i guess anyone cant deny that OBS was a one in a lifetime experience.
on the first day, i thought that the 4 other days that im was going to spend with my watch seemed bleak cos i barely knew any of them, but the whole course proved me wrong. the ups and downs that we've been through together as one really made us bonded as a team.
it was quite sad on the first day when i realised that my watch consisted of people that i didnt really know and am not closely related to, and i was really really hoping that my batchmates or jolene would be with me, but luckily i had peizhen beishi and so many other amazing people that i could rely on. getting through the first day wasnt easy. being in a different campsite with my closest friends made it all so much worse, but i sort of forced myself to be optimistic... that's the only way i could survive, no?
so we headed to pulau ubin by the rocky boat and all of us were like, eeyer! so dirty... etcetc but seriously, when we alighted at pulau ubin it was a whole new different story. bernard brought us to our dormitory (where we happily thought we were sleeping in) and showed us to our store. and we had to like take out all the necessities we needed, eg compass mass tins, knives, lifejackets... and they all look really... under unfavourable conditions. but we still had to live with it anyway. lunched at the canteen, andour first activity was belaying, which wasnt too bad yet! it was quite scary to be hanging from the top with all those helmets under the sun and everything, but it really really taught me how to trust. and yes, i'm still alive!:D after that we went to the forest to pitch our tents, and i was like OMG how were we ever going to climb up that steep hill with all these things!!! it was the first EVER time i actually tried to pitch a tent and thank god i made it. although i wasnt really good at it, at least i still had peizhen claire and yuehan. it was quite horrible to know that my comfy little bed would be replaced by some muddy tent, but i comforted myself with the thought that i wouldnt be alone :D haha. and luckily we had sleeping bags to start off with, so it wasnt too bad.
didnt sleep quite well at night, and wasnt exactly recharged for a full day kayak session the next day.
3rd March:
did awesome kayaking drills like holding hands and sinking into the sea in a formation of a circle and actually capsizing.. it was all seriously quite fun(: i love to get wet!!! but the difficult part was transporting the kayaks down the rocky slope which almost made me die. paired up with peizhen and i must admit we have good coordination skills:D although we didnt really start off that well at first, heh. kayaked a good 5-8 km (?) cos we were short of time after a period of rain. didnt consume much during those 4-5 hours, surprisingly. talked a lot with others and met a lot of new people. it was quite fun cos we kept banging into other people, so much like it felt like bumper car in those fantasy worlds? :D OH YESSSS. i cant believe i heard JOLENE in the middle of the sea when we passed camp 2 the first time, and peizhen and beishi and me screamed JOLENEEE but it all didnt work which was quite saddening. ): but as usual, she was screaming her head off over nothingness, haha.
finally reached campsite 2 and we seriously wanted to lay down and sleep, even if we had to be in the sea. continued to pitch up tents, then bathed and cooked:D omg cooking during camps aint exactly the best thing to do, but it seriously is very very very amazing. i developed quite a few culinary skills from there, but im quite scared to apply it at home, haha. ate rice and other ingredients which were super filling after a day of harddd work. oh yes and i learnt something: SING SONGS WHEN YOU HEAR DOGS! i was singing somewhere out there to the moon and apparently a dog ran away. HAHA.
4th March:
the next day, we had PT. i thought it wouldnt be that hard at all but it shocked me when we had to RUN. the other instructors said we were super hardcore(i thought so too) cos i totally didnt have the mentality to do such exertive things. and i cant do crunches for nuts D: anyway, the first activity for the 3rd day was rockclimbing. it looked okay at first, but subsequently when elton demonstrated my heart was already threatening to fly out from my throat. when it was my turn i sort of trembled halfway through but according to hsiaofong i climbed up to the first storey quite fast. ?! no i dont think so lor. haha. tried my best and amazingly did it to the second storey(: the scariest past was to fall onnnnn, and i screamed like HELL beishi said that the whole place resounded my screams. do i really scream that loud? hhahah. was quite glad that i managed to detach myself from the rock wall alive cos it seemed totally impossible to climb. thank you peizhen xinyung beishi and hsiaofong:D you guys saved my life! next was rafting. it was quite sad that marshall's raft didnt pass the test but at least it really displayed our teamwork and everything, so CLAPS! then it rained quite heavily so bernard told us we had better have our dinner at camp2 or else we wouldnt be able to at that ulu camp3, so fortunately we had a good dinner under desirable conditions:D maggi mee! the best one ever(: but the bad thing was we had to trek to camp3 IN THE DARK which was super horrible. hannah fell and sprained her ankle, sadly): i almost sprained mine too and i couldnt really take it halfway, but bernard kept singing "when you say nothing at all" by ronan keating i think and that cracked all of us up, and i continued the song with carrie and laughed laughed laughed our whole way there. but seriously, trekking in the dark? i've never heard of that before. FINALLY reached camp3 where everyone seriously felt like dying. pitched tents and went to sleep almost immediately. after putting powder!!! i bathed myself in powder,and caused yuehan to be covered with powder LOL. and i kept spraying myself with insect repellent and hand sanitizer cherie kept calling me a clean freak): but i felt really uncomfortable sleeping in tents like... without bathing?! so yeahhh. but that was a good night sleep.
5th March:
omg the LAST full day but sadly the most horrifyingly great day. ): note the oxymoron. it was trekking day, back to campsite1 and it murdered us all. but left us with a greatttt sense of accomplishment that could made us really cry(: travelling with marshall over such an amazing great distance of nearly 10+++ km felt really really good. there were other people who looked out for you and that was very heartwarming. really felt like giving up on the way and was praying super hard i could see jolene or leting on the way.. but sadly i didnt see jolene): missed everyone else a lot a lot and ig uess that was what that kept me going the whole way(: the power of friendship!! we were quite lucky cos we reached camp 2 and then it started to pour so heavily. bernard called us an impressive batch:D and we trekked 2km to camp 1 from camp 2 and took only 20 min which was the most unbelievable thing ever:D:D:D
i think the break really hyped all of us up.. with really good digestive biscuits plus prunes etc. and pink panther's really funny, she held up a plastic bag and said:
"nah! digestive!"
omg like how can a plastic bag be digestive?! so it was freakishlyf unny i laughed the whole way to camp1 haha. i was going to die already, just when i saw a tent, at least a sign of civilisation and OMG WE REACHED!! everyone was hooting for the first time, including carrie the cold one. was super duper happy when we reached:D hahah. next we had JETTY JUMP which really scared me. it was quite fun but my inability to actually swim made everything a whole lot worse. at least joy was there to pull me over to the barnacles-infested ladder LOL. jumping off that wooden thing really reminded me of peter pan which scared me so much, everything i got ready to jump i would imagine captain hook trying to push me off. bathing session was super hilarious with carrie and deborah cos they kept insulting choir in a weird way.
whats wrong with WORLD CHOIR GAMES HUH!!! games are not meant to be games in the literal way okay. carrie made it seem like games are like hide and seek and everything -.- and track and field shirt? she said that the first picture on it looked like the person was getting ready to spear himself, the next was he was in the process of spearing himself and the last was he SUCCEEDED in spearing himself. omg la how lame is thatttt. its supposed to be RUNNING SHOTPUTTING AND JAVELINNNNN. but you know, at least that kept her from screaming "HURRY UP LA " in the toilet.
celebratory dinner was so good although we were quite a failre at cooking, LOL. our originated idea of fried rice turned into a disguised mashed potato, and long beans were super uncooked. haha but it was the most most most enthusiastic night ever! i was damn happy everyone actually agreed to cheer our stupid cheer!:D:D
it goes like:
Marshall marshall all the way!
Dont give up,
thats what we say!
Die also nevermind,
All we got to do is try!
i have no idea why everyone thought that the the fourth line was particularly funny, but hey, at least we did it:D we displayed team spirit quite muchly i guess(: even though our end product wasnt really... edible i guess, heh. it was seriously the best night ever. and since it rained that night, all of us had to squeeze into mph to sleep. it was very cold, but definitely very heartwarming because everyone looked out for each other by sharing sleeping bags and bernard kindly lent us his tent and ground sheet.(:
6th March
the last day! cleaned up our dorm and store and all those "saikang" LOL. did the last group reflection about 30 min before debrief and eveyrone was really quite sad. spoke out our fears and lessons learnt. then we pledged to commit to our commitments by jumping to touch the bell. i was quite scared that i wasnt able to do it but i did(: the last few moments we had together as Marshall really really made me feel like obs... is so horrible yet so special. it really taught me a lot of things, like how a team really works, how teamwork is so essential in everything we do, how to socialise, how to look out for others, how to be selfless, how to truly believe in yourself in eveyrhting you do, how to exceed your limits by constantly telling yourself "i can do it!" and so on. i guess this was why we cried when we were waiting for the boat. for a moment i hoped the 5days would come back, i hoped that i wouldnt have to back. but at the same time i really missed so many people, i missed my old life so its sort of sitting on the fence. but im glad ive been through obs, it changed my life.
so when we finally got off the jetty into the boat, it really marked the beginning of a new journey, by a new me with my new and really good friends(:
obs is now a string of memory to cherish, it cant take place again, but i promise it'll be deeply embedded in my heart that i'll never forget.
Marshall ftw!♥