College retreat
College retreat
I haven't blog for the last few days - not because I have nothing to blog about, but I'm simply zonk by the end of the day (read on and you will know why ...). Anyway, just to "clarify" about my previous post before this one - haha, some of my friends (ya, FRIENDS) had started labelling me "cheapo" after reading it =P - hey, I'm exaggerating quite a fair bit in my post lah - one brother was so worried that I will ill-treat myself in being overly watchful about my expenses that I'll be reduced to only bones .. heehee - thanks for all the concerns, take what I write with a pinch of salt ya =) once the initial "excitement" of being a student is over, life will be back to normal .. haha, guess you all will probably have to remind me about not being too much of a spendthrift by then =)
Anyway, this post will be about the college retreat we had over the last 3 days, so be prepared to read a real loooonnnnngggg one =)
Most of us were at the college fairly early to prepare for the day (paste signs for registration, set up tables, prepare the name-tags and gifts in place, be ushers, etc), even though the retreat was supposed to begin at 1pm.
Besides the usual introduction, theme talk, etc, we had a dance class getting everyone together to learn the dance steps to JESUS song - something we don't think past retreats ever had before. Of course, we expected different responses - some more enthusiastic, some less, some more sporting, some less, some try their very best, some simply indifferent, etc, etc. I guess overall, it wasn't as bad as we thought the response could have been.
Some soundbites on day 1 of retreat (contributed by xiao-mei):-
When instructions were given regarding Boot Class competition that the top three teams will proceed on to compete on the Retreat Finale Nite and the community will get to vote for their favourite team, one of the faculty turns to the family group members: Don't win, don't win, don't win... =)
When family groups were given free time to work out dance steps, another faculty commented: Can we pick one person to dance and the rest of us be props?
From yet another faculty: Why don't we pick the best ten to dance and the rest of us can just stand around and go "yea, yea, yea, yea??..."
When the briefing for the next day's outdoor program was given, someone suggested, "we should have not only wet weather plan but super hot weather plan." That comment was made due to the fact that the dance class was held out in the Plaza where some of us could feel the strong heat of the afternoon sun.
We ended off the day with dinner with our FG, and as usual, whenever you are involved in a committee planning for the program, you tend to "miss out" on lots of fun, time with your group, and the major parts of the program. I couldn't even remember what I had for dinner that night, and couldn't even recall what dish I was in charge of as the committee served the rest of the community when they came over for dinner ... The committee stayed for de-brief and a run-through of the next day's program after we cleared everything for Day 1.
My physical state at the end of day 1 (from waking up at 7am to reaching home at 7pm or so) - flat-out ...
Day 2 of retreat
As usual, being the committee, we had to be one of the earliest to arrive in order to set up the tables for attendance taking, etc.
I was scheduled to lead the morning chapel, and really praise God that everything went fine, even though Dan & myself only got to practice with the pianist on that morning itself. The comments about the morning chapel from some faculties were very encouraging and the college chaplain was rather pleased as I checked with him for feedback and comments. One faculty felt that the chapel should be part of the morning theme talk. He commented, "The songs chosen were so nice and appropriate and when you led us to sing the song to prepare our hearts to hear God's Word, I was so ready for the message ... and then the next thing I knew, it was the song of response ..." Haha, I couldn't agree all the more with what he said, but college chaplain said that the morning chapel is by itself, with no connections to the theme talk, so ...
The day went on with time with FG, sharing on spiritual formation and community living, the dance class competition and outdoor games. The committee was rather surprised that most of groups (FG mentors, ie. faculties, to be precise) were actually very sporting and participated in the competition with their group - practising hard for their dance, and even coordinated their attire, etc - some came with shirt & ties and sun glasses, some came with caps, and so on.
The other highlight of the day was the outdoor game, in which the groups were to find where the missing Chief Librarian was. We thank God for giving us good weather as the later part of the morning felt so cloudy. Well, I guess besides making everyone walk a great deal (to save cost on transportation, the various stations were around the vicinity of the college), the various station masters had fun "sabotaging" some of the groups, including our faculties =P and although the weather was really hot, but most of the groups were really of good sport, finishing all the 5 stations and finally succeeded in seeking out where the Chief Librarian is.
Some more soundbites contributed by xiao-mei on day 2 of retreat:-
Chairman's address should have been Chairperson's address - that was what one of our beloved faculty said to Wen, our lady chair for the committee, spotting the mistake in the retreat booklet.
At station 2 (xiao-mei's station) during outdoor game
Case 1
Game Master: Get me a non-alcholic exotic drink....it can be ANYTHING. It can be WATEVER you want. One of the team came back with a carton of cranberry / blackcurrent juice with aloe vera.
Game Master: This is not exotic??? It is JUICE.
Faculty mentor: There is aloe vera. WHo says aloe vera is not exotic? You drink!
Game Master decided to be nice and let it pass ... we will be at this faculty's "mercy" when the term begins ... haha
Case 2
Game Master : I want 2 kosongs
Another Faculty mentor came back with 2 empty mineral water bottles.
Girl: You said kosong (empty) ... you didn't say what must be empty ...
Game Master decided that you can't argue against creative logic as that. =)
Anyway, the day ended well and we were all thankful there were no injuries, heat stroke cases, or whatever. Haha, some of us were even prepared to be activated to drive our vehicles to the nearest hospital, or to perform CPR on anyone that is comatose. The committee had a quick de-brief and run-through of the next day's program as almost half of the committee had to be involved in the Opening Service rehearsal, which was at 7pm!! Guess what time the entire thing ended? About 8.30pm or so.
My physical state at the end of day 2 (waking up at 5.45am and reaching home at 9.15pm or so) - stoned and zonk ...
Day 3 of retreat
So far, the retreat went on fairly well and this last day kind of signal the climax and the close. We had the usual theme talk, a time of reflection, FG time, photo-taking, indoor event and Opening Holy Communion service, before dinner and the finale night.
Ant & myself were roped in to assist college chaplain in the service, besides a number of the others who formed the worship team and the dancers. I was super stressed with the entire flow of the service - more so with the uncomfortable "robe" or "gown" (whatever you call that) that makes me prespire like - and that was the smallest sized that the college chaplain could find. And then pal had to burst out with laughter when she saw me in that, commenting that I looked like one of snow-white's dwarf ... what a friend you are huh ... hmm... But well, the "worst" thing was being in the robe and serving communion wine from the chalice into the small communion cups held by the individuals. I was like, "make sure don't spill ... make sure don't overflow ... make sure follow the chaplain closely as he gives the bread you give the wine ... etc, etc"
Well, although the entire service went quite smoothly, there were some boo-boos which I've made that could have been prevented. I'm not going to talk about it here, ask me if you want to know *wink*
We had the finale night after dinner and the college retreat came to an official close. Even after the rest of the college went off, the committee stayed to clear the decorations we put up, went through all our logistic stuff to throw what we need to, etc. All in all, we stayed till about 9.35pm or so after helping Dan to clean up the HC items.
My physical state at the end of day 3 (waking up at 5.45am and reaching home at 10.15pm) - I need to be resurrected ...
After-thoughts about the retreat
- We gave out feedback forms and as usual, some feedback and comments were positive, while there are others that are simply negative and sarcastic. While we reminded ourselves to be open about the comments made (since we want feedback, we have to be open to receive it), we are inevitably "affected" by some comments made. Sigh* organizing any kind of event is always a thankless job, isn't it? People will never quite commend on a good job done, but they will always be on the look-out for slip-ups and bones they could pick from an egg ...
- On the other hand, we were very encouraged by people who took time to affirm and appreciate us and our efforts. Thanks, Dr T for the hugs you gave to some of us - it warms our hearts very much. Thanks, AP for the breakfast you bought for the comm. Thanks our fellow Year 2s who wrote lots of positive feedback on the forms and helped us serve dinner during the Finale night when we had so little time after the closing service to both eat and prepare for the night. Thanks, Dr S for refering me to the comments you wrote on the form "Thanks for the great work!" =)
- People seemed to be always on the look-out for things you don't do, ya? Things you made an extra effort to do, they don't seem to notice ... Our comm. made extra efforts to do quite a fair bit of things, but nobody noted them =( for example, during the outdoor game, it was deliberate that the station masters at 2 locations (out of the 5) conversed only in Mandarin - reason? so that some of the members in the team that are quiet and not so fluent in English (more so for the Chinese dept. people) will be "forced" to take over and brief the team at those locations. Extra efforts were also put in to make name plates (is that what it's called) for the tables to indicate where each FG is sitting, as compared to past years, using paper and sticking them with scotch tapes, only to be blown away by the strong wind at the dining hall. Extra efforts were made to cut down the expenses, which explained why the outdoor game was held around the vicinity of the college, on top of the fact that the comm. felt that it would be a good time to allow the new students to be familiarise with what's around the vicinity of the college. The other extra effort was to involve the others in the college that were not involved in the retreat to be judges, etc -for example the Chief Librarian, Assistant Librarian, one of the admin staff, spouse of one of the faculty, etc.
- It spoils your mood to hear some sarcasm from people who think that running a retreat is a piece of cake. How would you feel when you hear things like, "wow, you all having fun at people's expense huh ...", "wow, you all having special dinner" (when we asked Uncle Liew to packet our dinner for us so that we can have a quick dinner outside MPH to prepare for finale night), "wow, you all so comfortable at all your stations, make us walk so much ...", "this whole retreat is run like a youth camp ...", "what community living, more like community missing ..." (when the video clips we screen showed familiar faces of year 2s, or most of us from the retreat com.). Well, guess these people think that it's easy to plan a well-balanced retreat program, or they think that it's easy to get people to act and produce all those video clips ...
- Nobody notices the work at the background - all the nights gone into sorting out the students' data, all the time spent to prepare as best as we can for each day of the retreat, missing out on the programs to arrange tables for the meals, etc
- Oversight on the part of the comm. - we totally forgot that the outdoor game would end back in college, hence forgetting to check with the cafeteria auntie if she can extend the cafe opening hours, so that those who want some cold drinks and ice cream can purchase them from her (though we provided cold ice water). It is also our oversight concerning the FGs using time for FGs to practice their dance instead - but I guess sometimes it's really up to individual FG mentors??
- Some said the retreat program is too packed, but I thought the wonderful thing about the retreat is every program runs according to schedule, nothing was held back. In fact, some programs even ended earlier, and there was "extra" time for other impromptu things (like meeting for the respective years as a class, etc); there were free-time slotted in as well!
Well, the conclusion I have at the end of the entire thing is this ... - try as you may to please everyone, you will end up pleasing no one. Just do what we can to the best of our ability and leave the rest to the Lord.
I haven't blog for the last few days - not because I have nothing to blog about, but I'm simply zonk by the end of the day (read on and you will know why ...). Anyway, just to "clarify" about my previous post before this one - haha, some of my friends (ya, FRIENDS) had started labelling me "cheapo" after reading it =P - hey, I'm exaggerating quite a fair bit in my post lah - one brother was so worried that I will ill-treat myself in being overly watchful about my expenses that I'll be reduced to only bones .. heehee - thanks for all the concerns, take what I write with a pinch of salt ya =) once the initial "excitement" of being a student is over, life will be back to normal .. haha, guess you all will probably have to remind me about not being too much of a spendthrift by then =)
Anyway, this post will be about the college retreat we had over the last 3 days, so be prepared to read a real loooonnnnngggg one =)
The comm. met since Jan this year to begin the preliminary planning (and once last year to settle roles and other stuff) and more intensively as the retreat draws nearer. And finally the days of the retreat became a reality ...
Day 1 of retreatMost of us were at the college fairly early to prepare for the day (paste signs for registration, set up tables, prepare the name-tags and gifts in place, be ushers, etc), even though the retreat was supposed to begin at 1pm.
Besides the usual introduction, theme talk, etc, we had a dance class getting everyone together to learn the dance steps to JESUS song - something we don't think past retreats ever had before. Of course, we expected different responses - some more enthusiastic, some less, some more sporting, some less, some try their very best, some simply indifferent, etc, etc. I guess overall, it wasn't as bad as we thought the response could have been.
Some soundbites on day 1 of retreat (contributed by xiao-mei):-
When instructions were given regarding Boot Class competition that the top three teams will proceed on to compete on the Retreat Finale Nite and the community will get to vote for their favourite team, one of the faculty turns to the family group members: Don't win, don't win, don't win... =)
When family groups were given free time to work out dance steps, another faculty commented: Can we pick one person to dance and the rest of us be props?
From yet another faculty: Why don't we pick the best ten to dance and the rest of us can just stand around and go "yea, yea, yea, yea??..."
When the briefing for the next day's outdoor program was given, someone suggested, "we should have not only wet weather plan but super hot weather plan." That comment was made due to the fact that the dance class was held out in the Plaza where some of us could feel the strong heat of the afternoon sun.
We ended off the day with dinner with our FG, and as usual, whenever you are involved in a committee planning for the program, you tend to "miss out" on lots of fun, time with your group, and the major parts of the program. I couldn't even remember what I had for dinner that night, and couldn't even recall what dish I was in charge of as the committee served the rest of the community when they came over for dinner ... The committee stayed for de-brief and a run-through of the next day's program after we cleared everything for Day 1.
My physical state at the end of day 1 (from waking up at 7am to reaching home at 7pm or so) - flat-out ...
Day 2 of retreat
As usual, being the committee, we had to be one of the earliest to arrive in order to set up the tables for attendance taking, etc.
I was scheduled to lead the morning chapel, and really praise God that everything went fine, even though Dan & myself only got to practice with the pianist on that morning itself. The comments about the morning chapel from some faculties were very encouraging and the college chaplain was rather pleased as I checked with him for feedback and comments. One faculty felt that the chapel should be part of the morning theme talk. He commented, "The songs chosen were so nice and appropriate and when you led us to sing the song to prepare our hearts to hear God's Word, I was so ready for the message ... and then the next thing I knew, it was the song of response ..." Haha, I couldn't agree all the more with what he said, but college chaplain said that the morning chapel is by itself, with no connections to the theme talk, so ...
The day went on with time with FG, sharing on spiritual formation and community living, the dance class competition and outdoor games. The committee was rather surprised that most of groups (FG mentors, ie. faculties, to be precise) were actually very sporting and participated in the competition with their group - practising hard for their dance, and even coordinated their attire, etc - some came with shirt & ties and sun glasses, some came with caps, and so on.
The other highlight of the day was the outdoor game, in which the groups were to find where the missing Chief Librarian was. We thank God for giving us good weather as the later part of the morning felt so cloudy. Well, I guess besides making everyone walk a great deal (to save cost on transportation, the various stations were around the vicinity of the college), the various station masters had fun "sabotaging" some of the groups, including our faculties =P and although the weather was really hot, but most of the groups were really of good sport, finishing all the 5 stations and finally succeeded in seeking out where the Chief Librarian is.
Some more soundbites contributed by xiao-mei on day 2 of retreat:-
Chairman's address should have been Chairperson's address - that was what one of our beloved faculty said to Wen, our lady chair for the committee, spotting the mistake in the retreat booklet.
At station 2 (xiao-mei's station) during outdoor game
Case 1
Game Master: Get me a non-alcholic exotic drink....it can be ANYTHING. It can be WATEVER you want. One of the team came back with a carton of cranberry / blackcurrent juice with aloe vera.
Game Master: This is not exotic??? It is JUICE.
Faculty mentor: There is aloe vera. WHo says aloe vera is not exotic? You drink!
Game Master decided to be nice and let it pass ... we will be at this faculty's "mercy" when the term begins ... haha
Case 2
Game Master : I want 2 kosongs
Another Faculty mentor came back with 2 empty mineral water bottles.
Girl: You said kosong (empty) ... you didn't say what must be empty ...
Game Master decided that you can't argue against creative logic as that. =)
Anyway, the day ended well and we were all thankful there were no injuries, heat stroke cases, or whatever. Haha, some of us were even prepared to be activated to drive our vehicles to the nearest hospital, or to perform CPR on anyone that is comatose. The committee had a quick de-brief and run-through of the next day's program as almost half of the committee had to be involved in the Opening Service rehearsal, which was at 7pm!! Guess what time the entire thing ended? About 8.30pm or so.
My physical state at the end of day 2 (waking up at 5.45am and reaching home at 9.15pm or so) - stoned and zonk ...
Day 3 of retreat
So far, the retreat went on fairly well and this last day kind of signal the climax and the close. We had the usual theme talk, a time of reflection, FG time, photo-taking, indoor event and Opening Holy Communion service, before dinner and the finale night.
Ant & myself were roped in to assist college chaplain in the service, besides a number of the others who formed the worship team and the dancers. I was super stressed with the entire flow of the service - more so with the uncomfortable "robe" or "gown" (whatever you call that) that makes me prespire like - and that was the smallest sized that the college chaplain could find. And then pal had to burst out with laughter when she saw me in that, commenting that I looked like one of snow-white's dwarf ... what a friend you are huh ... hmm... But well, the "worst" thing was being in the robe and serving communion wine from the chalice into the small communion cups held by the individuals. I was like, "make sure don't spill ... make sure don't overflow ... make sure follow the chaplain closely as he gives the bread you give the wine ... etc, etc"
Well, although the entire service went quite smoothly, there were some boo-boos which I've made that could have been prevented. I'm not going to talk about it here, ask me if you want to know *wink*
We had the finale night after dinner and the college retreat came to an official close. Even after the rest of the college went off, the committee stayed to clear the decorations we put up, went through all our logistic stuff to throw what we need to, etc. All in all, we stayed till about 9.35pm or so after helping Dan to clean up the HC items.
My physical state at the end of day 3 (waking up at 5.45am and reaching home at 10.15pm) - I need to be resurrected ...
After-thoughts about the retreat
- We gave out feedback forms and as usual, some feedback and comments were positive, while there are others that are simply negative and sarcastic. While we reminded ourselves to be open about the comments made (since we want feedback, we have to be open to receive it), we are inevitably "affected" by some comments made. Sigh* organizing any kind of event is always a thankless job, isn't it? People will never quite commend on a good job done, but they will always be on the look-out for slip-ups and bones they could pick from an egg ...
- On the other hand, we were very encouraged by people who took time to affirm and appreciate us and our efforts. Thanks, Dr T for the hugs you gave to some of us - it warms our hearts very much. Thanks, AP for the breakfast you bought for the comm. Thanks our fellow Year 2s who wrote lots of positive feedback on the forms and helped us serve dinner during the Finale night when we had so little time after the closing service to both eat and prepare for the night. Thanks, Dr S for refering me to the comments you wrote on the form "Thanks for the great work!" =)
- People seemed to be always on the look-out for things you don't do, ya? Things you made an extra effort to do, they don't seem to notice ... Our comm. made extra efforts to do quite a fair bit of things, but nobody noted them =( for example, during the outdoor game, it was deliberate that the station masters at 2 locations (out of the 5) conversed only in Mandarin - reason? so that some of the members in the team that are quiet and not so fluent in English (more so for the Chinese dept. people) will be "forced" to take over and brief the team at those locations. Extra efforts were also put in to make name plates (is that what it's called) for the tables to indicate where each FG is sitting, as compared to past years, using paper and sticking them with scotch tapes, only to be blown away by the strong wind at the dining hall. Extra efforts were made to cut down the expenses, which explained why the outdoor game was held around the vicinity of the college, on top of the fact that the comm. felt that it would be a good time to allow the new students to be familiarise with what's around the vicinity of the college. The other extra effort was to involve the others in the college that were not involved in the retreat to be judges, etc -for example the Chief Librarian, Assistant Librarian, one of the admin staff, spouse of one of the faculty, etc.
- It spoils your mood to hear some sarcasm from people who think that running a retreat is a piece of cake. How would you feel when you hear things like, "wow, you all having fun at people's expense huh ...", "wow, you all having special dinner" (when we asked Uncle Liew to packet our dinner for us so that we can have a quick dinner outside MPH to prepare for finale night), "wow, you all so comfortable at all your stations, make us walk so much ...", "this whole retreat is run like a youth camp ...", "what community living, more like community missing ..." (when the video clips we screen showed familiar faces of year 2s, or most of us from the retreat com.). Well, guess these people think that it's easy to plan a well-balanced retreat program, or they think that it's easy to get people to act and produce all those video clips ...
- Nobody notices the work at the background - all the nights gone into sorting out the students' data, all the time spent to prepare as best as we can for each day of the retreat, missing out on the programs to arrange tables for the meals, etc
- Oversight on the part of the comm. - we totally forgot that the outdoor game would end back in college, hence forgetting to check with the cafeteria auntie if she can extend the cafe opening hours, so that those who want some cold drinks and ice cream can purchase them from her (though we provided cold ice water). It is also our oversight concerning the FGs using time for FGs to practice their dance instead - but I guess sometimes it's really up to individual FG mentors??
- Some said the retreat program is too packed, but I thought the wonderful thing about the retreat is every program runs according to schedule, nothing was held back. In fact, some programs even ended earlier, and there was "extra" time for other impromptu things (like meeting for the respective years as a class, etc); there were free-time slotted in as well!
Well, the conclusion I have at the end of the entire thing is this ... - try as you may to please everyone, you will end up pleasing no one. Just do what we can to the best of our ability and leave the rest to the Lord.
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