command keeping the whole platoon in one, together. They keep prompting us (those who are blindfolded waiting to be transported), " You guys are just standing here doing nothing? While all the commotion is going out there, don't you think you should be doing something?". Just to let you know after the first round of the failed officer attempt, i became one of the blindfolded ones. I felt more at ease as that i won't be under direct pressure. However i knew how stressful and pressurizing it was for the officers. At first some of the officers stepped out to ask another person to replace them and they all found one then i was holding the blindfold like shit i have no one to replace with. So i just quietly got into the crowd expecting the facilitator to start shouting why is there only 3 officers where is the other one, but that did not happen as someone as already taken up the position for me. Thanks a lot!! The officers resorted to numerous attempts and came up with using the paper plates to move around like standing on it and sliding across the room. More supply was given (no. of paper plates) and there were changes of the officers which i was surprised when i found out and i didn't know when did that happen. In order, to make transporting faster our officers start piggy backing us to our boxes one by one. After a few attempts they thought for a moment, actually they don't have to transport everyone to the boxes they just need some of us and apologized for those who didn't get chosen. 2 logos were built with the piggyback and allocating some to each box strategy. After they changed their tactic to let the blindfolded ones slide on the paper plates while the officers were also moving around by sliding on the paper plates would guide us, telling us to just keep moving and follow her. This speed up the movement much more faster. I was brought to collect as much domino as possible using a sweater to give it to the others in the boxes waiting for the domino before they can start building the logos. So i was being transported twice. This time round we managed to construct more logos, can't remember how many they said. During the debrief session the facilitators praised three gentlemen who made it possible. They said when this first gentleman came in there was some strategy, after the second one stepped in he started to established more strategy saying how many should be assigned there and there, he also said to the first one : You did a good job while patting him on the shoulder, i wanted to say that but do not have the courage so ended up not saying it and one gentleman who was one of the blindfolded one, when we went out of the dark room to discuss he said : "Just do what you want, we all believe that you guys can do it, we don't care what the rest are saying" and then he went to blindfold himself. When we were outside of the group, the officer from my platoon said this : " They are just trying to pressurized us... I don't give a fuck of what they say! (WELL SAID) " While we were inside using the domino to build, whenever one domino drops the people that are outside have to add 100 push ups, crunches and planking. I didn't know that until when we went out of the room and i was like why are the rest in the push up position at that corner? I thought they were doing exercises while we were doing another different activity but it turns out that they were actually getting punished for us. "While we're inside feeling nothing the people out there are getting really tired (said by the facil)" They can't hold much longer if we continue to fail. While the people inside was being mentally tortured the ones outside were being physically tortured and maybe mentally as well since they had to preserve. To end the day we wrote down some reflections.
Day 2 was another unexpected one, we all thought we would be having all sorts of activities again but it turned out that our platoon is once again separated into two groups PA1 and PA2. We had to come out with a product or service for challenged individual or groups. PA1 which was my group, we had a hard time sticking to an idea an keep fluctuating. There were two CEO meeting session to present our work and the first round we all got scolded really badly like "your plan won't work its useless shit" It was harsh but it was also true. When we were trying to tell them about the service we wanted to provide they doesn't seem to be interested at all and telling us to get out of the room. Every time after we had a meeting with the CEO (which is actually the facilitators) we would proceed to the Venting room where we could vent whatever we want and just complain about anything. After venting, they would tell us to each take a marker and a piece of paper and write anything we want and put it into a venting box. PA2 was doing better as their project got chosen to be actually carried out. We PA1 changed our idea entirely in the last 10 minutes and completely abandoned the idea that we presented for the earlier meeting and got less scolding from the second round of CEO meeting as i assumed they're more lenient for this round and gave more advice on improvements compared to the first round where they acted more harshly. Last part was to present our idea to all platoons and facilitators. After we ended, there was a loud applause i didn't see if its everyone clapping or our platoon as i didn't look at the audience. But as we were walking away i heard our platoon cheering PROCESS PROCESS! Wooo at least we got support from our platoon. PA2 went up and before leaving one of them said "process is important but actually result is also important to us!" After all the brain draining events, we did some feedback forms and took group photos.
It was a rather meaningful leadership camp!
Our platoon got back as one again for the following activities, 19 people. We were not allow to use any objects when building/creating a tall tower, refrigerator, television and a car that could moves for 3 laps ( for the car we are allow to use certain objects like our handphones, but not chairs/tables). Thankfully, my group have people who constantly have ideas and ways to accomplish any tasks, and not just the usual where a whole big group just stands there and doesn't know what to do. There were a few of them that seem to have already thought of how to make it work or build them. While for some parts i still did not understand what we have to do. They were fast thinkers!! For the tall tower, we stacked our feets and carried people on their shoulders to reach the highest point while some act as a support for the people who are holding on to someone, making it as high as possible. We managed to reach 234cm or 243cm which the facil told us that he thought the previous record was pretty high already but we broke the previous record. With the mindset that we won, we went back to our seats, BUTTT THENN the other groups managed to get even higher like almost touching the ceiling so we was the last. THIS IS WHERE IT ALL START ( I think ), one of our group members which just stands up among us like a leader says: PROCESS PROCESS! So every time if we struggle or didn't win we would all be like PROCESS PROCESS. Then one facil was like you will know later if your "process process" will help you. There were criteria for the fridge that we needed to build, like there must be a door, air conditioned when you open the fridge ( they want refreshing air gushing out not bad air), must have a power source and a person to promote it. Phew our group have many eloquent speakers so we don't have to be worry about anything. If only i am capable of that... Our fridge got compartments and "sunflowers" that act as solar power to supply electricity for the fridge. We also have an automated voice that will talk to the user like " SHUAI GE NI YAO SHEN MO" We didn't win for this as the judges like the other refrigerators better. As some have walk in fridge where you can sit down and it will start to play music and just request for what you want or help you massage while you're waiting for your food and another one was just request for what you want and the fridge will cook for you. Next on, we have to create a TV that have The Noose channel and Channel 8. For the Noose channel two of our members were siting against the wall and another person was situated in front of them acting like their desk and they were talking about pepper lunch can only to be eaten during lunch. One of them did those flexible arms thing with his hand above his head like exercising where you need to stretch your arm. His arm can turn and take the drink from one side to the other!! He was just like moving a few muscles in his shoulder and TA DA he manage to get to drink to the other side of his hand and drink it. For channel 8 i can't remember what we did but for other team they did the typical scene that you will see in channel 8 drama where the lovers quarrel and pulling of hands to prevent the other party from leaving them. Whilst acting, one of the judges (facil) say" 3D" then they ran out of the tv box and held the facil hand and sobbed, like the scene came alive. DAMN... didn't thought of that! The facil still rewind, replay lol. Two guys were acting in a breaking up scene and it was damn funny with those girly voice they used. One was a girl putting her hair in front of her face crawling in the tv then she climb out of the tv and it was scary so one of the facil say replay so the girl was like moving backwards, getting back into the tv screen haha. I am amazed by everyone's creativity! It was endless! For the building of a car part, the conditions were it must have at least 2 wheels, with a seat belt and headlights. Then i don't know how they thought of transformer so they try to turn the guy one round then he was suddenly on a motorbike instead of a car. Then the facil say by the time you are transforming the rest of the group have already finish. So they was like ok ok we do 3 second transform so they practice turning the guy entirely one round. After that we went out of the room and used the space outside to race our "cars", screening, drifting and engine sounds were needed as we would be stopping and making a U-turn back to the starting point. We went to have lunch that were provided for us as a platoon at our own corner siting in a circle. So we started chatting we the ones around us and half way through our facil told us to inform him about any of our medical condition and all so they could take note. One of them have throat infection so he wasn't able to eat any food and he was just drinking his water the whole time. As, if he swallow, his throat will be really painful and he can't talk too much too. I asked him if that's really ok and he said he brought some sweets so it could probably last him throughout the day and he had been doing this for 3 days so he should be fine. We then proceeded to play games, working as one platoon. Activities like two person holding a rope that was straightened out and raised to a certain height (height of our facil shoulder) and each and every one of us need to get transported to the other side of the rope. So the guys were carry us girls to the other side while we just stay still and lie straight and the guy that manage to get to the other side would carry us back to the ground without touching the rope. We all need to have trust in them in order for them to successfully transport us to the opposite side. At the end of this session, we need to eat wasabi a small amount of it!! I have never eaten it in my life after hearing reviews of those who have eaten. Those that cannot eat the other members would have to the take that potion too. Again I did not have to worry about this, my group have people that wouldn't force us and they would just volunteer to do it. They told us how to control the choking feeling in our nose by not breathing and blowing air out of our nose instead of breathing in. Before eating it we took a photo (looking away from the camera) with the green paste on one finger. The facilitator say our facial expression must maintain or else we need to restart again. I didn't breathe at all and immediately swallow the whole thing into my mouth making sure there's none left before i started to breathe again. Surprisingly, this wasabi was not really strong as it subsided quite fast and it was a relief, at the start it taste slightly bad. My first wasabi experience spent with Panoplia *peaceful face*! We proceeded to the next stage in a dark room where we can only use 6 or 7 paper plates to cross from one side of the room to the other end without touching the floor. So after failing a few times we tried to have some strategy. Some plates that were too far away, we had to try jumping to it. The people that had reached the other end will be lending their hands to you as a support for you to grab on to, to the safe zone. Before starting any of the games, each platoon gets a sabo card and a taboo card. The sabo card was to be used to add on to the difficulty of a challenge that the group is doing or make them restart again. While the taboo card is the most powerful card, we can write any word we want on it and if anyone says it they would have to restart all over again from the first station. Our scheming and cheeky group decided to put the word "Taboo" so when others tabooed others we would taboo them for saying Taboo! After failed attempts in the dark room, with one other platoon also in the room doing the same thing, i guessed one of us said the word "You" which is the other platoon's taboo word. So they immediately tabooed us and we tabooed back at them so they were rather unhappy as we all have to restart again. To make us feel better our "Process" Leader told us it's alright, its just a game so just enjoy it, enjoy the processs! So we just did the rope thing again (second serving of wasabiii) and decided to proceed to the other game station and to return to the dark room later on. This game also involves a rope which was abit disgusting as after we have chained ourselves together with the rope like through our clothes behind our shoulder we have to shove a banana through our shoulders from the first person to the last. Half way through the banana flesh was expose as the head of it came off and the cooling sticky sensation you get when the banana is being moved across. Then after we're done we passed the banana to our facil to tell him to eat it LOL but he threw it into the dustbin. Then one of them say : Waste food sia! Then the facil wanted to take the food out from the dustbin to give it to him. Then we were require to lie on each other stomach with the rope still there, we said how are we suppose to do that it was rather impossible so we ended up lying on the carpet in one straight row and we had to say "HA" a couple of times depending on which position we were at. For example, you are the 8th person lying on the ground from left to right, you have to say " HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA" 8 times so it was quite funny to hear the others that are behind saying it. We then went into a Sabo room to use our card, some suggested to use it against the other groups that are leading but then one said we shouldn't bother them since they never bother us so we decided to sabo back the one that sabo us. It's kind of like running man.We then proceeded to the dark room and did the same thing but with more strategy. After that they needed 5 volunteers to have their entire face painted with a certain green cream that was not easy to remove. The guys immediately volunteered when it was helping the "victims" to apply. It was all the girls and one guy that got the green cream on their faces. They were enjoying it, until the facilitator has to say "why you all so happy ah you really think you're really putting on make up is it?". We got back the room again for a briefing session, and the facilitator told everyone that "there were two groups who had to restart and one of them was not really happy, i shall not say which group was it. Then the other group was like bo chap bo chap everything just "Process Process!!" I will definitely remember that for life, "Process!". We had dinner after the briefing and the rest when to wash away the green cream on their face. Some of them cracked jokes like, "为什么你脸青青?" One of the girls brought a facial wash upon the advice from her friend to bring it so that they could clean the greeny thing off. While the poor guy didn't manage to clean the excess off so his face was still slightly glowing in green.
The last segment of the day, was THE INVASION, which was an activity that was a unexpected one, one that shows your limit and ability. All the platoons gathered together in rows of two in each platoon. While the 1st and 2nd leader of each platoon was called up. They were getting scolded by the facilitator about time management and saying we were suppose to be gathered here at this timing but we were late and he said "i have given you many chances and you know i am very particular about timing." Then he said " Second/First leader DOWN" (in a push up position). Its like they are getting punished on behalf of us. This always make me feel so guilty when our leader had to carry out the punishment for us for the things we did. Hmph they always use this tactic -_- 28 Specialists were called up from all the platoons while the rest stay put. I was one of the 28 which i was rather surprised cause i was thinking i confirm won't get called. So the 28 of us proceeded back into the room with a dim light this time and with river gushing sound effects. Here was where all the shouting starts, the facilitators were all fierce and demanding, they kept on shouting commands and telling us to be faster and stand inside without crossing the boundary. First thing we got in she demanded for 4 intel officers (i have no idea whats that) who are the ones that will lead the rest. I just stepped out of the boundary line as i wanted to try doing something but hell no did i expect to be doing such a task. The rest have to be blindfolded while only us the 4 officers were able to see and we had to bring them to 4 huge boxes that were created by taping the masking tape, with materials in the middle of each box. We officers cannot touch the materials, only the blindfolded one could. They had to build the company logo and all 4 platoon logo using domino. There was a blueprint in each envelope that tell us the measurements of the logo that we could use to give instructions to the person building it. I just knew we had to get them to the different boxes. It was a damn difficult challenge, first they are all blindfolded and second all of us cannot touch the ground and we had only 4 paper plates to step on. The officers were all struggling to think of a way to transport them. As time passed, some of them whom were waiting got rather frustrated as they didn't know what was going on. The facilitator asked them " Do you know what you're doing? Do you? Do you?" ," They all don't know what's going on, what're you guys doing?! Time is running out do something! Are you just going to stand there? People are waiting, don't know what to do, at loss!" They just kept on saying harsh words to us non-stop. The pressure and the tension on us was high. I tried to let them crossed to the the box by stepping on my feet where i am currently on two of the paper plates but it didn't work well as it was taking too much time and effort to do it. Then one of them that reached the box (blindfolded) asked what she was suppose to do but i had no answer to that and she suggested she could help bring the others across like standing in the middle or something, but i didn't quite get what she meant and it would be hard to guide her to where she should stand. I only knew she wanted to help. While I was in the boundary with the rest, they kept on asking how many people are there now, why aren't we doing something. Both of us officers were stuck with them too cause the paper plates were being used by the other two on the other side. So we were rather hopeless too. Facilitator : " How can you lead these people? You guys seem to be at loss!" After futile attempts, one guy from our platoon stand out and start getting the attention of the rest who were blindfolded, clearly saying all the instructions and situation that was ongoing and what they needed to know. Me and the other were just standing there astounded by the sudden approach. While he was saying that in a clear and steady way the two other facilitators at the back were looking at him nodding their heads in admiration like he's not bad that kind of face. I was quite shocked, he's blindfolded and just by hearing all the hassle he could calming get information about the situation and do it on our behalf to get things clear to the others. I was touched, impressed, a mixed emotion surfaced when he did that! I was totally thinking that if they were the ones leading us everything would be much more in control than me being in control. No matter how hard i tried to think how to get them across, i can't. I think i wasn't trying hard enough. So the next round we repeated but changed of officers. There was slightly more progress then the first batch of officers and they were clear at telling us what to expect and calming us down saying they are here we don't have to be afraid. Here comes the facilitator sprouting non-stop again: " People here are getting frustrated, there are still 20 of you here, some are stranded on an island don't know what to do, have no idea, they are just standing there doing nothing, do you think your leaders care about you?! Your leaders just have the mindset that they can just repeat and repeat and repeat" I feel like slapping them!! Our officers were already working really hard to do the best that they could for us. I believed we all trusted them so we're ignorance to what the facilitators were screaming/reprimanding loudly at us. THEN, at this moment when the facilitators were saying all these stuffs, one of the officer (from my platoon :D) shouted back at them "We won't give up on you! Do not listen to what they say, they doesn't know what we're doing!" That was one instant touching moment and i thought why didn't i thought of talking back when they did that? I was smiling at his words as the facilitators are trying to decrease our morale by discouraging us but our officer tried to encourage us. During the debrief, they told us that a platoon without a leader can collapse easily. Why? Because of the morale. Without the leader the entire platoon will lose their morale. That is why there's no ranking shown when they are in a war cause the enemy would kill the leader first. The leader is the one that gives us command keeping the whole platoon in one, together. They keep prompting us (those who are blindfolded waiting to be transported), " You guys are just standing here doing nothing? While all the commotion is going out there, don't you think you should be doing something?". Just to let you know after the first round of the failed officer attempt, i became one of the blindfolded ones. I felt more at ease as that i won't be under direct pressure. However i knew how stressful and pressurizing it was for the officers. At first some of the officers stepped out to ask another person to replace them and they all found one then i was holding the blindfold like shit i have no one to replace with. So i just quietly got into the crowd expecting the facilitator to start shouting why is there only 3 officers where is the other one, but that did not happen as someone as already taken up the position for me. Thanks a lot!! The officers resorted to numerous attempts and came up with using the paper plates to move around like standing on it and sliding across the room. More supply was given (no. of paper plates) and there were changes of the officers which i was surprised when i found out and i didn't know when did that happen. In order, to make transporting faster our officers start piggy backing us to our boxes one by one. After a few attempts they thought for a moment, actually they don't have to transport everyone to the boxes they just need some of us and apologized for those who didn't get chosen. 2 logos were built with the piggyback and allocating some to each box strategy. After they changed their tactic to let the blindfolded ones slide on the paper plates while the officers were also moving around by sliding on the paper plates would guide us, telling us to just keep moving and follow her. This speed up the movement much more faster. I was brought to collect as much domino as possible using a sweater to give it to the others in the boxes waiting for the domino before they can start building the logos. So i was being transported twice. This time round we managed to construct more logos, can't remember how many they said. During the debrief session the facilitators praised three gentlemen who made it possible. They said when this first gentleman came in there was some strategy, after the second one stepped in he started to established more strategy saying how many should be assigned there and there, he also said to the first one : You did a good job while patting him on the shoulder, i wanted to say that but do not have the courage so ended up not saying it and one gentleman who was one of the blindfolded one, when we went out of the dark room to discuss he said : "Just do what you want, we all believe that you guys can do it, we don't care what the rest are saying" and then he went to blindfold himself. When we were outside of the group, the officer from my platoon said this : " They are just trying to pressurized us... I don't give a fuck of what they say! (WELL SAID) " While we were inside using the domino to build, whenever one domino drops the people that are outside have to add 100 push ups, crunches and planking. I didn't know that until when we went out of the room and i was like why are the rest in the push up position at that corner? I thought they were doing exercises while we were doing another different activity but it turns out that they were actually getting punished for us. "While we're inside feeling nothing the people out there are getting really tired (said by the facil)" They can't hold much longer if we continue to fail. While the people inside was being mentally tortured the ones outside were being physically tortured and maybe mentally as well since they had to preserve. To end the day we wrote down some reflections.
Day 2 was another unexpected one, we all thought we would be having all sorts of activities again but it turned out that our platoon is once again separated into two groups PA1 and PA2. We had to come out with a product or service for challenged individual or groups. PA1 which was my group, we had a hard time sticking to an idea an keep fluctuating. There were two CEO meeting session to present our work and the first round we all got scolded really badly like "your plan won't work its useless shit" It was harsh but it was also true. When we were trying to tell them about the service we wanted to provide they doesn't seem to be interested at all and telling us to get out of the room. Every time after we had a meeting with the CEO (which is actually the facilitators) we would proceed to the Venting room where we could vent whatever we want and just complain about anything. After venting, they would tell us to each take a marker and a piece of paper and write anything we want and put it into a venting box. PA2 was doing better as their project got chosen to be actually carried out. We PA1 changed our idea entirely in the last 10 minutes and completely abandoned the idea that we presented for the earlier meeting and got less scolding from the second round of CEO meeting as i assumed they're more lenient for this round and gave more advice on improvements compared to the first round where they acted more harshly. Last part was to present our idea to all platoons and facilitators. After we ended, there was a loud applause i didn't see if its everyone clapping or our platoon as i didn't look at the audience. But as we were walking away i heard our platoon cheering PROCESS PROCESS! Wooo at least we got support from our platoon. PA2 went up and before leaving one of them said "process is important but actually result is also important to us!" After all the brain draining events, we did some feedback forms and took group photos.
It was a rather meaningful leadership camp!
Tuesday 2 September 2014
Bowling Excursion
Instead of going to an excursion as I always do as a student, today I went as a facilitator! Today was a trial session to let us familiarize and experience how is it like, so we will kind of get the hang of how the whole thing works. We're paired up with a more experience facilitator while we act as a assistant. For this job, before we go for a actual trail we will have to go through a briefing at the location itself first. Before we start on the actual trail we will be given the opportunity to go to a "trial" first.
My trial was with a Buddhist primary school which are the P4 kids to a bowling excursion at Safra Toa Payoh. We are needed to gather at their school first before boarding the excursion bus to go together with them to the location. We were worried that we might be late so we met up earlier but ended up reaching rather early. So after everyone reached, the coordinator, which is sort of the person in charge, show us a list with our names on it and who we are going to pair up with. Just nice I didn't look at the sir name of the person where there are two of them with the similar names but with different sir names. I felt slightly fluttered as I was with the wrong facilitator and initially i thought i was going to be with my friend under the same person. However, after that i managed to get to the correct facilitator that I am under. One class (mix one) was separated into groups so there is a total of 2 facilitator and 2 newbies in charge of the class. Like I mentioned, one of us newbie will be following one of the facilitator. Thankfully, the one I am under was alright and not awkward. Occasionally,we will chat for awhile from time to time and he will share more about the job and also something about himself. Our main objective of today trail trial was to observe and learn from them. I felt more at ease knowing that the facilitator that I am with is not a stern one but more of those that you can joke with. They also told us to be confident at all times even if we are unsure about certain things. It was a bit stressful when the teachers were standing near or behind you like they would be eyeing at your every movement so I have to act professional. Luckily I was able to mingle with the kids well and they completed the worksheet given to them rather fast without much assistance! Some play bowling like a pro with "X" !! STRIKEEE ! Unlike me, I ain't good at bowling but phew I am not the one bowling! One of the facilitator told me to try throwing once since it was the kids throwing all along and they are done with it, after they had filled up the questions and blanks in their worksheet. Guess what? It got into the gutter!! Pfttt. Before it was my class's turn to go in, the facilitator that I am with beckoned for each of the group leader to follow him into the bowling alley to look at the price for each ticket per person, cost to rent a pair of shoes, the number of lanes (25 lanes), number of pins per lane (20 pins) and label the different zone of the bowling lane. The group leaders will then share the information with their group members. Some of the groups were in group of 4,5 or 6. I also found out that they are actually not all from the same class some of them are from other classes. I have no idea how they are being arranged. So during the period of waiting outside the bowling area, after discussing with them the questions, they are allowed to eat the snacks that they brought along with them and one of them brought small moon cakes and laid it all on top of his worksheet. Then the facilitator told him not to put it there as it will dirty the paper. While they were doing their worksheet, I tried to assist those students who need help and slowly through this process (of walking around and peeking at their worksheet, catching their attention) some of them begin to interact more with me. Two girls tried to hide behind me and one of them want to put their jacket on my shoulders when I was not facing them. I also learnt that if you make the children stand up they tend to wonder around everywhere but if you make them sit down, you got to entertain them as they get bored easily. I also try to engage with them by asking if they are excited for bowling and thankfully they replied me like " little bit (looking shy)" , " Yes!" and " I scare I cannot throw and score zero". At least i got answers rather than silence or embarrassed smiles. After they finished snacking or in between snacking time, some of them wanted to go to the toilet or throw rubbish so I was bringing them and going to-and-fro from the toilet and back again. They were all super excited when its finally their turn to go in as they have waited for almost 30 minutes or more I guess. Picking their shoe size and then putting them on,outside of the bowling area. Helped two of them with tying their shoelaces as they didn't know how to. Then, the coordinator started to brief the classes about what they will be doing later and demonstrate to them how they are suppose to throw the ball in 4 steps. After the game ended (10 rounds per game), they are told to change back their school shoes and keep their belongings as we will be going out and settle down at the same area again that we waited at the start to continue doing their worksheet like the recording of their peers' score, total score of their team (doing fraction and decimal) and recording them in graph form where they shade the paper. After they are done packing I told some of the girls to go to the other side first, they said, " no I want to stay here with you", " I will go to jail with you", " I will go anywhere with you". One followed by the other follow the example. It was kind of sweet though! I replied by saying " wa wa wa (for the jail part)." One section of their worksheet requires us to time the speed of the ball from when they throw the ball till it reaches the pin area so that they can fill up their worksheet. They were given a feedback form to fill up too! Their reflections also include what activity they enjoyed most (which is only bowling though, it was the only activity they played) and the mathematical concept they learnt today. AFTER ALL THESE ARE DONE, it was finally the end of the excursion and my facilitator said the trip has ended and I was like YAY finally! As usually after they board the bus, we check on their seat belts and all and have a short chat with them on the bus. However, I cannot stand standing for the whole day so after awhile I went to take a seat. It was tiring but it was fun to interact with the children too!!
Upon reaching their school, the teachers told them to stand up, face us and thanked us for this trip! We said, Goodbye to them after they have thanked us. I saw my facilitator bowing slightly so I imitated him and bowed slightly too, as a form of gratitude I guess.While waving enthusiastically, to the girls whom I played with just now. We were given a debrief in the school canteen by the coordinator before leaving. I haven't had the chance to say bye to my facilitator as I have to go and he is nowhere in sight. Then he was actually at the bus stop that we are also taking so we approached him and I called his name! He was kind of rushing to some other place! I actually learnt something about bowling today!
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