...back again. 27-29 woodgrove down. wanted to much to reject the next kaizen one... but argh. one more, one more... in like, a few more hours.
relaxing camp! andi was great, didn't give any pressure. teachers were running everywhere being anal about things. can you believe they had a checklist of who climbed the rock wall?
school was peh. wanted to kick people during song session, which was why campfire was surprisingly good. did monkey this time with andi, was fun.
group is relaxing also. they're not the cheering type of fun (couldn't cheer to save their lives) but the talk cock kind of fun. we were stuck at the summit for like, 2 hours cos of the rain and we started playing lateral thinking. seagull sandwich ole haha... girls were mostly quiet, didn't really get a feel of how they felt about the camp or me, but the boys were fun. what i love about them is their initiative. for the first time i have people volunteering to clean toilet, and what's amazing is that even when i asked them to pick up hair and empty rubbish bin, there were no complaints, not a single one!! at the end of the day was very proud of them and the improvements they made from the first day. every group should walk down the hill in the rain at least once, cause that's where they really get to feel what teamwork is all about. much more practical than pottering about on benches. pun intended, dah.
buddy was hafid, very dependable for hyping the group up. feel that we work well together. i take care of duties, he takes care of kids energy level. am sorry for being irritable on a few occasions when he tries to joke around, but supply of patience is directly proportional to supply of sleep. still, am sorry for being wet blanket. much love to good buddy!
tagboard swamped ¬_¬ i miss all of you too~ if i'm not accepting you for friendster, it's cause i'm too busy and tired these few days. going kaizen again, will be back soon.
...back from 23-26 mgs kaizen. very tired but less tired than i should be. 8 days down, 6 more to go. just reached home at like, 7pm. am still unsure whether or not to go dfac later. camp tmr is report at 6.30 morning, wtf.
mixed feelings about camp, mixed feelings about kids. most probably because i think i could have done better if i'd been more awake. was already peh like crazy on first day, tried to teach as many cheers as i could, but kids were so peh also, then i sort of didn't bother.
a very different sort of camp. maybe because it's kaizen. first time experiencing girls sec school, it turned out quite as expected. school was hyper. group could cheer but most are very very pampered. had to teach how to clean tables and toilets, they were more willing to do after somebody demos i think... one thing that made me happy is to see the girls getting used to dirtiness, it's like a huge objective completed. proud of many of my girls, though a few of them are just plain irritating. spoiled, selfish, pampered.
also felt out of sync with the other trainers and the matrix. screwed up big on no man's land, really need to be more attentive and less scatter-brained.
taught the they say in YLTC cheer to group for campfire item. bah. highlight of camp i think was rafting. of all things.
buddy was eveleen, very easy going and cute, but i don't feel we have much chemistry. still, nice buddy :) come to think of it, i don't think i've had one buddy that i can really click with before. hmm.
thoughts are getting shorter. truncated. sleepy. go dfac?
back from 19-22. one down, three more to go. was already counting salary on bus back today.
hands down this was my happiest camp. group was great, loved crapping with the boys and talking to the girls. they made me laugh a lot, intentionally or not. everyday was full of surprises, now i know how wrong first impressions can be, especially with my kids. felt very attached to a few of them, was sad to see them go.
i have finally discovered the 'highs' of the 'highs and lows of an instructor's job'. thought i never would.
good kids, good camp :) will come back to muse more about this after the whole mad wave is over.
is there a common consensus that you can blog about things weeks, months and one day old but not those 3-6 days old? nobody told me...
trip to kaizen was fine. campsite was an eye-opener. very peaceful and very fun, but i think i'll have a lot of problems with the elements. will be very fun if you get a group that you can talk with, then when activites are completed can have free & easy and slack. waterfall was much better than expected, guess i've pegged my standards against the plastic ones at sentosa. very dirty though, huge eyesore.
first time seeing leeches, but didn't get bitten by any courtesy of Worst Shoe Investment my nike acg. they were so tight, water didn't even enter for like, 3min after i jumped into the waterfall pool. very waterproof, very leeches proof.
bunked with germs, haz, and new trainer natalie. was good. had fun, esp with haz. also made many revelations regarding tampons and the number of holes in your body. realised i was uninformed all along about the one more hole we have in our body, but i have no desire to verify its existence. will take others' words for it or believe i have evolved beyond it.
also had another talk with isk. have never met a guy who's this honest and chatty about his feelings. the rock seriously needs a hug. or a break. but in his case a hug's easier to come by i say.
also, feeling much disliked by weining. bah, have no idea how to deal with someone who tells me, in one of our first conversations, that she dislikes me. will meditate on this.
went swimming and popiahing today with sy, am much in need of exercise.
tmr the horrible stretch starts. have not prepared debriefing points like i promised myself i would. is being annoying procrastinating self again. bad self! me will smack!
just came back from kaizEn recce, and mood is like this: -----------------------------
stole this from huijie:
Your Brain is 47% Female, 53% Male
Your brain is a healthy mix of male and female You are both sensitive and savvy Rational and reasonable, you tend to keep level headed But you also tend to wear your heart on your sleeve
back from ubin. it's really hard to scratch and type at the same time. sad to say, did not even get to cycle at all =( had briefing in morning at RM of all places. buddy for 23-25 camp is new, first camp. fish lah, don't know why they're putting her with me, of all people, especially for a school that has an illustrious history of delinquency... two pushovers together. will be a Learning camp again.
had fun talking to haz on my way there. the one thing i like about my job is the outrageous people i get to meet haha...
met some of them at jetty, and for the first time rode a double bike. was behind isk, meaning totally could not see where i was going, but was fun anyways. then had evidence to haz's insight that sports people are not necessarily outdoors people. for a bunch of outdoor instructors we're either very slack or very... i don't know. i was quite shocked that nobody bothered to start dinner when it was already nearly 8... it's times like this that i miss nels the most. omg i miss yl days :'( miss miss miss MISS!!
then during night started the '3 person in inno you like' thing again. germaine was hot stuff cannot bluff! XD i said sarah, zuen and kai, but since am a very confused person, hope nobody took it seriously. can tell from choices: girl, semi, guy. hahahah! love bitchbuddy, love zuen, she's super cute, love favouritebuddy kai, though don't really have much to say to him.
then came back and had mothers day lunch, where mother, grandmother and great-grandmother were all present! lunch sucked but i guess that wasn't the point. happy mothers' day!
am packing self off to kaizan recce tmr, hurrah! the leeches can fight for space with my sandfly bites.
and just when i've 70% made up my mind to go smu as a lowly non-double degree, unscholarshiped, hostel-prospect low student, nus sent me a letter that told me i was offered a place in usp.
bastards.
good education as an unremarkable student paying high(er) tuition vs unremarkable education in a prestigious program paying similar tuition if hostel included. hostel!
what i'm doubtful about is actually above mentioned prestige of usp. if they really take in 150 students every batch, is it really as exclusive as they hype it up to be? i'm afraid that the hype is just hype, and it really does just make you a jack of all trades with a certificate to show for it at the end.
but am refusing to be disillusioned and still carrying hope everyday that smu will call to dispense scholarship interviews.
west spring camp was good. smooth. though not my best camp, is definitely my most relaxed camp. kids were two different extremes... i had 4 super cheeky and noisy boys and 6 super quiet girls. others were okay. these 4 boys were good in that although they were cheeky, they weren't naughty. very cooperative, actually. had fun talking to them, especially the smallest one. the first genuinely witty kid i've met in camp. if it weren't for them, camp would have been so peh.
all in all a very pleasant time. quiet but passively cooperative kids. meaning not enthusiastic and spontaneous, but willing to participate in games and they do listen to instructions. great kind of feeling. even toilet cleaning went well! was done superfast and even the soap was cooperative XD
also felt like i made more friends with trainers. and not refering to attachees either, i mean already working trainers. maybe because i was happy, i could relax and talk more... of course had alp also. fun fun fun~~~ =D
buddy with WATI, who ROCKS and made me feel like i had another MENTOR and someone watching my back (and the matrix). LOVE and hugs to buddy!! not sure what is it about her, maybe it's just personality or something, the way she makes you feel welcome, but it's really good, it makes me relax. she conducts her activities and manage time in a way that there's enough activities done to substantiate debriefing points, and yet also enough time to release the kids for breaks and conduct short debriefs. also noticed that this is the first time i've buddied with a non-guy (note i didn't say girl heehee) trainer and i think this works better. even though kai still rox :D
buddy had an attachee shaiful (?) who was really outspoken and confident for an attachee. will make good trainer one day soon. would have been alone for camp prep again if not for him, although the student leaders were there. one of them, sharmaine, was surprisingly good though she didn't look like it at first. me and wati shock dio sia, mouth all drop to floor when she demoed the five macho claps hahaha.
some cock ups during this camp also. like nature hike confidently went the wrong way at the first turn. and the second turn. obviously did not learn from previous camp about ASK IF IN DOUBT AND DON'T BULLSHIT. think wanting disgusted with me =( also picked up more aura from her and it says she doesn't like me. wondering why...
and of course... iskandar... erps. some serious miscommunication between me, alp and him. said something that really upset him and fretted over it much. approached him to kowtow and apologise, but sort of burst into tears two sentences into it. I DON'T KNOW WHY. scared him much, and ended up he was the one apologising. am not very emotionally stable at the moment i guess, though my problems are like as small as e coli bacteria beside his. talked to him some and hope i cleared things up a bit and hope they're not as screwed up as i think. isk if you're reading this please know i'm sorry and i think you're still THE ROCK and although i don't know you very well i think you're STRONGER than many people i know and though things SUCK, they don't always, so be optimistic and always find something to look forward to and take your mind off things. you rock and deserve all the love in the world :)
that sums up the camp. it makes me look forward to the next one XD
O we have just gone through elections with no one being sued to bankruptcy o we don't see any celebratory footage of winning opposition parties (plural form of word used in the strictest of sense) O above said parties occupy only 2 out of 20000 seats in parliament although they have support of 33.3% of the population o some of us can put more than 5 garlands on our necks O our nation's newest form of victory dance: we raise our hands, one on each side of head beside garlands, UP-down-UP-down-UP-down- practise in controlled manner for our 2030 world cup match(es!) o there are so few void votes O i still hear people speaking with megaphones. like, right now. outside. cannot make out words. either thank you speeches or auctioning off marble buddhas o our election campaigns revolve not around taxes, war and freedom but around elevators
fever burnt itself out, running nose finally ran away, phlegm all hacked up.
today's briefing was quite fun. next camp's going to have 8 attachees and many student leaders. have to meditate for this one...
tmr have SATs. what the hell i'm taking it for what the interviews are all over, don't ask... it's another bandwagon thing. though i'm 1 year late in catching it.
v disgusting few days, in which there's mucus in my nose, phelgm down my throat, and wool in my head. thinks i'm having a fever but mother will not be sympathetic :'(
mood taken a sudden dangerous downturn because has just been informed that sushi outing on friday has been cancelled. because of what? because my two irresponsible friends have decided they'd rather go watch the a'div squash boys finals instead. priorities, girls?? they have a'div every year! they've been having it for many years and it'll still be there next year! but sushi! sushi's a fickle thing i say. what if sakae closes down tmr? where would we go for our sushi buffet?!
am sick and irate and feeling like feeding someone toothpaste. don't talk to me unless you want to eat sushi with me.
