Ixora, shine beyond the stars

♥ Monday, November 23, 2009

hey people(:
im here posting abt atc(:

well, it was quite a different experience I had when I was in year 1. Being the ones leading the patrol, we had to know clearly what to do, know our facts and all, give proper instructions to our juniors to make sure everyone had something to do, ensuring that we could finish on time, etc. This was really different compared when I was just a sec 1, going for ATC for the first time. There were seniors who you could ask, seniors who you could rely on when things went wrong, seniors who could give you instructions of exactly what to do.
I was really afraid for ATC, that everything would screw up. Though it was not perfect, but I am sure I have learnt a lot a lot a lot from this camp.

DAY 1:
Things started out really slowly for camp development, and we were all taking our own sweet time. It wasn't like how ATC was, and should be. We were unsure of how to pitch a tent, especially when I was the one who went for the course, but yet could not tell my patrol mates how to pitch it. I should have revised my tent-pitching notes. I was also not very clear on how our proposals were like, and when we tied our structures, there were many problems. For example, for our baggage rack, it was extremely unstable and we did not measure the length properly, resulting in us to retie our baggage rack once more. For camp development, we should have done manpower allocation properly to ensure that everyone has something to do, and not slacking at the side.
During "treasure hunt", we went around as a patrol to hunt for items, but we did not involve every single patrol member, and things were going quite slowly. Our patrol spirit was also quite low.
After that was night games. My patrol, especially me, were all freaking out and we were all very scared. So we huddled together and walked very slowly. However, things still got kupped and what more, we were really scared and screamed at certain times. We should take better care of our things and also take care of our patrol mates.

DAY 2:
The next day, we started off with morning pt. We should all have pia-ed more for it as it was only early in the morning, and we had just rested for so long. However, we did not give in our very best and took our own sweet time and all. After breakfast, we mass changed into guides uniform where we guoshi-ed terribly. We must ensure that we can mas change quickly into our guides uniform fast, and not take our own sweet time. After that, we had flag raising. As I was the PL for the day, and being in P6(atc patrol-cool yeah?), I had to march the horseshoe shape. It was rather screwed up and really scary, because if I marched wrongly, everything would go crazy. After flag raising was inspection. I think it was really bad for my patrol as we did not even finish laying our all our items, and things were very messy with gaps in between the layouts, ponchos not straight, plastic bags lying around everywhere, and our things not even standardised. Moreover, our layout was different from other patrols. I think I did not give clear instructions to everyone as only a few sec ones who were laying their things next to me were quite standardised according to the layout. However, the rest of the patrol were not clear what to layout next, and everyone was confused. I must give clearer instructions to everyone and definitely have to improve on my sense of urgency. During the inspection, we could have improved on our patrol spirit and also our physical as well.
After inspection was outdoor cooking. I was helping out with the fire(amazing huh.) and we took quite a long time to light. Our fire kept on dying again and again even after it seemed rather stable. Thus, we cooked our food very late and almost could not finish in time. However, the food all tasted really yummy;D
Then it was OJ, which turned out quite bad. Things were kupped, patrol spirit was really low, and only one or two people were cheering. We did not bring some of the necessary materials to put into the peibei, did not give clear instructions to our juniors, did not study our notes properly, and at times, our juniors even taught us how to do things. We were really quite a dissapointment, and we should have prepared ourselves better for the camp. There was really a lot of improvement to make.
Campfire was next. It was really fun, but many of us took this time to rest and did not participate in the campfire. We had to rely on our seniors to make the campfire "high". The songleaders had practised so hard for the campfire, and we should have at least bothered to participate, and not treat it like a show.
We had supper which we had a barbeque, and we bonded with our patrols. (:

DAY 3:
Morning evacuation. I woke up after hearing the 5 whistles and called everyone in the tent to jihe. However, we only cared about our own tent, and forgot about the others in the second tent. Also, we were one of the first patrols, but yet we did not go and call the other patrols to jihe.
We carried our belongings to Olave hall to jihe, but yet left nobody behind to take care of the items. This resulted in many items being kupped and all. We should have allocated manpower properly, and ensured that everyone takes something so that nothing gets left behind. We chai-ed our structures, but we were taking too much time, and we had to have time extension again and again and again.
We had PT, where everyone tried to pia their hardest. It was really tiring, but everyone was putting in all that we could, and cheering for one another.
We cleared up everything and striked our tents, and then mystery games.
We found out how bad seniors we have been, how unprepared we have been for the camp, and how much better the camp should have been. We had disappointed our seniors, we had disappointed ourselves. We have to pull up our socks, to pia harder, to give our best. For we will be the ones leading next year. We must be prepared for it, and our current standard was nowhere good enough for that.
Company games was extremely fun, and we all had an extremely good time(:

Debrief back at school, my patrol got 6th. But positions don't matter, most importantly we had learnt from it. I had learnt a lot from atc, and emerged stronger from atc. I am definitely going to brush up my skills, and learn to speak up more and give clearer instructions to the juniors. In future jihes, I am going to pia even harder, and go above my limits, and challenge myself to do even better.

P6SUPER-ME<3
P6 IXORA<3
42NDBATCH<3
GUIDES<3

-CHUNYEN<333
(hahaha! no lahh..)

♥-ing P6

11:53:00 PM

♥ Sunday, November 22, 2009

Hellos! :D
The long-awaited annual training camp's finally over! Best thing of all, we survived. -claps and cheers-

DAY 1;
Jihe-d in the foyer at 7.30am, then boarded the bus to Camp Christine. Frankly, my first impression of the camp was that it's located at some deserted part of Singapore with a lot of cemetries surrounding it :P
After a long ride, we finally arrived at our destination. Firstly we had Camp D, which was to pitch our tents and kitchen shelters. Initially, we all moved really slowly, there was no sense of urgency and were super blur about what to do. Guess we hadn't adapted to the ATC-mindset yet. Personally I think we really could have improved by taking care of our stuff, ling-ing more cheers and taking more initiative to ask the year twos what to do.. since we had no experience whatsoever in pitching tents =X (now we do!)
Then, after lunch, we continued with Camp D Part Two. Had to build our kitchen shelter, shoe rack, baggage rack, fire altar, kitchen dresser, dustbin etc. We improved slightly, and managed to complete our task quite fast. Started raining after that, and we had patrol corner :)
At night we had treasure hunt, which I prefer to call PT in disguise :P Had to pump for a list of items which we had to find. After 10 minutes, we had to pump once for every item on the list not found. After 20 minutes, we had to pump twice for every item on the list not found and so on.. Most patrols ended up drawing stuff i think?
Then after bathing we had night games, which was pretty cool lah haha. It was really a one-of-a-kind experience! We were supposed to go around to different stations and try to figure out the hidden story behind it. This part of the camp indeed bonded us together as a patrol, as we really had to take care of our patrol mates and our stuff so that they would not get kupped. The seniors' actings were pretty convincing too, I must say :D
We then had supper and went to sleep in the lodges because our tents were wet.

DAY 2;
Jihe-d at 7am and had morning PT. Had to run for 10 minutes continuously, as a company. It was really tiring but seeing everyone else cheering and pia-ing gave me the motivation to continue pia-ing :)
Then we had breakfast and were given 7 minutes (i think?) to mass change into our guides uniform. And sadly we guoshi-ed by quite alot. I think we really have to improve on that.. Since our seniors can do it within 5 minutes, I think we should too. After that had flag raising and inspection. Here, not only did we learn from all our mistakes, we also learnt the importance of cheering constantly to encourage our patrolmates to continue pia-ing through all the punishments and stuff. After inspection was outdoor cooking. We were given a variety of food to cook for our lunch and it turned out pretty yummy i suppose. Afterall we cooked it ourselves! :D
Then we had OJ.. We could have improved by reading our notes, baoshi-ed more, cheered more and pia-ed more. It IS what guides have been training us for, isn't it? Im thankful for the seniors who lead us through the entire thing despite our lack of skills.
We had dinner, bathed, then had campfire. Many of us were already very tired by then, and did not really participate actively during the campfire. Still, a round of applause to the songleaders who practised hard in order to make the campfire a success! :)
Had a mini barbeque after the campfire, which was pretty cool too haha. After clearing up, we slept in our tents.

DAY 3;
Started off with the predicted night evacuation. Carried all our belongings to Olave Hall, and chai-ed all our structures. I think we could have improved by fen pei ren shou-ing better, and taken the initiative to help other patrols.
Had morning PT after that. Running with our heavy bags and doing circuits was indeed very exhausting. However, cheering and pia-ing as a whole worked miracles and helped us survive through PT.
Had breakfast, then mystery games. For the year ones, first we played telephone line, which was to line up and either ding leg raise/ girls style pumping position/zhan ma while passing a message about guides from one end to the other. The objective of the game was for us to remember the messages and apply them in every jihe. After that we did wheelbarrow, crabwalk and ranger jump. This was followed by a company game by which we all had to lie face down while our seniors and jie-mates rolled over us. Seriously, it was funnnnnnn! :D
Striked tents, then had lunch and company games.
For the first company game we had to do shilianpai in front of our patrol mates then use our mouths to sift through flour to find a gummy. Then we had to answer a math question and do 5 star jumps before the next person could continue. Hahaha it was interesting!
Then we had this dog and bone cum blow wind blow game. The forfeits included dancing, doing a commercial for guides, etc. There was one which asked them to sing a guides song in an extremely high-pitched voice. Everyone burst out laughing hehe.
Finally it was the end of ATC. Returned to school, had debrief and prize presentation.

________________

Well, it doesnt really matter who got first and who got last actually. I really saw myself improve throughout the whole camp, gaining lots of new knowledge, taking more initiative. I'm sure everyone did too. This camp allowed me to go beyond my personal best, and taught me the importance of cheering, pia-ing, taking care of our things/patrolmates etc. Much as gruelling as it was, it indeed taught me things that will last me through my next few years of guides.

The most inspiring quote I heard during ATC'09 : All the things that you don't do, others have to do it for you.
And so, we should just pia and give the best in everything that we do, and not try to slack and push the job to others :)

-Nicole

♥-ing P6

2:37:00 PM