second round of BTN

DAY 1:

we checked in, found our beds.. i slept with fiona on the top bunk once again, and the toilet was as bad as ever. we had dinner, then had some briefing, chose the committees, and the allocation of groups. i was so lucky i changed seats, so that it was poor soo fen who kena the timbalan penghulunita.;p there was only one person from the royal military school, so the poor guy became the timbalan penghulu in charge of perbarisan. the penghulu was chosen because he 'paling sihat'. our first group meeting was over supper, which was quite weird, since we didn't know each other at all. good thing hui yen, huey wen and nicholas was in the same group as me. i'm not alone!=]



DAY 2:

we had a whole string of ceramahs lined up throughout the day. the first penceramah was very funny. he looked so young, but when he opened his mouth.. his voice was surprisingly booming. and he wondered why everyone always 'senyum kambing' at the start of his speech.;p the 2nd and 3rd penceramahs were normal and boring. the 4th... i totally dislike him.. rude.. bias.. and with a warped and inflated mentality. in the evening, we had to berbaris under the hot sun before doing some physical tests to find out our body's age.. mine? haha.. secret!



DAY 3:

early in the morning, we had to run 2km within 18minutes (guys) or 24 minutes (girls). damn tiring. after that, we had LDKs all day long. we got to know our group members better, and they are all really very nice and unique in their own ways. our facilitators were quite nice too, just that the older one cannot stop talking while the younger one, who was sick, had to act as the time keeper. we learnt to 'menilai' ourselves, learnt not to accept anything without proof and differenciate 'pendapat' and 'fakta', and at LDK 4, had a heated discussion about Zek, Amir and Sham. so unlucky for my group, we had to defend Zek, who simply had not much good qualities. haih.. i still can't believe that during a heated part of the discussion, i suddenly said:"pada pendapat saya, i think hor.." everyone started laughing. yikes! now everyone knows my BM sucks!;p there was also the 'cicak' incident, where one male friend screamed like a girl when he thought there was some cicak around. hope he never reads this..;p



DAY 4:

woke up stiff all over. LDK continues. we learnt about struktur kerajaan, cara bermesyuarat secara demokrasi, social contrack, globalisation... our facis were not too pushy bout the empat satu thingy.. compared to other facis which i heard. it kinda made sense to me actually. but of course none of us dared to say anything even mildly provocating. at the end we had to draw a logo and make a slogan. mine was quite cute, and with the aid of my wonderful drawing skills, looked like what a kindergarden kid would produce. while the others were all so patriotic, drawing flags, keris, twin towers, books etc. mine was just 3 stick figures with a rainbow behind. haha.. malu.. during LDK, the guy beside me was quite chatty and kept talking to me. i was quite scared though, coz the faci kept looking at us. so i had to nod seemingly intelligently at his remarks then turn immediately to face the faci's.

finally, the horror of horrors. KEMBARA!! we combined with group 5, yen nee and trisha's group. first, we had to crawl through a tunnel, followed by commander crawl which the whole group of 13 must finish within 2 minutes. plus, the earth was all muddy. yucks!


then off to the jungle. or ladang kelapa sawit. we had to go through bushes and narrow, almost non-existant tracks, until we reached the paya. gosh! we managed to find a path to cross by stepping of fallen leaves, only to find that there was an even bigger paya in front, guarded by the fierce pelatih. sigh.. no escape this time. we had to slide down into the murky water only to touch the ground and sink in deeper. i could feel my shoes almost slipping out when i tried to lift them. of course, nicholas' shoe decided to migrate there and be found as a fossil a few hundreds years later. poor nicholas. the guys, after struggling to the other end, with us girls squeeling in the water, had to pull us out onto the bank. it was hard, as the ground was slippery and the bank was high. i had totally no strength to pull myself up, and the guys pulled me out like a fish. a friend was even pulled over 2 other guys. after that, with a little help, we crossed over to the other side just to find another paya again! shit!

coming out all dirty we thought the worst was over. casualties? just a lost shoe from our group. we walked to some barren land and an even worst nightmare loomed before us. a cliff of about 3 metres was our next obstacle. being simply terrified of heights, i could see how a simple slip of foot would send someone plunging down to oblivion. there were just some rocks and earth, not even some plants to hold on to. i was a nightmare for me, taking a cautious step after another in my wet and slippery shoes, trying to find a foothold. i grapped on to the kain pelikat the guys threw down for me with my left hand, but when i grabbed some ledge with my right hand and moved up one step, i could feel the ground dropping down from me as my leg slipped down. i can't believe it, i was slipping! good thing some guy quickly grabbed my right hand, then with some grabbing each hand, they pulled me up. the worst was over. still a bit shaky, i had to go down the other side, but it was not that steep.

finally, we reached the campsite. if not for the guys, i think i would still be stuck somewhere there. all i got was a simple cut and plenty of bruises. but glad to be alive.

at night, during our last LDK, we passed around our notebooks to exchange emails. it was quite saddening, this last LDK..

DAY 5:

i woke up with no energy at all to get up. the exam was tough, since my knowledge bout current issues is usually zilch. hope i pass though. i never wanna go through btn again. twice is enough. finally... we were on the bus heading home! yay!

In the end.. i found the camp not as bad as i expected it to be. i made some new friends, enjoyed 'gossiping' with imu friends, and learnt lots of stuff too, some good, some bad, mostly realistic.

whatever it is, i don't want to go back there! gosh! hope my cert lasts until i enter government service, so that i don't have to repeat btn! pleaseeee..