Just got back from camp FOCUS. That's Camp Free Of Charge for all of US. Actually it was a camp to facilitate better ties between all the ccas in school, so all the club leaders went. It was a fun 2 days, 1 night.

Day 1:

Ack, got put into a team and seperated from almost everyone I know who was going for the camp except weiheng. Quickly went around making friends. It's very stressful remembering names nowadays after american idol. When you tell someone your name is "reuben", they all have the same reaction: "Rooooooooooooooo... ben." So yeah, everyone can pick up on my name easily, but I have to go around and work on remembering their names. In future, I should tell everyone my name is just "Reu". Was sabo'd into being the team leader... again. Stupid canoeists... :p

Mass games was okay... octopus and water bombing games I didn't play before, but the rest was all done before either at synergy or ay2y, some sentosa outing. We managed to score full points for the water bombing game. Basically our team had lots of girls, and only about.... 6-7 guys out of 23. And out of these guys, a very very minor seemed the active type. So I knew we had to play by strategy. I went and suggested my usual tactic for FFA games... Since all the other teams will be attacking and defending, we concentrate on defense, or stay low-profile. Let them wipe each other out and exaust their supplies, then we attack. And of
course, my strategy worked. Hoorah.

Then they turned the water sprinklers on at the hockey field which we were playing on. Fake pvc grass, needing to be watered, irony. Mr Guru said that these people cheat malaysia for their water or something. Waaaaw, the sprinklers shot water up to a good 100 metres across the field! I tried ducking under one of the huge streaming jets and looked up... what a sight to behold. It looked like the ground to space laser bombing scene in starship troopers. Then went around chasing the jets of water... ran and jumped into one of the
jets... lifted off the ground relatively dry, landed completely soaked and slightly off my initial course.

SAO officers did some advertising for the upcoming concerts... Edelweis asked me to stand up after advertising the upcoming piano ensemble concert and I saw alot of odd expressions. Raised eye-brows, looking around me, past me. Was wearing my white yankees sleeveless shirt and berms because of the water games earlier. Interesting how people like to "stereotype". They probably thought that the president of the Piano Ensemble is some skinny geeky guy, or arty farty guy. Heh.

Went to do pullups before dinner. The track and fitness corner was so deserted. Very peaceful... 14, 12, 10, 10. Went reeeeally slow. Planning for the finale performance that night. Performance was going to be in the forum, so no piano. And I wasn't going to mime playing the piano, even though I was there representing
the Piano Ensemble. So I went over to the martial arts sequence which was my specialty: improvise, and choreography. Managed to get a really good partner - shirley, green belt from the school tkd team. Worked out a choreographed fight scene with her which included fancy and fast hand to hand sequences, and jumpy kicks like jumping back hook, and turning, 360 turning kick. Our duet of movement and timing was looking up. She's a very on person. Every time I asked her if she wanted to practice the scene she would comply, and everytime I had a new idea, she would comply too. She even added in some ideas of her own and we worked with it.

Dance item was okay. Picked up the first half on the spot after coming in late from the fight scene rehearsals, second half was a little screwy, but managed to get it later.Went to take a shower before bed. Water daaaaaaaaaamn cold...Air cons in the rooms turned off at 10pm. But there were big fans, so it wasn't too bad.

day 2:

Woke up with toothpaste on legs. Courtesy of yongqiang... melvin was involved. Went running with kelvin. Was supposed to be a "warm up" run, but it started raining, and there were strong winds blowing the rain in through the openings in the school so it turned out to be a "try to keep warm" run. We resorted to going to the top floor and running back and forth the clubrooms. Went to do pushups after that. Felt much better then.Frisby soccer absolutely sucked. Team just wasn't sporty overall. No strategy worked that
time. Rehearsed fight scene, dance item. Dance is damn cool, really modern dance with some quick moves. Lucky we had the president and vice president of stage arts in our team, eh? Lunch, then more practice and rehearsals. Was supposed to end the fight scene getting kicked and flying/rolling to the ground. Geez, being a stunt man on concrete ground really sucks. Did a bad fall once, and ended up with some cuts on knee and elbow and a sprained lower right back. Knee started bleeding but I quickly wiped the blood with my finger and cleaned it on the back of my shirt. Couldn't let the team see or else I'm sure the girls will make a
big fuss over nothing. Back really hurt. Was quite worried that I would worsen it or bend down in pain during a kick or roll. Kept stretching. More rehearsals, back did get worse. But I wasn't going to call anything off or compromise after practicing so hard for the performance.

Crunch time, our team was first to perform. Did the sequence with shirley, Everything went well, audience reacted as I hoped, during the hand to hand scene, the getting kicked, the jumping back hook reverse sweep, the hand to hand to kicks, the reverse offensive to turning kick 360 turning kick, the hand to hand to twirling breakaway, the recalibration of stances, the yell, the missed sweep attempt, the dodge, the kick, then did the most hearted-throwing-of-self-onto-floor-fall-and-roll. I didn't care, it was over. The pain, the cuts, the blood, the sweat, worth it. All the while, my fighting partner was Shirley, I'm so proud of her, and proud to have pulled it off with her. Some girls really do have that kind of strength, besides the gu-niang types.

Dance was next, didn't even feel the pain in my back, until it was over and I went to sit down on the floor again.

Some of the other teams performance was pretty good. Some were... odd. Couldn't hear what they were saying at all, so "???"s turned into yawns.

Awards next. They had some odd awards going out, like Mr and Mrs "On" for the most "On" couple, "carebears" for the most caring couple, and "Mr Macho" which I was called out for. Everyone around kept chanting "Reuben!" It was damn embarrasing loh... Come to think of it, I guess that says something about the level of fitness in NYP. I don't think I'm big sized at all. Yet the captain and vice captains of the water polo, swimming, basketball, rugby, and dragonboat and canoeing didn't get it! The president of the Piano Ensemble did! Hahahaha. So sia sway. If hit was hwa chong, walau, just look at the canoeing team. All
about as big or bigger sized than me. Although they're not too tall lah... Got a super soaker and a box ofchocolates which I handed out. The gun is daaaaamn steady. The jet stream is so powerful, can hear the splash spray and impact when I sprayed Samantha and Miranda.

Back to school and project work now. Drawing out a blueprint for an embassy. Damn fun.