Freshmen Team-Building camp was certainly better than expected!

SMU is the only university out of the 3 national universities in Singapore with a camp tailored for all the freshies. This is largely due to its smaller student cohort as compared to NUS and NTU. Nevertheless, FTB is still divided into 4 runs, and I signed up for the very first.

Upon walking into the registration area, I was pleasantly surprised to learn I was in the 1st group of the 1st section. That meant that I was in Run 1, Section 1, Group 1. And my group (appropriately named by us as THE ONE) truly lived up to our billing as the FIRST group of FTB.

We had great group members who were vocal and enthusiastic. We did well for all the situational challenges, which formed the bulk of FTB. Everyone contributed ideas and were participative. The guys especially helped out loads with some of the tougher challenges (rafting, horizontal spider-web) which required more strength.

Our group also had a great faci, Ben from Band. Benjamin taught us a game, DingDong, which became the hit game among our group. Kudos also to Nicolas, who was our shadow faci (learning the ropes before become a faci proper in run 4).

Highlights:

• Tunneling

Each group was divided into 2 teams: males and females. Each team would enter the ‘tunnel’, with the twin objectives of locating the exit and searching for chops along the way, which needed to be stamped onto a piece of paper that each team had. Problem was, the tunnel was pitch black, which contributed to the fun. There were sections with rubber balls, wooden pillars, and cramped passages. Overall good fun.

• Campfire Night

What camp would be complete without a campfire? Our group was highly spontaneous during this, often contributing participants for stage games (due mostly to our seating right in front of the stage). We were also caught on camera countless times, meaning that we expect to be highly featured during Convocation (where a video of FTB would be screened). And to end it all off, in true SMU tradition, there was a dance party to cap off the night. Revellers danced the night away.

• Final Challenge

The last day of the camp culminated with a Final Challenge. Groups would compete for the titles of Best Group and Best Section. We enjoyed ourselves, especially at the first station, which required us to slide across a soapy groundsheet to obtain jigsaw pieces. We completed the charades station quickly and at the end of it all, buried Ben in the sand.

Enjoyed this entry? Subscribe to my feed!