WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

i'm home! *grin* and i'm on a very hyper mood. very very hyper. i miss my computer, miss my blog and my icq. but i LURVED every minute of volunteer networking camp over the past 30 hours. loved every single minute of it. never felt this relieved and HAPPY since a long long long time. wow. maybe because results came out right before the camp. that might help a little. *grin* v-net camp (in short for volunteers networking camp..) was wonderful. loved meeting new people from all walks of life, dedicating some part of their lifes to doing community service. this goes to show that having "no time" to do community service as an excuse doesnt stand. absolutely not. i'm amazed at how the camp comittee can take out so much time to plan the camp and volunteer and work as well. wow. time management. i wanna be like them.

les anges bleu rocks. that stands for blue angels in french. i belong to the BLUE team. lalala. and that's our group name. it consists of me (-duh-), daphne, aundre, stuart, sharon and harris. i'll describe them one by one. pardon me. haha. daphne is me bestest buddy in camp. she's only one year older than me and was from vj, cedar. currently doing NUS life science, she's in the community service club and currently volunteering at chen mei lan children's home. yep, and we stick together like glue because of our similar age group and us being girls. *grin* aundre is one heck of a nice cute guy *grin* who's 22 this year, studying at SIM. he's volunteering at I-connect student care which is located in first toa payoh primary school and one of the founders of rotaract club of singapore (city), which is also under rotary club of singapore (think hwa chong interact and jimmy ooi) *grin* next we have harris, who's in the SARS force (damn cool..) and volunteering at SINDA, a FSC just like bukit ho swee. and we have stuart who's a fireman ( damn cool... ) and volunteering at moral home for the aged sick together with sharon. me daphne and aundre belong to the youth side of anges bleu and haris stuart sharon are the more adult people.. yeah. so much for the introduction so that i can remember them as clearly as possible. but we're going to meet again anyway. haha.

lemme start all the way from the minute i stepped into NCSS on saturday at 1.10pm to register.

stepped in and registered with rimei and eng soon. then plonked myself beside wendy and cleo. cleo was busy talking to rick and i dint know them at that point of time so i turned and talked to wendy instead. she volunteers at moral home for the aged too! haha. and we were talking to eeling as well, daphne's good friend in NUS. i dint know daphne at that point in time la. and so when we made our way up the bus, i felt kinda lonely, cos i was the only one from beyond social services and i dint know anybody when everybody seemed to know everybody (until i came to know that they ALL volunteer at moral home for the aged sick *grin*). yep. and cleo came up the bus and plonked down along the aisle from me. and eng soon went "please sit beside somebody not from your VWO and somebody whom you dont know". so as rick came up the bus, cleo was like "rick you sit there la (pointing at the seat next to me) so that i can still talk to you.." so the usual of introducing each other again. rick is 30, an accountant and volunteers at yishun student care, just like cleo. and cleo is one year younger than me! (oops. all participants were supposed to be above 18 but she was 17 going on 18 ) so we chit chated along the way to camp christine with tat leong who's a msian and has a weird pronounciation but he's a very nice person..

after we reached camp christine, we were separated into our groups and from there the fun began.. lalala.

DAY ONE:
1530 - 1615
ICEBREAKERS
we played ice breakers as a whole because our camp wasnt very big to begin with. so we played the usual stuff like blow wind blow, earthquake just for ice breakers. abit boring la considering we dint quite know anybody and everybody were just playing for the sake of playing lor. yeah.

1615 1700
TEAMBUILDING 1/PHOTO TAKING
teambuilding was fun! we were playing against each other in our groups and it turned out to be quite exciting.. red and blue teams were always at loggerheads, often arguing and teasing each other. *grin* blame it on aundre and rico. something seriously wrong with the both of them. hahaha. alot of games on trust and team spirit were inculcated into the games and we really got to know our teammates well. poor stuart had to guide all of us who were blindfolded using our feet while he turned the sheet over. we still came in second in the end. *grin*

1700 - 1815
messy schedule. we were supposed to be planning for games but somehow we ended up having project discussion instead. rightfully, each team was supposed to come up with a post camp project for all of us to be involved in and it should be something of low cost, yet interactive and involves networking between agencies. so our team was quite stumped initially. soon tian and wei ming came to join us though they were in the camp comm cos they "belong" to the blue team. not bad sia, chairman of vnet camp comn in blue team. woohoo. we spent time introducing ourselves properly and letting weiming and soon tian knowing more about us. heh. when i was talking about wsg, weiming got abit blur cos he thought i was a staff there as i was going on and on about restructuring the whole program. which is true to a certain extent since we're having a meeting this coming sat to discuss about having a proper structure for the children. yeah. so we were brainstorming and everybody threw out ideas. for no reason i became the secretary of the group. silly funny innovative and sweet one. like makan sessions/kelongs/fire station/squirrel hunting (that came out only because me and daphne happened to see a squirrel pass by and aundre said hunting at the same time *grin*). and then we went for dinner. the first group to go for dinner cos we were damn hungry. pigs aint we? haha.

1815 - 1900
DINNER
had dinner together as a team. me and daphne decided to be nice gurls and took drinks for the whole team. aundre was vaguely amused for no particular reason. harris started eating first and sharon and stuart joined us soon after. me daphne and aundre started a bet on how many servings eng soon would go for (due to his size "x) and we all lost cos there was only enough food left for eng soon to take one serving. aw.

1900 - 2015
POST CAMP PROJECT DISCUSSION 2
we continued our discussion and after a few rounds of voting we decided to have a visit to the fire station (courtesy of connections from stuart "P ) and combined with a miniconcert by children from 5 children organisations for an elderly home. yeps. so we firmed up details like our objective, budget and plan outline. and why people should choose our project. so we happily chatted away talking about our project and me filling in the form while stuart was copying it onto the paper for presentation and aundre was there talking nonsense. as usual. while daphne was dictating to stuart. somehow sharon and harris faded away. oops.

2015 - 2130
POST CAMP PORJECT PRESENTATION
the period of time when me aundre daphne started to get sleepy and bitchy. oops. cant help it if we notice that OJ was trying to have the last word everytime somebody poses a question to the red team right. hee. cleo and people have a wonderful red team, with the exception of OJ. he's really the pits la. seriously. i was msging at the point of time cos the presenters were actually quite boring and honestly inclusive of stuart. we should have sent aundre the loudspeaker out, but he's right in getting the more quiet ones to go out and present our wonderful idea. daphne and aundre were seriously quite zoned out because of their lack of cafeine. the two of them were whining (seriously whining..) for their kohii and expresso.. haha. while i stayed awake by msging. thanks sam. *grin*

2130 - 2200
CAMPFIRE PREPARATION
eng soon brought us through the list of songs that we were going to sing and the actions included. and then sprung a surprise on us by telling us that we had to come up with an item to perform in front of everybody. ah. i dint know they would make us think so much. firstly the post camp project. then the game for the next day. now an item for campfire in just 15 minutes? we decided to do something simple and teach everybody the actions so that they could join in with us as well. so we did dumdumdeedee. thankfully me and aundre knew the song and actions so we just took a while to teach the rest of our group members. yeah. and the songs eng soon brought us through were honestly quite funny and cute. *grin*

2200 - 0010
CAMPFIRE
finally!!!! the long awaited moment of the night. campfire. soon tian did the opening ceremony and everybody started getting a little high. we saboed the red team to perform first and they did the donald duck item. like when cleo went "who's that?" and we'll have to go around quacking like donald ducks la. haha. quite funny. then the yellow team performed a short musical involving two guys as the male and female lead. yucks. the way desmond hugged fa chai we laughed till our stomachs ached la.
then we played games. the one which wanted a representative for the longest/strongest/etc "___________". yeah. so harris stuart and daphne went up to play. cos nothing seemed to be connected to me mah. then we sang a couple of songs and finally we, da blue team, performed! had fun teaching everybody dumdumdeedee and aundre came up with the sexy version of it. eh. okay. haha.. then the green team performed by telling jokes. quite funny seriously, but it was damn lame la. esp rick's jokes. hahaha.
then. here comes the horror. they wanted a guy and a girl from each team to come up and play a game. eh. the only people left who dint play games in our team were me aundre and sharon left. and sharon sure dint wanna go up and play (cos she adult embarrassed mah..) so me and aundre had no choice but to go up. we were expecting the worst la. something maluating or near to that extent. which was true. they gave us blindfolds and we were blindfolded. stood facing each other and for fear of losing each other (in the literal way) so we held hands. and then the camp comn was like "eh got people holding hands leh! go film!" and we dropped our hands immediately. haha. daphne told us later we werent the only pair holding hands. they started the music and commanded us to dance immediately. i was like "walau.." so just started to anyhow dance lor. then somebody guided me to aundre and we were like "what?" so aundre was like "okay you follow my lead yeah?" and we had a wild time dancing couple dance with him leading and boy oh boy, we did moves that were quite complicated and i was surprised that we could do it blindfolded.. hahaha. and all this while when we were doing the couple thing, they were filiming. the spotlight was damn hot la. then somebody guided me away from aundre and danced with me la. some camp comn person ( i only realised that it was eng soon when i watched the video today.. argh. ) la. then he made me dance with somebody else, only to realise he was desmond. he suggested doing slow dance (to a fast song?!?) and he led, again and spun me in so many circles after we stopped partnering i felt a little giddy. by this time it was into the third song and they dint let us off. somebody ( eng soon again!) danced with me and brought me back to aundre. being super high fellas, we felt so tired we just started jumping around in circles holding hands until they finally gave us the command to stop. when we took off our blindfolds, we were horrified to realise that there were only me aundre desmond and another girl left. 4 out of 8 left. the other 4 were taken off the dance floor by the comn members earlier. not fair. and eng soon was like "eh you 4 (refering to us remaining) sure can dance leh, go clubbing very often issit?" which resulted in wolfwhistles from everybody. walau. xiasuay like xiao la. but it was kinda fun to put it this way..
then we had the friendship dance and i partnered aundre (again?!?) initially. we both were like "spare us from dancing somemore.." haha. but it was fun being spun around in one circle and to return to aundre again, then we protested that we had went through one circle liaoz..
and then campfire ended soon after that. me and daphne felt sooo tired and dirty we dashed up to bathe first. what a nice shower. lalalala. then we wanted to look for the guys but they werent at the hall so me and daphne went to the guys' bunk to look for aundre stuart and harris. to bug them to come down asap. only to see aundre walk ing around without his top. hahaha. daphne shrieked cos she was right in fornt i turned and heard aundre gasp. *grin* apparently he hadnt bathed yet. hahaha. so after passing the msg we went down only to see a couple of guys on their way up and they gave us the "look" because we were at the guys's bunk. we just laughed our way out cos it was just soooo amusing to see their faces... hahahaha. so we met to dicuss games and talk crap until 3++ when the guys couldnt take it and the girls were quite tired so we all went to sleep. at 3.40am. *grin*

DAY TWO
0800 - 0830
RISE AND SHINE
i woke up at 5 once. because sam's msg woke me up since my hp was on vibration mode and it was right beside me. then i fell asleep and woke up at 7.50am. the exact same time as daphne. we were both on the higher bunks and we just looked at each other in a blur manner. hahaha. too groggy to speak. yawn.

0830 - 0900
BREAKFAST
washed up and went down for breakfast with daphne. apparently the guys were up. surprisingly. only to hear aundre complain that harris woke him up. oops. he dint quite sound happy about it. yeah. breakfast was just sit with team and eat breakfast in silence because everybody was quite stoned out and tired after yesterday's late night.

0900 - 1000
TEAMBUILDING
the most fun games played i guess. or maybe cos our team were quite on a winning streak. yeah. played games like entanglement, passing the (rotten) fruits ( some banana fruit went into my mouth la.. *yucks*) with our mouths, rolling the ball on the ramp (wah that was damn fun la cos we went onto the ramp everytime and binbin simply couldnt believe her eyes cos she had to add bonus marks to us..) and stepping on numbers together as a team (one where everybody had to hug tightly to each other.. "x)
but it was really fun. we bonded even more.

1000 - 1330
TRAINING
boring with the capital B. major stoning session for me and daphne while aundre fell asleep for a while. us three were sitting together at the back cos we were really tired and honestly these workshops dont work. at least that is what i feel. the first one was alright because it was applicable to volunteering but not the time management one at least. everything was quite fake la. so us three stoned and bitched about OJ cos he was interuppting at every other minute when it was darn obvious that the speakers were running out of time. what the hell. and aundre went on and on about wanting to cancel his DBS account cos OJ works at DBS. grin. no need to go through such an extent for one person right? and aundre kept kajiaoing me and daphne la just because he was bored. we became victims of his physical abuse *whine* haha.

1330 - 1400
LUNCH!
just lunch again with team. but this time round, aundre served me and dephne desserts cos we came down late from packing our stuff to book out of camp later. how sweet. and stuart was like why the girls have i dont have. grin. well. he wasnt the one suffering from physical abuse from aundre in the morning. grin.

1400 - 1600
GAMES!
games that we discussed yesterday night were finally put to use as each team organised a game for the remaining 3 teams to play. ours was fun, cos it involved no verbal communication and their team members had to act out the respective famous characters. i was writing their names on the muskin tape pasted on their back and i realised when i came to OJ, that he was "barbie". my goodness. i dragged daphne to see and she burst into peals of laughter. and when i pulled aundre by his sleeves to see, aundre nearly fell to the floor laughing. the camp comn people were simply sooo amused. grin. and we played the others teams games as well, earning rope burns and water bomb fights and plenty of "hugging" sessions when there were plenty of physical contact. oops.

1600-1730
FINALE!
everybody gathered in the multipurpose hall for the announcement of which project they would choose and which team won in the end. and soooooooo WE won both the post camp project and the best team in games and teambuilding! woohoo! and we spent time taking photos also.. sharon dint wanna bring home the food so me daphne and aundre were staring at the hamper incredulously. until when we were on the bus, we decided to share with everybody on the bus. grin. and peiling was asking for volunteers for post camp project committee right under our noses. we pretended to be ignorant until eng soon pointed out "eh peiling, the blue team is just right in front of you leh.." and when aundre was just beside her. grin. he tried to sneak away but me and daphne were like "oei, yao si yi qi si.." (meaning: if we die, you're gonna die with us.) so i guess i'll still see those two good buddies of mine in the coming future..

it's great to be around people with similar interests in community service and i'm convinced after this camp, that community service IS my calling. something that i'll love doing for life.

I LOVE BEING A VOLUNTEER!