*breathes in*
This is gonna be a really really long post, considering how I haven’t updated for like 2 weeks, it’s time to make up for it I guess. These two weeks sure passed darn slowly for me, considering how I had SO many things to do. I guess these 2 weeks have been the the most “action packed” week in my life. 
Spent the first week of June holis at NTU, from Tuesday to Friday for CLIC (connecting leaders in camp) camp To sum up all that happened in the 4 days 3 nights: It was a blast 
In retrospect, boarding the bus to get to NTU seems ages ago. All I remember is that we played some lame/time-wasting “ice-breaker games” when we first got there, and even after that I still didn’t know everyone in Excelerate. Then we had to sit down and discuss “group goals” (ie. what we wanted to learn from the camp) and I was almost dreading the rest of the camp from that moment on, considering how low everyone was and how boring it was getting. Boy oh boy was I wrong.
Played some random games ala orientation games, from which they SOMEHOW managed to make you learn some life lesson from, most of which have absolutely no link. Then there was quite alot of slack around time, did some personality test thing, and apparently I’m a super last minute person, ie. INTP (which is obviously entirely true). We were in good hands throughout, owing to the fact that Calvin was our Faci Not to mention the great “Night Cluedo” game the Facis organised on the second night, we were THIS close to solving the “murder” mystery, second place aint too bad. Played around with TONS of balloons on the third day, and managed to build our EXCELmobile, which could fit all 11 of us. So we took it around the MPH for a spin with Calvin at the steering wheel. On the third night came Bash Night, ie. some kinda prom night, in a hall, with wooden tables and plastic chairs ala kopitiam ones. It was kinda boring, everyone’s skits weren’t really good, EXCEPT THE FACI’S ITEM! Downright hilarious I tell you… The highlight of the night was probably mass dance for me totally wasn’t expecting it, and ended up soaking my shirt through and through from mass dancing.
Things completely changed on the last day though. A REALLY boring 2 hour long talk on imaging, ie. how to dress properly. But nobody really cared because she just got too darn boring. It’s amazing how she could sustain for so long without taking a break, even when next to no one was listening to her. Then had a leadership forum, which while interesting and intriguing, wasn’t of much use either. After that came the highlight of the day, closing ceremony. I have to say, the trainer was a really really good speaker, till the point where she could set the mood just right, with the lights off, and emo music playng, a few started tearing while she told her emo story. Gathering into our separate groups later, the mood only got even worse, with facis talking individually to their group members. Everyone started crying, even the guys. Only then did I realise how much I went through in those 4 days, so much so that it’s impossible for one blog post to encompass it all.
I’ve had great fun with the rest of Excelerate, and I sure am glad I’m in this group. I’m never gonna forget CLIC ‘08 thanks to them
*clap* X-L Erate!
————————————————————————
I just got back from SMUN ‘08 this afternoon (or rather yesterday afternoon seeing as how it’s 3am right now), and the first thing I had to do was to crash and sleep for 4 whole hours to catch up on the zZzs.
The entire organisation of SMUN ‘08 was… disappointing… to say the least. The topics (for my council at least, GA) weren’t very well thought out, though the study guide was really thorough. Unfortunately, the moderators were pretty unprofessional and weren’t even familiar with the format of their own MUN. Everything about SMUN feels like it was put together at the eleventh hour, without much thought or effort put into it.
Even the social events were kind of a let down, honestly, going to Cineleisure to watch NARNIA (of all things) on the first night was hardly entertaining, the trip to the Loof got cancelled on the second night, and we ended up with a lame “ice-cream party” that pretty much resulted in us sitting around talking cock, while the prom thingum on the third night was a real let down, with what has got to be the crappiest spaghetti I’ve ever tasted for dinner. In contrast, the food I had at CLIC was loads better, and that was a CAMP for crying out loud, and I can still praise the food I was served. Thankfully they didn’t serve us food most of the time, so I ended up eating subway quite a bit, thanks to the others.
Still, I had loads of fun outside of the conference and it’s scheduled stuff, in fact I probably had the most fun after “Lights Out”, hanging out with others. Played bridge and hung out in leong yan’s room till like 4+ in the morn on the 2nd night, and in between chatting sessions I only got a few hours of sleep, but it was well worth it As for the third night, after the seriously lack luster “social night” event thingy, lavania, lee jing, ben and me decided to try and find the nearest 7 eleven at NUH. We ended up taking one of the loop bus services from PGP, all the way from PGP back to PGP again, then finally walked from there to NUH, losing our way on several occasions, but eventually reaching our destination. Then it was the long walk back all the way to PGP again, but it was bloody fun throughout obviously Hung out in lee jing’s room this time with a hell lotta other GA ppl. Once again slept at around 4+ this time
I was just falling asleep in the closing ceremony on the last day (though the morocco video was absolutely brilliant :)) no idea how he got best delegate though, not saying that I (syria) deserved it, seeing as how I just sit back and let others bicker it out before slotting my name in a draft resolution, and most of my speeches were made just to kill time while waiting for the bloody resos to get printed, either that or I disagreed with people for the sake of rebutting. Though I gotta admit, I’ve lost a lot of the feel for debates-style speeches, that happens when your last competitve match was last year april 27th (i still cant forget that date), your brain becomes half dead after mugging for O’s and your speeches while sparring juniors all sucked.
Everything would have been much more fun if not for the downright a-n-a-l moderators. They obviously didn’t do their homework in my opinion, and one of them had trouble reading out a 3 page resolution. In comparison, RMUN was loads better (some ppl are getting irritated by how often i raise this fact). To think that RMUN was organised by J1s/J2s but yet they could do a much better job than these NUS freshmen. By the end of RMUN i made at least 10+ new friends and knew almost all the delegates in my council by face at least, at the end of SMUN, I probably couldnt even tell you if someone had been in my council or not.
The saving grace of SMUN was probably the fact that we got to stay over. If it had been run the RMUN way (ie. committee sessions and nothing else, except for the last night), I’d probably come out of it not knowing a single new person, and would have completely hated the experience. Still, it’s fun to make speeches again, though I still seriously can’t stand using a mic, and I wish I had a table in front of me, with a book on top of it
Guess I’ll still be going back next year, crashing other’s rooms and hanging out is simply too fun… Maybe sometimes ppl should crash mine so that I won’t have to move around so much.
Here’s to hoping SMUN ‘09 will be better than SMUN ‘08.
*does the morocco dance*
*breathes out*
Posted at the 95th hour
click here to view feed
I’ve said this once, and I’ll say it a million more times, i am sooooo screwed for mid years… I just can’t get into the mugging mood, completely lost it after O level mugging period last year.
