CAC FOC '08 - The Sai Kang Warrior Edition

Got involved in the FOC as a sub-com programmer. In short, I was there to help out with the activities that the freshies will be taken part in.

The days are rather fuzzy, so I'll try to fill them in.

20 Jul - Day 0
Took in charge of a station involving milo. Someone said that I look damn serious when giving instructions. Well, you can't blame me, I got a serious/sian face by default and MJ said that I am 'MONSTROUSLY FIERCE!'. The night ended really late, around 3 am if I remember right. Didn't got much sleep before the next day starts.

21 Jul - Day 1
Started the day with Tour de NTU and was stationed at the Chinese Heritage Center. Honestly, that was like the first time I had actually stepped into the building itself. Breakfast of McDonald's didn't lived up the hype, when the McMuffins came, it was soggy and cold. Games involving carrying and lifting are really dangerous as seen by the casualties at my station. Isaac injured his back again, which happened last year during one of the beach games station.

Pool games were canceled due to the lousy weather. I was so looking forward to pool games as the same thing happened last year. Wow, two deja vu moments.

Fright night preparation started at 4-ish pm. Seriously, how is it possible to scare people when the sun is still up?

I know that comfort is an issue, but I think scaring the freshies should be the main priority. Certainly sudden movement or screaming don't work, so chiat, Nigel and I posed as cult members playing taidee, who's lacking another person. I hope that we managed to spook some of them.

22 Jul - Day 2
So what happened again...

Oh basically slacked the whole day because I was doing the last stop of the amazing race. Went down to watch the waterbomb wars and waited like for hours before they started the whole thing.

And then there is Lionel who wants to crash the camp. He managed to get hold of Cuimin's number and bugged her the entire morning. And even though Joyce scolded him, he's still pretty persistent. I had to lie to him in order to get him off my back as well. But he still managed to find Cuimin's og because Joel actually told him their position. Nobody actually filled me in as to what really happened after that.

The van had it's tire blown out and Sheena, Victor and I have to make our way to the Singapore Flyer by bus and train. Sheena's really interesting to chat with, which made the waiting time all the more bearable.

After the whole thing ended, we got a lift on Wei Jie's van (which is fast and can't be stopped) all the way to Sentosa.

The accommodation is really an issue for the night. Short story was that I made some noise and they go around trying to find place, but in the end there was a shortage and the whole male sub-commers have to sleep on the sun benches beside the pool. And someone said that it won't rain lah.

23 Jul - Day 3
Now who said that it will not rain?

Luckily we managed to save the bread or else the freshies have to eat stale currypuffs for breakfast. The heavens must be smiling at us, because the rain cleared up soon after that and beach games commences.

Another similarity this year's beach games has with last year's was that the entire day was cloudy and windy. Those who went down into the water must be cursing when they climb out of the water.



At least I got an easy station to manage which only involves flipping of large cards with the main coms' faces. Luckily the freshies are cooperative enough when it comes to allowing the programmers to decide who actually got the cards.

Somehow I managed to escape from doing any of the beach telematch stations and walked around to watch the fun. At least this year's final station looks fun - building a raft to save someone from another island across the beach.

There's one thing to note, never ever wear army sandals to a freshmen camp. I nearly got my sandals switched last year. This year, mine got switched and I ended up with an ultra pair of sandals. And mine was a relatively new pair which I got near my ORD date.

Now for the killer - Initiation Night. The thing was conducted in the muddy fields where the waterbomb wars were held. We practically stood throughout the whole night for close to 7 hours. My legs are nearly gone after the whole thing was over, like many of the programmers too.

If you know that both sides are going to eat the banana at the same time, like the scene in the Disney cartoon, Lady and the Tramp. You don't bite them quickly, you slowly do it so that you can avoid kissing your SP.

Ok, maybe that's their intentions after all.

24 Jul - Day 4
Luckily, someone canceled the day games scheduled in the morning so the we managed to have some decent sleep.

I went home to get myself dressed for the night before heading back to enjoy the torture of the male freshies. I think this year, they pulled out all the stops. Taking off shirts are the norm. I don't think I should go into details here but I think some of the sadistic GLs and Seniors actually enjoyed doing those acts.

Had a great dinner (some of the main coms can vouch for me haha) at Pariss followed by clubbing at DXO, which I don't really enjoyed - I'm not the clubbing guy.

25 Jul - Day 5
It's the last day and Cluedo (I don't really know what the final name was) was finally upon us! I'm actually looking forward to this day as I found Cluedo has the most interesting concept. Basically, it's a real life RPG, with hand crafted weapons. Luckily there isn't any costumes, or else outsiders will thought they had landed themselves in a cosplay fest.

Wonder why hardly anyone attempted the Shadow Master quest because it's an easy quest, requires only two steps and it's MY freaking station!!!

But this game shows promise and I think that for sure it will be repeated next year after some tweaking.

Finale was a let down if not for the video. Go check it out!. I somehow think that the seniors got a kick out of it more than the freshies. Perhaps because we know the actors personally. I love the Final Fantasy, Ultraman and Jianshun's nerdy prince parts.

_________


Okay I hope I didn't bore anyone with that write up on the camp. Amongst the sai kangs, I did have fun during the slack moments. Cold jokes, card games and talking cock sessions rather than the sai kang moments are what I carry back from the camp.

Here's to the sai kang warriors!