I went to Raffles Institution Orientation Camp 2008 a day ago. As I was too tired to post after I came back, I decided to do it today. Some info about the camp: It's a 3 days 2 nights camp. That means staying overnight. The venue of the camp is inside the school campus itself! In some previous years, the Orientation Camp was held in a forested area near a SAF Live Firing Area. So, let me enlighten you about my camp experience.
This year, the camp's theme is Lasair (a celtic word), which means Flame On. Most of the time in camp was spent on outdoor and indoor team-building activities. In these activities, teamwork, co-operation, determination and efficiency were required to complete them. By the way, my Sec 1 class is 1F. I got to see my class on the first day. Some of them were quite weird in some ways. (I think one of them is a bit loony. :P) Example: On the first day of school, when all my classmates were asked to introduce themselves and tell us about their hobbies, this lunatic said, "My name is ... ... My hobby is commiting suicide." When the class heard that, there was absolutely no laughter at all. The PSLs (Peer Support Leader) just stared at him and asked everyone to be more serious. o.O
Anyway, about the activities. Here are some examples. One of them was called 'Bishan Hike'. All the students had to roam around Bishan in search of some stations for assigned tasks. First, a clue was given about the location of the station. As a class, we had to brainstorm about the possible locations and search for them. (Bishan is quite a large area.) If we guessed the correct location, there would be a PSL there, trying to blend in with the public. BUT, he would be wearing a recognizable shirt that all PSLs wear. Upon completing the assigned task (usually memory games and other challenges), a clue on the next location would be given. This goes on until the time for the game is over, which is about 3-4 hours! As you may guess, it's pretty tiring. Also, there were other games, all of which require quick thinking and on-the-spot planned strategies. (I won't mention any more of them, there's just too many!)
One more thing, the schedule for everyday was quite rushed. Time limits were given for every activity. (Not only games, but also bag-packing, briefings, talks, etc.) There was no time to lose! Even when we were showering, there was a time limit! The reason for this is because there were only a few places to shower AND that there were 450+ students! Yikes! During meal times, there was also a mad rush for food. The queues were very long as students waited in line for their serving of food. Each class will take turns to serve the food and clean up. All the activities in the camp were totally student-orientated. That's right, NO teachers helping. Well, a few only supervised the overall situation. Other than that, no help was provided. When we took our food, we cannot start eating first, though. We had to wait for every single student to be seated. That's one of the morals they emphasized there, we are all a batch. What's more, before we took our meals, we had to recite our school's Principal of Honour. Here it is:
In intellectual pursuit, I shall reflect discipline and passion for learning and in personal conduct, I shall live in integrity and regard individuals, groups and the community with kindness and respect and in so doing, uphold the Rafflesian Principal of Honour.
There, pretty cool, right? In RI, moral values are also greatly emphasized. (Basic courtesy and manners, etc.) Okay, on to the next topic. Let me talk about Fright Night, one of the activities organised.
On the second day of the camp, this activity was organised too help us overcome our fears and learn to stick together as groupmates. Incredible Tales was aired in the Lecture Theatres. Surprisingly, some people were freaked out. Lol... It wasn't THAT scary, right..? The original plan was to let us watch a japanese horror movie. But it was NC-16, unfortunately. When I see people freaked out just watching Incredible Tales, I can't imagine how they would react if they watched the horror film. (Piss in their pants?? >_<) Anyway, the Science Block was used for the Night Tour. The PSLs tried to scare us by jumping out of corners and telling us some 'scary' stories. Some were quite crappy. X( The first time they tried to scare my group, I was merely surprised. I didn't even jump. But for the second and third time, they jumped out unexpectedly from behind some pillars and hard-to-notice places. I jumped and them laughed at them. Each group was allowed only one torch. After the third scare, my group became EXTREMELY cautious. Here's a funny moment. At one point of the tour, we were instructed to switch off the torch. Before that, we saw a PSL at a table. In addition, we saw another one of them hiding under the table and at once, I knew they were trying to scare us! We told the first PSL about the person hiding but he nervously tried to divert our attention to him, asking us to stand closer to see and feel something in the darkness. In the end, I found out that it was just a distraction for the other PSL to scare us by grabbing our legs from under the table. Too bad we foiled their plans! XD I'm sure they felt pretty sad.
So that's all for the activities. For the camp Finale, there was a short performance and class cheer competition. I would like to talk about all the PSLs right now. When I first got to know our class PSLs, I felt strange around them. But soon, I realised that they were really a bunch of caring and kind people. They sacrificed a lot of their precious time preparing and guiding all the Sec 1 students through the camp. They sacrificed their sleep and performed their duties very well. They bathed and had their meals later than all of the students. I was really touched by how much they devoted themselves to guiding us. They inspired me and I decided that when I was Sec 4, I would be a PSL, guiding the juniors in RI. Without them, there would not even be an Orientation Camp at all. So thanks a lot, Seniors!
With that, I end this post. I hope that all my friends will enjoy their secondary school life and never give up in their studies. Lasair, Flame On!
- DarkAbyssXx
8:14 PM
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