the BTT
2006-03-19 2:30 p.m.
well. i didnt get sunburnt, nor tanned very much. which is good news, i suppose, because its better than what i expected. but it also means that the camp wasnt as fun as i expected either. in fact it was actually quite tame. not half the student population was severely sun-affected.
the first day was COMPLETELY boring. no activities at all, just some team-building things. then on the second day we had ALL the activities squeezed together, not a good decision at all.
i tried 2 of the high elements things which were challenging but not really very scary. knowing that you're heavily belayed takes the fear out of being in high places.
the campfire was interesting enough, but very painful. we had to sit on the hard floor for 2 hours, after already having sat on hard floors the majority of 2 days. and whilst i was enduring the discomfort, the peppy trainers were still hopping about doing dumb cheers, delaying the time when we get off our sore butts. in fact they did quite a lot of this ignoring-of-students'-misery throughout the whole camp.
the toilets were completely measly, but the trainers disregarded it. knowing that there were only 3 showerheads situated in stalls that didnt have locks and hundreds of students trying to get showered, they still gave a half-hour time limit. in the end they even forced ppl to shower in twos or threes, which was very gross. and even AFTER the students obliged, they stood outside and forced ppl out if they were in for more than five minutes.
the whole experience sort of felt like being in a colorful prison. we even had to do a cheer before getting any food, and were only allowed to eat if the cheer was loud enough. which basically translated to this: if the trainers were happy, we got to eat. if they werent, we didnt.
so blahblahblah we made it to the end of the camp. just before leaving we were made to sit in the hot sun while person after person made rambling speeches, which was all well and good but they could at least have tried to speed things up, or just cut to the chase without trying to elicit a cheer from the audience with every 2 words.
the only things i learnt from this camp is that the novelty of cheering wears off if the people in question are made to cheer every five minutes. what valuable insight.
