HCISO March camp

Hey people, I had just came back from String Orch's march camp. ^^ I haven't been posting for one week as I know everyone would be sick and tired of my same posts XD. I would just like to point out something that had happened on Monday and not mention about other boring happenings on last Friday and Monday.

On Monday, we had sectionals, in which we decided to practice for the Holberg sixth movement, Rigaudon. Sze occasionally came in, and I got screwed for marking (-.-) while he was conducting, so I had to play it solo. I kind of screwed up for the first few times, but got it right soon, thus Sze couldn't niao me, yay! Then he started to get pissed off with all of us for not getting his instructions into our heads and soon started flaring up. He said that we could not even follow simple instructions and he had to continuously tell us at least 3 to 4 times before we get it done. He also scolded Jared for not taking lessons, of which he contradicted himself by saying that "the Nanyang girls only took 2 lessons from me and that's it. And now they are better than those of you who take lessons from Dr Yeo." So... Jared doesn't take lessons and he's very good, so why do you have to scold him? Hmm... Anyways, he also told us to reflect on how we could improve our attitudes and stuff, and I gave a lame idea. :) I win.

Now I'm moving on to the details of the March camp! :D It has been a fun-filled 3 days 2 nights, and I really enjoyed it. I'm lying, but just take it that I enjoyed it, okays? :)

On the first day of camp, I reached there at exactly 8.50am and, as expected, the starting of the camp was delayed to 9.15am. Firstly, we had icebreakers and musical chairs. Icebreakers was lame; it always is lame, but just lamer this time, since we didn't run around hitting other people, but just had to listen to what the other person has to say and just say it again. Then musical chairs... HAHA it was damn funny and fun. I managed to make it to the final two, and lost :( :( I was too dizzy to actually know where the chair is, since Jon Yong played the last two pages of Tchaikowsky track 5 last movement. Thus, I lost the champion seat to a sec 1 violin two. Want to know my strategy to playing musical chairs? Yes? Okay, I won't tell you. :) JUST KIDDING.

Firstly, for the first few rounds of the game, you should move one step at a time such that each step makes you directly in front of a chair, so that it makes sure you will have a chair to sit on once the music stops, thus making you progress further into the game. Next, after more than half of the people are eliminated, you have to be crafty, and evil XD. You stalk the person in front of you. Yes, stalk, and make sure you are very near and behind him all the time, and snatch the seat from him when the music stops and he tries to sit down. He will instead sit on you, whereby you are already on a sit. Evil, right? As for the final two round, you should use a combination of the two tactics, and use them at the correct time. That's all for strategy discussion, I have to move on to the camp!

After our games, we had practice with Sze until lunchtime. The usual niaoing by him came again, but it was more serious this time. He shouted crazily often during the rehearsal and he broke my string while demonstrating a part! What the... and I had no spare string to change. Luckily, I had a reason that I had just changed it not long ago and did not have time to buy another spare string, thus he couldn't scold me. Edward then helped me get a string and after practice we had some lousy lunch -.- In the afternoon, we played AMAZING RACE. Focus on the AMAZING... anyways, I shan't go into details as it really will take long to write about it. It might possible make this blog post twice as long.

Then came dinner, and the food equally sucked haha. After dinner, we watched a 1.5hour video clip on a violin solo, and everyone was totally restless during the video; some were playing finger games :o, some were just making fun of the violin soloist and laughing about. AND THEN CAME MRS NANCY TAY. Horror got the better of us and we were stunned! :D She didn't say anything, but shouted at He Kai about her unhappiness on a private conversation shortly after leaving the room. Yea, after that was free time, and I was playing card games with the Sec 2 cellists till lights out. But something really pissed me off during the lights out. The sec 1s kept blasting inappropriate and loud music at inappropriate times and kept laughing about something that wasn't funny, and because of that, I only had 4 hours' of sleep...

Day 2 arrived sooner than expected. We had to wake up at 7 to go for breakfast at King Albert's Park. Yes, you guessed it right! We went to eat MacDonald's breakfast. I don't actually like MacDonald's breakfast in actual fact, but still went ahead with hotcakes, and the syrup was spammed on the hotcakes! :) We then had practice with Sze from 9 to 11, of which he didn't screw us much, and Zhi Hao kind of praised us for having good conduct that day. After practice, we had lunch... and the usual lame stuff until about 3. We played 'real life' R1SK, and Zhi Hao was the captain of my team, and he was really pissed about the flawed game set up by the sec 3 OTs. (Because we were trashed badly HAHA. But the game really was flawed in one way or another.) We lost very quickly at the starting of the game and I joined the Sec 4s' team. We were actually winning, and then the last team, led by Po Han, suddenly dominated the game. They only had one territory left then, and suddenly they had half of the map, and then total victory. I was the last person to 'die', but I think I could have won, and the reason for 'dying' was partially because Jared indirectly told me to just let Po Han win because it's boring and there was no way we could win anymore. Yea, the game ended at half the time it was supposed to end, so we were actually supposed to carry out a card game championship, but the sec 4s protested and went their way, so He Kai had no choice but to go along as well. HAHA.

From 4.30 to 6, I was really sian. I wanted to mix around with orchestra members, but felt really tired, so I went back to the room and slept. Halfway through my sleep, Han Cheng suddenly appeared in front of me and kind of woke me up by putting his smelly feet in front of me. That pissed me off and all the cursing and swearing came out of my mouth. At 6, we had dinner, which undoubtedly sucked again, and then carried out our night games. This is one of the games I have enjoyed most during the orchestra camp.

It was like Dota, and if you know Dota, congratulations, because you will understand me more easily! But if you don't, let me explain a little about the game to you. We split ourselves into four groups, of which strategy is needed to obtain more points, which is gained by snatching the slippers of another group. In each group, there is a treasurer that will take care of the slippers, and other group members each need to take one slipper to be able to snatch a slipper from another group. if your slipper is taken away, you cannot attack another group and have to get a slipper from your treasurer to get back into the game. But, the area is very large; we played the game in the whole SALT Centre, so you will take a long time to find your treasurer, and yea, treasurers can be attacked, and if they are, they have to drop the whole bag of slippers, which will mean that you are as good as dead. Well anyway, I was in Jared's group and we teamed up with Zheryin's group for the first game. For the second game, we decided to team up with a stronger group, which was led by Zhi Hao. Yep, it's pretty difficult to explain in full detail about how we planned our strategy and stuff, so I will stop here. I'm guessing you are interested in the game, yea? It's really fun, trust me. No sarcasm.

After our night games, we had a shower and then I met Jared on my way back to my room and he invited me to join the sec 4s to go to KAP for supper. Unexpected I must say, and I readily agreed, but had to wait 5 minutes for them to do something in a specific place :) I can't go into detail, or else I would be sabotaging them. During our trip, Jared asked me how it felt to travel along with sec 4s, and I said it felt normal. The sec 4s were shocked at my response, but I really felt normal. I felt that I was more close to the sec 4s than the sec 2s in the orchestra, mostly due to the difference in personality between the two batches. I preferred the more fun and jokish kind in the sec 4s than the childish behaviour in the sec 2s. Hmm... guess I have matured! HAHA I wonder who praises themselves for maturing, other than me.

Day 3 arrived, and in the morning we had breakfast which was catered. Finally a good meal, I must say, and for the first time we had noodles and DILUTED milo. But it was better than normal, so I can't complain much. After breakfast, ANOTHER rehearsal with Sze :( :( This time he was worse than the practice we had on Friday; he was shouting all the time, and even asked me to do a solo on a grade-8-standard piece which I had to sightread. Yea, pretty screwed up for me, and for us, the orchestra members, and we didn't have a good time with him. But it was okay, as the next activity really was good XD.

Water bomb! Once again, it was like Dota and required alot of strategy. There are three lanes you can go, and the objective is to hit the stationary OT on the other side 10 times with your water bomb. You can also 'kill' other attackers from the opponent side and they would have to go back. So, it was the same group as yesterday's night games, and for the first round our group was up against Zheryin's group. We totally trashed them in strategy and teamwork; when their OT got whacked 10 times, our OT only got hit 2 times; total ownage! For the second round, it was winner against winner, and obviously Zhi Hao's team would be the other winner. Zhi Hao and Dylan was good in strategy, but I was better :D. Unexpectedly, I managed to hold Zhi Hao off, and we were on par, strategy or aiming wise. In the end, we emerged as overall champions! Then there was a free for all session where we could bomb anyone we liked :D I really enjoyed it.

For lunch we had pizza, although it was those type of cheap 'Buy 1 get 1 free' and plain pizza. We had to be contented with it though, because it was the best meal we had in three days -.- After lunch, we had a movie screening of Jared's film. He made a film about musicians all over the world being attacked and in the end there was only one survivor musician. I kind of summed it up to be boring, but it was a really good film. Then that marked the end of the camp :'(... ...

I really enjoyed myself these 3 days, and had the chance to bond with my seniors and juniors well. From this camp, I have learnt the importance of teamwork, and have gotten many more bonds with other people. I guess I might not be able to let go from this fun for like one week, but I will =) Oh, and there is a video link attached below about violists dancing, damn funny! HAHA You readers should go and watch it!

Violists DANCE!

About serious matters, I have decided to do some changes to my blog posts after much thinking. I will only be posting happenings in my CCA when there is something interesting, as I know that everyone is tired of reading normal happenings in daily life. So, from now on, I will be posting less but better blog posts. So, I'm choosing quality over quantity!! :) :) Good bye everyone, and thank you for reading this extremely long blog post, if you even read it totally :o

Musical chairs - finals :o


Hiding place for night games~


Team Alpha - alliance for night games!