Year 12 Retreat

Year 12 Retreat was amazing. I wasn't as excited as other people but I am really glad that I ended up going because it was such an awesome experience. Some of the things I will probably never do again and I am really glad that I got to experience it with my grade. I think it has made our grade much more closer and has changed our mindset and attitude towards final exams and life. Year 12 Retreat was a 3 days 2 nights camp from Wednesday August 15 to Friday August 17.

Day 1 - Wednesday: 

Arrived at school at 8. So much earlier that expected I could have slept some more! Sat in the best seat on the bus, the seat didn't have a seat belt buckle frame but then after I did something to it, there was literally nothing there.... It kinda just all fell apart. LOL. #YOLO.

Our goal list or something like that, I don't think we achieved a lot. LOL After making this list, we were told to go outside, and since we were like slow by like a minute or something we had to do 40 pushups. Seriously, how stupid could that person get. It is not like the world was going to blow up or something, we just took our time from walking from one place to another. Take a chill pill. Making us do pushups would be the same as giving those instructor people an English Paper 2 to do. I must say that guy was like pmsing a lot, he got mad at us because people didn't sit down. I'm sorry, why didn't you tell us to sit down instead? I mean you have a voice...

Deer and Emu at Emu Gully! They also had some chickens/ Lunch on first day + Fruit Cup, which tasted horrible and it is fruit. How do you even screw up fruit. 

We played this gamed called No Man's Land, it was a tag game where there were human bullets, and if people got touched by them, four people became medics and had to carry a limb each and move them to a 'hospital'. It was fun, but unnecessary movement after 40 pushups.

Got split up into our 5 companies: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta and Echo. I got placed in Bravo!  We then split into our companies and we did this hoop activity where everyone had to go through a hoop as quickly as possible. We managed to get from 51 seconds to 23 seconds with 26 people. 

Our next activity was called 'Escape from Colditz'. Since Emu Gully is army themed, the activities that we had to do were like a simple replication of what actually happened and had a story behind it. This particular story was quite sad, because nobody knew who that Australian Soldier was and he saved so many people from Colditz :( 

For this activity we had to enter that little box into a tunnel and then you have to boost yourself up to crawl the thing, and to make it harder, when the lids are closed on both ends it is pitch black. Because I was so smart and forgot what everyone else had said, I just smashed my face into the first obstacle pipe thing and then while going down that slide thing at the end, I just went head first down it and thought I was going to end up in a hole in the group but then like 2 seconds later, Nathan was pulling me out of the thing. I was like so confused at what was happening. Phil was brave to go down first and then tell us about what to expect, and then he volunteered to be the human booster. 

The log activity was next and I am pretty sure no one could have a bad attempt at it than me. I just got on the log, stayed in the same spot for like 30 seconds then fell off. LOL. But 5 people got across it on the first go! After the lady told us about how negative influence and stuff, it was just a matter of self belief and determination that lead everyone to successfully cross it at least once. Bravo was one of the last companies to return, so we missed out on having a shower before dinner, instead we had to skip dessert in order to have a shower :(  

 Dinner on the first night, wasn't too happy with it because I hate nachos. I would have preferred the vegetarian option they got lasagne! / Apple Crumble which I missed out on because I went to have a shower :(

Photo from dinner!

After dinner we had Night Activities. We heard the Warm Fuzzy story, and then we started writing warm fuzzies for people. Thank you to everyone who wrote me one :3 and I'm sorry if I didn't write you one!

  Afterward we did some activity which involved looking at pictures on the floor ... but then we started to get these letters from our parents. Pretty sure my brother wrote mine, because my parents wouldn't write something like that so I guess I wasn't that affected like some people were. Then we went to bed. I was in the same cabin as Darron, Luther, Ben, David, Jayden, Ronny, and Roman. Holey crap, seriously the funniest people ever. Really happy that my group (minus a people who got separated) combined with them, weirdest and funniest things happened. We got told by so many teachers to shut up and sleep.

Day 2 - Thursday: 

Woke up wayyy tooo early, thinking it already 6 but it was really 3am! Went back to sleep and when I woke up, it was already time for breakfast. Was really happy with the breakfast, so much better than dinner! We had baked beans, eggs, bacon and toast, there was also cereal available. We got told some more stories and they were very inspirational. Our first activity of the day was Bridge over the River Kwai. I don't know how to describe it, so here is a picture of it.

But this picture does not show how freaking high or shaky it was when you actually went up there. I paired up with Shruti and like had like 10 heart attacks, but thankfully we didn't fall! Yeahh! Liang was so funny, he was finding it hard to balance, so he decided to push Wilbur into the water in attempt to balance. Next we did the Western Front before going to the Vietnam Tunnel Rats activity. Western Front to me was a bit boring, and the Vietnamese Tunnel thing was just brutal. The guy was like you will be able to see there are holes for the sunlight. Dude, if you were in there, you would know you can't even see because its freaking pitch black, the holes for sunlight did nothing. 

Lunch was super good. It had my tick of approval. I must say, their breakfasts and lunches were really good. They just suck at dinner. After lunch was time for the Kokoda Trail. Quite possibly the grossest thing I have ever done, but I would do it all again. It was so much fun and it was free skin treatment. There were 5 mud pits, and each got harder and harder to pass through. I think it was the third pit that had the wall which you had to climb up! Thankfully Alpha and Charlie were able to help us up! I must thank Dr Lawrence for taking so many flattering photos of me during the mud pit. How embarrassing....

 Yes I know, I look very attractive.

 I hope you can see how thick the mud is!

Bravo Group Photo! Yayyy. Best company ever! During the fourth mud pit, I started putting mud on my face because I couldn't think of anything better to do, and besides its getting my moneys worth of mud. Also during that time, I forgot who but someone said they had a wedgie and then Angel was like I'll help you pick it or something like that. ahaha. Since we were the second group to finish and the hot water was not turned on yet, we raced to the dam. I jumped off the highest platform, it was the best feeling ever. Even thought I thought I was like drowning and suffocating for like 5 seconds. Dr Lawrence jumped off the highest platform so many times.

 Dinner was fail curry chicken rice. Don't even know what it tasted like, but the chicken drumstick that we all had, did not taste like a chicken. Dessert was very nice - Banana Cake and Custard :'). 

After dinner was the 'Night Walk'. When they said 'Night Walk' I literally thought we were going for a walk in the dark, and maybe look at stars and then sit down and have a group chat. But instead, it was like a suicide mission. I'm sorry Emu Gully, but I'm pretty sure I didn't pay to nearly die several times. We had to carry a stretcher with an "injured" person with at least 6 people always holding it at any one time. At first it was okay, we were just walking along the field and them BAM we have to go down a slide, which I'm pretty sure the Emu Gully people made (Workplace Health and Safety....), and it was like from the top to the bottom of a cliff. Pretty sure, I was going to fly off the slide there was nothing going to keep you on the slide, so essentially, it was an a normal slide that little children play one, except 1000 times worse. Did I say that we had to get the stretcher with the person on it down as well? Seriously, what the fukushima. It was not even team building... it was just saving each other from dying. 

Rest of the night, was going up and down hills in the freaking night, with no harnesses all we could use was each others body. Since I was wearing converses, because I thought it was a 'Night Walk', my shoes had no grip so I was like sliding down uncontrollably and slammed into so many people, but at the same time so was everyone else, so we were all saving each other from dying. Ms Fenwick had to save me about like 5 times going up a hill, but then the fifth time, I just slammed into her face first.... awkward moment.

There was this hill that we had to go up, and our instructor person told us there was a cactus in the middle of it. I was going up the hill, and then I needed something to hold on to. First thing I reach for was the cactus without realising and I was like to myself, 'Thank goodness I didn't grab onto the cactus'. Good job Samuel. 

Rest of the night was just going over rivers, over a wall made out of logs, going through a maze TWICE because we didn't do it good enough the first time. I didn't want to do it again, because we had to crawl along the ground. 

After the end of the 'Night Walk' we sat down on the logs and just had a talk about our experiences at camp. Walking back to the campsite, took fifty billion years. We passed horses, and according to Shruti, we passed the Ku Klux Klan but it was just white bedsheets... LOL. Drank milo and ate choc chip cookies before going to sleep, but once again my cabin was crazy and we didn't sleep till really late, even though we were all exhausted from the Kokoda Trail and the Night Walk. My battle scars on my legs increase by like 500% after the Night Walk, got so many more cuts, because I wasn't even dressed for climbing up and down hills. 

 Day 3 - Friday: 

Once again, I woke up just before breakfast. I think breakfast was the same as the previous days. We had to clean everything, including the toilet and showers. It was really good to see like the entire cohort working together to get the job done :) Afterwards, we got time to write more warm fuzzies and then we watched a presentation about World War 1? I really like the War theme at Emu Gully, its so inspiring. Also got this book as our Grade 12 Scrapbook, its such a good idea except it would be better if we started in the beginning of the year =/

 

 The Liang Pose. haha. No event is complete with a Liang photo.

We then had a flour bomb fight, where we were supposed to throw the bombs into the opponent's goal place. Pretty sure most of us were preoccupied with attacking each other with flour. It was really intense and fun - a good way to end of camp :')

After the flour bomb fight, we collected our warm fuzzies and then went on the bus back home. I read the warm fuzzies on the bus, and felt so warm and fuzzy. Yeah I know its cheesy, but thats the point of a warm fuzzy. 

Warm Fuzzies / Orange that we had to peel ourselves for morning tea.

 

Seniors 2012!

Grade 12 was seriously the best experience ever. It has brought everyone in the grade so much closer, changed our mindsets about life and IB and has taught us so many things. I am really, really glad that I ended up going because honestly, I dont think I'm going to grab onto a cactus anytime soon. To anyone that goes to QASMT, go to Year 12 Retreat because it will be one of the highlights of your school life. You will not regret it at all! 

Well this post has taken me about a month to write up. I'll update about other stuff soon once Mocks are over! Only Mandarin and Biology to go!

Have a lovely weekend!