OGL Camp!

Yay so I'm finally blogging about the great 4 days I spent with ϟ Raithoros ϟ!! I'm so glad that I made it through to becoming an OGL (although I might still get pulled out but choychoychoy)! Got to meet some amazing people and indulge in a victorian experience.

My own orientation experience was an awkward one. It wasn't fun at all being with my fellow J1s, but I wanted to know what made the J2 OGLs want to do this. I wanted to know why their one year in VJ inspired them so much, that they would be willing to spend four days with awkward and angsty teens who wouldn't mass dance. 

I felt that I was too passive in 2013. I didn't want to miss out on the one thing that most people rave about in their JC life. Towards the OGL selection, I also became closer to my class. I guess you could say that I was beginning to feel like I belonged somewhere, so I felt more comfortable dedicating myself to this cause. 

We had constantly been asked to evaluate our aims of being an OGL and one of my honest thoughts are that Orientation/Orientation preparation is not only for the freshies, but also sometimes, especially for the OGLs. I want to discover myself through this experience and to create as many good memories as possible in VJ. The Victorian experience/spirit is not something that can be easily handed over along with the uniform and I still hesitate to say that I have got it, but I do believe the true value of that is not in waiting for some great explosion of love to come around, but to go on journeys to find little things you can learn to love. 

Day One: 31st December 2013

Met the OGLs of Raithoros all together for the first time! We got matching yellow shirts :-)

Day one was the Amazing Race day, which explains why we are all not in school attire and at Macs. We went from Bishan to Promenade to Farrer Park to Hong Lim Park to complete various stations! Zac was our friendly attached adhoc and it was really nice of him to come chat with me on our way to Bishan Active :-)

The first game involved us all getting a word and yelling it out one at a time to form a coherent sentence. It was becoming really nonsensical and then it went deep... something about a man and his children throwing scrambled eggs and apples into his mouth along with his past O.O

Promenade: Use everyone to create a story in seven still frames

Mustafa: Find John Han in all four levels of Mustafa. If you have been to Mustafa, you will know how huge it is. Very smart choice of location. Shamirah found him as he was trying to escape and gave chase hahaha

Happened to bump into Meteora-ra-ra in I can't remember where.

yaysies group photo 

I'm gonna name them all now get ready:

Back row: Half of Hwy, Hai Xiang, Johnathan, Calvin, Yao Chen, Bai Yang, Brian aka Ding Chao aka LoveCupid, Lloyd

Middle: Michelle, Brenda, Alyssa, Shamirah, dk who this one, Xin Yi, Amanda, Sarah, Khang

Bottom bunch: Jia Juen, Kha Sim, Cheryl and... Lemuel on his own 

Then we stopped by City Square Mall for lunch and R-O-C-K! Zac decided that we were running late so he conducted the activities there instead. The first task was to create a music video with strangers, so we sent Hwy to charm a group of teenagers into letting us film the Just The Way You Are MV with them. It was hilariously awkward but they were so sporting... sitting on a bench and allowing us to sing around them haha

Next, we played a game that involved us arranging ourselves according to our poker card values. Level two left Yao Chen and I out of the line because we couldn't find our way through the game :-( Thus we had to do our self-determined group forfeit which was mass dance!!!!! to!!! the!!! enthusiasm!!! of!!! our!!! resident!!! madics!!!! Kha Sim!!! and!!! Cheryl!!!

Look at how lil ol' me with two left feet was so happy to do it. Mass dance aka my biggest apprehension of signing up to be an OGL.

Oh dear of all dances to do, it was friendship dance. 

Yaoch was nice enough to take me as his partner aND why he is so good at it, I may never know. I was very very very clumsy I slammed into him and I yelped a lot ok ok moving on

We went down to Hong Lim Park next!!!

Zac split us up into pairs and we had to share, with our partner, why we became OGLs, what we think our expectations are and why we think we were selected. I was paired with Johnathan and it was comforting to discuss some of these thoughts with him. I learnt that we have similar views though he entered without much secondary school support and I entered with lots. Having some htht beyond the hype of cheering gave me much food for thought at the end of a long day. Thanks for that talk, Johnathan. :-)

I'm sorry I had to use this photo JJ, I look like an absolute creepo in the other one

Look at everybody looking beautiful and radiant and full of youth oh and hello Zac :-)

After that small debrief, we had a mass debrief and the adhoc made us all do the TRUST CIRCLE.

It reminded me of Scorpeta (the orientation thingy every Tuesday) in sec one where we had to sit on chairs and lie on each other's knees before the chairs were removed from under us. This was much easier, but still tricky nonetheless

THEN WE HAD TO DO AN OGL TRUST CIRCLE oh no 

but look at the pretty colours of the six OGs though

A very Where's Wally photo. Where's Shu Yu???? I'm that little blob of black somewhat in the middle... behind Ben Leow... Yeah...what a beautiful photo of me

After that, we were dismissed and I went to countdown because I have a social life

Day Two: 2nd January 2014

MASS DANCE AND WET GAMES oh eru help me

I think I danced my ass off okay. The world needs to give me an applause because I fell in love with mass-dance. The day before, I watched mass dance videos on loop in order to prep myself for the disaster.  That was how scared I was. Cheryl and Kha Sim must be super proud of me. 

Anyway, I had lots of fun stumbling over my feet with Sarah, especially during Neutron hahaha. I did the friendship dance with Yaoch again! It was so much more fun this time mainly because I knew what I was doing so I hope it was fun for him too :---)) I gotta hand it to the Madics who did such a great job of teaching the dances :")

Later, we broke out for lunch!!!! Satisfied my subway craving and we brought food back for the poor SC kids who had a meeting so we could all eat together ^ ^ 

Wet games:

During the first game, some of the boys really gave it their all running about trying to get the other team's "life", which basically involved wetting everyone around the crotch where there was a piece of paper. They got blisters everywhere because the ground was really hot! Oh dear Brian, BY and Jon got the brunt of it and all of them were limping around afterwards HEART PAIN

The second game was really chaotic because the two teams were breaking rules and spitting all over the place. We were supposed to transport water in our mouths with straws from one cup to another and it was hilarious because Brenda merlioned and Bai Yang spat on me lmao. There was just so much water going all over the place it was disgusting but satisfyingly digusting

The next game was some water bombing aerial hunt for balls and Lloyd and Michelle showcased their talent in aiming and destruction. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to play all the other wet games that seemed really promising :-( The next one was supposed to be a modified dog and bone game with a captain who had to take of his shirt to measure the amount of water. Everyone sabotaged Yaoch because there had been a rumour going around that he has a body to die for omg so he got dunked even though we didn't play and he had his shirt pulled off the poor thing

At the end of the day, the Adhoc told us about some important standards to live up to as OGLs, so we had to decide on a common punishment to do as a collective if we were late for future activities. We ended up with push-ups :-( Then the ad hoc told us all to squeeze in tight and close our eyes, sway from left to right and boom

they rained water bombs on us!!!!!!

THANKS Ah

Day Three: 5th January 2014

It was a day of having workshop with the same trainers that took us for CLIC! Having gone for heaps of leadership modules, I think theirs has been the most effective for me. It approached the style of being an OGL in a comprehensive and relatable manner, starting with the different stages of forming relationships in a group then moving on to styles of leadership via DISC.

Raithoros is mainly high I and S, with 4 Ds (and 3DCs -- Khang, Xin Yi and myself). I realised that even though we aren't the loudest OG, we are all pretty happy with each other. We make up for it by being people people, and a fine example would be the time we didn't leave anyone behind for lunch. We're such a diverse bunch of people and I'm so thankful I met them :")

Following that, we went off to play a few group games! The first was Captain's Ball with a twist! We had to get into pairs with arms over shoulders and a few other curveball rules. I was paired with Hwy and he made a really good one too! He was very aware of me and kept checking up to see if I was alright/keeping up. And he was a really nice height so our pairing was very comfortable (i'm not making fun of you hwy)(no i'm not). We kept trying to get around the rules in the most energy efficient way, such as constantly walking when the rule of "no three feet on the ground at all times". Think about it, if you keep walking, you will always only have a max of two feet per pair 

aaaaah

The facils realised that soon, everyone was adopting this strategy, so they made it a rule that we could only hop. Which is a more tiring version of skipping, no?? So we skipped! Okay okay we were just really tired.

After that, we went to the Electric Fence where the group had to get everyone across the fence without touching it! To put the long story short, I crushed a lot of boys that day.

The most important moment of that game for all of us was hearing Lloyd tell everyone "Don't worry, trust me! I'm here, everyone's here."

The next game was to navigate, as a group, through an alphabet mat maze! But the twist was to do it backwards -- z, y, x, w etc. Cheryl did learn the alphabet backwards so she naturally took the lead. We managed to break the record for one of the mazes! All the OGLs were rewarded with swiss roll during break whoohoo!! 

After debrief, we had to submit nominations for OG heads!!!! We had a really long debate about what we wanted for our OG heads and I think I must have pissed some people off with my ideals of having a girl represent us as one of the OG head??? But in any case, the main thing that we all agreed on was that we would support the OG heads no matter who they were ^ ^

That night, Raithoros went to ECP for dinner! The walk there was really fun because I got to chat with Calvin, Lemuel and Hai Xiang! Hai Xiang engaged me in a conversation about LOTR and I proceeded to talk his ear off. I was jumping about a lot. 

Fine way to make a first impression. 

Anyway, I had to retrain myself from going total fangirl mode on him so I tried to move around and talk to the others too and I found out that while some of them have very mature opinions about important things like relationships/love (Calvin, Lem), others were full of lame jokes, immature things and dick facts (Yaoch...ok jk jk)

It was a beautiful night with tonnes of stars :") I don't recall ever seeing so many stars in the night sky. Maybe I just haven't been looking up at the sky.

The last day was also a workshop day and we learnt to handle different types of freshies. There was a comprehensive Q&A session where we got to ask about handling freshies in different scenarios. Melvin gave us relevant and pragmatic advise and he really highlighted the more responsible side of being an OGL.

Later, we played even more games as an OG! Finally, more photos because Zac was following us around!

In this game, we had to try to get as many faces in the frame. It would have been easier if we just all stood right at the back... but aa it was fun nonetheless

And in this game, we had to throw balls into the court of blindfolded members to fill a bucket in the fastest time! Raithoros made this awesome U shape to capture all the balls and we filled the buckets quickly yay!

The next was seated basketball: Raithoros vs Izenheim (Ashley's group!)!!! 

wow strategic feat. yaoch all ready for the camera

Calvin as the goalie!!!

CheerwaaaAaaAar

Brian as goalie!!

yey cutie patooties: some of Raithoros feat. Jaslyn the gamemaster!

The last game for that day was Capture the Flag, played against Fyros! It was so much fun but it became very competitive. Even Kha Sim the joker went from kitten to tiger. The competition was so intense and it became quite apparent that it was becoming unhealthy. Zac even said that in preparation for the game, we all looked like we were going to war. Everyone had his game face on and became so disturbingly violent.Thankfully, the ad hoc and the facils intervened and opened eyes to the bigger picture: that we weren't just Raithoros/Izenheim/Fyros (etc) OGLS, we were VJ OGLs. The atmosphere became quite solemn as we realised that we had to work as a collective OGL body instead of allowing the competition to segregate us and making the environment too hostile for the freshies. 

That day ended with a run to ECP for the closing activities! We brought swiss rolls there and sat on the beach while voting for OG head! We also received the 'positive charges' that we had to write to each other and they were really sweet :") I got a drawing of Bag End (I suppose it was from Hai Xiang) and letters from Brenda, Sarah and Yaoch awww :") We all decided to write notes to Zac to thank him for being a fun ad hoc attach :----) 

Next, the ad hoc told us that they has a surprise for us, so we had to run all the way to the other side of the beach, where we found them lighting candles to form 'OGL'. It was beautiful hearing the ad hoc telling us about their hopes for JCO and encouraging us in our journey, with candles flickering in the cool sea breeze and Raithoros' lightning flashing in the sky. 

The four days I spent at OGL camp humbled me, because I got to spend time with talented people and capable leaders. Not everything was rainbows and flowers. OGLs got into trouble and we made mistakes, but I learnt that the standards are as high as the experience can be rewarding.

I was going to post photos of what we did in the weeks after, which includes costumes, filming, decor, banners and all of that done for orientation, which will be on the 6th, 7th, 10th, 11th and 14th, but I think maybe it's best to leave all of that for when orientation starts/is over so I don't spoil the surprise hehe! 

It's only a couple of days to #Arcane2014!! I'm excited but nervous at the same time wow. For updates on orientation, track #arcane2014 on Instagram or visit @Raithoros2014 hehehe until then!!!