12 days

in the end, 10 days of brunei became 12 days, thanks to kalimantan. oh wells, the past 2 days have been ultimate "sian-ness" and slacking around doing nothing at all. anywayy the stupid delay of my flight made my memories of socjot fade even quicker.

wad picnic in the jungle, strollin the park. it was all bullshit! it was much tougher than that! instead of a navigation exercise, it should be called mountain climbing or something. i think there isn't a single piece of 1m by 1m of flat land in that jungle of brunei! At certain parts we had to use our four limbs to bring us up the steep slope with no friction at all. At one point in time i even almost died from slipping down. U noe how scary it is to look back and see the slope turns down forever and ever.

Btw, the place that we went is called Temburong, which is separated from the main cities of brunei darrusalem. And we had our exercise at Zebu and Temada area, which is basically just jungles and more jungles and no end to it. Our first day was fine, just walking around finding the checkpoints and i was still able to contribute a bit to the navigation. Then night falls, and our second day started with our morale low cuz of the rain in the morning. we took really long to find out first and second checkpoints and by the time we left the Zebu area, all the other teams have alreadyy proceeded to Mt Biang.

Oh well, i shouldn't dwell too much about wad we did cuz firstly, it will be too boring and secondly, it's supposed to be a classified exercise, isn't it? Anyway the camp where we stayed in (Lakiun Camp) was pretty much like a long house int he kampong with 90 over ppl squeezing in one long house made of wood. there were two rows of double decker beds lining up. It was pretty dirty at first but we got used to it fast enough. Then the cookhouse! i had a pretty bad impression abt it at first cuz it smelt bad. Then i thought it wasn't that bad cuz the food was good, but before my impression turned for the better, I sat down on the bench and saw flies crawling about on the table. Oh my goodness. and my soup which started off clear, ended up with flies swimming in it when i finished my food. How gross! anywayy i must say that the food is really not bad.
Brunei is a funny place, with many big funny insects flying around.
THen showering time. the shower tap is really terrible. It DRIPS water instead of pouring down and we take really long to bathe, waiting for the slow stream of water to wash awaythe soap on us. In the end, some of us resorted to water hoses to bathe.

Next, onto Brunei jungles. One thing in brunei jungle which we don't have in singapore's is THORN PLANTS, the terror of all. Have you ever seen a plant with stem full of thorns? Well, i haven't. so i was really impressed by it at first, then disgusted by it when i first grabbed it accidentally as i was falling. sometimes the thorns are so small that u can't see it and when u brush past it, ur uniform gets stuck to it and it's not easy to take them off. Another terror of the jungle is BEE/ WASPS HIVES. i've never seen such BIG hives before that i was really afraid any slightest touch will activate the raid of the bees. but thankfully we were spared from that. The biggest i've seen was as big as a 2-year-old baby.

anywayy one thing i've learnt from this trip, and that is WATER IS PRECIOUS. i almost died when i ran out of water on the third day, and damn was i so happy to see a stream and all of us started filling our water bottles by the stream.

all in all, it was a GOOD experience but i really wouldn't want to go through it again.

10 days

hoho finally going to brunei! not that i'm hyped up about going there, but it's really quite interesting, isn't it, to be able to go overseas for training, especially when it's my first time. Oh well, from all the stories heard, i'm feeling a bit worried as it doesn't seem as easy as i had expected. Hmm, i shall see when i go over there!

anywayy I've been teaching japanese to my syndicate mates as we had so much free time yesterday. Can youbelieve it? We did literally -nothing- yesterday. We stayed in bunk all day long, except for meals and submission of our luggauge. So, given so much time, my friends started to pick up little phrases in japanese. Looking at them getting so excited learning japanese, i could recall the times i was like them too, absorbing as much japanese as i could. I hope their interest doesn't end there, as mine didn't end where i started, but instead carried on till today, and forever and ever.

Over the past few days, i haven't been feeling really happy about things. Looking at my friends who used to at least smile at me or initiate a conversation back in ocs, they seemed to have changed a big deal. They treat me like strangers now, and don't even bother to look at me when i walk past them. Have i changed? Or are they the ones? This is terrible.

Besides, I finished reading Murakami Haruki's Norwegian Wood within two days. I read so fast because firstly, we had so much time; secondly, it was my buddy's book and i had to return to him in two days. So i literally flipped through the pages, and tried to absorb as much storyline as possible. Well,i must say that he's a really good writerin terms of description and i really wished i had the time to read it slowly to appreciate its minute details. Other than that, the book is more pornographic than i expected it to be, talking about the life of teenagers who drift about in life.

Ok, i shall go take a nap before i get ready to move off to brunei! See you in ten days!

socjot

What is socjot?
It stands for Support Officer Cadet Jungle Orientation Training. It is basically a ten-day course in Brunei where we, officer cadets of support arms, in my case, arty, will be going through. When people hear of Brunei, the first thing that comes to their mind is, woah! mount biang! JCC (Jungle confidence course)! dam xiong. But no worries, I am rather optimistic about it. Why am I so optimistic? It's not because I'm confident of clearing the jungles in brunei alone, or surviving on eatin grass bark and wild boars. It is because it's "just a picnic in the jungle". OH, don't get mistaken. I wouldn't taking it so lightly if not for the quote from our very own arty instructors. While people in infantry have to go through the gruelling 10 day course, which includes JCC, and a long tumultous navigation that tests the limits of one's mental and physical capabilities, we on the other hand, are given combat rations for all the four days of navigation out in the jungle. Apart from the four days (compared to ten days) in the jungle, we will be spending the rest of our time (ie 6 days) in the "comfort" of the bunks in brunei, not forgetting the most promising R&R on the last day. Haha, no promises though, as the ten days in brunei might turn out a nightmare, so we shall see how it goes!

Putting brunei aside, I am actually bringing lots of *reading materials back to my bunk, as I foresee there will be much free time this week too! Let's rejoice! And welcome back our half-converted civilian life!
*One japanese novel, one japanese magazine and NEWSWEEK of issues from June to September.

artyy

15 weeks have passed since i entered ocs, 6 months have passed since i entered army. I've been through so much for the past 6 months, notably the past 15 weeks. I must say I've grown up a great deal since then. Looking back at myself 6 months ago, and staring into the mirror now, how much have i changed? Physically n mentally, I've become stronger. In terms of mindsets, I've matured. I guess this is what army does to people. Of course, I have learnt many lessons of life too. I've learnt to see my strenghts, and more importantly, my weaknesses. In school, it is always easy to display one's strengths in front of others, and hide our own weaknesses. It is easier to live through our strengths without revealing other weak spots. However, as we grow up, as we enter the real world, our weaknesses can no longer be hidden. We can no longer decieve ourselves by just showing our stronger self. Our life is continuous, full of ups and downs, and during these downs, we have no choice but to live through it. No matter how other people look at us during these downs, we have to stand up again and continue our journey.

This is what army taught me. Unlike what people see me in school, or in general, before i enter the army, I am actually not as perfect or good as what many percieve. In our school days, we can always act through the short spans of our "lives" in class, and revert to our trueselves after that. In reality, our actings will be exposed because people constantly look at us day in day out. In the army, our buddies stay with us five or six days a week, they incessantly look at our actions. Be it during training, after training, during meals, during rest times or when we go to sleep, our buddies behave like judges who scrutinize on our behaviours. There is no way we can hide our true personalities and characters. That is why we are our truselves in the army. I must say I have seen most of my weaknesses, many of which I haven't known till I entered the army; and many of which I never wanted to reveal to others. But inevitably, people realize our shortcomings, and true friends are those who see beyond our shortcomings and accept them as part of us.

The 14 weeks in ocs have been enriching. I admit I haven't performed well, partly due to my attitude towards it. Perhaps it's not my style, perhaps it's not my type of battlefield. I need a battlefield which suits me, one that gives me the psychological edge over the rest, that allows me to excel. Perhaps arty is the place, maybe it's not. Irregardless of whether I perform or not, what i hope is to enjoy these days as an officer cadet, and in the end, commission successfully as a second lieutenant and enjoy my privelleges. After all, no matter what we become, we still go through the same two years, and there's always more to learn beyond the army. Our lives really begin after these two years of "introduction to the society", or i liek to call it "introduction to our true selves".