Finally.... No More Camps!
I just came back from the SMU Freshmen Teambuilding Camp this afternoon. This is the final camp I will be taking part in before school starts and I'm rather glad. There will be no more childish games (read tiu tiu tiu) and embarrassing forfeits. Of course there are positive things that came out from these activities; I managed to know more people before school starts and get to understand the school better through the seniors I met.
I always thought that this would be some kind of orientation camp like those conducted in JCs with all the mass dances and games. In the end it turned out to be more like a leadership camp where we had to participate in various teambuilding activities. I had taken part in a similar camp back in JC; but I forgot most of the solutions and the skills I was supposed to learn.
In the past I always heard of my brother complaining about the Indian scholars in his JC class. From the camp I had a rough idea how he felt and wondered how he went through his 2 years studying with them. Indian scholars are REALLY very different from us. It seems that most of them have a lot of opinions and want things to be done their way. In other words they are like dictators. I was absolutely glad that both Indian scholars in my group are not doing Business. I just can't see how I am able to work with them.
If given a choice I'm sure that most of my group members will rather not participate in the activities. Since being practical people we knew when to conserve our energy and not wasting them on meaningless activities. We were definitely not the most enthusiastic group and hardly show any interest in most of the task assigned. However when we had to do the activities, I think we all tried our best.
The guys in our group were always cracking jokes and talking rubbish. There's an Allan Wu look-alike among us who had to wait for Li Lin to come before he would do his forfeit. We came up with other hilarious stuff such as saying that the 2 Chinese nationals in my group were a couple and drawing funny things on our faces. Actually our group was very fun and I'm sure in a different environment we would definitely have more fun together.
Our facilitator Kelvin tried to get us do the debriefs and discussed the mistakes we met which espectedly had little success. It could be our loss but I don't see the need for them. On the first day he was talking about integrity after one activity. I guess that he could see me rolling my eyes. I'm sure that people without integrity will want to have some after being preached. There's nothing personal against Kelvin but I guess maybe it's just me being cynical. Kelvin is a nice guy and tried to accomodate all of us. He got the message and we just play-acted during the supposed debriefs for the rest of the camp.
At the end of the camp my group was tasked to do the area cleaning for the rubbish dump place. The volume of trash generated was stunning and the condition was really appalling. One of the group members Jurena was complaining that since everyone had a part in creating that mess hence everybody should help us clean the mess. It reminded me of a similar incident about 2 years ago when I complained that the specialists littered our platoon garden with cigarette butts. I guess my thinkings had changed quite abit since then. Just spare a thought for those washing the absolutely gross toilets. Oh my god. I can't even think about it.
I always thought that this would be some kind of orientation camp like those conducted in JCs with all the mass dances and games. In the end it turned out to be more like a leadership camp where we had to participate in various teambuilding activities. I had taken part in a similar camp back in JC; but I forgot most of the solutions and the skills I was supposed to learn.
In the past I always heard of my brother complaining about the Indian scholars in his JC class. From the camp I had a rough idea how he felt and wondered how he went through his 2 years studying with them. Indian scholars are REALLY very different from us. It seems that most of them have a lot of opinions and want things to be done their way. In other words they are like dictators. I was absolutely glad that both Indian scholars in my group are not doing Business. I just can't see how I am able to work with them.
If given a choice I'm sure that most of my group members will rather not participate in the activities. Since being practical people we knew when to conserve our energy and not wasting them on meaningless activities. We were definitely not the most enthusiastic group and hardly show any interest in most of the task assigned. However when we had to do the activities, I think we all tried our best.
The guys in our group were always cracking jokes and talking rubbish. There's an Allan Wu look-alike among us who had to wait for Li Lin to come before he would do his forfeit. We came up with other hilarious stuff such as saying that the 2 Chinese nationals in my group were a couple and drawing funny things on our faces. Actually our group was very fun and I'm sure in a different environment we would definitely have more fun together.
Our facilitator Kelvin tried to get us do the debriefs and discussed the mistakes we met which espectedly had little success. It could be our loss but I don't see the need for them. On the first day he was talking about integrity after one activity. I guess that he could see me rolling my eyes. I'm sure that people without integrity will want to have some after being preached. There's nothing personal against Kelvin but I guess maybe it's just me being cynical. Kelvin is a nice guy and tried to accomodate all of us. He got the message and we just play-acted during the supposed debriefs for the rest of the camp.
At the end of the camp my group was tasked to do the area cleaning for the rubbish dump place. The volume of trash generated was stunning and the condition was really appalling. One of the group members Jurena was complaining that since everyone had a part in creating that mess hence everybody should help us clean the mess. It reminded me of a similar incident about 2 years ago when I complained that the specialists littered our platoon garden with cigarette butts. I guess my thinkings had changed quite abit since then. Just spare a thought for those washing the absolutely gross toilets. Oh my god. I can't even think about it.
posted by shyh jie at 11:56 PM
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