End of Summer 08

Waking up to the Jonas Brother's posters (they belong to my sis btw) on the wall tells me I'm home and that Summer Camp 08 has officially come to an end.

This also means that some of my foreign campers like Andrew, Poon and Thoei have already reached Penang and Thailand. The act of adding me onto their msn contact makes me relieved as it means that they're back home safely =)

Officially having Post-Summer-Camp BLUES...

Summer Camp 08 was a blessing from God.

Jeff called me a couple of weeks ago asking me if I was available to be one of the coaches for Summer Camp 08 and I gladly took it up. Missed the one last year because of CAC camp and I told myself that I wasn't gonna give it another miss.

I don't know why but this is the first camp (out of the millions of camps that I have done) that has left me with BLUES... The is also the first camp that made me tear because I was going to miss all the campers that I met during the past one week.

I was in charge of Group 6.

Nearly the BEST and MOST DISCIPLINED group in the camp.

There was never a time when I had to raise my voice to instruct them.

They always had the initiative to do things which really touched my heart.

Both the foreign kids and the locals were really angels.

I remembered Day 1 when they were still strangers to each other, where there were language barriers and thus kept hanging around with the campers from their own countries.

It was total transformation within the next 2 days because they were seen teasing each other and assisting each other in the activities that were being carried out. It really warmed my heart to see them mingling so well with each other =)

Day 1 was spent in Nanhua High with the opening ceremony bla bla bla...

The highlight of the day was the Songs of the Sea at Sentosa! woots!!

The kids had total fun snapping pictures and it was the first time I got the Thai kids to say GOOD. haha.. cute.

Day 2 was a tour around Singapore on the Hippo Bus and we stopped by places like Little India, Kampong Glam, Chinatown and Botanic Gardens where the campers were able to have some first hand experience of the local cultures in Singapore. They did Malay dances, tried the Indian sweets and visited temples here and there.

They were given 4 hours of free time to shop around Orchard in the evening and I'm sure they had a blast!!! You should have seen how awake they were when we arrived at Orchard Road despite them dozing off soundly in the bus. Lol.

Day 3 - we brought the kids to the HDB HUB for them to view the showroom flats, ranging from 2-room to 5-room flats. Don't know if it impacted them but at least they had a feel of the local housing that was very much representative of Singapore.

This was followed by DRAGON BOAT at KALLNG!!! woots!!

Everyone was so totally looking forward to this. I don't know why but CAMPERS ALWAYS LOVE THE WATER!! haha...

Group 6 came in SECOND in our team race! yay!!!

Although everyone CONKED out on the bus on our way back to Sheares, they were still on a high on our way to Lau Pa Sat for dinner!! woots! Every camper was given $7 for dinner. We bought 1001 types of food for our foreign friends and I could see that they had a great feast tasting all the local delicacies. Everyone ended up cam whoring in the middle of LPS. Lol.. it was hilarious because the coaches were like some SUPERSTARS... haha.. everyone wanted to take photos with us. Lol...


Day 4 was spent in school doing mass dance and Batik Painting. =)

But the highlight had to be the campfire!! woots!!
The kids definitely had a great time that night especially with the 'clubbing' part of the campfire where songs were just being played for everyone to dance to.
haha.. the coaches all came to a conclusion that these kids are all pontential clubbers. Lol...
We had a great time dancing too!! =)


The Closing Ceremony on Day 5 was filled with tears.
It all started when the coaches taught them the friendship song and invitied the Thai kids to come on stage to perform because they had to leave early for their bus ride back to Thailand.

Everyone started crying. Even the MACHO BOYS who were trying to be cool in the camp. Haha.

Everyone was made to walk around the auditorium shaking hands with everyone.

Hugs were exchanged and the kids were crying like mad because we really had no idea when we were able to see our foreign friends again. It was THAT SAD.

eddy, poon (thailand), jeannie (hk), lin fang, chun meng (china), hsieh hui, joie, shermaine, jianjie.
xinghui, rit from thailand, this girl from hk (sorry i dont know your name) and andrew from penang

With the boys from Thailand.

For the first time, I saw Poon sad. The teary-eyed Poon.

Poon's the darling of Group 6.

He's only 12, CUTE and TOTALLY PINCH-ABLE.

Seeing him tear made all of us cry as well.

Summer Camp 08 came to an end even before we knew it.

Sent the foreign kids off on their bus and I couldn't hold back my tears.

Group 6 has got this special place in my heart.

From the cutest boy to almost the most handsome boy in the camp, all of us really had a great time and were sad to leave.

It's okay kids, we'll still keep in contact ya?

There's always msn!!

To: William, Cindy, Chun Meng, Andrew, Jeannie, Poon, Thoei, XingHui, Lin Fang, Joie, Jianjie, Shermaine, Gibson, Yan Ru, Eddy and Hsieh Hui...

It was really a pleasure and a blessing to have met all of you.

Do remember Summer Camp 08 and I am very sure we will be able to meet each other some day!! =)

Remember to study hard and be a good kid ya?

Take care and REMEMBER GROUP 6!!!

Love.

(ya ppl, you and your ways of googling for my blog ah... scary man... instead of sleeping, u guys went to hunt my blog down, spammed my tag board and found a coach look-alike... haiyo! but dont worry, i still love all of you!)