Once upon a time/

Welcome to (a piece of my life)!
Hi people! Well, this is just something that I started to keep me posted on my life so when I look back years later when I'm grey and old, I'll still have something to remind me of the good, old days while I was still young. hahaha.. For you people who know me, I guess this would be where you can find out about how I am and stuff? yea..especially my gila gang from secondary school. We're all separated and in different parts of the world now. Studying.. I may not update it that often (so I keep saying) so, I apologize in advance.

I love ~~you~~ People.

date/time Wednesday, May 28, 2008,5:21 AM

Youth Camp!!!^^

Now that I'm back, I shall proceed to blog on the youth camp I attended on the 25th May 2008 (Sunday) together with my friends (Jia Yi, Calista, Erika, Audrey and Ser Hua). It's organised by the Daya Gospel Centre at Resort Lautan Biru in Mersing. The
camp is based on the theme : 180 degrees - Renovation In Progress. It's about changing ourselves 180 degrees to become a new person.Positively.

The camp theme song is 'The Change Inside of Me'. It's a really cool and catchy song. Full of meaning. We were humming it throughout the camp actually. Here are the lyrics:

Pardon me if I've been acting strange
I haven't been myself lately
What you see is a person rearranged
Someone affected me greatly
And I've got so much to say
Ever since Jesus looked my way

[Chorus]
Gonna raise my voice like thunder
And leave the world in wonder of the change
The change inside of me
And I will never stop believing
That You are the reason for this change
The change inside of me

Everyday, I'm taking in the view
Of His glory around me
I'm awake and I have been made new
By the One who has found me
Words just can't say enough
When all I can feel is love

[Chorus]

[Bridge]
Your life you gave for mine to save
It's nothing less than a miracle
Your name I praise, because the change
Inside of me is so beautiful

[Chorus 2X]

So, I'll begin form the start. So, when we met up at the Daya Gospel Centre, none of us knew each other. Well, apart from our circle of friends, of course. So the journey to Mersing was super quiet. Plus the bus was hot. Like 'THE SAUNA'. There was air-conditioning but it wasn't cold enough so we were all sweating.

After about 2 1/2 hours drive, we finally reached our destination. Boy, was the beach awesome! So this resort we were staying in was built specially for youth camps so there were double decker beds in our rooms. Altogether, about 14 people shared a room. I got the top bunk =)

My dorm consisted of:

Emmy (L)
Jia Wen
Abigail
Manru
Adeline
Wan Ming
Liew Sze
Kerry (My other half)
Bernice
Carol
Me=)
Erika
Calista
Jia Yi
Audrey (slept on a foldable bed on the last night)

Carey(Me) and Kerry

View of the top bunks.

After unloading our luggage and settling into our rooms, we had tea and then met at the main hall for ice-breaking and briefing. We were given our camp books and name tags. But to get our name tags (it was part of the ice-breaker), we were each given other people's name tags which we weren't allowed to see and ask each other 'Yes' and 'No' questions to guess whose was whose.

My name tag..

My camp book..

(No, there were much more people than the ones in the pics)

So, Edwin, our camp commandent briefed us on the rules and regulations of the camp.
Then, we had singspiration where we sang songs. After that, we were divided into groups : Romanesque, Baroque, Medieval, Renaissance, Victorian and Gothic.
I was in Romanesque and proud to be in it=)

My team consisted of :

Jun Yi (L)
Wen Hui
Kai Hong
Wu Huei
Jia Wen
Shong Qing
Carey
Erika
Emmy
Carol

Then, we had to paint our group flags. And here are our masterpieces:

After that, we played Captain Ball on the beach. My team won mostly thanks to Jun Yi. He's tall so it's easy for him to catch the ball.Hahaha. Too bad for the other teams. Anyway, it's our team's cooperation that won in the end.

The beach

After dinner, we had our first Session with Uncle Dexter as the speaker. What he said during Session was related to what we teenagers are facing nowadays. It was really nice listening to him. We were then divided into groups for discussion. Lights out at 11.30pm.

26th May 2008:

After breakfast, we had our 2nd session. Then, it was tea break followed by Operation Underlight.
Operation Underlight is a competition which tested our creativity at using Nature's abundance to create a natural atmosphere in a 'restaurant'. We also had to prepare a menu and an advertistment for our 'restaurant'.

We used stuff on the beach. Mainly seashells, driftwood, rope, part of a fishing net, coconut shells, coconut seed thingy coconut leaves, etc, etc, etc.

While I was 'advertising'.

Then, we had Siesta where everyone had to sleep for about an hour coz after that, we'll be having SURVIVOR: BEACH VERSION. It was super fun. Clues were based on verses in the bible. For our first station and the most memorable one, we had to carry things for one end of obstacles to another. What things? Living things. Guys had to take the frogs and girls had a choice of taking the frogs or WORMS!!! Eww..so, everyone started with the frogs first. Yup, we girls took the frogs too. Then proceeded with the worms. I think that taking the frogs were better than the worms. I felt the worm's legs wriggling while I was holding it. Eww!!! My team was the first to finish and we yelled 'WE ARE THE ULTIMATE SURVIVORS' so that all the other teams could hear.Hehehe ;)

At night, we had Walking In The Moonlight. We went to the beach with torchlights and saw the 'Live Earth' as they call it. But to see it, everyone had to switch off their torches. It was B-E-A-UTIFUL. There were many stars in the sky. All twinkling bright. So we were mostly like 'jakun' liddat coz we dun see this kinda view in the city.

We took this during the 'Walking in the Moonlight' by shining our torches at our faces.

27th May 2008:

Started with breakfast followed by Session 3. Then, a briefing on the SKETCH COMPETITION which was gonna be held later on in the night. There was free time. We initially thought that we could play volleyball with the ball Jia Yi brought but the time was taken up for discussion on our sketch. We decided on doing our sketch based on Emmy's real experience with her student a few years ago on how he changed after becoming a Christian.

Director/ Scriptwriter : Emmy and Jun Yi
Roles:

Andre(main character): Shong Qing
Teacher : Emmy
Grandma : Erika
Aunty : Me =)
Bad/Good Influence Friends : Kai Hong and Wen Hui
Pastor : Jun Yi
Mother of Andre : Jia Wen
Father of Andre : Wu Huei

Then, we had Outdoor Ball Games : Beach Ball and Captain Ball

In the evening, we had rehearsal before dinner in the hall. For dinner, it was a formal dinner: 'Candlelight Dinner' (Yes, there were candles on the table) where everyone had to dress formally and leaders of each team were required to serve their members instead. There were requests for songs etc, etc, etc.. Darren kept singing out of tune =p ahha

After dinner, it was the SKETCH COMPETITION!!!Everyone was so nervous and rushed to prepare for it. In the end, my team lost by 1 mark and got 2nd placing instead.
Lights out were extended for an hour until 12.30am so there was star gazing and we saw a shooting star!!How lucky was that? There were autograph signings all around as it was the last day we were gonna spend the night together.

28th May 2008:

We woke up early to wash up and pack our bags. Then, the 'Machine Gun' (the owner) as Ah Pang called her, came. She began her 'shooting' about us not mopping the floor when we actually were gonna do. Bla, bla, bla.

Breakfast was a lot of fun, as usual with Ah Pang and Jason for entertainment. After breakfast, it was Session 4. Then, we had autographs and picture-taking sessions going around.

Prize-giving was during lunch and as expected, ROMANESQUE WON!!! Muahahaha...

While waiting for the super irresponsible bus driver to come, we finally got to play volleyball and 'monkey' with Jia Yi's volleyball. It was lots of fun and sweat. The bus driver came about an hour and a half later and we all boarded the bus home. The journey back was definitely more noisier than when we first boarded it. Luckily, it was a different bus and the air-con was much cooler.

When we got back, there were goodbyes as everyone left for home.

Here are the rest of the pics: