Friday, June 03, 2005
overall it was a roaring success on JJ's part as organisers. we received accolades from alot of schs, especially the students. i guess this is what our human touch has done to ppl from all kinds of background. our hard work over e past 2 months has finally paid off. but i won dare say e same for individual group la. got mixed feelings bout it lor. juz a quick recap...
monday was our first interaction with em. did a pretty good job of ushering em to their respective halls of residence and making em feel comfrtable as much as possible. my first impression of my group was quite alright coz dey ored started to mingle around themselves. had all e admin stuff settled within e day and had icebreakers. quite enjoyable and wat's impressive was dat e spirit was oredi quite high by den. had a lashing by mr leow during debrief coz we had some slip-ups dat werent obvious to e participants but deemed very important to mr leow.
second day, e intellectual stuff started. e spirit kinda died down.. coz my group members reali dun like to cheer coz dey tink its toopid. my partner, chio wentian rubs salt into the wound by proclaiming dat he won teach it coz its damn toopid. wah lao... so i cant do anything but to leave it to e later part of e camp, to see if dey're more receptive. had our telematch after dat and it was damn fun, even though we had no water bombs, sap, flour and whatnot from orientation. e special programmes ppl did their job wonderfully to instill e spirit in e participants and i muz reali thank em for dat. nightly debrief was betta this time around... bedtime delayed till around 2am and had to wake up at bout 5am e next day for another 20 hours of action. it was draining to everyone but we kept at it nonetheless, keeping our smiles on our faces and pushing ourselves to e limit of tolerance. by den, i realised dat chio wentian has "mood swings". wen he's high, he goes crazy to e extent of doing toopid things and making everyone roll on e ground with laughter. but wen he's not dat (which is most of e time), he juz sits around and refuses to lead any cheers or songs tho we hafta teach em in preparation for Seminar Night. he won lead anything on his own, which is often required bcoz i was e group slo i/c and i had to run around for instructions to be given and i couldnt be with my group all e while. hanh had special duties so whenever he's alone, he'll juz let em mix around themselves and he'll wander off by himself and tok to other ppl.
third day was a heavy day of boring talks, presentations and small group discussions. tension between me and wentian worsened wen he apparently din like me always having to remind him bout e admin instructions and all to facilitate e movement of 600+ ppl. but i had to take it wif a smile and juz try to cooperate and compromise if i can lor. e group had their kite-making session which was quite interactive and engaging. bedtime was like 2.30am coz i stayed up to do e cards for my group as a gift after e seminar has wrapped up. had to put up wif his waning patience with regard to me but i told myself i could do it. and i did.
fourth day was fun fun fun fun fun! firstly, we went to Thow Kwang for pottery appreciation and we got to know how to shape clay and all into all those ceramic pots. at frst it was quite dreary and everyone were complaining bout it, so i had to psycho em into getting it over n done with. e hands-on was cool tho... we got to paint our own pottery and bring it home. after lunch, had kite-flying at Innova JC and it was superb! e field was soooooo vast and e picture of almost a few hundred kites taking off in e sky was absolutely beautiful. weather was hot but windy, perfect for kite-flying and e group members were juz having fun on their own. me and hanh had an exasperating time flying our kite coz we were positively screaming all e way while trying to keep our kite in e air and not crash into another 600 plus kites. i figured i had a super cardio-workout, judging by e duration of which we juz went crazy and hyped up, which is a good 30 mins or so. released my pent-up emotions and unhappiness by screaming my lungs out and running around in e boundless field... once again, chio wentian had no regard for their attendence and watsoeva... juz cared bout having fun and all.. so it was onli me and hanh doing e job of organising our uncooperative group members. wentian started to get snappy tho he din do it explicitly.. so i juz swallowed it down as well as i could and try to comply lor. next up was seminar night and it was SO HIGH!!!! damn enthu la... e participants enjoyed themselves greatly with e songs, cheers and dance. den e emotions started to flow wif mr leow's address and all. e SLOs cried and e participants started to follow suit. sang all those teary songs together and had a reali touching moment in e Multi-Purpose Hall of
NIE@NTU with my group members at last. cried till e cows came home and had our e-web, where dey finally opened up to apologise for their lack of enthusiasm after realising our hard work in making it possible. received alot of hugs and words of thanx from em... made my day fulfilling despite e breakdown wif wentian. finally dey became much more enthusiastic and even proposed an overnight party on this last night. slept at around 3am coz me and hanh were writing e cards for em in my room. as for wentian, he said he was too tired and promised to work on it e next day. before dat, a few of us including wentian were like going crazy playing "ji niu nai" and getting super hyped up bout it. but once we went back to our group and i wanted to teach em how to play this, he became a wet blanket and din wanna do it together wif me and hanh. anyway, it was his birthday la so i juz went along wif it lor without saying a word. din manage to do e compulsory reflections and debrief for em coz of dat.
last day of e seminar. i was technically dead and exhausted oredi from e lack of sleep, plus e fact dat im losing my voice from all dat screaming e previous night. was feeling demoralised over e situation so i juz decided to let wentian handle everything coz i tot, since he wans it dat way, den i shall let him taste how its like to neglect all e important protocol. was almost fainting wen dey had e tea session with Minister Tharman... dats how tired i was. but i kept e smile on nevertheless; it nv wavered although it got less wide and cheery by e minute. my group members took lotsa photos and autographs.. so glad dat dey had a good time. had to abandon my plan coz wentian simply did do wat was necessary and ppl were going missing everywhere, making me and hanh search for em while he was der having fun and chatting away wif em. i got so bitter that i tot dat it din reali matter even if dey're gone after today coz i couldnt feel e bond at all, unlike orientation. broke down wen i was waiting at e transport point coz i could no longer stomach e breakdown between me and wentian, in addition to my state of physical well-being which is almost at zero already. thankfully gwen was der to help me regain my composure.... finally got back to e halls and helped em check out. sent em up e bus and dats wen i felt a tug at my heart at e tot of not seeing em again. after all, i was with em for a whole of e 5 day 4 night camp.. how not to feel attached to em, especially after e emotional outcry e previous night before?
so basically dats how it went la. gained alot of things from this pre-u seminar and im so glad dat i went. i cant help but admt dat im actuali proud of myself as well as e other SLOs for accomplishing this task beautifully, being part of this huge committee to make sure dat everything runs smoothly. for dat, we were rewarded wif affection from our participants and praise from varous schs. and through this, i oso became stronger in e sense dat i have stretched my endurance level to such an extent. and i oso got to experience different sch cultures.. sad to say, i reali despise those top schs. dey may be smart, but they are so condescending towards others who are seen as inferior to em. dat sux totally... not dat i have something personal against em, but i juz cant stand e way dey're so stuck up la.. i din show it tho.. juz had this very strong feeling in my heart as i observed em everyday. but in other ways, dey can be quite nice too so i guess its a love-hate relationship. and now i reali reali reali dislike Anglo-Chinese ppl.. be it ACS or ACJC. dey are juz soooooooo unsupportive and all...(tsk tsk). to tin dey'll become Singapore's leaders in time to come. pui ah... ooops, sorry i cant help it. i also learnt how to deal wif difficult ppl and get along wif em for e sake of professionalism, like with wentian most of all, it was e friendship between e SLOs themselves dat i reali reali cherish. this is what i treasure most bout e seminar.. juz wanna say my biggest thank you to Hanh for being such a great SLO. she's always der with me, to stick it out thru e tough times and oso to enjoy e fun moments. LOVE YA HANH! so ya, dats how my week went.
AND TIME TO START ON PREPARATION FOR MID-YEAR! -_-"
butterflies whispered at
6/03/2005 10:31:00 PM
