Sixth Form Induction
Friday, June 23, 2006
On Monday, I went to a Sixth Form Induction programme for my school. We gathered at the common room in school before setting off in two coaches to SPEC, where we stayed for the night. I met lots of different people but they were all in their own little groups and I felt that I didn’t belong with any of them. I met a girl called Janine, and as we had to pair up, we ended up sitting together for the bus journey. It took an hour to get there. On the way, we got to know each other and talked a little with the other people on board. We arrived around 10.45am, got allocated rooms (which we shared in pairs) and then gathered in the Westminster Room. We got to know the wacky team and to my surprise, the team leader, Sabina, is from New Zealand. She looked a bit familiar… a bit like my choir teacher there. Hehe… We were then split into teams of 5 and off we went to our first activity. My group and I went to the “Swamp Challenge”: we had to cross a “swamp” (which is actually just grass, bounded in a rectangle of ropes) using 3 tyres, 2 planks and ropes. Only the tyres could touch the ground. If any of us or the planks and ropes touched the ground, all of us had to return and start over again. It was a challenging and funny situation. In our small group of 14, we were then divided into 2 teams again, and we had to race in the 15 minutes given. I just had to be the first person to fall off – typical!! Towards the end, when we’ve returned to the starting point twice, the boys decided to put their legs inserted into the rim of the tyres and hopped towards the end. One successfully crossed the “swamp” and funny thing was that he considered himself the leader, and was later questioned why he left his team behind. I was asked to hop with the tyres as well, and wow… it was painful!! I admire the strength the boys had. I wasn’t even halfway when the time ran out. The skin around my ankle area were red and blistered… it was awful but very good experience for me at the same time. I was going to learn to be tougher! By the way, the other team won.
At lunch, we were supposed to approach everyone and get to know each other but knowing me, I was too shy to march up to someone and introduce myself. I would have to improve on that skill. I met some other girls and guys and had to keep all names and faces in mind.
After lunch, we returned to our teams and carried on with different activities.
1. Electric Fence: using 3 poles, some ropes and 1 giant plank, we had to build a structure to help us get over an “electric fence”. Again, in our team of 7 people, (different people), we raced in the time given to build a solid structure enough to support us when we jumped over. Our team won!!
2. Wooden Wall: there was a high wooden wall without any levers and we had to get over the wall. There was a ledge on the other side, enough to support 2 people. How did we do it? First of all, 2 guys lift one person up and he climbed over and stood at the ledge. Then, a girl called Margie was lifted over and then it was my turn. Next, another guy was lifted. By this time, Margie and I were already on the ground. One more guy went up and then the last person jumped, and was hauled up by the stronger two guys at the top. It was so much fun, even though the wall was really high and scary. As a race, we completed it in 1 minute and 15 seconds. The best time was in fact 1.07mins.
3. Tightropes: there were 3 ropes tied to 2 trees, and we had to walk on them, keeping our balance. This activity was to teach us to work as a team and know that we can count on them. It was very difficult for me and I actually fell on one of the guys, hehe… One of them even said I had a really hard grip as I was holding his arms for balance. That was hilarious, I think I left grip marks on his arms.
At about 3pm, we set off in the coaches for a 45 minute ride to the Hertfordshire Young Mariners’ Centre. We got to choose two activities out of sailing, kayaking, canoeing, caving, inflated football and raft building. I was originally going to go for sailing, but as they had to choose only 10 people, the first 10 hands-up were the lucky ones. I was the only hand up for caving, so the activity was cancelled, much to my dismay. I didn’t even know what caving was. In the end, the “leftovers” were to do inflated football. The word “inflated” caught my attention so I didn’t really mind even though I didn’t even know how to play. But when we got there, the only “inflated” thing about it is that you play surrounded with blown-up balloony goal posts. There were 2 other girls with me, Janine and Katie, so the three of us left the guys to it and searched for an instructor to see if we could go caving instead. Unluckily, the raft-building section needs help so the instructor had to help them and thus, Janine and I went raft-building instead. Katie went back to football.
Raft-building was more fun than I anticipated, and I learnt new skills as to how to make a raft out of 6 poles, 4 barrels and ropes. When we had to test it out, some people fell into the water!! The raft came undone (blame our rope skills, hehe) and in the end, it was just people having fun pushing each other into the cold water. Luckily, I held on to a pole, hoping no one will push me over. =D I did wet my shoes though because I was using the paddle to pull the raft in so I would have to chance to get on it, but I didn’t.
Then it was dinner time. We had BBQ, (I only had a sausage roll) … I didn’t even get a drink because they ran out of cups… we had some time to socialise, talk and talk… and get to know each other more. I was called a mini-ninja… (…!!!!)
Resuming, after dinner, this time, there were enough people going for caving, so YAY~! As 10 of us and the instructor got ourselves ready, I was really looking forward to going underground and explore. We put on some (old, torn up, smelly) coats, a helmet each, torch and battery and off we went. The cave was actually man-made and consisted of many chambers. It was indeed the best experience I have ever had!! If you give me a choice between horse-riding and caving, I’ll go for caving definitely! (And I love horse-riding… so, you can tell how much I liked loved caving) the company were enjoyable too… the guys were very funny. Janine, Katie and I were the only girls. As I was the smallest person there, they were all joking around asking me to enter all the small tunnels. I did manage to cross one, even though for a second, my head was stuck! We burrowed into small tunnels, and at times we had to crawl through “rat-holes” and “wormholes”. I ended up a little wet because in one of the tunnel we had to crawl through, one side was covered with a small puddle of water, and on the other side laid one black, big beetle. Surely, I went for the dirty puddle of water. I still had to brush against the beetle though… Eek!!
We finished at about 8.45pm, and as we came out of the cave, reality sunk in. It really was like a different world down there. At 9pm, the sky was still bright but a bit cloudy, we rode back to SPEC, tired but happy. Everyone was feeling exhausted, looking forward to a nice shower and sleep… but no….. after some snack, we had to go to a night walk! At 10.30pm, we set off for the walk, which took more than an hour, and it was so dark! Before we were let off to our much-awaited sleep, we gathered again in the Westminster Room for a night prayer, which I really loved because their approach to strengthen young adults’ faith in God was really inspirational. It was a pity some people looked down on prayer times. We watched a little clip off the Fellowship of the Ring LOTR and then BEDTIME!!! Lights out at 12.45am.
Yawn… wow, it’s hot! I woke up at 7am and couldn’t go back to sleep. I felt sweaty and uncomfortable so decided to go for a shower while everyone’s still asleep. The wake-up call was supposed to be at 8.30am so I took my time. I felt so refreshed after the morning shower and then slowly, one by one the girls woke up and came in to shower as well. Breakfast was at 9am, we had toast and cereal. After breakfast, we gathered in the Westminster Room for Teacher Talk Time, where we were given a lecture and talk about life in Sixth Form – work load, leadership… etc. At break time, I had a fall out with a friend and so I was alone all that time. I guess she got tired of me hanging around with her.
Next, we had a debate. This house believes that all schools should be co-educational. My team was to oppose. In the end, we lost by a vote but I loved listening to their heated discussions and arguments, it was almost comical.
Lunchtime, I tried fitting in with the girls at a table, and it was easy. Just sit there and be quiet. Nice way of blending in. Before our next activity, I was sitting in a couch with my phone, when a teacher, Mr. Simpson sat down next to me and we started to chat. He was the Economics teacher, and before this trip, he had tried to convince me to do Economics. But this time, he gave me some advice about my subjects and about medicine. Why do you want to become a doctor? That’s the most important question. You can’t say “ooo, I like children and animals…” or “because I want to help people…” that is not good enough. He had a student who’s in Uni now and he stood out amongst the other students because he has empathy. Wow... I was really taken in with that. You have to be able to know how others are feeling in order to diagnose them, right?
Following that, there were 3 activities to choose from: Ropes Course, Archery and Mountain Biking. The obvious choice for me would be archery, but it was full, so I did the ropes course instead. We had to go on a series of dangerous activities, but they were all worth it. I think I like the dangerous feeling! =D we had to pair up and since Janine didn’t have a partner as well, she was stuck with me, hehe… one had to be the other’s spotter when she/he was doing the assault course. It was a great experience, especially when I had to climb really high by the ropes, then roll to the other side and climb back down. That was intimidating but very exhilarating because even though it was treacherous, we were wearing helmets and we had a spotter so I know nothing would go wrong.
It was after all these activities that while waiting for others to complete their rounds, I approached the team leader, Sabina and asked which part of New Zealand she was from. Her reply gave me a delight because she was from Wellington. She asked which part of Wellington I was from and when I replied, “Lower Hutt” she laughed saying, she has a house there. Which school did I go to? “Sacred Heart College.” HAH… such a small world. She said she used to go there all the time for retreats and it was weird that I’d never seen her before. But I probably had, and I just don’t remember. New Zealand is still her home and she questioned me in mock anger, “Why did you leave NZ? It’s the best place in the world!!” As for her? Well, she came to London for pounds. Hehehe…
After all the talk, it was time for mass… Father Thomas came all the way from Ealing and we had a small mass in the beautiful chapel in All Saint’s Pastoral. After mass, we gathered in our previous teams to do some evaluation and then it was a final farewell… it had been a great training (for me) as I am seldom outdoors! We reached home at about 5.55pm and bid each other “goodbye” and “have a good holiday” and “see you in September”.
We’ll be back to school on September 5th!
I came back with bruises, muscle pains, memories, new skills, new acquaintances and knowledge. What a trip! I slept for 12 hours that night and suffered agonising pain everywhere on my body for 2 days after that. Great!!
3 comments:
-
i see u hv a good time.. good..
-
WHOA!! THat was certainly fun! All those activities.. something like National Service. LOL :) And getting back to school 5th Sept? That's still a long way to go..
Btw, nice skin. Blogger skin?
-
i see u hv a good time.. good..