As summer hurtled towards its conclusion, somewhere, in the south of Singapore, a collision was about to occur. The incoming SIS freshmen were about to meet head on with MetamorphoSIS 2009 from the 5th to 7th August. Based on the theme of constellations, the 4 clans, Cetans, Draco, Octans and Volans, would battle it out over 3 days of activities, all leading up to the final “Big Bang”.
Before the camp started proper, the freshmen were invited for an informal pre-camp session on the 30th of July. The freshmen got a chance to meet their soon to be group mates and facilitators and were given a rundown of the BOSS bidding system. The clans also discussed what their clan identities would be, coming up with some outrageous ideas, all in a bid to clinch the Best Clan award. Each group then headed for dinner together for a time of food, fun and getting to know each other better.
The freshmen arrived on the first day decked out in shirts matching the colours of their clans, filling the concourse with an array of red, blue, yellow and green shades. To start the camp off proper, a round of water bomb “Assassin” was played. Each person was given one water bomb and tasked with finding their victim from the crowd of freshmen and facilitators. Once “dead”, the victim would join their killer in hunting their next target. Even this author was not spared, becoming the first target to get wet! Ultimately, the victor ended up with 22 victims in tow. As her reward, she won for herself a pair of Razer Moray earphones.
When the freshmen emerged for lunch after getting settled into their rooms, they had undergone some very radical transformations. Volans had coloured their hair blue. Octans had donned green capes. Draco were wearing yellow safety hats and scarves while carrying small water guns. The most extreme however were Cetans, who wore red stockings, red nail polish and even red bras on a variety of places on their bodies, including head, chest and waist. It was indeed a sight to behold.
After lunch, the freshmen faced the ominous Battlestations, a series of 12 smashing station games. Some of the most memorable ones included “Shooting Stars”, in which freshmen filled and threw water bombs from a level above down for their group mates to catch, and “Don’t Drop Your Balls”, in which groups tried to keep balloons half-filled with water airborne for as long as possible.
The night was set aside for the freshmen to do their BOSS bidding and to give the groups a chance to go out for supper and bond together.
The second day started on a high, with mass dance practice in preparation for family night. Danny Seow and Sarah Wan led the camp in their version of Calcutta (Taxi Taxi Taxi) by Dr Bombay. Even though it was still early in the morning, you could almost mistake the level 5 function room for Zouk during Mambo night.
In the afternoon, the groups headed out for a food trail in the vein of “Shi Zhi Ru Kou”. Groups needed to choose 8 foods in such a way that the last letter of one matched the first letter of the next. However, once groups had picked their food, they were informed of some weird task that they had to perform with them. Imagine eating fried chicken with straws or advertising your food to a group of complete strangers! After completing their selected foods, each group headed back to school for their final station. Each group had to “drink” a cup of soya bean milk using only you tiao to soak it up.
All throughout the day, unbeknownst to the freshmen, the third level of SOA/SOL was being transformed into a dark and dreary scare house. In the evening, while the clans focused on doing their clan banners and preparing their cheers and skits for family night, group by group were pulled off towards their fate. The most memorable part of the horror trail, as many will attest, was indeed the toilet station. The female toilet was almost unrecognizable and proved to freak out almost everyone, especially the guys (come on, admit it, don’t be shy).
The last day came down to the Final Challenge. The clans squared off in a Tower-Defence inspired water bomb game. Clan members paired up, held a balloon between their bodies and ran through a course around campus green. Meanwhile, the rest of the clans bombarded them relentlessly, trying to cause them to drop the balloons they were carrying. Once all the clans had run, the organizing committee, facilitators and game masters took a run for themselves, leading into a free-for-all as everyone used up the rest of their water bombs.
After spending the rest of the afternoon getting ready their performances, the clans were raring to go for the Big Bang, this year’s family night finale event. Decked out in their new white camp T-shirts, the Big Steps were abuzz with excitement.
Following that was a quite unusual pageant. The format was the same as you would expect, but the guys were dressed as girls and the girls were dressed as guys. The “best looking” couples from each clan, selected during the Battlestations games, competed for the T-Factor title. The winning couple from Volans each walked away with a Nokia e63 handphone courtesy of Starhub, while the Octans’ couple came in second and took home an L’Oreal hamper.
For dinner, freshmen and guests were treated to a generous buffet spread, topped off with free ice cream from Marble Slab.
It wasn’t long before the clans finally got a chance to show off the skits and cheers that they had worked so hard on. The theme for the skits this year was centred on the idea of what a family in the future would be like. The clans duly obliged, painting tongue-in-cheek visions of tomorrow.
In between clan performances, the percussion ensemble Voodoos nearly brought the roof down with their energetic and powerful performance. Everyone was on their feet, rocking to their infectious beats.
Soon it was time for the final prizes to be given out. On the individual front, Alex from Draco and Samantha from Octans walked away with the Best Male and Female Facilitator Awards. Raven from Octans also won for Best Head Facilitator. Clan wise, Volans were recognized as the Most Stylish, Cetans the Most Spirited and Draco the Most Spontaneous. Octans 3 won as best Sub-Group and the Octans clan as a whole picked up the top prize for Best Clan, winning an iPod Shuffle for each freshman.
The night was fast approaching its conclusion, but things would not end before the whole camp had a chance to shake their collective booty to the awesome mass dance! “Calcutta, I am a taxidriver in, Calcutta, I drive my little taxi in, Calcutta, taxi taxi taxi in, Calcutta, I am a taxidriverman!”
Like A Band finally rounded up an awesome evening and an incredible camp.
