Tuesday, November 17, 2009



[Tag Replies]
Fu Zhi: Haha, my holidays don't even start till I go overseas; it's all sold to Council. Not that I really mind haha. Enjoy your holidays man! You deserve them Mr Yam!
Wet: Yayyyyyyy ^^
Hannah: InBredy bunch is the <3 feelings

[For some reason, one entire paragraph here got deleted so it sounds disjointed. Argh.]

Like an irritating mosquito, LTC will never really die, always popping up when least expected. Having it fall on the weekend right before P101 submission made me detest LTC all the more and I was not expecting a good time. Right from the start, the groupings seemed... well, weird I guess. Got Jesslyn and YuLin in my group, people I know and like (of course ^^) but never really talked to that much. On hindsight, this was probably God's way of showing me how I can be so really wrong sometimes and admit it proudly. Other people like Sanchita, Michael and Joshua; people that I also sorta knew but never talked to much. It seemed like a rojak group, definitely not a really sporty one. I remember thinking that my group wouldn't be easy to be 'high'. And I wanted to be high. I love high. High is fun. High is nice. High is me. I am high. Yay high. I remember looking at Wet's group and being really envious because he had all the fun people like Denny, Nawawi, Neville and HuaYu as well ss Hannah cause she had Jar, ZQ and MingRong.

"...seeing cliques in Jalan Bahtera never failed to make me roll my eyes and walk away."
-Wet's blog.

How true. LTC's not all about spending time with people you know. It's also about getting to know other people, stepping out of your comfort zone with the people you know and love. Because sometimes when we're so happy with what we have, it's hard to remember how we came to love the people in the first place. It took that courage to step out, to open up and learn to accept and love people like Hannah, Wet, Jar etc etc, courage that I realized I suddenly lacked because I was so damn comfortable. Suddenly, it was hard to have to reintroduce myself, what I liked, what was my favourite colour. You know, things that your friends already know. It seemed a bit weird, tiresome even. But we've all gotta start somewhere.

I'm so glad I wasn't put with people I'm familiar with. I'm thankful for the group I got, for the people I 'sorta' knew. I believe that was instrumental to my total enjoyment and appreciation of the camp. They weren't all people I was unfamiliar with; rather, I hungered to know more about them because I realized how little I knew. It was that feeling of "Gosh, I really don't know this person."

Sometimes, I think that knowing someone's favourite colour, favourite food, number of siblings doesn't really qualify as 'knowing them'. I mean, it's just a small thing, just little details. When will stuff like this ever really matter? Apart from birthdays and all; and then most of the time you can always exchange your present if it's not the colour you like and stuff like that.

Yet every big picture is made up of its little parts. Every painting consists of innumerable brush strokes. Yes, knowing these little "mundane' little details doesn't really make you a friend. But if I don't know them, can I consider myself really a friend? It startles me to realize that I saw friendship as something that would not only transcend some details, but completely ignored them as well. What's Hannah's favourite colour? What's Wet's favourite food? What drink does Davis like the best? If you pointed a gun to my head, I couldn't tell you.

Little details like this matter. They're not the big picture, but they make up the big picture.

I love the camp, because every activity meant something. And it wasn't the kind of lesson that was forcibly inserted so that the activity looks meaningful. No. The activities themselves wholly encapsulated those lessons, showing us how those lessons are not only practical, but useful in our lives.

Laser Tag was fun, not just because Jaslin was more excited than any of us that we could play, but because it was with a group of people that would really defend each other. Sure, we didn't roll around and backstab and shout GO GO GO while charging in, but we had each others' backs. Even when Langston went into God-Mode with his haxxored sensors and basically mudhole-stomped me, it was fun. The rain made it even better, a light drizzle that really accentuated the whole combat feeling. We charged through the rain, shoes splashing up little fountains of muddied grass as we shot each other. I remember stepping straight into Jason's line of fire and dying in about 2 seconds. I remember YuLin team-killing me as I retreated and she promptly shot-gunned me.

Their faces are still in my mind. Wet hair plastered to our faces as we screamed, shouted and laughed as we tried to kill each other the way only friends can. Bollywooding around the pole with Langston as he shot and I dodged was hilarious and a memory that I'll never forget. Little details like this matter ^^ I'm not looking back at LTC and thinking "wow that was a great camp". I'm looking back and remember all the expressions, the body language, each and every one of the N2ians as they expressed their joy in a way completely unique to them.

And what would a camp be without its moments of guys being guys. Hadi was epic win during the camp. Bathed like 6 times during a 3D2N camp; that's probably the same number of times I'd bathe at home. The whole turban thing was epic-win and that's definitely seared in my mind - how we calmly walked from the toilet, through the campfire area and back to the bunks with our towel-turbans proudly sitting on our heads. It was a MapleStory moment; bet those turbans added +5 Thick Skin because I have no idea why I was so shameless enough to do such a thing.

Oh right, it was with Hadi.

Hadi - Linus, I lost my cap.
Lino - It's not a cap. It's a freaking bag.
Hadi - I lost my cap. You're not sleeping until I find it.
[5 minutes later and after finding his cap]
Lino - I'm going to sleep now.
Hadi - I have no pillow, I'm not sleeping. You're not sleeping.
Lino - HADI!
Hadi - I got koko crunch and something else for you if you wake up.
Lino - You can't tempt me with ooooooo honey stars!

Lino - Mendel!
Mendel - Yar?
Hadi - You got a virgin face.

Instructor - You in the bunk! Turn off your PSP!
Lino - It's a DS, dumb shit.
Hadi - It's a iPhone.
Lino - It's DS, it stands for dumb shit, dumb shit.
Hadi - Your mother touch screen.
Lino - I just got pwned.

Okay it's 11. I've got from 9 to 12 tomorrow to blog in school since my lessons don't start until then. Sucks. Will update with more (hopefully) insightful reflections of LTC tomorrow. Till then
^^

And I'm off again =3