in cleveland now. in their public library using the free internet. not as vibrant as chicago but still at nice city. feels safe. got a bank account in charter one bank, which has just been bought over by citizen bank. haha.
buffalo by tonight.
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Monday, August 30, 2004
Chicago, Illinois, USA
this is our last day in chicago. don't have much time to blog. in the chicago public library now. chop chop notes.
train from denver got delayed by 17hrs. first by flooding in nebraska then electrical thunderstorm in iowa. reached chicago at 1130am on saturday morning. made a complaint that due to delay friend from chicago whom i'm supposed to stay with was now in detroit attending a wedding, back only sunday. got a free complimentary room at a downtown hotel(travelodge - worth $100!) as compensation.
met joe. hugz. he's staying with a romanian couple sorin and alina.
tour chicago the next two days. grant park navy pier john hancock sears magnificent mile loop most things in downtown we've walked twice over.
night before went to swanky club called excalibur. really swanky. i like. music's good and we got free entry from a brochure i found. got chat up by an ah-neh studying here. joe pukes after a bottle and a half of corona. we leave.
no enough public toilets in the city here. we have to pretend we're occupants of the hotels whose toilets we wanan use. not too hard to do that though. hilton marriot westin we've all tried their toilets liao.
nothing is free in chicago. just so you'd all know.
but i like this place. city life is super uber vibrant. night life is lagi vibrant and evrything here's so on-the-move. i love it.
oops, joe caught me blogging. he says hi to everyone.
buffalo, new york next. leaving today.
train from denver got delayed by 17hrs. first by flooding in nebraska then electrical thunderstorm in iowa. reached chicago at 1130am on saturday morning. made a complaint that due to delay friend from chicago whom i'm supposed to stay with was now in detroit attending a wedding, back only sunday. got a free complimentary room at a downtown hotel(travelodge - worth $100!) as compensation.
met joe. hugz. he's staying with a romanian couple sorin and alina.
tour chicago the next two days. grant park navy pier john hancock sears magnificent mile loop most things in downtown we've walked twice over.
night before went to swanky club called excalibur. really swanky. i like. music's good and we got free entry from a brochure i found. got chat up by an ah-neh studying here. joe pukes after a bottle and a half of corona. we leave.
no enough public toilets in the city here. we have to pretend we're occupants of the hotels whose toilets we wanan use. not too hard to do that though. hilton marriot westin we've all tried their toilets liao.
nothing is free in chicago. just so you'd all know.
but i like this place. city life is super uber vibrant. night life is lagi vibrant and evrything here's so on-the-move. i love it.
oops, joe caught me blogging. he says hi to everyone.
buffalo, new york next. leaving today.
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Last Post in Camp
this will be my last and final blog from the cco office liao. today we had the aoa closing vespers. kinda sad that the oldies have gotta go. they were a fun bunch. and they loved all of us too. haiz.
we had a talent show where i performed with the guitar for the first time all summer. turned out quite okie. also turned in a riotious cross-dressed act playing a flight attendent while performing the 'if i weren't a counsellor' song.
we had aoa olympics as well. was way fun. we played super dumb games like see who can kick their shoe the furthest, scissors paper stone tournament, and other oldie games which were pretty fun anyways. in the end my singapore family won and we actually got medals! haha then i sang our national anthem 'majulah singapura' to them and then we took victory pictures with the singapore flag. how nice.
this was a moving letter written by one of our participants that probably summed up everyone's week the best:
AOA Camp
For a short time I can lay aside the mantel of maturity and seriousness and just have FUN!
I did not have a chance to "go to camp" as a kid. But now I do it in the comfort a queen-sized bed with indoor plumbing, and electricity and delicious food someone else cooks - and cleans up afterwards! All the above-mentioned are most welcomed to a body that doesn't work as well as it once did.
Camp is a wonderful opportunity to escape the rush of the crowded city and enjoy the peace and beauty of nature.
I am continuously amazed at the creativity and artistic ability within everyone that has the opportunity to express itself.
It is a time to make new friends, see old ones, and to realize the quiet courage with which they live their lives.
Last but not least it is an opportunity to interact witht young adults that are not a part of any of my friends families; to hear about their plans and dreams and know we are turning the world over to a group more than capable of dealing with the problems of this old world.
Thank You.
*sniff*
so anyway tomorrow's an exciting day for me. the rest of the staff have decided to travel with me all the way to denver to see me off. how nice. as well as to have dinner and then go to elicht gardens(dunno if its spelled right, but its a six-flags-owned amusement park) to have fun! whooo!
feel alot closer to the leftover staff right now in general because we see each other so often and we spend so much time together. there is also a different maturity level as compared to with the cabin counsellors, so talking to them is alot more joy. will be sad to leave them.
got my total pay today which, after tax deduction(i dunno why) came down to around US$1.5k. its more than i expected so thats a good thing.
its really late liao so i'm going to sleep. my stuff is more or less packed but i've got so much things i really dunno how i'll be able to bring it all back...haiz.
we had a talent show where i performed with the guitar for the first time all summer. turned out quite okie. also turned in a riotious cross-dressed act playing a flight attendent while performing the 'if i weren't a counsellor' song.
we had aoa olympics as well. was way fun. we played super dumb games like see who can kick their shoe the furthest, scissors paper stone tournament, and other oldie games which were pretty fun anyways. in the end my singapore family won and we actually got medals! haha then i sang our national anthem 'majulah singapura' to them and then we took victory pictures with the singapore flag. how nice.
this was a moving letter written by one of our participants that probably summed up everyone's week the best:
AOA Camp
For a short time I can lay aside the mantel of maturity and seriousness and just have FUN!
I did not have a chance to "go to camp" as a kid. But now I do it in the comfort a queen-sized bed with indoor plumbing, and electricity and delicious food someone else cooks - and cleans up afterwards! All the above-mentioned are most welcomed to a body that doesn't work as well as it once did.
Camp is a wonderful opportunity to escape the rush of the crowded city and enjoy the peace and beauty of nature.
I am continuously amazed at the creativity and artistic ability within everyone that has the opportunity to express itself.
It is a time to make new friends, see old ones, and to realize the quiet courage with which they live their lives.
Last but not least it is an opportunity to interact witht young adults that are not a part of any of my friends families; to hear about their plans and dreams and know we are turning the world over to a group more than capable of dealing with the problems of this old world.
Thank You.
*sniff*
so anyway tomorrow's an exciting day for me. the rest of the staff have decided to travel with me all the way to denver to see me off. how nice. as well as to have dinner and then go to elicht gardens(dunno if its spelled right, but its a six-flags-owned amusement park) to have fun! whooo!
feel alot closer to the leftover staff right now in general because we see each other so often and we spend so much time together. there is also a different maturity level as compared to with the cabin counsellors, so talking to them is alot more joy. will be sad to leave them.
got my total pay today which, after tax deduction(i dunno why) came down to around US$1.5k. its more than i expected so thats a good thing.
its really late liao so i'm going to sleep. my stuff is more or less packed but i've got so much things i really dunno how i'll be able to bring it all back...haiz.
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Red, White And Blue
active older adults camp is really awesome. i've learnt some much in just the last few days here, what with all the old people's favourite activities and all that camp enthusiasm.
significantly, yesterday the after dinner program was called red white and blue. it was supposed to be a patriotic session of sharing all things american. so everything in the dining hall was draped in the three colours, we used napkins, cups and plates with american flags painted on them and there were flags everywhere. it was somewhat interesting to see how patriotic the oldies were. and patriotic americans they really were alright. alot of them read poems, talked about what it is to be an american and even tap danced.
the true highlight for me was the forum with the national guards. they were like our reservists at home in singapore, have been trained before and only need to serve a few times a year. there were four of them all from a medical unit on training in grand county. so they came to the front and fielded questions. the oldies subsequently asked alot of questions about what it was like to serve and where they served before and blah. what struck me was the amount of respect and gratitude these oldies had for their soldiers. i mean the fact that its not very evident in singapore is one thing but these oldies were saluting and praising and thanking these four guys who've got day jobs and haven't seen much combat before. and they were telling them how special they were just for being willing ot defned their motherland with their lives and blah. so it just kinda made me wonder just how much alot of singaporeans take the army for granted, yeah, even those who've served it - i wonder how many would really stay in time of war. there was also an important message about fighting for freedom and how far they've come as a nation and its really akin to the plight singapore had went through 39 years ago before we became a republic. the only difference perhaps, is that i don't think many singaporeans appreciate our independence enough. okie so i'm an emotional patriotic sap. bite me.
that aside marty mary ann and michelle got a raise from the ymca(yay! now they're paid above the poverty line!) so we all went to 'the pub' in winter park for a drink. the bartender was excited when he realised i hailed from singpore(though i doubt he knew where it was) and was shouting at the bar about this visitor from far away. it was an enjoyable night. first time all summer that all the staff were actually eligible to enter a pub in fact. so that made it even sweeter. i had 2 budweisers and got buzzed(so lousy), must've been the altitude. marty also asked me if i would come back next year. told him i really hoped to but see how things work out for me. haha. well i really would like to come back but i know chances are slim. he did say though that pa and ma get a discount if they wanna come!
this morning anne taught me crochetting!! yay! its addictive and its alot like knitting. so most of the morning i'm like a little quiet squirrel sitting in the corner with terianne sara and michelle, knitting away. my attempts of a scarf will bear fruit by the time i get back home.
i also learnt to line dance and square dance. its so fun! just follow the instructions can liao. no wonder so many oldies in singapore are so into it at those community centres. also got a quick waltzing lesson from lydia - it was her birthday - so i asked her for a dance and it turned into a waltz lesson for me! ha!
grace called later on. said she and rae cooked special singapore food for me since i was gonna leave day after tomorrow. so i went over to the kiva. turned out to be fried rice and sardines. its not too bad lah considering that i haven't had anything this authentic for the past 3 months. we ended up talking till late afterthat. its always good to yak with singaporeans when you're in a foreign country for so long. makes you miss home family and friends.
think i've learnt alot just from hanging around with these old people. they trully appreciate life and are thankful to have lived so long and so well. we had get-to-know-you session on sunday night which was where everyone had to tell the rest of the people sitting in the circle that if they had a favourite t-shirt what would be printed on it and what it would say. while i said something like it would have a singapore flag and blah, alot of the oldies said that theirs would just have the words 'glad to be alive' or 'happy to be here' and so on and so forth along these lines. you really can see the enthusiasm they possess, even at such an old age when they're physically and mentally more restricted than myself and yet more eager to learn a new skill than me(and by golly i AM eager most of the time). this morning i saw a 70-yr old woman go down the zipline(its 1km long flying fox where you grab a handle bar and you glide down from a rope about 50 feet above the groud) and she was really loving it! they all have this really endearing spirit of having fun and enjoying life not only at activities but during normal routines like meals and long drives. it is but a sobering reminder to enjoy life as you live it and to stay positive in times of adversity...
2 more days to the american/canadian road trip!!! whooooo...
significantly, yesterday the after dinner program was called red white and blue. it was supposed to be a patriotic session of sharing all things american. so everything in the dining hall was draped in the three colours, we used napkins, cups and plates with american flags painted on them and there were flags everywhere. it was somewhat interesting to see how patriotic the oldies were. and patriotic americans they really were alright. alot of them read poems, talked about what it is to be an american and even tap danced.
the true highlight for me was the forum with the national guards. they were like our reservists at home in singapore, have been trained before and only need to serve a few times a year. there were four of them all from a medical unit on training in grand county. so they came to the front and fielded questions. the oldies subsequently asked alot of questions about what it was like to serve and where they served before and blah. what struck me was the amount of respect and gratitude these oldies had for their soldiers. i mean the fact that its not very evident in singapore is one thing but these oldies were saluting and praising and thanking these four guys who've got day jobs and haven't seen much combat before. and they were telling them how special they were just for being willing ot defned their motherland with their lives and blah. so it just kinda made me wonder just how much alot of singaporeans take the army for granted, yeah, even those who've served it - i wonder how many would really stay in time of war. there was also an important message about fighting for freedom and how far they've come as a nation and its really akin to the plight singapore had went through 39 years ago before we became a republic. the only difference perhaps, is that i don't think many singaporeans appreciate our independence enough. okie so i'm an emotional patriotic sap. bite me.
that aside marty mary ann and michelle got a raise from the ymca(yay! now they're paid above the poverty line!) so we all went to 'the pub' in winter park for a drink. the bartender was excited when he realised i hailed from singpore(though i doubt he knew where it was) and was shouting at the bar about this visitor from far away. it was an enjoyable night. first time all summer that all the staff were actually eligible to enter a pub in fact. so that made it even sweeter. i had 2 budweisers and got buzzed(so lousy), must've been the altitude. marty also asked me if i would come back next year. told him i really hoped to but see how things work out for me. haha. well i really would like to come back but i know chances are slim. he did say though that pa and ma get a discount if they wanna come!
this morning anne taught me crochetting!! yay! its addictive and its alot like knitting. so most of the morning i'm like a little quiet squirrel sitting in the corner with terianne sara and michelle, knitting away. my attempts of a scarf will bear fruit by the time i get back home.
i also learnt to line dance and square dance. its so fun! just follow the instructions can liao. no wonder so many oldies in singapore are so into it at those community centres. also got a quick waltzing lesson from lydia - it was her birthday - so i asked her for a dance and it turned into a waltz lesson for me! ha!
grace called later on. said she and rae cooked special singapore food for me since i was gonna leave day after tomorrow. so i went over to the kiva. turned out to be fried rice and sardines. its not too bad lah considering that i haven't had anything this authentic for the past 3 months. we ended up talking till late afterthat. its always good to yak with singaporeans when you're in a foreign country for so long. makes you miss home family and friends.
think i've learnt alot just from hanging around with these old people. they trully appreciate life and are thankful to have lived so long and so well. we had get-to-know-you session on sunday night which was where everyone had to tell the rest of the people sitting in the circle that if they had a favourite t-shirt what would be printed on it and what it would say. while i said something like it would have a singapore flag and blah, alot of the oldies said that theirs would just have the words 'glad to be alive' or 'happy to be here' and so on and so forth along these lines. you really can see the enthusiasm they possess, even at such an old age when they're physically and mentally more restricted than myself and yet more eager to learn a new skill than me(and by golly i AM eager most of the time). this morning i saw a 70-yr old woman go down the zipline(its 1km long flying fox where you grab a handle bar and you glide down from a rope about 50 feet above the groud) and she was really loving it! they all have this really endearing spirit of having fun and enjoying life not only at activities but during normal routines like meals and long drives. it is but a sobering reminder to enjoy life as you live it and to stay positive in times of adversity...
2 more days to the american/canadian road trip!!! whooooo...
Sunday, August 22, 2004
3rd Album Posted!
the third album of swanky good-looking photos are posted! really wish i could put a caption to all the photos, at least they'd be easier to comprehend than just a mish-mash of smiley faces. still, will make an attempt to find some other site more worthy of my masterpieces.
once again if anyone needs me to share the site of the photos do leave a message. note to self: gotta find a site that allows sharing from a single link.
enjoy!
once again if anyone needs me to share the site of the photos do leave a message. note to self: gotta find a site that allows sharing from a single link.
enjoy!
Saturday, August 21, 2004
Active Older Adults
AOA has begun. the old campers came in this afternooon. there're only 33 participants, which means our job here is really easy street. michelle's in charge of the whole camp this week, which kinda relegates marty to a normal staff role like the rest of us. mike sarah rae and caroline have left and there'll only be 11 of us running this camp, but i've seen the schedule and its really damn lobo. alot of our working schedule will be like the participants, which is do what you feel like. there'll be alot of activities going on concurrently going on during activity periods and as staff we're not obligated to join in(thank goodness). alot are geared towards the older folk(duh - it is afterall active older adults) such as racewalking, crochetting, leather carving and so on and so forth. still its bloody relaxing and it gives me lotsa time to do things i feel like(like reading) and to just hang around and play fun games.
since these are older adults, they're supposed to be pampered. its amazing. today's dinner they served steak potatoes and corn cobs. wah lau, best meal i've ever had in the chipeta dining hall all summer man, no kidding. aside from that we basically just tell the participants(its weird not being able to refer to them as campers) what's gonna go on the next activity and stuff and they just decide whether they wanna do it. if they want to then we'll lead them but if they don't wanna do anything or wanna do things where we needn't be involved, then better still.
still they're a fun bunch. i haven't had myself aquianted enough to know names yet but everyone's really sporty, enthusiastic and seem to be determined to have a good time. no whiney old folk(worst combo) who get cranky easily. seems like it ain't cheap to come here so i guess if you pay to come to camp then you might as well enjoy and participate in everything right? thnk if got chance pa and ma should come for something like this. i'm sure you'll both enjoy it to bits!
and along the lines of the olympics, the theme for the camp is olympic week. god knows what kinda games they can play with those old folk without foreseeable any injuries occuring. and they're group everyone into 4 families, singapore jamaica scotland and australia! yay singapore! the older folk seem more interested(at least more genuinely) to know about signapore and some of them have actually stopped over before. so that might be a good thing.
so there have been a coupla highlights for the day.
vespers would easily take the cake. lindsay was telling a story about moonrocks(a certain sweet that emits sparks when you crunch on it, its amazing but true!) and then she gave everyone a piece to try. then all of a sudden one of the aoa participants asked very loudly to another participant "can i borrow your teeth?!". that totally cracked us all up. the best part was that she was serious, since she had already cleaned and kept her dentures after dinner.
then when dusty went up to sing a song, the participants shouted for him to sing louder. when dusty jokingly retorted "you mean you can't hear me from there?!", someone in the crowd shouted back "well not all of us have got our hearing aids with us you know!". which i found super funny.
aside from that i spent the next 2 hours after vespers playing dominoes with mary ann andrew dick(mary ann's dad) and kay(mary ann's mom). it was really fun. first time i've ever played it and i won enough for them to tell me that i'm a natural at the game. don't think they'll invite me to play again though. haha.
since these are older adults, they're supposed to be pampered. its amazing. today's dinner they served steak potatoes and corn cobs. wah lau, best meal i've ever had in the chipeta dining hall all summer man, no kidding. aside from that we basically just tell the participants(its weird not being able to refer to them as campers) what's gonna go on the next activity and stuff and they just decide whether they wanna do it. if they want to then we'll lead them but if they don't wanna do anything or wanna do things where we needn't be involved, then better still.
still they're a fun bunch. i haven't had myself aquianted enough to know names yet but everyone's really sporty, enthusiastic and seem to be determined to have a good time. no whiney old folk(worst combo) who get cranky easily. seems like it ain't cheap to come here so i guess if you pay to come to camp then you might as well enjoy and participate in everything right? thnk if got chance pa and ma should come for something like this. i'm sure you'll both enjoy it to bits!
and along the lines of the olympics, the theme for the camp is olympic week. god knows what kinda games they can play with those old folk without foreseeable any injuries occuring. and they're group everyone into 4 families, singapore jamaica scotland and australia! yay singapore! the older folk seem more interested(at least more genuinely) to know about signapore and some of them have actually stopped over before. so that might be a good thing.
so there have been a coupla highlights for the day.
vespers would easily take the cake. lindsay was telling a story about moonrocks(a certain sweet that emits sparks when you crunch on it, its amazing but true!) and then she gave everyone a piece to try. then all of a sudden one of the aoa participants asked very loudly to another participant "can i borrow your teeth?!". that totally cracked us all up. the best part was that she was serious, since she had already cleaned and kept her dentures after dinner.
then when dusty went up to sing a song, the participants shouted for him to sing louder. when dusty jokingly retorted "you mean you can't hear me from there?!", someone in the crowd shouted back "well not all of us have got our hearing aids with us you know!". which i found super funny.
aside from that i spent the next 2 hours after vespers playing dominoes with mary ann andrew dick(mary ann's dad) and kay(mary ann's mom). it was really fun. first time i've ever played it and i won enough for them to tell me that i'm a natural at the game. don't think they'll invite me to play again though. haha.
Friday, August 20, 2004
5th Peak
just climbed 5th peak alone this morning. took me 2hrs to get to the top. what a great way to start my preps for further trips to come. its approx 8,600ft above sea level. it helps that i'm already at 8,190ft from satanta, so there wasn't too long a distance to climb.
started at 830. hiked past archery and tried to find the trailhead, which i couldn't. i went the wrong way twice, once ending up at riflery, which wasn't a very pleasant find considering the morning cold and the cloud cover still over-lapping us here in cco. in the end i gave up and just bashed up the mountain from the swensen trail. the hike up was really morbid. all around were aspen trees and then slowly the landscape changed to pine trees and then finally just near the summit of 1st peak, gravel and rocks.
from 1st peak, you can see most of camp chief ouray and snow mountain ranch. it was a very rewarding view considering how tough it was to bash through the slopey forest. i gave a huge "yawp" of triumph when i got there. its amazing just listening to the echo of your yawp traverse the entire valley.
2nd peak, the most exciting peak was alot tougher to climb but not only could you see all of what you saw at first peak, but also the town of granby and the great rocky mountains valley as well. each time i got to a peak i'd give a "yawp" of triumph(which i learned from scotty and brian kurz)
3rd 4th and 5th peaks were not as exciting. their summits were pine-covered, meaning you couldn't see most anything without pine trees blocking you. the pine cones grow bigger the higher up you climb thats what i noticed. there was cloud cover everywhere though the fog started dispersing as the morning wore on. it was cold at the top, could see your breath even by the early afternoon. still it was a huge achievement to get there. i sat around for awhile, wrote in my journal then started heading down hoping to be able to get down by lunchtime.
the trip down was alot faster for obvious reasons though i almost rolled my ankle a coupla times if not for my walmat hike-worthy hiking boots. i took the trail down which took alot longer and finally found out that it started off at the reservoir. wah so far from camp.
first mountain cleared!
started at 830. hiked past archery and tried to find the trailhead, which i couldn't. i went the wrong way twice, once ending up at riflery, which wasn't a very pleasant find considering the morning cold and the cloud cover still over-lapping us here in cco. in the end i gave up and just bashed up the mountain from the swensen trail. the hike up was really morbid. all around were aspen trees and then slowly the landscape changed to pine trees and then finally just near the summit of 1st peak, gravel and rocks.
from 1st peak, you can see most of camp chief ouray and snow mountain ranch. it was a very rewarding view considering how tough it was to bash through the slopey forest. i gave a huge "yawp" of triumph when i got there. its amazing just listening to the echo of your yawp traverse the entire valley.
2nd peak, the most exciting peak was alot tougher to climb but not only could you see all of what you saw at first peak, but also the town of granby and the great rocky mountains valley as well. each time i got to a peak i'd give a "yawp" of triumph(which i learned from scotty and brian kurz)
3rd 4th and 5th peaks were not as exciting. their summits were pine-covered, meaning you couldn't see most anything without pine trees blocking you. the pine cones grow bigger the higher up you climb thats what i noticed. there was cloud cover everywhere though the fog started dispersing as the morning wore on. it was cold at the top, could see your breath even by the early afternoon. still it was a huge achievement to get there. i sat around for awhile, wrote in my journal then started heading down hoping to be able to get down by lunchtime.
the trip down was alot faster for obvious reasons though i almost rolled my ankle a coupla times if not for my walmat hike-worthy hiking boots. i took the trail down which took alot longer and finally found out that it started off at the reservoir. wah so far from camp.
first mountain cleared!
Thursday, August 19, 2004
And Then There Were 3...
yet another singaporean has arrived in snow mountain ranch to work her j-1 visa off. this time its rae. i remember her from my group during the aceglobal campusa orientation in singapore, really talkative and full of crap, nevertheless quite a ball to talk to. she came all the way from michigan just to work here(wow?!?!). spent most of the evening chatting and yakking about our experiences at the grill just awhile ago. tomorrow grace is cooking for us both in the most mini(we don't have much of a choice do we?) of singaporean gatherings. still i'm grateful there're people i can finally talk normal with.
rafting today was crazy. today's weather was among the worst i've seen. cloud cover was a 100%, not a single piece of blue sky. and we got rained on so much so that it didn't matter that i didn't fall into the water. and the cold was so bad i couldn't feel my toes and ankles early in the trip, and along with everyone else, was shivering all day long. the bright side to it all came in the form of 7 cute little girl scouts and their troop leader in my boat, who kept bugging me to teach them new songs(inclusive of the now-infamous gaku gaeku piong song), and i'm now known as 'piong' to these little pukes. haha. i may complain and roll my eyes but i loved every minute of teaching them songs and they lapped up every minute of it, and together we were known as the 'singing raft'. we also had a good guide named sailing(what kinda name is that?) who was really into doing the wildest things on the river. so he made the trip alot more exciting than what i'd normally expect. the fact that the little girls scream the house down with every sighting of a white water rapid regardless of how small they might've been, added to the excitement.
marty invited me over to his humble abode for dinner. we had brockwurst on the grill and chips. i like his little house. its so cute and single-oriented. i'd love to own one of those myself.
if you've got this week's 8 Days, Issue No. 724 Aug 19 -Aug 26, 2004 somewhere nearby right now, turn to Page 6, "best letter wins!". my mom wrote in a letter and won herself a nice dinner for two at Cafe de Amigo plus a bottle of wine. go ma! letter as follows:
Mama mia
A recent university graduate, my son recently left S'pore for the US on a three-month stint as an international counsellor at a youth summer camp there. Homesickness soon got the better of him; he missed the familiarity of home and country, and urgently requested for copies of 8 Days! I was like "Huh? 8 DAYS, of all things?" Anyway, we'd just received 8 DAYS #719 (Wow Factor) that week, and wasted no time in despatching the copy to him. This was his response: "Upon receiving the package, I took the 8 DAYS to read in the midst of looking after my kids at the camp; I just couldn't wait till the end of the day! My kids all surrounded me, ooh-ing and aah-ing at the cover and all the babelicious pics, curious about its contents and Singapore. Words cannot describe how much it meant to me, but it felt so, sooo good to see and feel something so familiar, and sharing it with others who had enjoyed the moment as much as I had. Thanks, Ma!" And I thank you all at 8 DAYS!
A very happy mama
Ed: No, thank you, ma'am. And your son, too. We're honoured.
We hope you enjoy your dinner for two at Cafe de Amigo.
i'm so proud of you mom! hope you and pa will enjoy your 26th anniversary together there!
rafting today was crazy. today's weather was among the worst i've seen. cloud cover was a 100%, not a single piece of blue sky. and we got rained on so much so that it didn't matter that i didn't fall into the water. and the cold was so bad i couldn't feel my toes and ankles early in the trip, and along with everyone else, was shivering all day long. the bright side to it all came in the form of 7 cute little girl scouts and their troop leader in my boat, who kept bugging me to teach them new songs(inclusive of the now-infamous gaku gaeku piong song), and i'm now known as 'piong' to these little pukes. haha. i may complain and roll my eyes but i loved every minute of teaching them songs and they lapped up every minute of it, and together we were known as the 'singing raft'. we also had a good guide named sailing(what kinda name is that?) who was really into doing the wildest things on the river. so he made the trip alot more exciting than what i'd normally expect. the fact that the little girls scream the house down with every sighting of a white water rapid regardless of how small they might've been, added to the excitement.
marty invited me over to his humble abode for dinner. we had brockwurst on the grill and chips. i like his little house. its so cute and single-oriented. i'd love to own one of those myself.
if you've got this week's 8 Days, Issue No. 724 Aug 19 -Aug 26, 2004 somewhere nearby right now, turn to Page 6, "best letter wins!". my mom wrote in a letter and won herself a nice dinner for two at Cafe de Amigo plus a bottle of wine. go ma! letter as follows:
Mama mia
A recent university graduate, my son recently left S'pore for the US on a three-month stint as an international counsellor at a youth summer camp there. Homesickness soon got the better of him; he missed the familiarity of home and country, and urgently requested for copies of 8 Days! I was like "Huh? 8 DAYS, of all things?" Anyway, we'd just received 8 DAYS #719 (Wow Factor) that week, and wasted no time in despatching the copy to him. This was his response: "Upon receiving the package, I took the 8 DAYS to read in the midst of looking after my kids at the camp; I just couldn't wait till the end of the day! My kids all surrounded me, ooh-ing and aah-ing at the cover and all the babelicious pics, curious about its contents and Singapore. Words cannot describe how much it meant to me, but it felt so, sooo good to see and feel something so familiar, and sharing it with others who had enjoyed the moment as much as I had. Thanks, Ma!" And I thank you all at 8 DAYS!
A very happy mama
Ed: No, thank you, ma'am. And your son, too. We're honoured.
We hope you enjoy your dinner for two at Cafe de Amigo.
i'm so proud of you mom! hope you and pa will enjoy your 26th anniversary together there!
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Girl Scouts Camp
hmm.
its different.
girl scouts camp is only 4 days long, programs are approximately the same. but things are so different without the rest of the staff that are gone. rowdie campfire is different, program areas are different and the people i hang out with are different.
been hanging out with what's left of the staff. they're mainly the admin people, so on the bright side i'm getting to know them better. the girl scouts are pretty nice people too, most of the girls are between 9 to 16 and they're qutie disciplines and enthusiastic to have fun. was doing swimming activities with them all of yesterday and then doing archery all of today. tomorrow going rafting again! yay.
i taught the girl scouts the japanese frog song that i learnt as a scout, surprised they haven't heard of it. the gaku gaeku piong song? anyone? anyway they super duper loved it and now they keep calling me 'piong', and ask me to sing it to them wherever we go. geez. still its nice to be popular amongst the girl scouts.
had my end-of-summer evaluation with mike, his assessment of me, to least to say, was damn bloody impressive. i can't remember alot of bits but its so flattering that i'll show it to anyone who wants a read if i ever get my hands on it(which i intend to). i've also been recommended to be re-hired again next summer either as a cabin counsellor, challenger counsellor or trip staff. haiz.
diah cooked me dinner today! indonesian beef with fragrant thai rice(where in the world did she get that?!) it was fantastically delicious and it made me miss singaporean food even more! the oft-mentioned missing-of-singaporean-food-while-abroad may be a cliche but its really overwhelmingly true to the core. words can't describe my yearn for a good plate of char kuay teow or hainanese chicken rice right now.
to the best of my knowledge, there's an article of my travels in america in ntu's only publication worth reading, the nanyang chronicle! rumour has it that there's a really cute picture of me there. thanks beth!
not only do my farts smell bad anymore. my feet are getting smellier and smellier by the day. and to think i change my socks more than the average american. argh.
i've got too much things to carry. eeks. i got new stuff that i got this summer...my crazy creek, thermorest, and this new one-man tent which i kupped from the lost and found, a pair of hiking boots, rock-climbing shoes, a whole milk crate of magazines, one very valuable issue of playboy(i don't intend to bring that back though), alot of hemp, two cutesy stuffed toys(they are REALLY cute) among other things.
dunno how i'm shipping everything back.
its different.
girl scouts camp is only 4 days long, programs are approximately the same. but things are so different without the rest of the staff that are gone. rowdie campfire is different, program areas are different and the people i hang out with are different.
been hanging out with what's left of the staff. they're mainly the admin people, so on the bright side i'm getting to know them better. the girl scouts are pretty nice people too, most of the girls are between 9 to 16 and they're qutie disciplines and enthusiastic to have fun. was doing swimming activities with them all of yesterday and then doing archery all of today. tomorrow going rafting again! yay.
i taught the girl scouts the japanese frog song that i learnt as a scout, surprised they haven't heard of it. the gaku gaeku piong song? anyone? anyway they super duper loved it and now they keep calling me 'piong', and ask me to sing it to them wherever we go. geez. still its nice to be popular amongst the girl scouts.
had my end-of-summer evaluation with mike, his assessment of me, to least to say, was damn bloody impressive. i can't remember alot of bits but its so flattering that i'll show it to anyone who wants a read if i ever get my hands on it(which i intend to). i've also been recommended to be re-hired again next summer either as a cabin counsellor, challenger counsellor or trip staff. haiz.
diah cooked me dinner today! indonesian beef with fragrant thai rice(where in the world did she get that?!) it was fantastically delicious and it made me miss singaporean food even more! the oft-mentioned missing-of-singaporean-food-while-abroad may be a cliche but its really overwhelmingly true to the core. words can't describe my yearn for a good plate of char kuay teow or hainanese chicken rice right now.
to the best of my knowledge, there's an article of my travels in america in ntu's only publication worth reading, the nanyang chronicle! rumour has it that there's a really cute picture of me there. thanks beth!
not only do my farts smell bad anymore. my feet are getting smellier and smellier by the day. and to think i change my socks more than the average american. argh.
i've got too much things to carry. eeks. i got new stuff that i got this summer...my crazy creek, thermorest, and this new one-man tent which i kupped from the lost and found, a pair of hiking boots, rock-climbing shoes, a whole milk crate of magazines, one very valuable issue of playboy(i don't intend to bring that back though), alot of hemp, two cutesy stuffed toys(they are REALLY cute) among other things.
dunno how i'm shipping everything back.
Monday, August 16, 2004
The Singaporean Wonder
its a wonder that ironic as it may all sound, we're all guilty of being the proudest-ass singaporeans only when we're not at home. there's just too much that we take for granted when at home. and i'm not even starting on anything big and accomplished that we've done. i'm talking about the really little things, things like saying "wah lao eh", things like saying "comfeerm!" in that cheena twang that only we are capable of, and even punctuating your sentences with the stylistically subtle and simple word, lah.
so anyway it was with great relief when i heard that a singaporean had just last week transfered to snow mountain ranch to work. i went to look for her and its amazing just how excited i was to just spew all the singlish and mandarin i had festering in me the last 3 months. her name's grace and she's 28yrs old and she hails from aceglobal too! which means we'll meet up again on the 31st oct reunion! so we spent quite a long time sitting around the kiva just talking about our experiences in camp and singapore, all in singlish and mandarin! haha. she's had a not-so-good time at her girl scout camp so snow mountain ranch was a refreshing change for her. but she's not as excited as i was since there was another singaporean with her in her previous camp. nonetheless i enjoyed myself a whole bunch just yakking with her. only problem was that i can't scold bad hokkien profanities till i see joe in two weeks. boo.
the little singaporean wonders that will ever only be appreciated when you haven't spoken singlish or singa-cheena in 3 months are endless, but here's my two cents...
putting the word 'lah' or 'meh' or 'hor' at the end of your sentences
saying "comfeerm!" in that cheena twang that only we are capable of
saying 'wah lao' for the first time in so long
saying 'wah lan' and knowing that its different from 'wah lao'
saying 'si mah?' just for the bloody sake of it
having someone else know where in singapore marine parade is
hearing words like 'xiong' and 'xianz'
using the words 'si beh something something'
speaking singlish in singaporean twang
realising you're still fluent in mandarin even though you haven't spoken much of it for 3mths
bitching about american food
bitching about the weather
bitching about americans
bitching. period
ah, i love singapore.
so anyway it was with great relief when i heard that a singaporean had just last week transfered to snow mountain ranch to work. i went to look for her and its amazing just how excited i was to just spew all the singlish and mandarin i had festering in me the last 3 months. her name's grace and she's 28yrs old and she hails from aceglobal too! which means we'll meet up again on the 31st oct reunion! so we spent quite a long time sitting around the kiva just talking about our experiences in camp and singapore, all in singlish and mandarin! haha. she's had a not-so-good time at her girl scout camp so snow mountain ranch was a refreshing change for her. but she's not as excited as i was since there was another singaporean with her in her previous camp. nonetheless i enjoyed myself a whole bunch just yakking with her. only problem was that i can't scold bad hokkien profanities till i see joe in two weeks. boo.
the little singaporean wonders that will ever only be appreciated when you haven't spoken singlish or singa-cheena in 3 months are endless, but here's my two cents...
putting the word 'lah' or 'meh' or 'hor' at the end of your sentences
saying "comfeerm!" in that cheena twang that only we are capable of
saying 'wah lao' for the first time in so long
saying 'wah lan' and knowing that its different from 'wah lao'
saying 'si mah?' just for the bloody sake of it
having someone else know where in singapore marine parade is
hearing words like 'xiong' and 'xianz'
using the words 'si beh something something'
speaking singlish in singaporean twang
realising you're still fluent in mandarin even though you haven't spoken much of it for 3mths
bitching about american food
bitching about the weather
bitching about americans
bitching. period
ah, i love singapore.
Sunday, August 15, 2004
In The End
and so its over. summer camp. i'm so sad. i really am. i can't really describe how sad i am. ever had that feeling about something that you knew the end would come and you knew how it would play out but you never wanted it to happen anyway? ever had that feeling that you know its over but you just can't let it go? i really dunno how else to describe this feeling, i don't think i've felt this way before. i cried the last two nights. i cried last night at staff closing vespers. i cried this morning when summer camp was declared over and everyone started going home. i don't think i've cried this much for such a long time.
i'm so sad of the prospect that every friendship i've fostered over summer will get torn to shreds by long distance and nonchalance. i'm so sad that most of these wonderful friends i've made i'll never ever see again. i'm so sad that this magical experience of a lifetime is finally over. and finally i'm so sad that when i look back at this whole magical experience years from now, it'd all look like just a dream...
so i said my goodbyes last night. it was a really sad night for all of us. it started off pretty well. we had a staff banquet where i had the best camp food(steak and corn cob) ever. alot of relieving of days in camp gone by, nostalgic inside jokes and group photo-taking. i even won the "cco staff member most likely to win the noble prize" award(which made me really proud) to top it off. it stretched till pretty late, afterwhich was closing staff vespers. people were crying even while walking to kiwani owapi. alot of staff had things to share.
when it was my turn i told them my sordid tale of how i came to cco, how i applied for the international camp counsellor's program and thrust myself at the mercy of every camp director in the nation. how by sheer fate and wicked sense of humour, assistant-director(she confessed) maryanne chose me out of all international staff available just because she thought from my resume that i had a wicked sense of humour(and boy was she right) that rightly suited the camp. how i came alone as the only camp counsellor from a foreign land with much apprehension and reservation. how i hate camp having to end. how i will miss every single one of them. and finally how each and every one of them have touched my life in ways they could never imagine.
i made alot of people cry. that sucks. i hate making people cry, but you know when your words are moving when within the bright glow of vespers fire you see people breaking down right in front of you. by the time i got to the finally thank you about the staff touching my life and helping me change the world, i was in tears too. haiz. and to think i told james i definitely wouldn't tear. and as a parting gift, i sang the song "hai3 guo4 tian1 kong1" by beyond, in cantonese. after vespers, we hung around giving each other hugs like never before, i think we stayed for more than half an hour just hugging everyone in sight. damn i'll never forget that.
camp magic
every closing vespers, someone would come up to speak about camp magic. with the camp magic jar in hand thats full of "camp magic" which really was just flammable powder that drew flame when thrown into the fire(the kids find it so amazing)', he would speak of what he felt camp magic really was and what it meant to him. camp magic has been interpreted into countless ways that i can't remember them all. but essentially it always represented something like a good memory of someone or something done in camp. but what was really implied each time this speech was made, was that camp magic was real. it was something you had to experience in order to believe. so i have my own list of camp magic...
camp magic to me is...
wearing the traditional chinese garb and pretending not to understand a word of english and see the alarmed expression on parents' faces when they bring their kids to my cabin
teaching kids to hemp and explaining to them that hemp comes from the marijuana plant
being such a role model and an inspiration to kids even though you're wearing your underwear outside your shorts
being an integral part of the simpson family and making shrink-e-dinks for everyone single one of them
shouting "hooray for pig" in the middle of a serious conversation
listening to kids ask you "did you die?!" when you enlighten them that you've served the military before
burning your knuckle in the shrink-e-dink machine(it was a toaster)
leading kids in a mad run all over the woods during all camp game
seeing campers take the dance so seriously
painting the scottish flag on your face and fighting war on the field between satanta and campcraft
not bathing for a week and a half
hunting for keiko and shamu the whales
learning a new dance to ymca by the village people
singing a chinese song at vespers and singing it all wrong and yet having campers coming up and telling you what a meaningful song it was
having girl campers declaring that you're their date for the dance and that every other female camper should keep at least 6ft away from you
wearing a cute full-body pony suit and telling kids to potato sack race
making a homesick camper smile, laugh, then cry again(because you threw the sproutball at his face)
telling campers your three ear holes were caused by the great beaver attack of '92
telling campers your name's really earl and you're from eastside chicago
sproutball
adopting a girl cabin just so your own boys can say they owned them
ballerina dancing around the dining hall
staff retreat
cabin movie nights with tyler
having a female cabin adopt your adam's apple
spending 3hrs scrapping sticky tape off the satanta floor
being dubbed "the most amazing asian counsellor in camp"
being the only international cabin counsellor in camp and yet never, not once, feel left out
being a part of cco staff 2004
these are all i can think of at the moment, there's really so much so much more and i miss them all.
haiz
i'm so sad of the prospect that every friendship i've fostered over summer will get torn to shreds by long distance and nonchalance. i'm so sad that most of these wonderful friends i've made i'll never ever see again. i'm so sad that this magical experience of a lifetime is finally over. and finally i'm so sad that when i look back at this whole magical experience years from now, it'd all look like just a dream...
so i said my goodbyes last night. it was a really sad night for all of us. it started off pretty well. we had a staff banquet where i had the best camp food(steak and corn cob) ever. alot of relieving of days in camp gone by, nostalgic inside jokes and group photo-taking. i even won the "cco staff member most likely to win the noble prize" award(which made me really proud) to top it off. it stretched till pretty late, afterwhich was closing staff vespers. people were crying even while walking to kiwani owapi. alot of staff had things to share.
when it was my turn i told them my sordid tale of how i came to cco, how i applied for the international camp counsellor's program and thrust myself at the mercy of every camp director in the nation. how by sheer fate and wicked sense of humour, assistant-director(she confessed) maryanne chose me out of all international staff available just because she thought from my resume that i had a wicked sense of humour(and boy was she right) that rightly suited the camp. how i came alone as the only camp counsellor from a foreign land with much apprehension and reservation. how i hate camp having to end. how i will miss every single one of them. and finally how each and every one of them have touched my life in ways they could never imagine.
i made alot of people cry. that sucks. i hate making people cry, but you know when your words are moving when within the bright glow of vespers fire you see people breaking down right in front of you. by the time i got to the finally thank you about the staff touching my life and helping me change the world, i was in tears too. haiz. and to think i told james i definitely wouldn't tear. and as a parting gift, i sang the song "hai3 guo4 tian1 kong1" by beyond, in cantonese. after vespers, we hung around giving each other hugs like never before, i think we stayed for more than half an hour just hugging everyone in sight. damn i'll never forget that.
camp magic
every closing vespers, someone would come up to speak about camp magic. with the camp magic jar in hand thats full of "camp magic" which really was just flammable powder that drew flame when thrown into the fire(the kids find it so amazing)', he would speak of what he felt camp magic really was and what it meant to him. camp magic has been interpreted into countless ways that i can't remember them all. but essentially it always represented something like a good memory of someone or something done in camp. but what was really implied each time this speech was made, was that camp magic was real. it was something you had to experience in order to believe. so i have my own list of camp magic...
camp magic to me is...
wearing the traditional chinese garb and pretending not to understand a word of english and see the alarmed expression on parents' faces when they bring their kids to my cabin
teaching kids to hemp and explaining to them that hemp comes from the marijuana plant
being such a role model and an inspiration to kids even though you're wearing your underwear outside your shorts
being an integral part of the simpson family and making shrink-e-dinks for everyone single one of them
shouting "hooray for pig" in the middle of a serious conversation
listening to kids ask you "did you die?!" when you enlighten them that you've served the military before
burning your knuckle in the shrink-e-dink machine(it was a toaster)
getting a nose bleed all the time
listening to kids ask "do you pee in your pants when you're in love?!" during the ever-popular girl devotions
wearing a hilarious size xs sequiny top and tutu combined with an exploding green wig and then telling your kids to be serious about what you're saying
camping out in parthenon pines and sliding 4ft downhill no matter where you're sleeping
peeing in the fire during campout
hearing people call you jackie chan wherever you go
seeing the jealous faces of other counsellors when you're constantly surrounded by kids
freaking the hell outta kids by shouting "what're YOU staring at!" when they glance in your direction
playing with horse shit
girl devotions
corny's laugh
hearing kids tell you you're the coolest camp counsellor ever while you're giving away snack, then hear them say the exact same thing to the other counsellor when you've run out of snack
leading kids in a mad run all over the woods during all camp game
seeing campers take the dance so seriously
painting the scottish flag on your face and fighting war on the field between satanta and campcraft
not bathing for a week and a half
hunting for keiko and shamu the whales
learning a new dance to ymca by the village people
singing a chinese song at vespers and singing it all wrong and yet having campers coming up and telling you what a meaningful song it was
having girl campers declaring that you're their date for the dance and that every other female camper should keep at least 6ft away from you
wearing a cute full-body pony suit and telling kids to potato sack race
making a homesick camper smile, laugh, then cry again(because you threw the sproutball at his face)
telling campers your three ear holes were caused by the great beaver attack of '92
telling campers your name's really earl and you're from eastside chicago
sproutball
adopting a girl cabin just so your own boys can say they owned them
ballerina dancing around the dining hall
staff retreat
cabin movie nights with tyler
having a female cabin adopt your adam's apple
spending 3hrs scrapping sticky tape off the satanta floor
being dubbed "the most amazing asian counsellor in camp"
being the only international cabin counsellor in camp and yet never, not once, feel left out
being a part of cco staff 2004
these are all i can think of at the moment, there's really so much so much more and i miss them all.
haiz
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Session 8: A Singaporean's Proudest Day
okie i really didn't intend to blog today. wanted to spend my time in the rac researching for more ideas and infomation about what we're gonna do once camp ends. but no. i really had to mention what an eventful day yesterday was.
yesterday we celebrated singapore's national day during dinner. i signed up to do the square off. and when i announced it was singapore's birthday, the whole dining hall exploded into crazy cheers. then all the staff decided it that signapore was worthy of the traditinal camp birthday song! so they made me stand on the chair with my huge singapore flag draped over me and everyone sang the song. it would be hte first and only time this summer that both male and female staff actually get together to sing that very song in the middle of the dining hall. in fact it was so scary standing in the middle because i thought the floor would collapse and we'd all fall through the floor when they did the ba-doom part and jumped. so there i was wearing the singapore flag over myself and being serenaded by 50+ staff. it was crazy. honestly, i've never felt prouder to be a singaporean. and then afterthat when everyone had gone back to their seats, i announced that i was presenting the singapore flag as a gift to cco from singapore, and the dining hall broke in raptuous cheers once more. haiz its crazy. this has been probably my most memorable natinoaly day ever.
such irony.
then our all-camp game was a game called WAR. the theme for this week was a scottish and english medieval rivalry, and this being the final session, WAR was actually a game of capture the flag except played over the vast fields that stretched from satanta to camp craft. thats at least 1km by 1km huge! its crazy! and we had the whole camp playing, so the scottish(that was my cabin and alot of others) were lined up along camp craft and we could see across the field the english who were lined up along satanta(they really tried to make it like braveheart). dividing us was pole creek, this really long and wide creek of about 3m wide that you had to get across to charge at your opponent. it was just c-r-a-z-y! so when the flag signalled the charge, all the kids charged like mad towards pole creek for the face off. and it was so hilarious watching kids try to jump the creek but end up falling into it instead, it was all out war!!! just pure madness. i've never seen a game played out at such a gargan-normous scale before.
wow.
ooh brandie just came to the rac and she asked me to go to town with her so will continue on thursday. so sad this is the last week!!!!
yesterday we celebrated singapore's national day during dinner. i signed up to do the square off. and when i announced it was singapore's birthday, the whole dining hall exploded into crazy cheers. then all the staff decided it that signapore was worthy of the traditinal camp birthday song! so they made me stand on the chair with my huge singapore flag draped over me and everyone sang the song. it would be hte first and only time this summer that both male and female staff actually get together to sing that very song in the middle of the dining hall. in fact it was so scary standing in the middle because i thought the floor would collapse and we'd all fall through the floor when they did the ba-doom part and jumped. so there i was wearing the singapore flag over myself and being serenaded by 50+ staff. it was crazy. honestly, i've never felt prouder to be a singaporean. and then afterthat when everyone had gone back to their seats, i announced that i was presenting the singapore flag as a gift to cco from singapore, and the dining hall broke in raptuous cheers once more. haiz its crazy. this has been probably my most memorable natinoaly day ever.
such irony.
then our all-camp game was a game called WAR. the theme for this week was a scottish and english medieval rivalry, and this being the final session, WAR was actually a game of capture the flag except played over the vast fields that stretched from satanta to camp craft. thats at least 1km by 1km huge! its crazy! and we had the whole camp playing, so the scottish(that was my cabin and alot of others) were lined up along camp craft and we could see across the field the english who were lined up along satanta(they really tried to make it like braveheart). dividing us was pole creek, this really long and wide creek of about 3m wide that you had to get across to charge at your opponent. it was just c-r-a-z-y! so when the flag signalled the charge, all the kids charged like mad towards pole creek for the face off. and it was so hilarious watching kids try to jump the creek but end up falling into it instead, it was all out war!!! just pure madness. i've never seen a game played out at such a gargan-normous scale before.
wow.
ooh brandie just came to the rac and she asked me to go to town with her so will continue on thursday. so sad this is the last week!!!!
Monday, August 09, 2004
New Pix Posted
just updated my yahoo photos 2nd album so go ahead and take a look if any of you are interested.
Session 8: Happy National Day
and so the 8 weeks of children's camp has finally reached its end phase. how sad to think about it. i'm in cheyenne cabin this week with tyler again. everyone getting very laid back and slack - especially tyler who successfully pissed me off with his childishness(its worse than i could ever imagine). i don't really care anymore also, just maybe hope to let the kids have a good time and try to enjoy myself this last week of kids summer camp.
my cabin of supposed 7 kids got reduced to 5 because for the first time all summer, 2 kids(whose parents paid big money to send them here) didn't turn up. well thats their loss. we also got a counsellor-in-training, dan whose got a limp but he's somewhat cool, like a john lennon lookalike. so i've got ben sam davis tyler and connor(from session 2!) in my cabin. i like it small, it means i got less things to take care of, and i'mgoing rafting on friday! hooray!
haven't really done anything to celebrate national day yet but i think i'll do the square off later in the dining hall and tell everyone to say happy birthday singapore or something.
meanwhile i'm really pumped for the plans ahead after i leave camp and the time is right to begin planning for the travels over the next few weeks. there're so many things that i wanna do thats swirling in my head right now but i shan't reveal them till i finalise that i'll be doing them. but hopefully i'll get to climb a mountain, its thats worth anything here. haha.
my cabin of supposed 7 kids got reduced to 5 because for the first time all summer, 2 kids(whose parents paid big money to send them here) didn't turn up. well thats their loss. we also got a counsellor-in-training, dan whose got a limp but he's somewhat cool, like a john lennon lookalike. so i've got ben sam davis tyler and connor(from session 2!) in my cabin. i like it small, it means i got less things to take care of, and i'mgoing rafting on friday! hooray!
haven't really done anything to celebrate national day yet but i think i'll do the square off later in the dining hall and tell everyone to say happy birthday singapore or something.
meanwhile i'm really pumped for the plans ahead after i leave camp and the time is right to begin planning for the travels over the next few weeks. there're so many things that i wanna do thats swirling in my head right now but i shan't reveal them till i finalise that i'll be doing them. but hopefully i'll get to climb a mountain, its thats worth anything here. haha.
Madness in Denver 2
okie so here's the continuation from where i left off when andy waylaid me in his study. we ended up talking for the next 3 hours about politics gossip and various other non-essentials that made us sound pretty in the loop about all things interesting(like the fact that he was an extremely desperate virgin)
so anyway after the ballgame which the rockies miraculously won, we headed back to andy's place. there was a lot more cigarettes and alcohol involved afterthat and then by midnight i think the only ones still alive and not groaning or passed out on the floor were myself andy nick brandie and jason. amongst the higlights of the night just before that were everyone trying to force me to cut a mullet out of my long locks(which they eventually failed), jason piercing his ear AND both his nipples in front of us(i think he was kept awake by the pain) and stephanie and kevin almost getting it on. all in all it turned out to be a pretty fun night. nick and i got pretty hungry around then too and so we walked 2 blocks down to colfax and i treated him to popeye's for supper. we hung around for almost an hour just talking about his life, my life and whatever. i it was a good bonding session for us both.
next morning justin and i were(we were sleeping on the same bed that night) and brandie and stephanie came in and jumped on us both. the funny thing was that when they both did the bed gave a really really load 'crack' sound which freaked the four of us so much that we immediately leapt outta bed hoping it didnt collapse. haha.
aside from that we came back to camp shortly afterthat.
so anyway after the ballgame which the rockies miraculously won, we headed back to andy's place. there was a lot more cigarettes and alcohol involved afterthat and then by midnight i think the only ones still alive and not groaning or passed out on the floor were myself andy nick brandie and jason. amongst the higlights of the night just before that were everyone trying to force me to cut a mullet out of my long locks(which they eventually failed), jason piercing his ear AND both his nipples in front of us(i think he was kept awake by the pain) and stephanie and kevin almost getting it on. all in all it turned out to be a pretty fun night. nick and i got pretty hungry around then too and so we walked 2 blocks down to colfax and i treated him to popeye's for supper. we hung around for almost an hour just talking about his life, my life and whatever. i it was a good bonding session for us both.
next morning justin and i were(we were sleeping on the same bed that night) and brandie and stephanie came in and jumped on us both. the funny thing was that when they both did the bed gave a really really load 'crack' sound which freaked the four of us so much that we immediately leapt outta bed hoping it didnt collapse. haha.
aside from that we came back to camp shortly afterthat.
Sunday, August 08, 2004
Madness in Denver 1
its way past midnight now and most of the people in andy's house are asleep. its been a wild night.
right from the morning andy and myself(who volunteered for bus duty) went doen to denver with the kids pretty early. we had less kids on the bus as compared to last week, and the kids' parents came so early to pick them up that we were done before noon. so both of us managed to coax the bus driver to give us a short ride to colorado mills, a huge shopping mall in suburbia denver. its the same one brandie brought me to quite some time ago which had the target and borders stores. anyway i found a shop selling glasses and asked if they sell contact lenses. to my astonishment they don't sell them off the counter(like they do in singapore) but instead require a doctor's prescription for them, it being required by state law! horror of horrors! wah lao what the hell?! they scard terrorists use contact lenses to refract the sun's rays and burn down buildings meh! xianz.. means no contact lenses for me. then no time to make glasses somemore. nao hiah.
oh i also bought the zoolander dvd which i will be sending home...
anyway stephanie and brandie came to pick us up about 2hrs later(i had alot of fun shopping, dunno about andy though) and we drove over to andy's house in denver(the one i stayed in during mini-break. we had quite alot of people. there were the 4 of us, kolby nick kevin tyler jason james and justin.
gist was we got alot of booze and they wanted to get drunk before attending the baseball game between the rockies and the cincinnati reds. kevin justin and tyler had earlier been smoking pot(yup its really easy to get that here) and really looked super high and stoned. still we got enough alcohol to serve a platoon. anyways alot of them drank themselves silly, luckily i was sober after 2 bottles of bud lights on an empty stomach. the funny thing about them being really high is that you can tell that they are damn high and yet they are stil sane enoguh to get on with their normal lives like being hungry and not slurring in speech. the only thing we didn't allow the stoned people to do was drive the cars.
so there we were in coors field, its really magnificent and the atmosphere of being in an actual ball game is trully somewhat overwhelming. the rockies won the game 9-5, though we had more fun talking amongst ourselves and having a great ball of time making a fool of ourselves than concentrate on what's going on. still it was heap loads of fun. oh and we met kelly abrams and andrea and her boyfriend there too. too bad ken griffey jr wasn't playing.
argh just got interrupted by andy. will continue another time.
right from the morning andy and myself(who volunteered for bus duty) went doen to denver with the kids pretty early. we had less kids on the bus as compared to last week, and the kids' parents came so early to pick them up that we were done before noon. so both of us managed to coax the bus driver to give us a short ride to colorado mills, a huge shopping mall in suburbia denver. its the same one brandie brought me to quite some time ago which had the target and borders stores. anyway i found a shop selling glasses and asked if they sell contact lenses. to my astonishment they don't sell them off the counter(like they do in singapore) but instead require a doctor's prescription for them, it being required by state law! horror of horrors! wah lao what the hell?! they scard terrorists use contact lenses to refract the sun's rays and burn down buildings meh! xianz.. means no contact lenses for me. then no time to make glasses somemore. nao hiah.
oh i also bought the zoolander dvd which i will be sending home...
anyway stephanie and brandie came to pick us up about 2hrs later(i had alot of fun shopping, dunno about andy though) and we drove over to andy's house in denver(the one i stayed in during mini-break. we had quite alot of people. there were the 4 of us, kolby nick kevin tyler jason james and justin.
gist was we got alot of booze and they wanted to get drunk before attending the baseball game between the rockies and the cincinnati reds. kevin justin and tyler had earlier been smoking pot(yup its really easy to get that here) and really looked super high and stoned. still we got enough alcohol to serve a platoon. anyways alot of them drank themselves silly, luckily i was sober after 2 bottles of bud lights on an empty stomach. the funny thing about them being really high is that you can tell that they are damn high and yet they are stil sane enoguh to get on with their normal lives like being hungry and not slurring in speech. the only thing we didn't allow the stoned people to do was drive the cars.
so there we were in coors field, its really magnificent and the atmosphere of being in an actual ball game is trully somewhat overwhelming. the rockies won the game 9-5, though we had more fun talking amongst ourselves and having a great ball of time making a fool of ourselves than concentrate on what's going on. still it was heap loads of fun. oh and we met kelly abrams and andrea and her boyfriend there too. too bad ken griffey jr wasn't playing.
argh just got interrupted by andy. will continue another time.
Friday, August 06, 2004
Session 7: Friday Afternoon Off
so i'm having my 2nd pm off period in as many days. just went for lunch at rudi's deli with erin and carrie. it was somewhat interesting to eat with both of them since just a month ago they were CITs(counsellor-in-training) and we treated them as campers. but they're both really nice and carrie is to'm's(camper from sessions 5 & 6)older sister and they super duper look alike siah! anyway we had abit to talk about. they ask alot about the gossip in camp and what's going on. apparently they think i know alot but always act blur(its true) so they were trying to weed alot of shit outta me. erin was bitching alot about the CIT program and which of the staff she liked and who she absolutely dispised, then she was telling us about herself and brandon having a brief fling and blah. carrie was like the listener most of the time while i constantly chomped on my chicken salad sandwich when i was pretending not to know what she was talking about. haha. damn baguah.
anyhow i had my mandarin and chopsticks appreciation class this morning. it was my biggest class ever with 15 campers in all. i'm glad they all enjoyed it and everyone brought their disposable chopsticks that i gave them to lunch. luckily no one was really good at chopsticks when i organized the chopsticks championships this time round(last week i was trashed by andrea the sushi queen).
last night was dance night. i think it was the most horrible night i've seen in regards to girls and boys getting dumped. i had at least 5 campers coming up to me face full of tears sobbing about how they'd just been dumped by whoever who asked them to the dance prior. i mean wah lao eh its only a dance lor!! but these kids really take it so seriously, especially the girls. if their 'date' dances with another guy, they cry. 'date' goes play sproutball, they cry. 'date' goes toilet, they cry. wah lau. sibeh kua zhang. like their whole life has been ruined liaoz. somehow i don't remember myself ever being in sucha scenario before. still there i was sitting on the picnic benches pretty often with a sobbing camper beside me asking me dumb questions like "why doesn't he like me?" or "why is she so mean?". thankfully i occasionally had andy kolby and brandie(together we called ourselves the heartbreakers club) to listen to those sob stories as well.
my very own cherokee cabin did vespers last night. it was really good. i would think it would've been one of the better cabin vespers yet. our chosen topic was perseverance. dylan and grant spoke of lance armstrong, brodie spoke about james stewart, roby and cary read inspirational quotes that i found for them, ryan told tyler's story about the boy whose father was blind, brent told a fisherman's tale and finally i sang the song 'ming2 tian1 hui4 geng4 hao3'. so that went well.
this is perhaps my closest cabin yet. in terms of togetherness, this cabin is really champion. somemore we could win the cleanest cabin this week*fingers crossed* so thats gonna be quite sweet. last night, in celebration of what a good vespers we did, i did girl devotion with the kids. campers are enamoured by the concept of girl devotions. its devotion whereby campers get to ask any question they want pertaining to the opposite sex. they love it and by golly do they have alot of questions or what. so there i was alone(it was tyler's night off) giving my take and advice on everything from "how do you make a girl like you?" to " what if i like my best friend's girlfriend?". feels like aunt aggie live in person, but then again it was uber fun.
guess thats about it for now. rockies game tomorrow. whoooooooo!!!!!
oh yah i also got my second batch of pix burnt into cd liaoz(thanks james!), too bad i don't have it with me now else i would definitely post them up. anyway time to clean up my messy mailbox and then its back to camp for closing vespers liaoz...sobz, time passes so fast...especially when you're enjoying yourself so much...
anyhow i had my mandarin and chopsticks appreciation class this morning. it was my biggest class ever with 15 campers in all. i'm glad they all enjoyed it and everyone brought their disposable chopsticks that i gave them to lunch. luckily no one was really good at chopsticks when i organized the chopsticks championships this time round(last week i was trashed by andrea the sushi queen).
last night was dance night. i think it was the most horrible night i've seen in regards to girls and boys getting dumped. i had at least 5 campers coming up to me face full of tears sobbing about how they'd just been dumped by whoever who asked them to the dance prior. i mean wah lao eh its only a dance lor!! but these kids really take it so seriously, especially the girls. if their 'date' dances with another guy, they cry. 'date' goes play sproutball, they cry. 'date' goes toilet, they cry. wah lau. sibeh kua zhang. like their whole life has been ruined liaoz. somehow i don't remember myself ever being in sucha scenario before. still there i was sitting on the picnic benches pretty often with a sobbing camper beside me asking me dumb questions like "why doesn't he like me?" or "why is she so mean?". thankfully i occasionally had andy kolby and brandie(together we called ourselves the heartbreakers club) to listen to those sob stories as well.
my very own cherokee cabin did vespers last night. it was really good. i would think it would've been one of the better cabin vespers yet. our chosen topic was perseverance. dylan and grant spoke of lance armstrong, brodie spoke about james stewart, roby and cary read inspirational quotes that i found for them, ryan told tyler's story about the boy whose father was blind, brent told a fisherman's tale and finally i sang the song 'ming2 tian1 hui4 geng4 hao3'. so that went well.
this is perhaps my closest cabin yet. in terms of togetherness, this cabin is really champion. somemore we could win the cleanest cabin this week*fingers crossed* so thats gonna be quite sweet. last night, in celebration of what a good vespers we did, i did girl devotion with the kids. campers are enamoured by the concept of girl devotions. its devotion whereby campers get to ask any question they want pertaining to the opposite sex. they love it and by golly do they have alot of questions or what. so there i was alone(it was tyler's night off) giving my take and advice on everything from "how do you make a girl like you?" to " what if i like my best friend's girlfriend?". feels like aunt aggie live in person, but then again it was uber fun.
guess thats about it for now. rockies game tomorrow. whoooooooo!!!!!
oh yah i also got my second batch of pix burnt into cd liaoz(thanks james!), too bad i don't have it with me now else i would definitely post them up. anyway time to clean up my messy mailbox and then its back to camp for closing vespers liaoz...sobz, time passes so fast...especially when you're enjoying yourself so much...
Thursday, August 05, 2004
Session 7: Beast From the East
so we were playing the all-camp game yesterday and i was bringing my cabin as well as miami cabin around the west village to try and 'capture shamoo and keiko the whale'. thats what the game was all about and it involved alot of running and chasing and catching and dragging(thats essentially the no-brainers that the kids love). so i'm the really nuah counsellor who just wants to walk and only run when we see a whale(other cabins just jog everywhere they go which is dumb). we had already caught 2 whales and were on our way back when suddenly we see k-bizzle(he's keiko) and the kids go into a mad frenzy and start chasing and screaming at him. k--bizzle starts running and he's about to get away and the kids albeit being quite fast(some are real fast), almost but can't catch up to him. so i decide to start running. i sprinted through the forest onto the path and fly past those kids and before you know it k-bizzle is lying on the floor heaving and huffing and he's screaming "argh! i've been defeated by the beast from the east!" and the kids finally catch up, they're surprised by my superman sudden burst of speed(i never had to do that prior to this) and begin chanting "beast from the east! beast from the east!" haha.
now thats was funny. its a really good feeling when the kids are all over you telling how good and how fast you re. and then as we walk back to the swingsets my kids go around showing off to the other kids "my counsellor is the beast from the east!", or "my counsellor flies so fast!". and it really helped that my cabin actually won the all-camp game with a grand total of 3 whales caught! haha. afterthat i whipped out a pack of oreos in the cabin and shared with everyone as part of a 'mini-celebration'. those kids really love me!
to think i actually had bad vibes about them the first day they arrived. now i regret volunteering for bus duty for next week. just cause i wanna meet their parents and tell them what wonderful kids they've got and what great fun we had! haiz...
okie apart from that, i didn't end up touching my hair at all. maybe will do it over this coming weekend. brandie forgot to bring her cutters to camp. boo.
aside from that campout tuesday was just okayish. it wasn't the best nor was it hte worst. chris b shared with us about his family. his dad's first wife was mugged and shot in the head, his mom who's his dad's second wife divorced his dad a few years ago and he was facing the greatest pits of his life until he found solace in the Y. good for him i can see that he really is a happier person that the one he spoke of during hte campfire. my heart erally goes out to him and i'm grateful he shared all that with us. i guess sometimes you really cannot tell a person's past one bit from the outlook they portray now. then again props to him for recovering so well. ah yes the wonders of faith.
aside from that zaq spoke of his dad and the life he led. its so so so interesting that we all thought he was making it up! haha. it almost sounded like it were off the book big fish where his dad was edward bloom! haha. still it was a hilarious tale of his dad's life and it seemed like something i wanted to lead haha.
thats about it. really looking forward to this coming weekend. there're 15 of us who're going to the colorado rockies game against cincinnati. everyone seems really excited about the game cause they all wanna watch ken griffey jr play in his last season. i'm just pumped to go for a major league baseball game. haha. afterthat we're going to andy's house in denver to party for the night! woohoo!!
next week's gonna be my last week as a cabin counsellor for kids. summer camp will end afterthat. that's followed by a short girl scouts camp and an active older adults camp in camp cheif ouray before i'm done with my time here. these are exciting times and i'm really excited. i think i'll be very sad that everything's coming to an end next week and so many staff will leave. just hope it will be as good a week as the last few. got tom's pm activity off too. woohoo!!!
now thats was funny. its a really good feeling when the kids are all over you telling how good and how fast you re. and then as we walk back to the swingsets my kids go around showing off to the other kids "my counsellor is the beast from the east!", or "my counsellor flies so fast!". and it really helped that my cabin actually won the all-camp game with a grand total of 3 whales caught! haha. afterthat i whipped out a pack of oreos in the cabin and shared with everyone as part of a 'mini-celebration'. those kids really love me!
to think i actually had bad vibes about them the first day they arrived. now i regret volunteering for bus duty for next week. just cause i wanna meet their parents and tell them what wonderful kids they've got and what great fun we had! haiz...
okie apart from that, i didn't end up touching my hair at all. maybe will do it over this coming weekend. brandie forgot to bring her cutters to camp. boo.
aside from that campout tuesday was just okayish. it wasn't the best nor was it hte worst. chris b shared with us about his family. his dad's first wife was mugged and shot in the head, his mom who's his dad's second wife divorced his dad a few years ago and he was facing the greatest pits of his life until he found solace in the Y. good for him i can see that he really is a happier person that the one he spoke of during hte campfire. my heart erally goes out to him and i'm grateful he shared all that with us. i guess sometimes you really cannot tell a person's past one bit from the outlook they portray now. then again props to him for recovering so well. ah yes the wonders of faith.
aside from that zaq spoke of his dad and the life he led. its so so so interesting that we all thought he was making it up! haha. it almost sounded like it were off the book big fish where his dad was edward bloom! haha. still it was a hilarious tale of his dad's life and it seemed like something i wanted to lead haha.
thats about it. really looking forward to this coming weekend. there're 15 of us who're going to the colorado rockies game against cincinnati. everyone seems really excited about the game cause they all wanna watch ken griffey jr play in his last season. i'm just pumped to go for a major league baseball game. haha. afterthat we're going to andy's house in denver to party for the night! woohoo!!
next week's gonna be my last week as a cabin counsellor for kids. summer camp will end afterthat. that's followed by a short girl scouts camp and an active older adults camp in camp cheif ouray before i'm done with my time here. these are exciting times and i'm really excited. i think i'll be very sad that everything's coming to an end next week and so many staff will leave. just hope it will be as good a week as the last few. got tom's pm activity off too. woohoo!!!
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
Session 7: Through Broken Glasses
boo hoo. i broke my lovely glasses. happened while i was playing sproutball(its a really fun game that requires abit of explanation - abit like dodgeball) anyway this kid ran his knee into my face while i was sitting down(you really need to know the game to imagine this). so yeah. luckily i wasn't really hurt except for a slightly bruised eye and i had brought my spare lousy plastic nerdy glasses along! hooray! i look nerdy, but otherwise i'd be handicapped without it.
okie so this week i've got an okayish cabin so far(its only monday, god knows what théy've got up their sleeves), its been pretty nice. this morning without myself or tyler getting out of bed htey actually cleaned the whole cabin themselves. which was awesome.
i missed hayday because i overslept. haha.
my kids are sproutball fanatics in camp. they've been playing together since yesterday when they arrived and even today during the morning period and cabin activity time. i think its great because it somehow bonds the cabin together and i can tell from experience that the kids fight less when they play something together as a cabin. so there. sproutball champs we are. just like in week 5.
think thats all i can update for a monday night off. its my first ever, and its lousy because it means that i don't have wednesday or thursday off. though i get thursday morning and friday afternoon off this week too.
oh and i got invited to play in the snow mountain ranch international tourney, which is a small soccer tournement organised for the staff. the staff play in groups of continents from which they come from(cos there's such a large amount of international staff here). so apparently someone from smr reccommended me(i happen to be the only one from cco who got the callup) to represent asia in the tournement. but the sad news is that its held tomorrow which is campout night. so i can't go. boo. what a bummer.
okie thats all for now.
okie so this week i've got an okayish cabin so far(its only monday, god knows what théy've got up their sleeves), its been pretty nice. this morning without myself or tyler getting out of bed htey actually cleaned the whole cabin themselves. which was awesome.
i missed hayday because i overslept. haha.
my kids are sproutball fanatics in camp. they've been playing together since yesterday when they arrived and even today during the morning period and cabin activity time. i think its great because it somehow bonds the cabin together and i can tell from experience that the kids fight less when they play something together as a cabin. so there. sproutball champs we are. just like in week 5.
think thats all i can update for a monday night off. its my first ever, and its lousy because it means that i don't have wednesday or thursday off. though i get thursday morning and friday afternoon off this week too.
oh and i got invited to play in the snow mountain ranch international tourney, which is a small soccer tournement organised for the staff. the staff play in groups of continents from which they come from(cos there's such a large amount of international staff here). so apparently someone from smr reccommended me(i happen to be the only one from cco who got the callup) to represent asia in the tournement. but the sad news is that its held tomorrow which is campout night. so i can't go. boo. what a bummer.
okie thats all for now.
Sunday, August 01, 2004
Alli 'Oop
this weekend was definitely one to remember. alli and travis invited me and deseray to go downtown denver shoppping with them. it was so so so fun.
for starters deseray and i volunteered for the saturday bus ride yesterday, its where we have to accompany the bus of campers whose parents are too lazy to fetch them from camp and just wanna pick them up from denver. its a really good deal(i dunno why more staff don't volunteer for it), because on a normal saturday we get to leave camp early(meaning we don't have to wait till noon by the swingsets till all the kids have gone) and we get a nice ride to town(change of scenary is always a good thing) and we get an extra morning off during the next work week!. wah so good hor?
so deseray and i went for the bus ride. the kids' parents came pretty early and we got rid of those kids by 12noon. which meant that we had another 2hrs to wait till travis and alli reach to pick us up. funnily enough we found ourselves wanting to suntan in the baking hot denver sun. so there we both were lying in the middle of an open field(they're everywhere) and reading our books and listening to music. funny how enjoyable is really was more than it sounds.
so travis and alli came around 2+ smelling really good(having had time to take a bath in camp), while deseray and i smelled like horse crap, and we went over to alli's house. lemme state here first that if anyone thought andy brown's was bloody rich, alli's family was super uber rich man. no kidding. her house was not only bigger and more impressive but it was also located in this district in suburbia denver that has this superior air of money smell. aiyah can't describe further lah but its damn fucking rich lah. so anyway we get to stay at her place for the night.
funny point to note is that she has a guest bedroom(which looks splendid) and the basement(which i don't mind) and she suggested both can sleep two people. alli asks who wants where. travis says he "wants to sleep with me in the bedroom". i almost freak out(if you've read my blog enough you know which way he sways) and suggests that deseray should get the nice warm bed instead. travis sulks. we sleep separate in the basement that night. bozo 1, travis 0.
okie besides that we went to castle rock outlet arcade. its this huge mega shopping area where they sell overstocked items of alot of famous brands. travis deseray and myself have a ball of a time shopping. i spend us$90 in all
(don't ask what i bought) which was the least amongst us three and we had to settle for mcdonald's for dinner.
at night we went down to colfax(yah that same shady place) where travis wanted to get his first-ever ear piercings while alli gets a tattoo on her lower back just above her bum. we all hang around to "be there for her" never knew it'd be so painful(i think she's a strong girl). but anyway piercings and tattoos are so much more expensive here than in singapore. i think if i want a tattoo i will come back then only get one.
by the time we got back to alli's place. wait, alli's parents are really very very nice!!! so when we got back her mom had prepared the shower for us and beds and all that *altogether now* awwwwww....so sweet!!! had the best shower in a long time. travis sleeps on floor, i sleep on couch.
the past week has been pretty good. thankfully apart from the harrowing early week experiences, the week has been steadily improving. this is the week when i've actually had a cabin become so close to another cabin(miami) and i really adore the little girls there too. my kids were great espec the stayover conner cooper and tom. they all love me alot. cooper gave me all his candy that he's left behind(thats 3 showboxes worth of sugar) while conner gave me his bubba shrimp mini soft-toy which i always say its damn bloody cute!!! haha.
aside from that dance night was pretty memorable for me only because they played 80s cheong music that night!!! yay. really miss the clubbing days back home.
sang 'tian hei hei' by sun yan zi during closing vespers. the kids really loved it(they always come up to tell me so) and hans gave out the wishsticks. he cried while doing so because he was leaving the next morning. really sad that he had to leave, wished we had more time together. he brought the concept of hooray for pig into my life and i will never forget that. goodbye dear friend.
learnt that travis lost his virginity at the tender age of 14. wonder if it was to a boy or girl?
so anyway i've gotta go collect my laundry now and we're gonna start session 7 soon, its amazing how time flies over here. i'm staying in cherokee cabin and tyler will be my co again(yay!). my apologies for all of you whose emails i haven't yet replied, will reply them asap during my next morning off. and to those who helped entertain/distract/gossip with/update me just now thanks a whole bunch!
for starters deseray and i volunteered for the saturday bus ride yesterday, its where we have to accompany the bus of campers whose parents are too lazy to fetch them from camp and just wanna pick them up from denver. its a really good deal(i dunno why more staff don't volunteer for it), because on a normal saturday we get to leave camp early(meaning we don't have to wait till noon by the swingsets till all the kids have gone) and we get a nice ride to town(change of scenary is always a good thing) and we get an extra morning off during the next work week!. wah so good hor?
so deseray and i went for the bus ride. the kids' parents came pretty early and we got rid of those kids by 12noon. which meant that we had another 2hrs to wait till travis and alli reach to pick us up. funnily enough we found ourselves wanting to suntan in the baking hot denver sun. so there we both were lying in the middle of an open field(they're everywhere) and reading our books and listening to music. funny how enjoyable is really was more than it sounds.
so travis and alli came around 2+ smelling really good(having had time to take a bath in camp), while deseray and i smelled like horse crap, and we went over to alli's house. lemme state here first that if anyone thought andy brown's was bloody rich, alli's family was super uber rich man. no kidding. her house was not only bigger and more impressive but it was also located in this district in suburbia denver that has this superior air of money smell. aiyah can't describe further lah but its damn fucking rich lah. so anyway we get to stay at her place for the night.
funny point to note is that she has a guest bedroom(which looks splendid) and the basement(which i don't mind) and she suggested both can sleep two people. alli asks who wants where. travis says he "wants to sleep with me in the bedroom". i almost freak out(if you've read my blog enough you know which way he sways) and suggests that deseray should get the nice warm bed instead. travis sulks. we sleep separate in the basement that night. bozo 1, travis 0.
okie besides that we went to castle rock outlet arcade. its this huge mega shopping area where they sell overstocked items of alot of famous brands. travis deseray and myself have a ball of a time shopping. i spend us$90 in all
(don't ask what i bought) which was the least amongst us three and we had to settle for mcdonald's for dinner.
at night we went down to colfax(yah that same shady place) where travis wanted to get his first-ever ear piercings while alli gets a tattoo on her lower back just above her bum. we all hang around to "be there for her" never knew it'd be so painful(i think she's a strong girl). but anyway piercings and tattoos are so much more expensive here than in singapore. i think if i want a tattoo i will come back then only get one.
by the time we got back to alli's place. wait, alli's parents are really very very nice!!! so when we got back her mom had prepared the shower for us and beds and all that *altogether now* awwwwww....so sweet!!! had the best shower in a long time. travis sleeps on floor, i sleep on couch.
the past week has been pretty good. thankfully apart from the harrowing early week experiences, the week has been steadily improving. this is the week when i've actually had a cabin become so close to another cabin(miami) and i really adore the little girls there too. my kids were great espec the stayover conner cooper and tom. they all love me alot. cooper gave me all his candy that he's left behind(thats 3 showboxes worth of sugar) while conner gave me his bubba shrimp mini soft-toy which i always say its damn bloody cute!!! haha.
aside from that dance night was pretty memorable for me only because they played 80s cheong music that night!!! yay. really miss the clubbing days back home.
sang 'tian hei hei' by sun yan zi during closing vespers. the kids really loved it(they always come up to tell me so) and hans gave out the wishsticks. he cried while doing so because he was leaving the next morning. really sad that he had to leave, wished we had more time together. he brought the concept of hooray for pig into my life and i will never forget that. goodbye dear friend.
learnt that travis lost his virginity at the tender age of 14. wonder if it was to a boy or girl?
so anyway i've gotta go collect my laundry now and we're gonna start session 7 soon, its amazing how time flies over here. i'm staying in cherokee cabin and tyler will be my co again(yay!). my apologies for all of you whose emails i haven't yet replied, will reply them asap during my next morning off. and to those who helped entertain/distract/gossip with/update me just now thanks a whole bunch!