7 Camp - 2






Camp Elphinstone Going to camp was one of the best experiences of my school life. This year, instead of going to Camp Jubilee, we went to a new place called Camp Elphinstone. The three days there was like a giant sleepover/party hybrid that was sometimes out of control. We did cool activities, like a celebrity interview and skit night. Everyone seemed to have a great time and I'll remember it for the rest of my life. The first great activity we did was a celebrity dress-up/interview. One person from each of the groups dressed up as a celebrity and were asked questions from a panel of judges. We had Tarzan (Farisha), Arnold Schwarzenegger (Desmond), Barbie (Tommy), Elmo (Harish), Britney Spears (Joe) and Cinderella (Garry). All the girls (meaning Joe, Garry and Tommy) were dressed up well, and them being guys made it more hilarious. They had makeup on, girls clothes and implants. Garry Nie looked the best, he actually could've fooled some people (maybe) as being a girl. Arnold Schwarzenegger had huge abs and a laser on his sunglasses. Tarzan was decorated with leaves and carried a shield. And Elmo was dressed all in red, with a Cookie Monster jacket on (they were going out, but Elmo only wanted Cookie Monster's money). All the questions were hilarious, and they were answered equally well. At the end, Tarzan and my group won. It was a great time. The next night we had skit night. At the very beginning, a little miscommunication one counselor may have thought I was touched in the head. She gave me special treatment because of it and I was chosen for the activity which involved lifting up boxes and naming the object underneath. I'd done this before (a guy would pop up at the end), and the counselor made me swear to pretend to be scared. Instead, I planned to trip over my own feet and knock the last box onto the guy's head. My plan backfired, as the guy was under the second-to-last box, and I did get scared a little. Would the plan even have worked? I'm not sure, but it would have been funny. After the boxes our groups got a list of words and were supposed to make a skit with them. My group, with no ideas and about five minutes, put together a bunch of ads which was probably three quarters improv. The best ads were Leon's; �Do you like hot, bald men? Then call 1-800-BALD-MEN today!� and Stephen's; a Spider-Man 3 ad which was brought to life when he took off his red shirt to reveal a black shirt underneath. This was especially cool because it was improv (like I said), so it wasn't planned at all. Our skit may have been great but it wasn't the best � one of the groups which did a skit on Kermit the Frog losing his iPOD beat us. Camp was one of those rare experiences that I'll never have again. We all had a great time and tried new things. I know it's one of the things that I will remember most about school, and it will be with me for a long time. by Max Miller			Camp Elphinstone On the early morning of April 25th, 2007 Norquay's grade 7's went to Camp Elphinstone on the Sunshine Coast. Camp had many activities, some of which are more enjoyable than others. Kayaking and canoing were my favorite because they were the most physically challenging. Bedtime there was 10:30 and way too early for some people. It rained throughout camp which dampened of spirits but did not ruin the fun we had. Kayaking was the best activity at camp because it was challenging and an independent experience. Canoing, which required two people to manage, was slightly problematic in that you never knew what the other person was trying to do. Even though we were on water, I thought that all the kayaks and canoes were going quite slow and wondered if this is what people had to do in the past. Leadership was the only dry activity at the camp but was not as fun as the others. It didn't require any mental or physical prowess at all. The games were easy to complete. At night everybody was wide awake after bedtime, 10:30, and I heard yelling and screaming in the room next to me for hours afterwards. The next morning I was amazed I got any sleep at all. When we were leaving everybody wanted to stay longer even though it was cold and wet. On the way back everything seemed much quicker and I wanted time to stretch so I don't have to be back at school but time does not answer the call of one man. When we were back at school half of us had to wait for our luggage to arrive but after the luggage arrived and was unloaded I went straight home. On the way home I saw my friend being driven home by their parents looking at me and that made my spirits soar. by Jerry Riu
Camp Elphinstone It was on Wednesday, April 25 when we departed for Camp Elphinstone. All of the grade sevens piled onto the bus with our luggage stuffed all over the placed and said good-bye to civilization. It was a horribly wet but fun experience, and we all learned what camp was all about. We spent about two an a half days out there, leaving early on Wednesday morning and returning Friday afternoon. All three days were packed with activities and games so I was almost never bored. On Wednesday we played games in the rec hall and got settled in. On Thursday we started our activities and had a big skit night. Then on Friday we finished our last activity and packed up to go home. The days passed to quickly for me, and I couldn't help wishing that it was longer. Despite my to be wonderful camping experience, I had an absolutely horrifying time on Wednesday. Or in the morning, at least. When we got off the ferry at Langdale, we had to grab all our bags and walk down three flights of stairs. Which is very hard, considering the narrow staircase and 90 or so kids with humongous bags. When we finally got to the bottom, we walked out the ferry terminal and into the rain. We met the camp counselors, and they explained the very quick and short ten minute walk. They said that it was very quick and short. They were lying. We hiked by the side of the road going mostly uphill for nearly an hour. Or less, I don't know, I was too busy trying not to die carrying my bags so I lost track of time. I'm sure everyone else was too. I started to wish I had brought a suitcase so I could drag it but of course it was too late to change that. The counselor said that we were almost there even though I later found out that was only about halfway. When we FINALLY got there, I wanted to go straight to our cabins and sleep. Until we had to do it all over again going back. Thankfully, the rest of the day was fun. We ate lunch in the dining hall, and then went outside to play stones. After, we went to the rec hall and did a whole bunch of activities. It was fun, but then now I have three bruises on my right knee from crawling around on the floor. We went back to our cabins after and had free time until dinner, which was at 5:00. After dinner, all of us went to back to the rec hall sit around a fire and sing songs. I was all worn out at the end when they sent us back to our cabins to go to bed. I don't think anyone slept that night, and if they did, they kept waking up. I know I didn't sleep very well. The next day was busy. We woke up at 7:00 and went to eat breakfast at 8:00. Then we were sorted into groups and sent off to do our activities. I was in group 5 and our first activity was Leadership. Luckily, it was inside so we were shielded from the pouring rain. We did fun things like sort ourselves into groups and talk about the eight qualities a leader must have. After, we went to our next activity, which was kayaking. I got very wet and very tired. When it was all over, we went back to our cabins to wash off whatever dirt and grit we had and change. We all ran out to eat lunch. After, we had a quick break to go to our cabins and change for our next activity. Group five went hiking next. We walked through the woods and played a few games in the clearing around a tree that the counselor says is the biggest tree on the Sunshine Coast. After, we walked back, climbing over fallen trees and ducking under branches. We went to the bleachers to wait for everyone to get back from their group. Then, we departed off for archery. Although it was hard and I wasn't very good at it, it was fun. After that we went back down to the dock and paired off for canoing. Canoing was a bit harder than kayaking because you had to have a lot of teamwork with your partner. I was sitting in the front and she was sitting in the back. I didn't get as wet as I did kayaking but for some reason when we were walking towards the dock it wasn't raining and when we got into our canoes it started raining. That was very strange and kind or irritating. Canoing was tiring but fun. I still like kayaking more, though. After we trudged back up to our cabins and changed, we went back down to eat dinner. When we finished, we went back up to our cabins and had a bit of free time before we had to go back down to the dining hall for skit night. Each activity group had a small list of random words that we had to use to make up a skit. Ours was about Kermit the Frog who lost his button and i-Pod and was looking for them. It was fun watching others performing on stage. Also, there was also a game show where there were about 5 boxes in a row sitting on a table. The contestant had to start at one end, and lift up the boxes to see what was inside. They would shout out what it was, then move onto the next box. The person with the fastest time won. What we didn't know, however, was that there was a slight twist to the game. The forth box contained a guy who was waiting for an unsuspecting person to lift up the box and he would scare them half to death. It was hilarious the first time since we weren't expecting anything. After all the excitement, we went back to our cabins to shower, change, and go to bed. My cabin roommate woke me up and I realized that I slept well. I didn't keep waking up in the middle of the night. I was forced to quickly change because group five was doing the table setting for breakfast. When I got there, I began unstacking the plastic chairs, and then I dropped one of my toe. Which really hurt, because we were only wearing socks and it was one of the legs that hit me. So I had to limp around and try not to mind my toe too much, but it was bruised. And it hurt a lot. Breakfast passed without another incident except that the other school that was also here with us at camp went home so we all shouted good-bye to each other. Then, we went off for our last activity. My group went to beach study. We walked down to the beach and tried to find crabs and such. The wet sand was extremely squishy and our shoes kept sinking into it like quicksand. It was sort of boring but yet interesting. Then we went all the way back to our cabins and started packing. We also had to sweep and mop the floor and make sure everything looked exactly the way it did when we arrived. Then we hauled all our luggage to the archery shed and stuffed it all in there for the truck to pick up. We ate our last meal, which was also the best, and went back down the to watch the luggage get loaded into the truck. After all that was done, we started our long walk back. It was about twenty minutes and soon we had to carry our stuff to the ferry terminal and onto the ferry. Once we boarded, we all dumped our stuff and started buying whatever we wanted to eat. It had been a long time since we had real food so it was fun. We got off when the ferry arrived at Horseshoe Bay, and we stuffed all our stuff onto a small bus and took three others for ourselves. The bus I was in left first, following the luggage bus, but we were last to arrive because the luggage bus driver took the long way back to school and the bus driver of the bus I was in followed him or her. When we finally did get back to school, we were greeted by a bunch of parents waiting to drive their kids home. I made my dad carry my stuff because I was so exhausted but relieved that I was finally home. My camping experience couldn't have been better, but everything about it was camp. Except for the whole walking to camp after we got out of the ferry terminal thing. Camping is a dirty business, and I'll never forget my time at Camp Elphinstone. The thrill of the outdoors can't be matched in any other way. Oh, and don't forget the rain, too. by Anh Nguyen