// August 5th, 2011 // No Comments » // Life, Photos, Thoughts
Jeezus! I realized that I hadn’t blogged about my Union Camp saga last year. Guess I’ve been procrastinating about it for way too looooong! But look on the bright side, at least I have something to do during my spare time this holiday. So let’s make full use of this free time to pen down the 4 days 3 nights adventure I experienced.
Buckle up folks! It’s time to wind back the clock and unfold the untold!
Sometime in May 2010
It was post-dinner. I was in the kitchen having a little casual conversation with my eldest sister about the next chapter of my life in NUS. We talked its culture, food, facilities, lecturers, girls – you name it. Then a thought struck her. “Have you signed up for any camps?” She asked inquisitively. I kept quiet, pretending to not hear her question since I wasn’t at all interested in outdoor activities, much less a camp.
“You better, you know? If not, you’re gona be a loner in uni.” She warned. “Uni isn’t like your poly. There are no fixed classes.” I listened attentively. “Trust me, you won’t be able to do your assignments without help.” She pressed on. After hearing this, I admit that I did get a little worried. ”So then… which camps should I sign up for?” I inquired.
She took a little booklet from my admission package providing on the several camps offered specially for freshies. “What?” She exclaimed after browsing through the booklet. “You mean, there aren’t any camps for computing students?” To be honest, I was uncertain too since I hadn’t bothered myself to look through the booklet. (But in actual fact, there was actually a camp for computing students. Just that somehow it wasn’t included in the booklet.) “Oh man, computing students are really nerds man. They don’t even bother to organize camps.” She shook her head in disgust and then went through the booklet again to search for alternatives. “There,” she said, pointing her index finger to a page with oversized words ‘Union Camp – The Largest Cross Faculty Camp’, “join this one then, it’s a camp where freshies from all faculties come together.” I looked at the page doubtedly. “Believe me,” She assured me, “you’ll get to meet a lot of people from other faculties. And who knows? Maybe you’ll find a friend from computing. Or maybe even a new girlfriend.” She shrugged cheekily as she passed the booklet to me.
“You better hurry,” she decreed as she rose to leave the kitchen, “go sign up before the slots are all filled up!”
I stared at the oversized words ‘Union Camp – The Largest Cross Faculty Camp’, running through what my sister had said to me in my mind.
It was decided.
6th July 2010
I arrived at Kent Ridge Hall, a student dormitory in NUS. Gathered just outside the lobby of Kent Ridge Hall were jubilant chatty youths dressed in bright red, blue, green, yellow t-shirts. I belonged to the green house, codenamed Four Play (Foreplay). So instinctively, I approached the group of green t-shirts and introduced myself. Turns out, they were all OGLs (Orientation Group Leaders) and I was the earliest freshman to arrive. I sat down with them and they offered me breakfast. I quickly warmed myself up with a few of them and soon other freshies starting pouring in.
Soon, everyone were called into the hall and inside there each house further split into four smaller OGs (Orientation Groups). I wasn’t initially sure which OG I belonged to but I found out shortly after from one of the OGL that I’m with Play². “What a name”, was the first thought that came to my mind. But soon I realized why.
Our OG name is actually based off Phua Chu Kang’s famous catch phrase: “Don’t play play”.
Our OGLs, JY and HJ settled us into groups and we began doing some routinal self-introductions. After which, we started playing a couple of ice-breakers: The ‘Hammer’ Game and MRT Stations. In short, The ‘Hammer’ Game (I forgot what it was originally called) is something like Monkey. The mauler is given a hammer and he’s supposed to hit whoever is being called and if the target fails to call out another name before he gets smashed by the hammer, he will be the new mauler.
The ‘Hammer’ Game in progress. Happy Smile… Pretty sadistic huh?
Now that everyone is pretty familar with each other’s name. It’s time to add a little twist. Here’s where MRT Stations comes in. In a nutshell, the game works pretty similiarly to The ‘Hammer’ Game, everyone is assigned a MRT station and the game starts with someone’s station name being called. When that happens, the two persons adjacent to the target will slap the their respective sides of the target’s thighs till the target calls out another station name.
Assigning the MRT station names.
The game in progress. Solomon is being attacked by me!
Me, Aaron and Solomon taking a pic after the ice-breakers.
It was then time for us to move into our rooms. We were each given a room card, meaning each of us actually had our own rooms. Great! Honestly, as much as all the freshies were very much acquainted during the ice-breakers. I wasn’t exactly ready to sharing a room with someone I just met. Who knows what might happen. Besides, it’s not like the rooms were meant to be shared. They were so small that if you turn sideways from the windows, you won’t be able to lie down on the floor. No joke. Inside the ‘cosy’ room fits a single bed, a desk and wardrobe to the side. And no, the rooms are not air-conditioned. Well. What do you expect? It’s a hostel room.
After leaving our bags in our dormitory rooms, we gathered outside Kent Ridge Hall again. While waiting for the next set of instructions. We made full use of the time to take a group picture.
OG Play²
It was time for field games. So off to the Sports and Recreational Center we marched.
Here’s our House Head, Benjamin with one of our OG identities… LUCY
Real human Table Football in progress!
Pass the lemon and peanut butter.
We were supposed to pass the poker cards using straws…
Yeah. Like this.
There was a particular game worth mentioning where the participants had to pick fruits out of a bowl of water with instant noodles soaked.
Yeah this one. Nasty huh?
And no… You’re not supposed to use your fingers. You’re supposed to dip your head in and use your mouth to pick it out. “Ew,” you’d say. And true enough, a lot of freshies sat out for this game. But since there had to be people competing for each game, some unfortunate souls had to be sacrificed…
So… I ended dunking my head in to pick a hairy rambutan. Well done Union Camp.
Discussing strategy for the game 老鹰抓小鸟. Obvious question: Guess who are the 小鸟s?
See those poles? Yup. Me and my partner, Crystal, are getting ready for a dizzy game.
Break time! Time for another OG photo!
And how about some wrestling entertainment from Kelvin. Here’s a choke slam on poor LUCY,
an elbow smash,
and a sissors-lock!
Then we went back to playing field games…
Here’s a game of Twister in action.
When we were done with all the stations, we settled down in a circle and played The “Ouch” Game. It’s pretty sadomachochistic. Basically, a target’s name would be called and the person on his left would have to slap on the target’s thighs rapidly while the target has to pinch the person to his right. The torture can only be passed on when the person to the target’s right says “Ouch”. Thereforce, so long as the person does not yell “Ouch”, the target would be tormented indefinitely with malicious slaps.
Edmund forcing the person on his right to say “Ouch” to end his own torment.
This picture doesn’t seem to highlight my injuries well. But in actual fact, my arm was swollen from Ong’s fearsome pinch.
Just as the sun was about to set, we headed back to the hall. But to our horror, we were not allowed to rest. There was a mass dance practice in store for us. Oh my gawd. I remember my OG mates were all whining about how sweaty, exhausted and foul-smelling we already were. But oh well, I guess it was time to stink up the hall.
Taken during our mass dance rehearsal.
I remember we danced along to Lady Gaga’s Telephone and Katy Perry’s Hot N Cold. It was pretty lame but I admit that I did enjoy myself watching everyone touching themselves and cocking up the moves.
After the dance rehearsal, we had a really ‘special’ Special Partner event. Basically, all freshies would be blindfolded and paired up with someone of the opposite sex from another house. I know what you’re thinking. Fortunately, Union Camp has a boy-girl ratio of 1:1 so everyone had a partner of the opposite sex. Thankfully, huh?
On our way to meet our special partner.
We were all given nicknames. I was called Ah Beng… and obviously, my special partner was called Ah Lian. We sat down face-to-face, holding each other’s hands and we talked to each other without removing the blindfolds.
Me and my Special Partner meeting for the first time.
Thankfully, I did get along quite well with my special partner; I heard from my OG mates that many of their special partners were freaks. After the ‘special’ partner routine, we were returned to our initial displacement and everyone were discussing about their ‘special’ partner. It’s like all of a sudden, everyone seemed energized. There’s really only one word to express this: Wow.
I remember it was almost 10 pm. Just when we thought we could go back and rest, one of the committee members picked up the loudspeaker and announced to us, “Freshies, I know you all are every tired but that there is still one more activity.” It was really a fml moment and you could see everyone’s face drop and whining all over again.
We musterd our final strength and went on the ‘Mystery Trail’. The premise of the story is,”Union’s Camp project director is murdered and we’re supposed to play detectives.” I kinda like the idea of it since I’m a huge fan of the detective genre, especially Kindaichi Case Files.
Here’s the murder scene.
Investigating the room.
After going to all the scenes, we headed back to the hall where we were supposed to piece together all the clues and come up with our own version of what has happened. When every OG has handed in their reports, the commitee played us the video showcasing what actually happened. I remember ours was pretty close but we still lost the game to a better OG. Who cares, it was time for bed… not.
Our crazy OGLs suggested supper and as much as I was exhausted, I didn’t want to miss out on the action. So we went for a quick supper nearby the Campus. When we got back to our rooms, all cleaned up, I fell asleep within seconds of lying on the bed.
Day 2, 7th July 2010
We kickstarted the day with another dreaded mass dance practice before heading off to the actual deal: Food Hunt. In Food Hunt, we were tasked with travelling down by strictly public transport to places of interest to play station games and taste supposedly good food. To be frank, I wasn’t looking forward to it. In fact, I was complaining about the lack of sleep and the unreasonable hot sun. Still, off we went with the hunt!
Here’s a photo of Play² in the bus!
Our first stop. We stopped by a playground and had to take photo of a yellow dragon.
But we got carried away and decided to revive some of our childhood memories.
Finally. We settled down and took photo with this yellow dragon.
Then while we were about to cross an overhead bridge to our next destination. I was confronted by my OGLs HJ and JY regarding the Union Camp pageant that would be held at the end of Day 3. They asked me if I were keen in joining it. At that point in time, I was pretty much hesistant about it because I’m not exactly the kind of guy who likes to show and garner attention. Besides I didn’t think I was that good looking or talented enough to join. So I gave it a pass.
We then headed off to ABC Brickworks Market and Food Center…
and then Tiong Bahru Market for our very much deserved lunch. I remember I had some tasty chicken rice and soy milk!
Another group photo of us before moving off!
We travelled to our first station and over there, freshies are supposed to participate in the station games in pairs, more specifically a boy coupled with a girl. This particular station was rather challenging as we had to transport an egg across a painful rocky path barefooted and we are not allowed to use our hands. Instead, we had to accomplish the task by utilizing various parts of our face. See below.
Me and Drusilla using our cheeks.
Some of my OG mates had it worse. For instance…
Lek Chia and JiaJun were forced to use their mouths to move the egg. Lol. What a scandalous photo =X
For our final stop, we had to get to Suntec City to take photos with the sponsors of the camp – Sony Vaio. It was a far journey so we stopped by at The Central for a break.
Me, Aaron and Charles!
We finally reached Suntec City after the long walk under the hot sun. We went straight to the Vaio store and we record a group cheer regarding Sony Vaio. We were all exhausted and brain dead. Nonetheless, we did come up with a short and simple that went along the tune of a popular Mandarin nursery rhyme, 客人来.
Here’s a photo of our video uploading onto one of the Sony Vaios in the store.
Another group photo in front of the store.
It was then time for us to return to the campus. We took a long sleepy bus ride back to NUS and it was already evening by the time we returned. And you know what that means – it was time for the Special Partner event again! As usual, we were instructed to blindfold ourselves.
The guys awaiting our dates with our Special Partners.
On our way to meet our Special Partners.
Going to various stations to play the games.
The guys waiting for our Special Partners to arrive.
That night, we were supposed to complete several station games with our Special Partners. The station games are designed in a way for couples to build rapport and develop that chemistry. Besides that, the station games are supposed to make the couples ‘touch’ each other and get each other dirty. Like one station, the couples are supposed to style each others’ hairs with a ridiculously amount of gel. I remember me and Special Parter agreed to just put a minimal amount of gel on each other. But OGLs just had to ruin our plans by manipulating our hands to screw each other up. But we can’t really blame them, can we? After all, that’s what Special Partner games are for.
My Special Partner and I taking a photo.
Anyway, I remember me and my Special Partner had pretty good teamwork, we managed to complete each station fairly quickly. And while waiting to move on to the next station, my Special Partner and I chit chatted. We hit off pretty well, and exchanged so much words with each other, so much that her OG mates decided to join in our conversation.
After the games, we were brought back to line up. There, we had a mass conversation trying to find out who each other were.
And before we knew it, hours have passed by and it was time for the couples to seperate again. We hurried back to our halls and washed away the mess. There wasn’t any supper that night… we were all too exhausted for that. And within seconds, I…….
Day 3, 8th July 2010
It was beach day! And as usual, the freshies had to be up by 8am. After a quick breakfast in NUS, we took a coach to none other than Sentosa. We journeyed to Emerald Pavilion and after settling down, we played the “R O C K rocks” game and MRT stations while awaiting the other OGs to arrive. By then, it was time for us to put on our OG identity. For Play², it was mainly green-colored hair sprays and finger paints. Why? Beats me too. =/
Our house head, Benjamin, with the green spray. He does kinda resemble Show Luo huh?
Yup we’re supposed to highlight our hair green.
Check out Charles’ hair. He has a letter ‘C’!
And we’re supposed to use some cheap ass paint to paint our fingernails green.
Out of nowhere, an insulated drink dispenser was carried to our circle and each of us had soy milk!
Hmmm. Nice soy milk.
I was showing my OG mates a tricky hand gesture, “Hunter Chasing The Rabbit”.
Let’s move out for the beach games!
But there’s always time for a picture! :D
For one of the beach games, we were supposed to go around looking for specific types of people to take photos with.
Here’s a picture of Play² with a caucasian bikini girl!
Play² with a ‘hunk’. We cheated by asking of our OG guys to pose as one =X
For the other games, they were more energy consuming. For example, tug-o-wars, where the guys from each OG face off again each other. Then for next segment, the station masters wanted the smallest girl from each group to participate in a one vs one tug-o-war.
So… I choose you. Drusilla!
Drusilla desperately trying to secure a win for Play² in a tug-o-war! Go Drusila!
We’ll root for you… with our battle standard. XD
Of course, not to forget. Our cheers. “Oi oi Samuleh!”
Playing Captain’s Ball in the waters.
Here’s a decent shot of Sim trying to defend!
Playing Charades by drawing on the sand.
Play² about to do a Kallang wave!
After going through all the stations, there was still one last final game to attempt. But this is no game is no single OG effort. It’s a inter-house war game! I really enjoyed myself in this one. Unfortunately, mostly everyone was involved in this game so I do not have the photos for this part. Here’s how the game works, every house has their marked territory. Inside the territory stands a tall ‘flag’ made of a hula-hoop wrapped with newspaper. There is also a huge pool of water bombs inside each territory. Yup you guessed it. Each house is supposed to protect their ‘flag’ from attackers while also attacking the opposing houses as well. The house whose flag is the least wet or damaged is announced the winner.
Here’s Ong trying to defend our territory from enemy bombers!
It was indeed war. After 20 minutes of endless running and shouting, the committee put a stop to the catastrophe. And after going through the ‘flags’ of each house, our house, Four Play, was announced the victors! Hooray!
Finally, the beach games were over! We went back to the pavilion, grabbed our beach party wear and headed off for a real nice shower! It was time for the Special Partner revelation! Everyone was excited about it so some of them took longer to doll up. After bathing, we all gathered back and our OGLs handed the guys a paper with our Special Partner’s number on it. This is a bit random but I was thinking, “what if some of them didn’t actually have a mobile phone?” Anyway, so the guys had to go to our own private corner and call up the girls. My Special Partner told me to meet her near the basketball court. To make sure that I wasn’t alone in this, I asked my OG guys whether they are headed off for the same area too. Guess what? Turns out I was right, our OG guys had to go to the same area. So off we went. It was a pretty long walk there and when we finally reached there, we were gretted by a line of girls. Hmm, now this is getting tricky. Apparantly, we had to go up to the girls and call out their nicks. Whoever nods her head in response to the nick, that’s your girl. Okay, so I went up and did that from girl to girl, only to be faced with rejection. I was surprised to be honest because none of the girls said yes to it. So I turned my back and went to inform my OGL that my Special Partner isn’t there, to which I was surprised again. So the deal was, the girls were supposed to make things difficult for us and we were supposed to recognize her based on FEELING… I KNOW RIGHT.
So I went back like a desperate guy and repeated the routine. This time, a group of girls were already laughing at my sillyness. So I concentrated on that group of three. In the end, I picked the one whose voice resembled the one I’ve been hearing for the past 2 days. Turns out I was right. We greeted each other and shortly after an OGL had to make things more difficult by coming over and taking photos of the new lovebirds while uttering rubbish. It wasn’t soon before awkwardness caught up with us.
My Special Partner and I. And I’m blushing. Right. Obviously, it’s the sun burn XD
We had to exchange gifts and she got me a nice box of Hershey’s Chocolate. Okay, here comes the most embarassing moment, she was expecting a gift from me and I DID NOT have a gift for her. When I broke the news to her, she replied with a little repugnance in her voice, At that moment, I swear I was thinking, “can somebody just shoot me now to save me from this ridicule.” But honestly, I got scammed by my OGLs. They told me that I could actually buy something from Sentosa. But the problem is, there wasn’t even any time for me to get her something. After that long tortuous moment of silence, we still had to walk to Wave House hand in hand. I’m almost certain that incidencet left a very bad impression of me. BUT YOU ALL KNOW I’M NOT LIKE THAT RIGHT!!! :D
At the wavehouse, we seperated and went back to our OGs. There, we witness the much anticipated Union Camp Pageant in progress! Jiajun from our OG is one of the contestants!
Here’s the Pageant in progress.
All the pageant contestants. Spot Jiajun, the fourth girl from the right!
And again. The pageant contestants!
And in case you’re wondering who won! Ronald Koh and Jiajun won Mr Union Camp 2010 and Miss Union Camp 2010 respectively! Congrats to them! :D If you really want to see them. It’s actually the guy in orange (on top of the girl in red top) and the girl wearing colorful top in the center. Anyhow, you’ll see them reprising their roles again in Union Camp 2011.
After the whole pageant, it was time for party! We all had a free drink and we were supposed to ‘club’. But honestly, how did you expect us to club without getting high. In the end, our OG spent most of our time watching a repeated telecast of a World Cup match while the other OGs went to had fun in the bubble bath and swimming pools.
We headed back and during the journey, I remember Aaron and I having a talk about his National Service. After which, both of us fell asleep without knowing. And back at our rooms, most of us just crashed.
Day 4, 9th July 2010
It was the last day of Union Camp! To be frank, I was actually more relieved than sad because I can finally go home, have a nice warm shower and sleep on my cooling silky bed. But before that, it was time for some pool games so off we headed to Jurong East Swimming Complex!
Here’s Leonard posing in front of Jurong East Swimming Complex!
And here’s a shot of the swimming pool.
For one of our station games, we had to climb up this long flight of steps to reach the top of the slide. During the ascension, there will be cards of words pasted in the most ridicule places so you really had to find these papers and memorize the words. It’s no easy feat. There were easily about 20+ words to memorize.
The mega slide!
Here’s me happily(?) walking over to the slide!
Getting our floats and listening to instructions on how to play the game!
For the next station, the OG had to hold hands and attempt to pass a hula loop around the circle without breaking the circle. This game was pretty much a breeze, except there was a competition against another OG, which made some of us fumble a little.
Heres Play²’s attempt on the game.
Play² celebrating our close victory over the opposing team.
Loading our water guns to disturb the opposing team. I remember mine was faulty =(((
Here’s a group photo of Play² and our water guns!
Listening to instructions on how to play the next station game.
But before that… Let’s hear a “Eh eh samuleh” cheer, led by our house head.
So for this station, the guys are supposed to piggy back the girls into the children’s pool…
while the girls put a plastic cup over their head…
to try and collect water from the mushroom that rains.
Finally, the girls have to pour the water into a bottle. But here’s Raina cheating by squeezing water from her wet clothes. How ingenious! =X
At this particular station, we played a variant of “Simon Says”.
Here’s the station master giving out commands!
Here’s all the guys reacting to a command, “Simon says, ‘All guys get under the roof!’”
Play² doing a cheer before playing the next station game!
For this station, we were supposed to sit in a straight line and pass different sizes of balls (see behind) down using our feets only. Yes, there are ping pong balls too!
Play² going crazy and splashing water at the lazy pool.
We had to collect as many balls as we could…
and put them in a bag.
Enjoying the ride!
Wow. I didn’t even know people were actually pouring buckets of water down on us… Grrr.
Finally, we managed to catch the waves at this wave pool!
As the sun set, it was also time for us to part ways. We, except a few of us including me, changed into our OG tshirt and took a final group photo before segregating… or not? Of course not! After the camp, the OG went for a dinner at IMM Shopping Mall. See! That’s the spirit. XD
Play² :)
In all perfect honesty, I feel that this entry doesn’t do enough justice to all the gratifications I’ve experienced during Union Camp 2010. But still, it’s the least I can do to write the entire episode down in its purest form. I truly enjoyed myself during the 4 days and 3 nights. I guess it was more of the people that made the camp feel so everlasting! I still remember having doubts on making new friends from a camp that is filled from people with different interests and backgrounds. Not to mention building a new friendship over a span of 4 days. But seeing how bonded we got just after the few days and how I did enjoy the company of them. I made a promise to myself that I’ll definitely keep in touch with most of them after the camp. I also made a little note at the back of my head that I should join Union Camp again the following year… not as a freshie, but as an OGL. ;)
So there you have it. My fond memories of the epic 4 days 3 nights Union Camp saga all condensed and immortalised here on text and photos.
Signs off,
He
