So wow. This weekend, I have to say, has been much better than the last. And I'm about to tell you why. Hopefully I still remember everything. Here we go.
Friday
I woke up at like 6:15 AM (wow) and couldn't go back to sleep again because, we'd be heading to a forest reserve place! WOOOO. So yeah, I got a whole lot of other things ready after I woke up and put some decent clothes on. After that I went to school and well, it was pretty laid back, I guess. That day we only needed to bring books for one class, then we'd have lunch, and then ciao! Haha, yes. I was pretty excited and scared at the same time. I didn't know what to expect. I mean, I knew there was gonna be forest surrounding us at our stay, but well, I was mostly worried about the bathrooms. Silly, I know, but really. But yeah, we left school at around 12:30 PM ish and reached the forest reserve after a really bumpy bus ride. I sat alone. Haha. Ha. H.
Our bus dropped us off at the bottom of this hill, and we had to walk up the hill to the house-thing we'd be staying in. Holy moley it was a reallyyy tirringgg walk, but it was really nice when we finally reached the house because it was actually really pretty. I was expecting a run down fort made of 100% wood and no nails. But yeah, it was a nice house. So we walked into the house, and kinda sat around the place. Then we were introduced to these two kakaks, as we were to call them, and they talked to us about the house we were staying in, what they do, and so on. They were really nice and I liked them. After a bit, we were left to do our own things for about an hour. So we went out to this small clearing of grass outside our house and kinda played games. Well, my classmates did, but a me and few others decided to sit around and spectate. They played Ice and Fire, and the funniest part about it was that one of my friends, Jordan, picked up two leaves from the ground and started jumping around and cheering. Like really. He had moves and cheered, and clapped the leaves together and it was hilarious. XD Oh gosh AHHAHA. After that, we got ready to go to the stream to sample things.
Before that, the two kakaks briefed us on what to do and how to look for things, then we left the house and walked there. Honestly, the walk was really nice and very calming. I walked with Iris and Sarah and Arthur. We looked around, observed the trees, and it was lovely. One part that I especially liked about the walk was the few eucalyptus (as Arthur said it was) trees we saw as we walked. It was beautifully coloured with so many hues and it was really a very nice sight. If it weren't for the other guys, we would've definitely missed the stream we were supposed to hang around at, because it was sandwiched between two groups of trees, and actually looked a bit like a place that shouldn't be touched. But it was the exact opposite. The water was really nice and cool and the sand was really soft. After getting our nets to catch stuff, we set off into the stream to look for creatures. There was one part, were Abby found this slug. And it was really weird, because the thing was so stretchy and really weird.
Later, a small group of us decided to venture into the deeper part of the stream, and my goodness, we found a toad! It was yellow and was covered in muddy green spots, and it was really cool. We caught the frog, and brought it back to the other guys. When Ernest saw the frog he screamed, but when Damien saw it he SCREAMED. Like screamed. And he sounded like a girl and everyone laughed because he was so scared. We continued to find more things. Later, Met and I went to find more things together, and we found this little hole and saw a whole group or index-finger sized fish. It was really cool, and we tried to catch them but failed miserably. Honestly, he was scared to go into the deeper side of the stream because it was darker. So he shone his torchlight on literally everything. Every time he felt something he'd go "What was that?"
I understood how he felt, because all the leeches and slugs came from the part of the stream, so I was sure that this part would be filled with 'em. I told him that, and well, it scared him a bit. But he crossed over anyway, and it was really nice getting to know him like that. He's a very nice person. Soon, we gave up trying to catch the fish and returned tiredly to the others. After more exploring, we decided it was time to go back and finish out reports on the stream. According to the PH readings, the stream we sampled was clean and good to go. Hhahha. We all walked back to the house.
When we got back, we saw that dinner was waiting for us, and we all ate. What I liked about this caterer was that his food was really good, and so were his drinks. After that we changed into different clothes because we were going into the jungle at night to walk. And really, I was excited for this, because well, the night was realllyyy cool and the jungle is a whole lot more exciting at night. I also kinda wanted to be bitten by a leech, but sadly, didn't get to :(
After changing we all grabbed our torchlights and headed into the clearing and started shining them everywhere because 1. it was really cool, 2. we probably wanted to go blind, 3. it was super dark, 4. it was still super cool. After that we all lined up two by two, and I stood next to Vanessa, who is actually really nice. We got briefed a bit and then headed off. To cut the long story slightly shorter, the jungle walk was awesome. There was one part where we stopped, turned off our flashlights, closed our eyes and listened to the sounds of the jungle. One of the kakaks asked us to count how many sounds they heard. I found it really hard, but I finalized with five different sounds. All different, all magical. We continued walking, and reached this path where we had to walk single file, which I felt was okay, till the path got steeper, had more obstacles, ginormous ants and finally, a drop where we had to hold a rope tightly for our lives to get to the bottom. Soon though, it was over and when we reached the house, I was exhausted and the only thing I wanted was a shower. Which I finally got after a very long wait.
But well, I felt it was okay since I got to talk to Met and Sarah. After showering and changing into a lovely pair of sweat pants and a T-shirt, we were told there was supper, so I went outside, because the table is outside, helped myself to a bun, and a cup of this liquid which I thought was Milo with a lot a lot of milk. Met said that there was Horlicks in there too, but I couldn't taste it. As I was eating, Ernest, who walked out shirtless (gawd why) grabbed a bun and looked at me and said, "What. Never see shirtless guys before meh?"
And I replied saying, "Sorry, the only shirtless person I've seen is my dad." And he nodded. He ate outside and we talked a bit, I also talked a bit with Met and Iris and Joash. It was nice, really. Bonding with my classmates. Partly because I've never seen them in their PJs (or shirtless) before. After supper and many cups of Milo, we went back into the house to get ready for bed. We pulled the mattresses out into the living area because it was cooler than the dorms. The living area had to be divided into two parts, one for girls, and the other for the guys. And our loving divider, teacher Lyn, slept in the middle. The guys got to sleep with the preserved frogs in the glass jars that night, while we got the window area where it was really cool.
However, we didn't get to bed that soon. We went into the girls' dorm and decided to play truth or dare, which I honestly thought was half boring, half exciting. But yeah, soon we got tired and retreated to our beds. I said goodnight to Met, Arthur, Damien, Ming Zhun, Joash, and then snuggled into my sleeping bag. After trying to decided which sleeping positing I wanted to be in, I finally dozed off.
To be continued in Part 2
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