As you may have gathered from above, OEP was extremely fun and I hope we could do it again sometime. Right, off we go...
Day 1 - Day of Reckoning, because I reckoned OEP would be a killer
Well, the day was a really exciting one, mixed with fear and desperation. Arriving at school at 0745 hrs is no mean feat, I can tell you that. It was havoc, especially since the previous group hadn't left yet. Shame.
It took us two hours to get to Desaru and I assure you that if not for Demel, I would have died of boredom. We spent some time singing Irish Drinking Pub songs before doing scenes from a cap. We had to use a cap because we did not have a hat. At least half the class was listening to their MP3 players. I will never know why teenagers would like to pump music into their ears for two hours. The songs aren't even that nice.
When we arrived at the Golden Beach Hotel, obviously there was a briefing. Teachers always hold breifings before activities. And thus, the basic punishment of pumping position was declared upon us all.
After lunch, our guide brought us to the roadside to explore the many medicinal plants that grew rampant in Malaysia. And in Singapore too. Rampant. Huh. Nice word.
Anyway, we learnt that even if you were stuck in a tropical rainforest, there are a number of plants can help cure you of numerous diseases. The problem is that they all taste bitter. Oh, and Daniel and Darrell liked the Wild Passion Fruit, for reasons I am not going to discuss.
After this herbology lesson, there was another lesson about Pitcher Plants. They usually grow on the pitcher's mound in baseball stadiums. No, not really. They grow in not-so-fertile soil, and feed on insects to sustain their nutrition. What fun. Imagine having to eat insects all your life. If you don't live in Africa, that is. (No offence.)
Whee! After this, the best part of the whole camp (besides the arcade). Sandcastle building! My group (yes, my group. I was group leader, after all. [You can kill me but you can't kill my ego]), consisting of moi, Daniel, Darrell, Demel, Archbishop, Louis, Yong Jun, Jarrel and Kevin (Wong), built the winning sandcastle/sandsculpture. We rock!
After a quick dinner, there was nightlife - collection & classification of insects. No pubs. Not that kind of nightlife. We caught some pretty aggravated specimens. One of our hoverflies kept buzzing angrily against its container.
The best part of this activity was walking back in the moonlight. I have never done that before and I must say it was quite enthrilling. Shame I had to step into the @#$%@^! puddle of mud.
Day 2 - The day of the second, because it was the second day, after all
Demel is a difficult roommate. One, he keeps having pillow fights, and two, he says goodnight. Often. Every 5 seconds. Oh well. At least I sleep like a log. B-log.
Archbishop kept calling early in the morning. He allegedly woke up at 0515 hrs everyday. Would it kill Jun Yi to wake up an hour later, when we were supposed to?
Anyway, breakfast was... actually breakslow, because of the humongous queues. Come to think of it, all the meals had long queues, so it doesn't really matter. Unless you're at the back. Starving.
After breakfast was beach ecology, which meant collecting shells with different shapes. We weren't to catch hermit crabs till thursday, but we're dealing with ACS boys here. Do you really think they would pass up such a chance? About a dozen students brought hermit crabs back to their rooms, and I was chaos with Archbishop. His crab escaped and rampaged all over his and Jun Yi's bed (they were rooming together) and Jun freaked out and jumped about yelling.
Back to the beach. Darrell actually ate sushi there. Real sushi. Real LIVE sushi. He had caught four small fry, and for some reason, picked one and swallowed it whole. A live raw fish. A LIVE RAW FISH!!! *faints*
After another queued lunch, it was off to the Kota Tinggi Nature Reserve, about an hour's journey. There, we learnt about the different forest flora, and about pond fauna. We had to catch marine animals, and that's where the fun came in. We caught about a dozen pond skaters, but let almost all of them go. (Gaaah, Demel!) Ten prawns were locked in captivity, as were a water beetle and a damselfly nymph. We let them all go of course. Eventually.
The buffet dinner was quick, as usual. I never eat slowly at buffets. And you know why it's called buffet? Because whe you stand in line, you're buffeted against the flow of the crowd!
Anyway, after dinner was group presentations, and we were supposed to present on what our favourite activity was up till then. We presented on the sand sculpting. I mean, it was fun, and we won. But more importantly, we won. I was the speaker, and I tell you, I got such a case of the jitters before our presentation that I almost got stage fright. Almost.
Day 3 - The day of the Voyage of the Firefly
I will stop typing about meals from now on because it is a very slow topic.
Following breakfast was a delightful friendly soccer and volleyball match between our school and the local Sports School. Unfortunately, they mixed our teams with their teams, so there were elements of both schools on either side. So we didn't know who to cheer for. Aren't teachers ingenius? *loaded with sarcasm* So finally, the score was 5-1. We trashed us. Or, they trashed themselves. Or did we trash them? Or they us? See, confusion.
After this grueling task of cheering, we had free time. No, you saw correctly. We actually had free time.
This is a public announcement. Do not adjust your monitor screen. You are reading correctly, don't need to check your eyes.
WE HAD FREE TIME.
OK, we had free time. Which was cool, cos I got to play pool with Kev, Daniel and Darrell. I stank. Daniel was OK. Darrell was OK. Kevin was great. Henry and Josh were playing before us and they ROCKED! I didn't know they could play so well.
Oh, and Sheu Zhi was a wizard on the KoF machine. KoF means King of Fighter. 2000 version. He had a 18 point winning streak that day. He beat Demel. The ultimate. Three times. Maybe more. Woah.
After that we went to Kota Tinggi town, where we went shopping. Now, don't get me wrong, I hate shopping, but we had to buy stuff for the charity bazzar next week. So we bought Chinese New Year Cards. Wowee. Sir bought coffee. Odd choice, but I suppose he has his reasons... I can't say the trip was a total waste of time, but even though the arcade was located on the seventh and last floor, even though there was nothing on the floors between the third and the seventh, even though the only way up was through the mini-mart because the other escalator was broken, almost everyone ended up at the arcade. Must be animal magnetism.
We had dinner outside that day. As in, inside a Chinese restaraunt, outside the hotel. Was a nice change from buffet, but Darrell the Sushi Eater didn't dare shell a prawn. *sigh*
Fireflies that night. We were split from the main group of our class. Lucky I was with Myself. Me. Kevin. Wong. That one. I was PUNching him throughout the journey with lame jokes. He has never endured a constant barrage of PUNchlines before and I think he was on the verge of throwing himself overboard.
The fireflies were cool, but not only because they don't produce heat. But I expected more out of that boat ride. Arrr! So you dared brave the perils of the voyage of the fireflies? *in a corny pirate accent*
Day 4 - The second from last day
We went hermit crab hunting immediately after breakfast. Added a few more to our collection. Mr. Shepard told us of a beach in England, where the tide comes in under the sand. So you could be standing there one minute, and the next, WHOOSH! You're wiped from the face of the earth. Don't you get that sinking feeling just thinking about it?
Boy, I can really draw. Kevin Wong, I mean. His hermit crab sketches looked so nice! Mine stank.
After lunch was a treasure hunt. Simple, just follow the arrows. It was a harrowing experience, I can tell you that. It got us all cross. But in the end, we were one of the few teams that managed to safely retrieve the treasure without eating it on the way back. Yay!
After that we had more free time.
YES, MORE FREE TIME.
Don't get your undies in a twist. More free time. Sheesh. Metal Slug 5 was completed another 5 times, and Sheu Zhi had a 28 point Streak in KoF. Again. (Muhaha Demel Rubbing it in your face)
The day's dinner was quite nice, conidering it was barbercue. However, I lost quite a bit of my appetite after spotting the giant swarm of flies hovering over the raw food. Yuck.
As it was the last day, they made us do a presentation after dinner. You know how teachers are like: asking you to do a presentation because they want you to know what you learnt but they couldn't care less what you know. Ya know? Shaun presented this one because I didn't want to go near that mike again. Demel shouted "SHUT UP!" about halfway through because the Mainstreamers were discriminating us. Again. I'll blog about this another time, but for now...
We won the prize for 3rd best group and cinched the sandcastle victory. Booyah! Third place prize was keychains and 1st place prize was chocolates, presumably bought from the souvenir shop near the reception.
Day 5 - The Day of the Last
Boohoo! The last day at last! *sobs* Most of the morning was spent planting... plants (wow, you'd have never guessed) and I stuck a stick with "2.12 2005" written on it into the soil. I just hope it doesn't get removed or trampled or eroded or decayed...
Following this environmentally friendly activity, we had more free time.
YES, EVEN MORE FREE TIME.
Calm down. People would think you'd never had free time before. Sheesh. Sheu Zhi maintained an 11 point winning streak (I'm not sure about this one) but he still used Mai. Oh, didn't I tell you? He used Mai, Yuri, Terry and Vanessa. Winning combination. He had to do a random team once against Demel, but unfortunately got Mai again. Unfortunate for Demel, that is.
After lunch it was time to go home. I wished OEP could have gone on forever. Oh well.
Stuff I can't fit into one day
I guess I owe my great time during OEP to my teammates: Kevin Wong, Daniel, Darrell, Demel, Louis, Yong Jun, Archbishop, Jarrel, and last but not least, me. But seriously, my teammates were the best: funloving, loyal, enthusiastic, and we got on really well. I want to say a public thank you to my teammates, because they rocked. Seriously.
Thanks for actually getting to the end of this ridiculously long blog post. Terimah Kasih! (is is spelt like that?)
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