Went for SMUX camp last week as a facilitator and that's probably one of the last freshman camp that I will be going in my entire lifetime. It was a completely different experience compared to sports camp, not only in terms of the events, but also in terms of the type of freshies in my group.
Day one
On the first day was skating and games at WCP. It was my very first time skating and initially had problem even standing up but got used to it rather fast and found it rather similar to ice skating which I had tried twice before. At the end of hour plus session of skating, I was comfortable to skate around the park, just that I still could not brake. Fortunately while I was going down slope, Cynthia happened to pass by and save me from crashing onto the tree.
Had other games like tug-of-war and laser tag (my first time trying) and it was during the time in between when we play games and bonded well as a group. For dinner we had outdoor cooking, which the guys in the group were rather sick of it after having enough of it during NS. But for a white horse like me who did not go out field and rarely eat instant noodles, it was quite an experience.
Even after the sun set, the night is still young and we went for ice-skating and I believe not many people had the experience of ice skating from 11pm to 1plus am. My third time ice-skating so more or less I got the basics right but ice-skating during the camp was totally different compared to during the normal days. That's when you form super long trains and make each other falls. Thanks to Yingbin who was ever so 'helpful' to accelerate the trains, my group and I fell quite a number of times.
Day Two
After a sleepless night at Changi due to the fact that I was a lightsleeper and the planes there were extremely noisy, we headed down to Mount Faber SAFRA for diving. Steph's group got extra slots so I decided to crash their group and try diving, another first for me. Wore the diving apparels and went a couple of rounds in the pool. Looks cool but I did not really enjoy it as the breathing wasn't that smooth and I am more of a land creature.
Biking at the Tampines Trail and PCN in the afternoon despite light showers while we were cycling at the Tampines Trail. But we wasn't that lucky as the showers turned into a thunderstorm while we were on the way to Changi, so no choice but to take shelter at a bus stop before the trip was called off. So no more chicken cutlet noodles from Changi V but my freshies were self-entertaining as they sang and played games at the bus stop for a couple of hours.
Performance night back in school and I was proud that Mr and Mrs Smux of the camp came from my group. After the performance night we had our mini drinking session in the room despite SMUX camp declared a non-alcohol camp. Just drinking for fun as we had mild drinks like Malibu and Bailey's and somehow Weixin got a little thirsty and began to rob drinks as we prevented her from drinking too much.
Day Three
Last day of camp and had a little amazing race and according to the scenario, one of the facilitators was kidnapped so I was left alone to lead the group. Seems like the group wasn't too eager to save Weixin as we strolled to the station and I allowed them to feast in KFC in the midst of the race instead of rushing to complete the race. Therefore it was no surprise that we manage to finish the race last without completing all the stations.
The last activity of the day was a trek from McRitchie to Bukit Timah. The group was playing and singing English songs which were totally alien to me. The camp then ended after the prize presentation and I went off with a few of them to Island Creamy for ice cream and a heart to heart talk.
Aftermath
I will say that Weixin and I had the easiest of job as facilitators there was nothing that we needed to do to lift the morale of the group as they were extremely hyper and provocative. Meet up with them once for dinner and tentatively will be meeting them next Friday for another outing. Hopefully we can stay in contact for a long time after the camp.
