A tipsy view of Law Camp from Ben

I was going to not do a blog entry tonight coz I am really really tired, but I spose I should do one before Andy or Yin does. Okay, so brace yourself coz this one is going to be one long blog to read.. I apologise in advance for anything not making sense. And coz I'm talking at the same time, this blog is going to take a while to write.

Day One
I woke up at about 7:30 to be picked up by Yin who also drove to Andy and picked him up. We got into the city virtually jam-free until we got to George St where it was literally packed bumper to bumper... Arrived at about 9am as it was expected of us, and my first glance was that there were no asians and all skips. We got our name marked off, and in typical Andy fashion, he forgot his indemnity form and for a moment there, he must've panicked about not being able to go to camp at all. However, the law staff didn't even care I spose, and he was let on.

We were given a showbag which really was just a UTS bag with paper inside. The purple booklet was our 'Student Guide to the Camp'. Inside was the location... and a list of all the attendees. Andy and I looked down the list and saw... James Myint... Sam Wang... skips... skips... skips... skips.. Donna Chan... skips.... And for a moment there I was wondering where the hell everybody was. The ratio for the first time was against us 70:30. Then we saw something else that was startling.. we had to wake up at 6:30am the next day. As well as the fact that we were all separated into different groups and cabins. But then when we got there we realised that the cabins for the guys were really just right next to each other.

The camp area was pretty dreadful, especially the toilet facilities. They stank and were infested with ants the size of fingernails, wasps and other crawling creatures. The first day was pretty decent... and hot... we were in western Sydney near Richmond. I met with my group members... and they were all great people. Michael P was funny, hah. Oh, there were 4 Michaels at the camp, and all 4 were in one cabin with James and another bloke, notriously known as the 'Michael Cabin', the one without the fan. My cabin and Andy's cabin both had the luxury of having a fan. No other cabin, not even the girl's ones had a fan. And actually in comparison, our cabins were better than the girl's ones which had about 18 girls to a cabin, as compared to about 10 for us.

Back to the day... the activities sucked big time, but at least my student leaders were good to talk to. Shirley and someone else who's name I struggle to remember in this fragile state. Shirley was 4th year and spoke strongly for doing finance and accounting.

Instead of watching American Pie 3 as many people did that night, Andy, James, Yin and I decided to go back to the cabin to play mahjong and listen to cantopop. And as expected, more people joined us including Donna, Hui-Xian, Sarah, Jing, Jane, Michelle and Andy (another one) to name a few. The cabin soon filled quickly and we played and talked at the same time, which was really cool. This exact phenomena was to continue throughout the camp. We played for a few hours until we were told by Rod (spanish bastard who was on a power trip, oh and yeah, camp manager?) to close up.

Then the drama of the first night unfolded in my cabin: Currawong 1. Everyone knew about this, and it was the talk of the second day. Okay firstly, our door closes and locks by itself. Supposedly Rob and organiser, Michellina were knocking on all the doors to put mosquito coils inside, coz the bugs were a biting. But we didn't hear them knock, or we thought nothing of it because we assumed it was a knock to shut up. Well us not opening or answering the door infuriated that ugly bastard, so he started to slam and kick at the door like psychopaths in moves. We opened the door and he turned on the light and yelled at us in boot camp fashion to get down and empty all our suitcases/bags suspecting we were smoking or drinking in the cabin. With the walls so thin and the cabin rooms right next to each other (3 rooms in one building), everyone was listening to the walls to hear what was going on. Power tripped Rodrigo couldn't find anything, and continued to lecture and diss us as he left, citing that if he had found anything, he'd get rid of it in front of us (by drinking it for us or taking the drugs we assumed, and wished).

Then Matt asked us if we wanted to go to Richmond with him on a pub crawl... which didn't happen, for obvious reasons. However, he needn't worry coz there is one coming up on the LSS calendar, as well as a drinks night on Mar 9. Plenty of alco stuff.

Day 2
Day 2 was by far the best day, and the most eventful. Hui and I were just talking outside our cabin at about 6am being the only ones awake at that hour and having already showered and done all that. But then gradually, as everyone started to wake up, the circle got bigger and bigger until there was about 20 of us just standing there talking about anything and everything.

We always waited outside the hall for breakfast and talked. Myself, Hui, Andy, Yin, Jane, Michelle, James and Tina were there pretty early that morning. The food was crap. Not even decent Typical breakfast stuff like cereal and toast, eggs, etc were all done wrong. Every mealtime was the precursor to below par meals.

It was when we got to our team activity that was really fun. Most of us... Jane, Michelle, Hui, James, Andy, Donna, Yin, Sam, Andy (other one), Tina and myself and the other 10 people did rock climbing. It was really good fun, and Donna was very good, and I think it was Michelle, who both conquered the one on the left of the 3. Which was probably the hardest coz the angle was away leaning away from us... I went up to the 2nd highest hold of that one and couldn't be bothered going any higher coz I was too tired from balaying. But I reckon that was the best activity of the camp. Just watching Jane take 15mins to get up to the top with our support and dragging was really cool and funny.

Then came the trivia night. Hah, we won! And we won a 20 buck voucher at for the Co-Op bookshop. Andy dogged us for another team, but were a pretty good team to have won that. I'm not going to go any further into this... . I went to the dance for a while and went back, coz I had stomach cramps for the greater part of the day and found that standing exacerbated the problem somewhat. So during the dance, James, Hui, Yin and I were back at the cabin just talking about all sorts of stuff while Andy danced the night away. Andy can fill you in on what actually happened inside... table dancing, crap songs, Michelina dancing(?), la la la.

Afterwards, they all went back to the cabin, Jing, Lin-> (I met Lin at UNSW open day- how weird is that?), David, Donna and the rest of our gang. We played Pictionary for about 2 hours... with 4 teams. I was on Hui and Tina's team, while Andy was with Donna and Yin, James was with David and Jing was with Lam. In the end, James won, coz he was good, I must admit. But I still struggle to comprehend how Jing managed to guess alternative medicine by using alternate angles... which were actually vertically opposite. But hah, it was really fun, and I didn't realise such board games were that fun.

Then at about 2am, with me virtually half asleep, I sat across the bed with Lin just taking about stuff when the others played bullshit and big 2. Then Yin came over and slept across the bed and brought his sleeping bag which I thought was cool coz then Lin and I sat there warmer. Then Donna jumped onto the bed so then it was 4 to a bed, which was cool, hah. We tried to sleep, while Yin actually did sleep. So we spent the next hour talking and trying to sleep, bumping into each other and into the wall, which hurt actually. Then Andy decided to crash our little abode and made it 5 to a bed, which literally made it sardine like... I was having the air expelled from being crushed between Yin and Lin. So we came up with a better idea, actually Lin and I of just putting all the mattresses on the floor and sleeping on it.

The Currawong Orgy as it was known affectionately
So we took down 4 mattresses from around the room and put them on the ground, and we all just slept on the floor. And all meaning about 8 or 9 of us. Hah, it was cool... there were smelly feet everywhere, and everyone was bumping or squashed against another. Coz of the lack of pillows, Lin and I shared the pillow and the top bit of the superbed while Andy and Donna shared the bed with their very couple-like behaviour of tickling, giggling and I will not go further. That's something you needed to be there to see, and it was hilarious. Lin and I were sitting up laughing so hard that when we slept back down, we accidentally smashed our heads to smitherines. But it was so cool, who would've thought, 8, 9 people or so on this massive bed in the middle of the room! lol. I think Mai and Devina came on later... But I reckon by then I was nearly asleep. We turned the lights off and regularly, people were opening the door and peeping in with their torches... like Joe and Andy, Alex, Aaron... Supposedly there was lots of talking, but I fell asleep before then, and woke up an hour later to the same rowdiness that had been there before, but people had bloodshot eyes and stooping heads from taht ordeal. Andy didn't sleep at all, and he was the only one out of the ~15 in the room that didnt. I know that Hui, James, Yin, Will, Jane, Andy (other- there are 4 of them), myself, Donna, Lin, Mai, Devina, David, Wenhui and Majing actually slept... if not even for 5mins.

We were all dead this morning, and I can say that we still are. The rest of the activities were crap, and we left at about 11am. It was freezing this morning... I remember that, coz when someone opened the door, it felt like an Arctic wind blew across the room. But yeah, this morning, everyone was trying desperately to get contacts and take photos with new-found friends. I will rely on Jane for a list of contacts. I trust that Andy's doing the same?

Anyway, that's about it... I'm going to sleep. Oh no... Jane just got on... Maybe later then.