Eighth Grade Retreat, by Aimee

From April 6 to 8, my class and I were on our eighth grade retreat.  The purpose of the eighth grade retreat is to prepare for high school and also to look back and reflect on middle school, but most importantly it was to bond together and unify our class.  We went to a place called Nomad Adventures.  Nomad Adventures was a camp in the middle of the jungle.  It caters toward big groups and specializes in team building.  We did different events like white water rafting, caving, and rope courses above the ground.  It was all about nature and reusing resources.  For example, the showers were made out of old water tanks!  The girls and boys stayed in separate dormitories, and the teachers stayed in treehouses.

Day 1:
I had to wake up really early because the bus left the school at 7:30.  We got to the camp around 11:00.  We first went to the dining hall to be introduced to the instructors of the camp.  We played a few games and learned about the history of Gopeng, the place where we were staying.  Then we had lunch which was rice and other dishes such as curry and meat with vegetables.  Our class was split into groups and my group was Group 2.  After this my group and Group 1 went on "Kampung* Limos" which was meant to be funny because it actually just meant open air trucks.  We went to a cave.  We climbed up a steep hill and finally got to the opening of the cave. It was much cooler but much dustier inside the caves.  We went through the caves; at some parts we had to climb up a rock and at other times we had to climb down rocks with a rope.  The cave used to have been occupied by communists so there was a lot of red markings and sayings.  One said "Long live Mao Ze Dong."  Finally we finished the cave and stepped out into the sunlight again. We drove back to the camp and had dinner.  After that we got together with our groups and did some fun activities. Then we went to bed.

Day 2:

I woke up early again because we had to be at breakfast by 7:30.  It was going to be a long day.  We had a very Asian breakfast of Milo, noodles, and spring rolls.  Then we packed up our water bottles and sunscreen.  That day we were going to do some water activities.  We drove the Kampung Limos to the river and we were introduced to the activities we were going to do that day.  We started out with learning the technique of swimming defensively.  Then we got in our groups and went through water safety stations.  The first one we did was learning how to jump in the river (belly first), and how to swim across a current (swim toward the current so that it will push you to where you want to go).  The next station was how to save someone by throwing a rope.  We practiced it on land and then pretended to drown in the water while our partner threw the rope.  After that we practiced walking across the water and against the current.  We first did it alone, then with a partner, and then we all did it in a group together.  The last station was straining.  This meant that when you were swimming and you hit an obstacle, i.e. log or rock, instead of being sucked under it, you could push yourself over it.  After this we had lunch and then it was time to go water rafting.  We got in groups of four and drove to a different river.  Then we got out and got in a raft with an instructor.  We started down the river and went through the rapids.  Our raft got stuck a lot on the rocks because the river level was very low, but we still had a fun time.  We had to do a lot of active stuff while rafting.  When we got stuck, we had to bounce up and down on the raft, all of us moving to the left, or all of us moving to the right.  One time the instructor tricked us.  He said we all had to move to the left but we capsized!  Everyone had a lot of fun rafting.  After that we headed back to the camp and we showered and changed because we had to play with a group of orphanage kids that came.  We did a couple of games with them including jump rope and making paper airplanes and then we had dinner with them.  After they left we went through a booklet about class unity, memories of middle school, and looking toward high school.  After that we got ready for bed and it was lights out.  It had been a really fun day.

Day 3:
This was our last day.  We woke up early again and went to breakfast, which was rice, sauce, Milo, and curry puffs.  We boarded the Kampung Limos and went to Mountain School which had all sorts of obstacles on rocks and on and between trees.  The instructors first briefed us on safety and how to attach our harnesses to the ropes.  Then we had free time to do the different obstacles.  There were three levels of obstacles: Rock 1, Rock 2, and Tree 3. I did Rock 1 and Tree 3.  After this we had a snack and headed back to the camp.  We ate our last lunch, showered, and packed up.  Then we did a last activity with our group.  I joined my Group 2 and we did the activity which involved picking a picture and describing how it had to do with the retreat.  Then we said goodbye to our instructors, took a class picture in front of the camp, and boarded the bus.  It had been an amazing time, and I knew I would never forget the memories I had made with my class!!!

* Kampung means 'village' or 'neighbourhood'