I really ought to be starting on my other projects and scripts now, but I'm so mentally drained after a whole week of editing concepts, presentations, writing and brainstorming for new ideas. I can't bring myself to start on my CA10s yet. Well, at least not tonight. 

There are quite a few unpublished posts in my Blogger account right now. I just never found the time to complete those posts. One of them is my 2011 summary post. I usually sum up a whole year's events and thoughts in one post during New Year but I failed to do that for 2011. Another that I promised but failed to post would be the LEAP camp post. 

Well, I've finally completed and published the post about LEAP camp. I doubt anyone would read the whole post since it's very long. I could not think of any other way to post about it though. Read the post below! 

Next update would include 2011's summary post!

Since it's been ages since I last posted, it's going to be quite a long post. You've been warned!

We had to attend a workshop and briefing for the two days before LEAP camp. Monday (which was the first day) went well. We chugged through all the seven habits that the camp was based on. It was nice to meet four of my classmates after such a long break - Zhao-yi, Shaw, Matin and Wai Meng. And although I sat with my classmates during the workshop, I befriended the people from the neighbouring table. In fact, I got to know Serene, Gui Yu, Clare, Mark, Hui Juan and Benjamin by the end of the first day.

The second day was much shorter. I was expecting it to be as long as the first but we got to go home by noon. We played a few ice-breakers before having the brief about the camp. There was also a revised packing list given to us. Thank goodness I'd only packed my sleeping bag in, so it didn't make much of a difference to me. They then divided us into our camp groups.

I've been terribly lazy lately. Well, I have been posting about stuff but I just didn't publish them on my blog because I preferred everything to be in chronological order. And the thing is that, my post about the LEAP camp is an awfully lengthy post on its own. I've not even ended it yet. That's the reason (or excuse, depending on how you see it) for the absence of any new posts or updates on this blog. 

Anyway, I've just decided that I shall post about post-camp events first, at least till I've completed my post about the camp. By then I'd be able to shock you all with one of my longest post ever about a camp. Well, not really the longest, since the one about my trip to South Korea was so long that it covered four posts. I think I'm just a pretty long-winded person. And since this blog kind of doubles up as my personal journal sometimes, albeit with all the bitching and ranting taken out, bear with me, if you can. 

To be honest, I didn't do much after I came back from the camp. I fell ill and spent a good part of the last week of the holidays just being home. I tried to watch more dramas to be able to write my reviews but it wasn't exactly good progress since I couldn't find a few episodes so I couldn't follow the plot properly. Then there were also my stories to tackle. I rewrote a paragraph or so but that's all I did in that week. I should really find time to write a new chapter at least. I'm such a procrastinator, aren't I? 

I also spend a lot of time sleeping. The cough syrup that I took had a drowsy side-effect on me. I vaguely recall dreaming of a few great stories while asleep. But the problem was, I couldn't remember anything when I woke up. Except the fact that it was a really good dream. How do people keep dream diaries? I seldom remember my dreams. Well, I only remember a few particularly vivid parts, or maybe a vague sense of what it was about. 

Anyway, my camp group (we named ourselves 'Shaka Laka Bung Bung', 'Bung Bung' for short) met up on the last Friday of the holidays. It was a little strange initially, seeing everyone out of their camp clothes and talking about things other than the camp activities. We went to town and I got to go to the new H&M outlet there. I must say, the baby clothes are pretty over there! It's as if those little tots you see on the streets have their own haute fashion cult too! 

I didn't get to stay with them to play pool at night, since I had to attend ACER's teambuilding session the morning after. I took the train home with Syafiq and it was nice talking to him - I didn't get to speak much to him during the camp. He told me about his course and if not for him, I wouldn't really know DADP is actually about. I was quite surprised that Syafiq enjoys writing stories too!

The next day was mostly spent in school, where I met the people in ACER for the first time. We played icebreaker games to lighten up the atmosphere. Michelle also told us about the objectives of ACER while the senior told us how to deal with the different types of students they encounter. I wonder if I'll ever be able to be as good as them. I sometimes clam up in front of unfamiliar people (just like how I did in camp). If only I could be myself with friends and strangers alike - just like Matin and Joey who can be so comfortable and affable with everyone. It's funny that I was able to do public speaking before, but when I need to talk to a small group of strangers, I freeze up unconsciously sometimes. 

Anyway, it was altogether a cheerful and fun session with the ACERs and although the seniors offered for us to join them for lunch, I decided to head home. My mum was cooking, after all. I chatted with Syuhaidah on the way back. It's nice getting to meet Syuhaidah again. She was in my group, Masquerade, for CASS FOC. We got to talking about our courses and school in general before our stop eventually came. 

After the weekend came the first week of the second semester, of course. It was exhausting having an 8am-6pm Monday for the first day right after the holidays. I got to learn about the technical stuff, like the camera and we even revised about the different types of shots. Unsurprisingly, I slowly dozed off when we came back to the lab after trying out the big camera outside. It was pretty bad of me since Mr Esman and Ms Gamar were trying to carry on with the lesson despite us being half-dead. We were barely surviving the seven-hour module. 

But otherwise I guess the rest of my modules are pretty much fine. After the first week, I pretty much got used to the timetable and the classes. I mean, I even enjoy VPPP (Video Productions, Principles and Practices; the seven-hour module) now. I still think handling the camera and directing talents could be scary sometimes, but it's really fun editing it and then seeing the fruits of your labour on screen. I'm hoping that I'd be able to do well for my modules though. This semester's modules seem so much tougher with a lot of research involved. There's also the conceptualizing, pitching and script-writing to worry about now. It's not just stories and articles anymore. 

CASS FOC was awesome!

It was kind of nerve-wrecking at the start since I didn't know a single soul over there. I quickly made friends though and my group was friendly. Most of the people were from DMC or DADP, few were from the same course as me. I found another DTVM person from my group, Masquerade, though. And that's Shaw Leong who was really quiet at first but he warmed up to us afterwards. Hopefully, he'll be my classmate, then I'd have a familiar face to turn to during FOC.

Before going for the camp, when people from SP know I'm in CASS, they'll go, 'Ah, the crazy school'. I think I know why now. The people there are so spontaneous and fun! It's nearly like an extension of Crescent, just ten times more the freedom and liveliness! There are nearly twice more girls than guys so according to Tryne and Sheena, the two seniors who live in the extreme east too, our school is sometimes nicknamed the 'Er Mei Shan'. I later realised that it's the name of a place for nuns or something like that. Funnily, our school is also situated at the top of a hill, although it certainly seems to be a mountain when you climb it. The other nickname is 'Beverly Hills'. That sounds so glamourous.

We first got into our groups and chose our group name. The theme this year was 'Circus' and we went with Wee's suggestion and called ourselves 'Masquerade'. Our flag was the prettiest even if we took the longest to finish it (well, it is the prettiest in my opinion) thanks to Syuhaidah who helped to design and draw the eyes and mask. Every group has a flag and all of us must guard the flag for should any flag get stolen by anyone, the whole group has to do a forfeit just to get it back. In short, the flag was very important. But we lost it on the last day of the camp. It just vanished into thin air.

Dexter also gave us our group identity, the red shoelace. All of us tied it around our wrists. Some groups had really eye-catching ones like the big sequined ribbons or the angel wings. Jaime also pretended to be a freshie when she was actually the GL along with Dexter. She kind of exposed herself by accident when we were supposed to guess who was the fake freshie in the beginning.

We played ice-breaker games and learnt the cheers we would be doing for the next two days. The forfeits are really funny. The 'Fruit Dance' is just sick yet funny. Unfortunately, Melissa and I couldn't play the game at the swimming pool. We just sat with Tryne and Sheena from DMC while the rest got wet at the pool. Oh well. We did get wet during the next game though. Except that it's toilet water instead of flourine this time. My favourite game for the first day was the Watermelon Game. We had to finish two halves of a watermelon with the skin intact with just our mouths. Wee was the fastest watermelon-eater I think. Everyone tore off chunks of the watermelon with their mouths.

The first day ended with the Night Walk. We went over to Food Court 1. it was a good fifteen to twenty minutes brisk walk to the other side in the night. It was a little past midnight when we reached our destination and the DMIT people were already there. They were plaguing us with all sorts of horror stories about SP (Sheena and Tryne later told us that the stories were fake and they'll tell us the true ones in Year 2). Everyone had to go in pairs and it took a long time to wait for my turn. I was the last one to go from Masquerade - one of the last few girls left in the auditorium in fact. It was a different kind of torture waiting for my turn. They ran out of stories and jokes to tell and our GLs even danced the 'Peacock' dance for us to pass the time. There are only so many times you can repeat 'this is a magical box' however. I lost count of the number of times we did that but the line was drilled into my head afterwards.

I was initially hoping for a guy to be my partner since guys are supposedly braver. But my partner was so brave! Before she introduced herself, I'd already latched myself firmly onto her arm. Yes, I was that frightened. Funnily, we were directed to the wrong route altogether. I told the DMIT guy at the door that we were from CASS but he asked us to follow the yellow lightsticks outside. We were left floundering at some carpark compound after passing just two yellow lightsticks. There were none left afterwards. There were another two girls who were lost just like us too. We just decided to walk back to CASS then. We were wondering if there were any scary things that would pop up during the whole walk but nothing happened. Luckily we found the rest station in the middle with our seniors waiting there. After going to the restroom and explaining our situation, we had to complete the remaining one-third of the Night Walk. This time it was the correct route.

Vanessa, my partner, was not afraid by then and she really helped to ease my fears. I was just cowering behind her half the time while she led me around the dark corridors and warned me about the steps. I think I was just hugging her arm really tight to me. We made it back to CASS soon enough but not before I tripped over the stairs in my hurry. It was nearly 3am when we reached CASS and we waited about an hour more for the GLs and the remaining pairs who were returning from the Night Walk.

Despite sleeping at 4am, I woke up several times and finally went to shower after the nth time in a zombie-fied state. Breakfast was bread with Nutella! It was delicious - partly because I slathered the Nutella spread on my piece of bread rather generously. We used plastic spoons instead of a butter knife. Bo Mun also joined us for breakfast. He became the Masquerade's last team member.

We had Scavengers' Hunt on the second day. Our first stop was the 'Stone Cold Kenneth' as they call him. It was a little demoralising since our group failed to make Kenneth and Inez laugh. I later heard most groups couldn't do it too. The seniors are just too good at keeping their poker face.

Our team managed to beat our opponents for Tug 'O' War and it was fun albeit a little sore for my hands. There was also this game which was similar to 'Tag' just that we had to defend our flag in three rows. Come to think of it, it was more similar to Foosball if you look at the layout. Human Foosball. It was a draw for that game. No one got any flag.

I can't really remember the sequence but we had to move on to quite a few stations each time. We also played crazy games like Captain's Ball with tomato, soap and then later butter. Our team didn't manage to advance to the final round which turned out to be quite a good thing since I don't think I'd appreciate playing with melting butter slithering down my hands or hair as I play. Unfortunately, Syuhaidah hurt her ankle while at the basketball court. There was no medic at the scene so we were really worried that it was a serious injury. Our team had to leave her behind to go on to the next station. She later joined us a few hours later when she was able to walk properly again. Thank goodness she didn't sprain her ankle.

There was also this game where we had to spin 20 times and then high five our partner within three seconds, then run to the goal post to complete the game. I was quite pathetic and fell down to the grass with a 'thud' after just fifteen rounds. The GP was kind enough to let me spin just fifteen times, otherwise I might have not been able to stand.

We also danced outside the glass window at the gym. We had two choices: To stick our finger up our friends' nostrils; Or to dance that provocative dance in full view of the guys in the gym. Nearly everyone, with the exception of Rachel, picked the latter. The guys crowded in front of us while we were dancing and one even pounded the window. I think they were kind of annoyed by us.

It was campfire night afterwards. Instead of the usual bonfire, they actually arranged little candles in form of 'CASS' with a big circle around it. It looked so cosy and heartwarming. We did the usual campfire songs and cheers plus the 'Friendship Dance'. I nearly lost my voice while cheering. Then came the night party!

We started the party after midnight and it ended in the morning, around 3 or 4am? I can't actually dance but I tried to. It was really fun dancing with everyone although I went to the side to rest every once in a while. Somehow you get really dehydrated while dancing. Maybe that's why people drink so much when they dance in clubs and all.

I slept better after the party maybe because I was just exhausted. I still managed to wake up early to shower. I'd feel strange not showering in the morning. The GLs were slightly late for breakfast while the campers were all up on time. We then had Telematch after breakfast. This must be the craziest and the most fun telematch I've participated in! Even though the sun was scorching hot, everyone got really wet and powder-y since the GLs later had fun pouring baby powder over everyone's heads.

Everyone had to go after a quick shower and a debrief. Sebas cried after watching the video of the past two and a half days. I felt a little sad too, since the camp was such great fun. We all had some time with our GLs before taking pictures in our new campers' tees.

I had bad experiences from camps before but this is my best camp yet. It could be because of the people and the crazy games our seniors organised for us. I could see that the seniors put it a lot of effort in making this camp an awesome one. In fact, even at wee hours of the night, Dexter and Jaime were still bursting with energy just to keep our spirits high. It'll be cool to be able to take part in another camp again, I think. I doubt there will be one any time soon now that school is starting though.

Masquerades, OO-AA!