IPHO PRE-CAMP

alrite. it's time for me to blog abt ipho (even though it ended more than a wk ago)...the 37th International Physics Olympiad held from 8 July to 17 July 2006 in Singapore... but b4 i do that. i think i shld tok abt e pre-camp frm 3 July to 7 July...

i can safely n confidently declare that i m e 1st person in e whole ipho to arrive at hall of residence 3/16 on 3rd July. why u may ask? for e simplest fact tt i reach there at 7.15 am in e mornin. nt that i choose to definitely. to wake up at sum ungodly hour n arrive wae too early at my destination. i m nt tt enthu/crazy ok? though i may behave vry 'high' most of e time. heez. but it was becoz my dear bro happen to be call back to e SAF Armour place in lim chu kang for re-service. so my poor papa hav to no1. bring my bro to camp n no2. directly send me to ntu after tt. n becoz my dear bro hav to reach e camp by 6.45 am or sumting like tt so we set off reallie early. n considerin e fact tt i slept at like 2 am (due 2 e fact tt i took real long to pack. by packin n watchin tv at e same time. heez) tt sound juz fabulous!

n ntu is reallie near to lim chu kang. once we r out of all e tall brushes/trees/shrubs n onto main rd. ntu is in front of mi! gosh. so in order to drag time. my papa n i went to hav breakfast first. but even tt doesnt help. coz i still reach ntu so darn early! n becoz my papa need to go to work. we moved my luggage to e staircase at 16C n i sat on e steps n sleep (huggin tt precious laptop i borrowed frm my friend). i feel so sad for myself...

aniwae finally i started to see more pple e.g jacjac n pam aka zhang xin. n finally after nuaxin for like sumtime. i managed to check in! wooho! but e bad news was tt my rm is in 16D rite at e end (or maybe nt. since 16E is further. wahahaz). thanxfully i m nt tt dumb to bring my luggage with me to ops rm at hall 3. or else i m reallie askin for trouble. helped pam to carry her stuff to 16C. but either becoz our eyes r covered w stamps or we cross eyed. we cldnt find e lift! faintx. so we cleverly/intelligently climbed e stairs all e wae to 6th floor to realise tt we r facing a door tt can onli open in 1 way. which is to sae. we r locked outside! faintx. finally we r informed tt there is a lift. n zhang xin managed to get her luggage safe n sound into her rm.

i went to carry some of my stuff. take note it's some n nt all. n happily go to 16D to see my dear rm for e first time! n i got a single rm!!! wooho! nt tt i dun like a double rm. but becoz i m so noisy n stuff. i doubt my rmmate can stand me. wahahaz. n i dun mean tt i snore ok! becoz i dun. i onli tok in my sleep. wahahaz.

airin e rm becoz it smells wae too funnie n stuffy for my likin so i was using my luggage as a door stopper. n i like my rm becoz it's facing e pantry n next to e lift! so convenient. n in case u wan e lucky nos so that u can go n place bets on them in singapore's 4D/Toto/Sweep n other countries' legal betting games (i repeat. legal) my rm no is: 16D-05-06S (S becoz it's single. n no i m nt hinting abt my marital status ok!) met my level mates coz we r on e gurlz' level. e 5 of us who stayed along e same corridor n in single rooms are: Min Heng-SLO of Ghana. Rose-SLO of Indonesia. Emily-SLO of Jordan. Berlinda-SLO of Kuwait. n of course me. SLO of Croatia. n i feel threatened by e eva presence of all these pretty gurlz. sighz. tokin abt inferiour complexity. but nvm. i do hav sum fun pestering them. wahahaz. i guess they muz feel vry thanxful now tt i m nt within e 10 m radius ard them. hahaz.

min heng kindly accompanied me to go n fetch e remainin of my luggage and i begin on my task of unpackin. which is alot of things. n becoz i didnt bring tt all-impt mobile phone by e model of sony ericsson k700i. i didnt noe tt it's 10.20 am until emily popped by when she was waitin for min heng. gosh. so went to e combined LLOs n SLOs tok in a rush. coz i cldnt find this n tt. which is so typical of mi. wahahaz.

n i muz sae. ruimin aka boss nv fail to make mi laugh. wahahaz. though he was outnumbered. but he juz enjoy suanin n jackin n nuaxin n irritatin e acjc pple present. hahaz. i admit tt i m slow/retarded when i didnt get his explanation for why different pple hav diff colour name tags n tt everywan hav to report to e "green. black. white". this juz show how lack of sleep i was. heez. n nt tt i dun luv my alma mater ok? i adore e pe shirts coz it's so nice to sleep in. heez. but i guess wheneva i tell pple tt i m frm RJC. they will give mi this shock/disbelievin/r u sure? look (n chalat u r one of them). i m sorrie that i dun fit e stereotype of a eng-pro rj gurl but hey! i add to e variety of weird/unconventional pple there ok? heeheez.

met up w my full bus finally! i still remember e kampong glam tour trainin. i met liz. si min. ryan. wen jun. ethel. n jian lu. then e civic district tour trainin. i met candice. pam n liz again. so basically i did meet my whole bus but nt together. so 3rd july. is e first dae we are all present at e same place at e same time. even though our cslo had been tryin vry hard to meet up juz b4 e precamp (which i refused to go coz i was doin frantic last min shoppin n packin n presenz stuff). sorrie. heez. but at least i turn up when u r conducting make up trainin of e civic district for ryan aka ken ding. n e 3 of us did hav a fun time ok? or at least i hope so. since i was like usual. tokin rubbish. then i realised tt jian lu left our bus becoz she is taking care of another country. n i miss my gao ge er! aka tall one in chinese.

had lunch as a bus n after which we went our separate wae to prac for items namely stomp or dance. n pple like mi who dun hav an item. went to e ops rm to tok rubbish. wahahaz. was vry slack lahz basically. heeheez.

went on a tour in NTU after tt as a bus. namely e Nanyang Auditorum. e Sch of Biological Sciences etc. also we visited e discussion hall w all e coms n e countries' flags on e monitors of e coms. where i was busily searchin for my 'checkered-box' country n happily ran to tt specific com when i spotted e flag. n also e students' examination hall. n my first thot was "thanx goodness i m nt sum smarty who is takin e papers. 5 hours cooped in such a small enclosed area bound to make me claustrophobic even if i m nt". heeheez.

after which e trainin ended n i rushed home to get my vry impt phone. it was realie bad tt e whole dae i hav to stick to sumwan frm my bus at all time or else i will get reallie lost n no wan can contact me. e journey is reallie horrible. it took like 1.5 hours so can u imagine. i hav to do tt for e next 3 yrs! faintx. but i juz dun wanna stay at halls lahz. since i m such a lazy bum. wahahaz.

reach home ard 7 plus nearly 8pm. so was eatin dinner n watchin superbands at e same time. decided to leave at 9 n met lala at boon lay interchange at 10pm. by e time i reached back my rm i was ready to drop dead. but lala n i decided tt i shall sleep in her double rm tt nitex but shower at my level's toilet. which gave us one of our most excitin showers in our lives. even w 2 of us in e shower cubicles. e motion sensors still cant sense us n switched off e lights twice! goodness. it's reallie ridiculous. but after tt i guess i m happie as long as i m clean n dry n feelin gd. hahaz. n becoz i kept on forgettin to bring my stuff over to her rm. we/i hav to keep on moving frm her rm in 16C to my rm in 16D via e linkwae. tt's y i m vry pro w my wae ard e 16 blocks via all e linkwaes. it's w a reason...

2nd dae of pre-camp. 4th july.

went to orchard rd in e mornin. was abit e chaotic in e mornin lahz. so we were abit e late. but nvm. since we r nt there to do shoppin (how can we. when all e shops r closed?) i guess it doesnt reallie matter. aniwae we manage to orientate ourselves n get ourselves familiar with e route we hav to take on day 8 of ipho. was kena suaned like mad during e whole trip (n e whole ipho too. sighz) but was reallie happily tokin rubbish to my bus pple! bus 2 seriously is e best n most happenin bus. was laughin hysterically (thruout e whole ipho too). but when i saw my 'checkered-box' flag at e overseas famil sch. i went hysteric again. beggin pple to take photo for mi. heez.

board e bus n make our wae to e national stadium where we alighted at tis reallie far place n hav to walk for ages b4 we reach e stadium n after tt walk summore juz to see our seatin arrangement. which is nt tt great afterall. sighz. we didnt get e 'vip' seats i wan lehz. hmphz! but ok lahz. at least i will be watchin national dae parade in e national stadium for e 2nd time in my life! e first being in pri 5...sighz.

went back to ntu to carry cartons of mineral water. i got e easy job since i was pushin e trolley but i spained/over exert my lower back in e process. sighz. i m weak n physically unfit lahz i know. but e trolley ladened w 12 cartons each weighin 12.5 kg is not light lorz even w trolley. summore i need to make e trolley u turn after it was ladened w e water... but i reallie admire those strong guys n gurlz who were carryin e cartons frm e lorry to e grd. tt is hard work! n i finally understand wat e instrucs were when they sae we will be doin light physical activities. i guess tt equates to moving 1500 cartons of water...though it's nt light at all.

dun remember much except tt we went to collect our shirts as SLO. namely 3 red round neck shirts. 1 white polo short sleeves. 1 black polo long sleeves. n i downgrade 1 size after seein how big e sizes r...nt tt i m saein i m slim or wat...but big shirts. esp vry big shirts r nt to my likin. i like comfy shirts like rj pe shirts. (oh no! e next thin i noe will be pple askin mi to help them buy rj pe shirts. since i m like doin advertisements on it nonstop. oopz! but i guess if u r frm ipho. n koped as mani ipho shirts as mi. u wun need rj pe shirts animore...) but definitely nt tight lahz. eekz!

then i went to slack or i shld sae carry 1 carton of water into my rm b4 coopin inside my rm doin e welcome presenz for my delegates n if u dun noe wat they r. it's actuallie this 800ml watsons mineral/distilled water bottles which i painted "ipho 2006. croatia" on them usin acrylic paint. but didnt do much lahz. now u noe why i hav so much luggage in e first place. i guess i was juz tryin to be clever becoz i realised tt they dun hav water supply (in a wae since they most prob wun be bringin water bottles) so wanted to get them those plastic bottles which are sturdy n stuff...but becoz it's quite ex. as e poor n deprived person...i tried to search for alternatives n i found it in watsons! but i cldnt find e 500ml bottles so hav no choice but buy 800ml n lug them all e wae home b4 bringin them to ntu. 5 bottles. now we noe why my luggage weighed as though it carried gold coz it did. in sum countries in e world. water is more precious than gold...

out of pt. so after tt we hav more talks i tink b4 we end e dae n bus 2 went on our first bus dinner to none other than...JURONG POINT. sighz. to tink i will be hangin out there for e next 3 yrs is quite... however. during e talk. we r informed by boss tt 1 country has to leave bus 2 becoz e nigerians juz take up wae too much space on e bus by sending 8 delegates. faintx. n of course. we protested but to no avail. sighz. n when it was decided tt zhang xin hav to go to bus 1...we all felt so terrible. but no matter wat. zhang xin will always be a member of bus 2! n i m sure tt li zi will agree w mi n all e other slos too. sighz. but zhang xin i noe tt u noe tt we luv u lotsa rite?

well at least we hav a great time eatin dinner there. w e acjc pple at 1 table (namely li zi. zhang xin. wan ju. ping guo) n non-acjc pple at e other. 2 rj. 1 hc. 1 vj. (tang guo. ken ding. si mi lu n la jiao). if u hav no idea wat i m tokin abt. go 2 e previous entry. below this long long entry. i hav a list hidden sumwhere. wahahahaz. tink i will kena bashin or boycottin of this longwinded blog but who cares? then next time i gossip here abt pple less busybodies will know. hahahaz.

n it was here. we nicknamed sumwan frm e bus for e first time. ryan is officially known as e dustbin! coz he eat alot. Alot. ALot. ALOt. n lastly. ALOT. u look at him. u tink he might be suffering frm anorexic (juz jokin. heeheez.) but sighz. looks r deceiving. wahahahaz.

went to shop at NTUC after tt. we practically bought all e 'junk' food in e supermarket lahz. heeheez. after which went back to e hostels n basically showered in e dark w e lousy sensors/kept on switchin off lights. sighz. it's damn nuax. it's like even when u r doin urgent business. muz keep on waving ur hands at regular intervals to ensure tt e lights wun turn off on its own! faintx.

3rd dae of pre-camp. 5 July 2006.

we started off w e toks. heez. all e wae until lunch. then hav lunch b4 e rest go for their prac again n e 'slackers' wasnt tt slack after all. we were busy packin n organisin e shirts into their sizes in e store rm. sighz. after which i went back to my rm to rest awhile b4 goin for e stimulation exercise.

n e simulation rite. is damn hilarious. we r supposed to pretend it's dae 3 of ipho le. n we r goin for our first excursion to nite safari. n buses r allocated their probs so as to test how prepared our CSLOs are n in bus 2 case. li zi is. so for e first round. we are e prob free bus. but prob free onli for e first few mins. coz halfwae. we were caught in sum weird jam summoned by boss. after a vry long time. then he finally liberated us n we reached 'nite safari' safely. which is outside 16D.

e 2nd round. we were given e prob. n i was declared 'e prob/troublemaker' by shuquan. n e prob is. mi. as a supreme blur slo. has left 1 of my delegates behind. onli to realise it when are halfwae into e journey. i reallie look tt blur mehz? how come everywan agree w shuquan tt i hav e face for doin such a ting? *sulks* hmphz! *angree look* but aniwae while waitin in e middle of e rd. we were informed tt one of e nigerians has food poisoning juz becoz mark as a medic was wae too bored. heeheez. yahz so we almost didnt make it to e end pt.

after which we assemble in zhang xin's rm to decide how r we goin to write our names n our country's name on our red t-shirt(which is my idea ok? at least i do contribute to e bus among all e rubbish stuff i was tokin) b4 makin our wae down to e bbq. which i ended up playin e ball games non stop. wahahaz n i m a vry lousy player. raymond n i decided to siamz towards e end becoz e team dun really need us lahz. heez.

didnt eat alot but hav sum fun hangin out w pple. b4 we all decide to siamz back to e rms coz we knew they r goin to play a wasabe game. which i cant take. eekz! but juz wanna thanx all e LLOs for their efforts in preparing for e bbq. i do enjoy e food n company!

last dae of precamp. 6 july 2006.

went to neptune in e mornin. so tt e rest can practise their items on stage. while e slackers grp was playin cards. hahaz. sorrie lahz but we reallie dun noe wat else to do mahz. but when u all r performing. we r watchin! hahaz. but zhang xin was feelin ill n she looked quite bad too. was quite worried abt her. thanx goodness she was fine after tt.

followin tt. was runnin thru e 'serving e first dish routine'. didnt noe tt our bus will be coming up frm e centre of e stage! w other buses of course. but it's so cool! hahaz. i was so excited n happie lahz. wahahaz. but e plate is abit heavy. abit onli. i betta practise more since i plan to go into e hotel industry.

after which we went back to ntu n carry more water. gosh. 2 cartons for each delegate. that's like 10 cartons for my delegates onli lahz! we decided tt teamwork works n since wan ju. si mi lu n my delegates r stayin e furthest frm ops rm (at hall 3) we shall help each other. starting w si mi lu's spainiards who stayed at 16E. n becoz wan ju is vry pro. carried 2 cartons at 1 go. we r quite on time. after which is e cypriots at 16E too b4 my croats at 16D. by e time we finished i tink i pulled more lower back muscles becoz i suffered frm fairly bad pain e next mornin.

n e ipho bags n keys n pens for our dear delegates besides e water. which is alot. 5 delegates frm Austria. Bosnia n Hercegovina. Croatia. Cyprus n Spain each plus 8 frm Nigeria. that is 33 in total n includin SLOs 41! n e bags r nt light lorz. but we r clever! hahaz. or u can sae i m kiasu. wahahaz. we koped e trolley for our own usage by dumpin all our bags onto it b4 other buses can claim it as their. wahahaz. i m displayin e best skill of all e Singapore aunties aka middle aged women. heeheez.

but thanx goodness for e trolley or else li zi. si mi lu n mi wld hav died outside ops rm. we started off w 16C by givin e nigerians first. n since we r puttin e bags in e rm. we also moved e cartons of water frm outside into e rms. after which to e austrians n bosians b4 meetin up w e rest of e bus. to go to 16D n settle my croats n 16E to finish up e spainiards n cypriots.

we had lunch n was informed by ken ding tt he lost all e austrian delegates' keys. ALL. n if each key card is 60 bucks. n each delegate has 2 keys. tt is 600 bucks in total. freakz! i searched my delegates' rm but we cant find them. n becoz we hav to go for e openin/closing ceremony rehearsal so we left it as it is. but ken ding is vry calm. wae too calm. if i m him. i would hav freak out totally n breakdown n cry. maybe tt's y he is in medicine n i m nt ba. hmmz.

e openin/closin ceremony rehearsals hav nothin much to mention except tt our dear ping guo is an excellent singer!!! oh my goodness! she is so much betta than all e singapore idol contestants lahz. ping guo if u join singapore idol or ani singin contest. i will be e manager of ur fan club! hahahaz. n tt zhi yang frm campus superstar is nt tt nice after all. but i make frenz w more SLOs namely christine. kim. william. e may. jinny. n more!

n practisin e march past w e boards is quite fun. juz tt mi plus e board. in e end. is still shorter than my delegates. reallie. n watchin all e SLOs match past arhz. is reallie a great feeling! n all of us take turns to be e delegates e.g. nigeria. spain n singapore! hahahz. u shld hav seen how many singapore delegates there were at e rehearsal. it's plain hilarious. hahahaz. we hav to stand in 2 rows so as to accommodate everywan!

after which had dinner n thanxfully ken ding found e austrian team keys in one of e cypriots' rm.

n becoz i m vry confused w all e events tt happened. i m writing e drawing of e fabric paint on our red shirts separately. we did one of ken ding's shirts first as though it's a guinea pig (done by ping guo). after which. when e rest r havin item prac. ken ding n i camped in zhang xin's rm to do e rest of his shirts. my shirts. wan ju's shirts (actuallie onli i was doin. coz he was busy doing e photoframes for his austrians) n becoz i was dozing. i wrote si mi lu's name on one of zhang xin shirts n hav to change one of si mi lu's shirts w ops rm to give zhang xin. n it was onli then. did i realise tt becoz of e wae i folded e shirts while writin. wan ju n my shirts. our names n our country's names r on e wrong sleeves! urghz. tis is wat lack of sleep will do to u... sighz. but in e end. everywan's shirts turn out ok includin newcomer. soon kueh! tang guo's co slo for nigeria. so i guess i was making a mountain out of a molehill. heez.

n li zi reminded mi abt sumting. apparently e 2nd time we had to carry e cartons of water. our bus was late so by e time we reached e venue. everywan else was yam-saein. drinkin frm e mineral water n we were ostracized by them. so our bus. went to one corner n cheered ourselves aka yam-sae. this juz show how much bus spirit we have! wahahaz. okok.

tt's all for pre-camp. gosh! becoz of my cranky/misbehaving/lousy keyboard which refuse to cooperate w mi. i took 3 times e time to blog!!! urghz!!! ok. but pls pardon my longwindedness. i juz wish to record down as mani things as i can remember...n u hav e real IPhO experience comin up! wahahaz.

i believe in miracles becoz i would be much happier if i do @ 12:59 pm