...And Back From The Mountains

I'm back home guys. For those who aren't aware, I stayed two nights in the Blue Mountains with other UTS IT students as part of our orientation. As much as I'm glad to be home, I'm also very glad to have been affiliated with one of the most enjoyable camps ever. Originally I was very doubtful as to whether this camp would have a purpose, but I praise the IT faculty of UTS for organising such a memorable experience.

On Wednesday, we all met up in the city to depart for the mountains. It was a good workout carrying both my luggage as well as Nikki's from Central Station to the meeting place. I met my first friend on the bus ride; a guy named John from East Hills. It turns out we'll be taking the same course and even better; our timetables are pretty much the same.

When we arrived at the camp, we jumped straight into the activities. To start things off, all 196 of us students were taken to a hall where we were distributed a questionairee containing questions such as "Name a person you've met who is wearing red underwear" or "Name someone you've met who has more RAM than you". So as you can imagine, all 196 of us were walking up to each other randomly trying to get answers to those stupid questions. I must have went up to 30 random kids asking what color their underwear was for the sake of completing the questionairre. Great way to meet people nevertheless. We were then taken to our cabins where I met my roomies Ivan and Adrian. (there was another guy but I can't remember your name. All I know is that you brought a hair straightener to camp ! )

Afterwards we started the team building activities which were very reminiscent of the activities you would do in kindergarten. Things like that tunnel-ball, over-and-under, basketall passing and the bean-bag game. The bean-bag game was bloody hilarious because of the lebos on my team who kept cheating. Afterwards, we were taken the hall where in our groups, where we had to wrap an egg using the supplied materials in such a manner that the materials would protect the egg from breaking from 2 metre drop. Our group broke the egg before we even finished wrapping it ...

To conclude Day 1, the camp held a trivia night where we were put into teams competing for camp cash and prizes. Camp cash is similar to monopoly money, which could be used at the end of the camp during the auction in which you could bid for iPods and other neat gadgets. The trivia had 7 rounds, each round based on a certain topic such as movie quotes, geography, history, etc. There were also bonus rounds such as nominating someone from your team to do a certain task such as whistling with wheat-bix shoved down their throat. In the end, my team came 3rd, though we were only 2 questions shy of 1st place.

The next day (Day 2) myself and the other students doing my course were provided an insight to the nature of our course and the specifics such as subjects, majors and industry work. A lot of useful information was obtained from that session, though everything else I already knew from prior research.

At around 2:30 we seperated into our respective camp activities that we had signed up for. If there was one disappointing aspect of the camp, it would be the limited choices of activities you could sign up for. In fact out of 6 or so activities, you were only allowed to sign-up for one. I decided to go with 'high ropes' since I've never done it before. Good workout, especially the donkey kong net. Thanks Adrian for your patience in spotting me. Sheesh !

Later in the day, we had a modelling contest where your group had to design a costume for two nominated members of the group. Since it was Valentines Day, that was also the theme. In the end, our group won. Go team !

Day 3 we had to wake up early to clean our cabins, thought I kind of missed the alarm. Eventually the camp auction was held where people could trade in their camp cash for prizes such as iPods, keyboards, clothes and other neat items. After that, it was time to go home ! Thankfully we weren't required to go back to the city; instead you had the option to be dropped off at Penrith or Parramatta if that was more convenient. It was good workout carrying luggage from Penrith Station to the Plaza foodcourt and then to the carpark. Justin, Nikki and myself looked like asian tourists waiting for a 2 o'clock flight to Japan because of all the luggage and sleeping bags we were carrying in the Plaza. Thanks again Salih for picking us up !

That's all I'm bothered to write about the camp. There's so much I didn't write about but perhaps I'll update this post later. Overall, I can honestly say the IT Orientation Camp of 2008 was superb. I'm more confident going into university now that I've met most of 'to-be' classmates and lecturers and tutors. I also obtained a great deal of information about the subjects and material I will be absorbing in the next 4 years.

EDIT: Pics of the camp: http://utsedu.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7853144573&ref=mf