Year 9 Hong Kong Camp: Was This Better Than Going Overseas?
By Bethany Lam
The camp was deemed ‘the best camp in Secondary’ by multiple teachers, and my expectations were high. But as we go over the memorable times I had with my friends and teachers during Emb@rc week, can it really be the best camp?
Day 1 was the most boring day. After the briefing, we played a game that required hands. It was a fast-reaction game, and the only part I enjoyed was hitting my friends (though it wasn’t necessary in the game). When we were finished, we were able to go to the most anticipated part; our dorms. We were staying there for five days.
The camp was deemed ‘the best camp in Secondary’ by multiple teachers, and my expectations were high. But as we go over the memorable times I had with my friends and teachers during Emb@rc week, can it really be the best camp?
Day 1 was the most boring day. After the briefing, we played a game that required hands. It was a fast-reaction game, and the only part I enjoyed was hitting my friends (though it wasn’t necessary in the game). When we were finished, we were able to go to the most anticipated part; our dorms. We were staying there for five days.
Fortunately, we weren’t disappointed. It was very big, and the beds were much bigger than last year. The bathroom was also very big, and although it was clear we had to line up to shower, it had enough stalls that 5 or 6 people could shower at the same time.
After making the beds and settling down, we had lunch. It wasn’t bad. The main dish was pasta and the rest of the plates were seasoned in the same way.
Following lunch, we had activities to do: tie-dye, floor curling, archery, and VR. I thought they would be more fun, but when I actually did those activities, it didn’t live up to my expectations.
The next activity was our evening activities. It was after dinner (pasta). Our group’s first activity was karaoke. The loudspeaker blasted songs as girls sang and danced to their favorite songs. Me? I jumped around swinging my injured friend while shouting the lyrics.
The second day was thankfully more exciting. After a breakfast yet again containing pasta, we went to our STEAM Popsicle building. Using popsicles, we made bridges and completed games. The most exciting part of that day was the Adventure Park. It was incredible, although some of it was a little terrifying and hard. Our last activity was building a Roma catapult. It wasn’t as exciting as it sounds, because we’ve done it before and there wasn’t that many water balloons. But because of the Adventure Park, I thought that day had to be my favorite part of camp.
But when the next day came, I knew I was wrong. It started off great, consisting of breakfast with cereal (our first meal was a different main), eggs, corn, sausages, and of course, pasta.
Then, after traveling to the kayak and SUB site we smeared sunscreen on our faces and got ready for our first water-based activity. We were briefed for around 20 minutes, and then in pairs kayaked away. My pair was one of the leading kayaks, so we followed the first kayak towards another island.
My friend and I were proud we were the second-quickest kayakers, but it was short-lived. Why? Because the first four kayaks (including ours) were going in the wrong direction. After being motioned to turn to the right way, the eight of us quickly kayaked towards the group leader.
Our pride came back. We still beat the others who were going the right way.
It meant that we had taken the longer way but still arrived before the others.
We stayed there for a bit and played games. The brave ones even jumped into the water to get wet. However, the fun we were having had to end. The next activity after lunch was stand-up paddling. But honestly, that wasn’t what I was waiting for. Ms Gordan had already told us beforehand what we were having for lunch. Rice. My friend's face showed anticipation and excitement for a different meal after eating pasta for breakfast, lunch, and dinner so many times, and I knew my face was similar. We even got fruit for the first time.
When we were done, excitement to go stand-up paddling kept a smile on my face. I couldn’t wait to push others and be pushed off. The water was cold, so it was the best temperature to swim. It didn’t take a long time for our whole group to get the hang of it so soon, we were paddling around the site. The teachers who were there were very nice and supportive, and Ms Laughton even let us push her off.
It ended too quickly, and when it did it was messy. Everybody's stuff was everywhere and there were only so few changing rooms. But the whole experience was still fun. That is why this was my favorite day. We got rice, fruit, swimming time, and a movie for evening entertainment.
The fourth day was still fun, but the start was a bit boring. In groups, we raced around finding checkpoints to get scores. After that, we (and by we I mean the smart groupmates) learned how to use this complicated map, and I learned how to use the compass. After all, we can’t have everything. My groupmates and I used math to estimate the time it would from one point to another, and wrote down the degree so that the compass would point to the right direction.
All of this orienteering actually led up to our hiking. The estimation and degrees were actually going be used by us. The hike wasn’t very tiring, and it was shorter than what I thought. I chatted with my friends and my teachers, and really enjoyed the whole thing.
We thought that we would do our last evening entertainment, but instead we were called into the auditorium to have an End of Camp Quiz. My friends and I didn’t want to do it but in the end we actually won second.
On the last day, we did our last rotating activities. Rock climbing and abseiling. Rock climbing was a hobby I always enjoyed doing, so I was happy to be able to do it at camp. Then we had abseiling. At first, my friends and I thought it was actually abseiling down a rock mountain. Instead, we walked down a short board. It was still fun.
For the last session, we did some climbing activities that were with the whole year group. After being on this campus for 5 days, we always wanted to climb them. It was exciting to play and the favourite part to me was jumping off and letting our groupmates reign us back down.
Overall, this year's camp was better than last year, and it was really fun. These are the positives: the camp dorms, swimming time, groups, campus. These are the negatives: the food, activities, HKYAP camp directors.
These are the reasons: I chose those as positives because the dorms were really big and really clean, we were allowed to jump off our kayaks, the groups were good, and the campus was very new and clean. As for the negatives, the food’s main dish was always pasta, the side dishes were seasoned with the same spices, and we didn’t get fruit for the first few days. Although it wasn’t fully HKYAP’s fault that some of the activities were boring, we had done them multiple times in the past. I think they should think of activities that aren’t’ stereotypical camp stuff that every camp has. Last, but not least, the HKYAP camp directors were a little sexist, always implying that the boys had better abilities than the girls.
If you are in Year 8 right now, or some younger years, I want you to know if you have questions about the HKYAP Year 9 camp, just read this article and you would know a lot about it!