Hmmm, yes, ATC. Actually, ATC!!! ARGH!!!!! Yes its over, but just posting this is making all the horrible memories come back. I think I will do a detailed account of it, so that 20 years later when I come back and look at the posts, I will realize how ATC has changed my life.
Day 1, May 13 Friday
Friday the 13th. Not a good sign already. Went through lessons without really taking in what was happening. Had a study block at the end, but somehow we managed to drag the time until there was only 20 mins left to change. Seriously, class ended at 1. We lugged our stuff to J-shared because our classroom was being used for oral. We hung around waiting for Zek Min who was running here and there, forgetting one thing or another. Revised IFC for a bit, then went for lunch. Rushed to change, and lugged even more stuff to the foyer, when actually it was supposed to be the koi pond. Smart rite. Min Yi has this super huge bruise on her arm from carrying multiple campbags at once. Seriously, I think our arms died before ATC even started.
Ran around like headless chickens refilling bottles and getting last minute writing materials from popular. Yes, we were still buying it when it was 2.55. Sec 3s were shouting outside for us to hurry up. I think their reporting went quite successfully since LCP Yunshan only took a short time. Then there was bunk cleaning. I think we still sort of screwed up even after Min Yi’s careful planning. I guess main problem was three plattonmaates were at third lang oral and nat had fallen out. That left only 6 of us to do bunk cleaning. Specialists checked 3 times before finally being satisfied.
C and C by sec 3s at cover walkway. Just drilled and drilled and drilled. Field cooking was actually sort of fun this year. Except we sort of messed up the food. Still. It was the only enjoyable meal.
Night walk was the one and only fun activity. Went around places in school searching for ‘glow-in-the-dark’ stars. Except that they didn’t glow. I think our group (LCP Shan Shan, Part A Nicole, Part A Aricco and me) came in second or third.
Slept from 11.30-4.30.
Day 2, May 14th Saturday
PT was tiring. All platoonmates suffered elbow grazes from doing planks at the quadrangle, except me. Even tough I did all three sets. I wonder why. Even saw part As with the injuries. And they only did like 1 or 2 sets. Ran I round, with cheers. Sec 3s were really really loud. I think some of them lost their voices by the end of ATC. Had OPLP in our bunk. But the only possible hiding places were under tables and inside cupboards. So. We failed. Had some other tests which I can only vaguely remember. TD presentation was ok I guess. Part As seemed to understand most of the things we were talking about. What happened in between lunch and dinner was thee same stuff. Except we had started clearing the few thousand IPUs we owed specialists. Come to think of it, we never did manage to clear it last year.
Had a bath (FINALLY!) and supper was amusing with LCP Shan Shan and her ‘a british lady, a cup of high tea, CHING!’ Slept at 10.30 even though lights out was at 9.30 because I was expecting fire-drill.BUT…
Day 3, May 15th Sunday
Rudely awakened by fire drill at 4.30. In the morning. Specialists were really harsh on LCP Yun Shan who was the IC. Just rebutted all her ideas and scolded her for not knowing things she couldn’t possibly have known.
Staircase circuit was exhausting. But the whole company managed to survive it. Even Part As. They are really fit. I think Part A Nicole ran 2.4km in 13 something minutes. Even I took 14 plus minutes. Had profi, which we screwed up pretty badly.
Then, finally, finally, finally, Passing Out Parade. Went up to stage to receive cert from Ms Zhao. Fake promotion yet again. I think we have all learnt to live with it already.
Came home, took a nice long bath and just crashed on the bed. Too tired to go for ballet. L Missed 2 lessons already. But I slept for 4 hours straight in the afternoon. And another 7 hours at night.
Somehow this year’s ATC seemed more ‘memorable’ than last year’s. Is it because the duration was longer? Or maybe it was the specialists? Anyway, I am really dreading next year’s…
No comments:
Post a Comment