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[intersticed]

It won't come across as a surprise to know that an entire ocean of events transpired the whole time I wasn't on LiveJournal, so right now I'm caught under a landslide of matters to discuss here. But I'll attempt to distill all that I have to say into separate entries. In a sense my journal is about to undergo a major revival, hahaha.

I camped with the swimmers in TJ from last Monday to last Wednesday. Overall my experience was great, but I believe it wasn't as awesome as the rest's. Perhaps it's because I didn't get to socialise as much as the rest did, but still I was entitled to my own share of bonding moments. I guess I'll always be a wallflower when facing those I do not know so well just yet. But rest assured that I find comfort in being with them, as I've also found peers whom I can relate to and confide in.

What set this year's batch apart from previous ones is probably the extraordinarily strong bonds between the swimmers and the waterpolo girls. Such a close relationship was never felt before, and in fact, the previous batches had members who worked as individuals. I'm just amazed at how everything has come together nicely this year. I would like to commend my seniors as well, as instead of being intimidated by the sudden, large bunch of junior swimmers, they've magically managed to glue all of us together to form what we call a team. :)

And this team speaks of acceptance. There's hardly any sourness, and members edify one another. I'm an especially weak swimmer compared to the rest, yet I feel welcomed in the team when it's just natural for me to be cast aside. And this only spurs me to train harder and swim faster, as I've found my reason to not let the team down.

I guess I shall get started on writing about the camp. Basically it follows the tradition of juniors planning for seniors. You could say that nearly the whole camp was meticulously planned by the junior swimmers, and that includes me. For my logistics team, the days of backbreaking (hahaha) planning did not go to waste, as everything was executed as smoothly as possible. :)

A brief summary of what happened during the camp:

1. A physically exhausting challenge which included wheelbarrowing, army crawling, duck squatting & piggybacking across the breadth of the soccer field, which, mind you, was already long enough to kill.
2. A water-bomb game somewhat similar to Angry Birds, which ended up in a chaotic water fight and the splashing of an entire tub of water on Mr Chua. :P
3. A game of "Cheat" with the waterpolo girls using Uno cards.
4. Tent-pitching on the soccer field.
5. Thai horror flick screening in a dark classroom with the occasional "ghost" appearing outside the window.
6. Night walk around the entire campus, where the girls screamed over practically nothing every 5 minutes or so.
7. Eating crushed Twisties in tomato ketchup called 'mealworms' (yeah, right) with a disgusting concoction which stank of vomit strewn on my right arm blindfolded.
8. My first ever try at water polo, kicked off with a slew of bad attempts. :(
9. Dragon-boating on a steaming hot afternoon without any sunblock on at Bedok Reservoir. A miracle I didn't suffer from sunburns!
10. STEAMBOAT DINNER!
11. An evil game "Shoot Shag Marry" in the boys' room.
12. Reflections night after night, which culminated in peer evaluation, self-evaluation... and a lot of insignificant things.
13. Hustings & elections for the new executive council.

I'll leave the rest of the talking to some photos: