Jerry and I went on a camping trip with his Boy Scouts about 3 weeks ago. Louis was going to come, but couldn't because he got a cold. I decided not to write about the Aquarium Camp because I've forgotten the details.
We were supposed to meet the rest of the scouts who were riding the bus at the front gate of ChingHua University at 8:00 exactly. This trip was actually for Jerry, but I could go because I was his sister. We were nearly late because my dad, the slowpoke of the family, wasn't very excited about getting out of bed at 7:00am on a weekend. Unfortunately, he was the one that was going to drive us to ChingHua University because Mom had gone to China for a vacation with Aunt Vicky, her younger sister, for a week without us. We finally got there with a lot of fuss, with about 2 minutes to spare. That's when I learned from Jerry that they always take another 20 minutes or more to take attendance and get everone to turn up. Since we weren't sure what bus we would be riding, we just sat down on a nearby bench and waited. There were 2 buses, Bus A and Bus B. We were told that we would be riding Bus B. After about 20 minutes of boring waiting, we finally boarded our bus and endured another boring thing-roll call. Let me describe our buses. You know thos small community buses that we see around Hsinchu practically every day? You know, the ones that say Science Park Shuttle Bus and have colors like purple, orange, pink, white, or green colored on the top and bottome, like an Oreo. Well, the Scouts had rented 2 of those buses, a pink one, Bus B, and a white one, Bus A. Anyway, after roll call, we waited maybe another 10 minutes before setting off.
After we finally set off and got to the mountains, the scenery was really pretty and I took lots of pictures. The bus ride lasted about 3 hours. During that time, Jerry and I ate the snacks my mom bought for us: yogurt-covered raisens (my favorite sweet snacks), Pringles, (my favorite salty snack;Sour Cream flavor for me and Original flavor for Jerry), raisens, this type of sticky candy that Mom shared with us, and M&Ms for me and gum for Jerry. I also made friends with the two younger girls sitting behind us, one of them was Jerry's grademate(there are 2 classes in each grade, A and B;Jerry is in A, she's in B), Ellie. Unfortunatly, I never paid attention to many names so I forgot the other girl's name. Anyway, they were nice.
Before we got to our campsite, we passed Old Road(that's how you translate it) and stopped above a river. The counselors led us carefully down the rocky path. I took plently of pictures of this place too. We could play with the water there. The water was really cold. There were actually two little places to play here. They told up to play at the small sandy area, but some kids went to the rocky area. One of those kids waded into the water and suddenly sat down. and started spalshing around. Everyone thought he was playing at first. Then the other kids started throwing a long rope with a net at the end they were carrying toward him. The adults didn't realized that something was wrong but I think most of the kids did because a lot of them, including me, started running towards them. By that time, that kid had started screaming because he was getting dragged out by the current and he couldn't find any friction against the slippery rock he was on. That's when the adults finally realized something was wrong. However, before the adults got there, he had already been swept away by the current. And he was heading directly toward a waterfall. Next to the waterfall was a huge cliff. A parent had already jumped in to save him but he was too slow. Luckily, the current washed into the huge cliff and then a slower current washed into the waterfall. The boy hit the cliff and held onto the jagged rocks sticking out of the cliff until the parent caught up to him and started to drag him to shore against the current. The counselor had jumped in sometime after the parent and just caught up and helped him tow the boy to shore. After it was determined that he was safe and perfectly fine, besides being a little scared, everyone went back to the safe sandy shore and played. Some other kids, including Younglun, Jerry's classmate and friend, started building a dam between the sandy beach and a big flat rock sticking out in front of the beach. I joined them. In the end we built several dams around and sort of made a dirty hot spring that wasn't hot, only a bit warm. Jerry and some other kids started skipping stones next to our dam. I think Jerry's record was 5 skips. After our dam was completed, it was time to go. The other kids destroyed our dam to let the fresh water flow properly. So we walked to a little place next to where we parked the cars and buses.
Then it was time for lunch. The lunch wasn't very good. Luckily, I've managed to shut out my memories of almost all of the meals there so I can't remember what we ate. All I remember for this meal is that it was so disgusting that even though I was starving, I could only eat one bowl of rice. It wasn't the rice that was disgusting, it was the stuff that was supposed to go with it. Hardly any of it was edible, to me at least. The soup was really good though, I think it was cold green bean soup I drank 2 bowls of it.
After Jerry and I finished, we played with a pet dog that a parent brought. The dog was very cute, it was golden colored and very big. We and some other kids petted it and tried to get it to sit and lie down and other tricks. One little Boy with a shrill voice kept trying to make the dog sit. I didn't like that boy. That kid finally got angry and went away. Surprisingly, the moment that boy went, the dog sat! We all laughed. Then that little boy ran back and the dog stood up again! Wow, that dog must have really hated the little boy. Finally, Jerry and I got tired of petting the dog and we, and two other boys, including the boy who got washed away, decided to play with the wildgrass around us. There was a little road leading to nowhere and next ot it was on one side, a field of grass, weeds and flowers. On the other side was more weeds and flower, plus a gate of a chicken coop. Do you know that type of grass that sticks to your clothes? Well we picked those an threw them at each other. Jerry and I were on one team the other 2 kids were on the other. Then that little boy with a shrill voice joined their side so we went and tried to persuade Younglun to come play on our side. But, then it was time to go. We went onto our buses and had a quick attendance check and drove off.
When we got to the campsite, after the counselors made sure everyone was there, they got us all to unpack all of our luggage and then they started unloading the sleeping bags and tents. The parent suporvisors had to bring their own tents and sleeping bags. Then they called out the tents(T A, B, C, D, E, or F) so we would know who we'd be sleeping with. A, B, and C were for boys, D, E, and F were for girls. The parents just put up their own tents wherever they could find space, slept in the mini hotel above our campsite, or went to another hotel about 20 minutes' drive away. Jerry was in Tent C. They said I was going to be with Ellie and the other girl in Tent D, but for some reason, they moved me to Tent E. I didn't mind. I made frinds with another girl in my tent who was in 6th grade but looked like she was in 7th. I liked her a lot. Everyone had to help put up their tent. After our tents were put up, the adults put up their own tents. One family was really pro, they not only brought a huge tent, they brought: a table, 3 chairs, a china teapot set complete with 2 teapots and a bunch of little china cups, a stove, and a roof to put over the entire setup. They were probably exaggerating when they said the chairs were those massaging types but I'm not exactly sure since I never sat down there.
After all the tents were up, the counselers made an announcement. Every group(there were 4 groups-yellow, red, black and 中; Jerry and I were in yellow) had to put on a performance or something in front of the campfire there was going to be after dinner. Our group couldn't agree on anything. I, personally wanted to sing or something, but the boys wouldn't cooperate with the girls so we split up. The boys wanted to do something totally pathetic, they wanted to give a demonstration on how to build a fire. The girls, including me, hated that idea and so our group split up. However we girls couldn't think of anything. We tossed around some ideas like a play of something stupid like Sleeping Beauty but there weren't enough of us for the cast and no one wanted to kiss each other so we abandoned that idea. I suggeseted singing but we all had to know the song and songs sound better with music. None of us wanted to sing ABC or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star so we were about to give up hope and join the boys when I suggested telling jokes. I was actually surprised that they agreed to do it because I was just tossing out random things and I was atually thinking of a performance we had to do for Chinese class once. Luckily, just as we decided and planned for another 5 minutes, we were called to do another activity.
The activity was called cutting bamboo sticks. You all know that bamboo has sections and each section is hollow right? Good. Well the next day, we were going to eat bamboo cane rice so we had to cut bamboo canes into sections. I was 2nd in line, but then I let my friend, the one who shared my tent(she's now my best friend in the Scouts), cut me so i was in front of Jerry. The first kid to cut was a boy and, no offense but, he cut really badly and slowly. Then came my friend. She cut very neat but was a bit slow. I was very nervous when it got to my turn. Amazingly, I was the best cutter. I cut very quickly and evenly. I set the record time in our group. I also cut the best. Jerry beat my record speed, but his cut was sideways. When Jerry finished, it had started to rain, very very slightly. Plus it was time for dinner. So the other kids didnt' get to cut.
Dinner wasn't very good. Actually, It was worse than lunch. It started raing while we ate, harder and harder. Some people ran to get their raincoats before it started raining too hard, and I was one of them. It was a smart choice. Pretty soon, it got really dark and started raing really heavily. Some counselors went to the tents to check on them and came back to report that the tents were sunk in huge puddles. Some had even had water drained inside, even though we had pulled down and zipped all the rainproof fabrics before running up to eat dinner. Basically, it winded down to "You can't sleep in the tents tonight." So we had to camp down at that mini hotel. The parents and counselers brought up our bags. I didn't have a hard time finding a room. Ellie and that other girl were sleeping in the second floor but my new "best" friend was sleeping on the first floor and she wanted me to sleep in their room. Finally I chose to go on the first floor and arranged for Jerry to be with Younglun and his parents at the other hotel 20 minutes away.
The room I was in had 6 people, 3 girls, 3 boys, counting myself. All of us were in 5th grade or above. We decided to have a massive pillow fight, so we locked the door so that annoying little boy with a shrill voice wouldn't keep bothering us. He kept trying to get in which was annoying. However, then he poked his head through the window so we had to close and lock the windows. Finally, we had a magnificent pillow war. I was the best fighter, or so the others say. The rules were basically, once someone falls, we have to pause. It was lucky that this rule was established because the only time I remember falling, I banged my head really hard on the wooden floor and it hurt like hell. But, I just smiled, got up, and said let's continue. And then I rammed my attacker really hard into the wall. However since my friend and I were the best fighters, we were the ones that were most targeted. Finally, they just decided that they would be a team and the 2 of us would be another team. I guess that's logical because we were really fierce. Or, I was at least. Unfortunatly, since we were all fighting so hard, it got really warm in our room. So we secretly opened some of the windows. Amazingly enough, we actually won the battle, 2 vs 4. So we took a rest. They asked me if I learned kungfu or something and I told them I used to but now I don't. And then I informed them that my moves were mostly learned from old movies and anime. Then that annoying kid yelled at our door and told us that they were starting up the fire because it had stopped raining. However, the people at the other hotel had already left so they couldn't join the campfire. The performances were canceled. They gave us sticks of meat and we all roasted meat over the huge bonfire, but mine was too tightly so the middle part couldn't roast. So after 20 frustrating muinutes, I managed to finish roasting, took a piece of meat and found that it was very tough and full of fat so I gave up on eating the meat and fed it to the hotel owners' pet dogs. Then I went back to our room and changed into pajamas and had another fantastic, but violent pillow fight, and then we convinced the parent that was going to sleep in our room to switch places with another boy and so we had 7 people in our room. We played cards and ater snacks until midnight and then finally fell asleep.
Other...
Our Boy Scout Camping Trip Pictures-Day 1-Part 2
Summer Vacation
Our Boy Scout Camping Trip Pictures-Day 1-Part 1
Our Boy Scout Camping Trip-Day 2
Camp Schedule
Field Day of 2010
Halloween Carnival
News
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