Went on a camp which was promised to be "chilled" and "relaxed", but we ended up rowing 24km down a river against the wind for hours. I also forgot to pack in pants, underwear, toothbrush, or money (I'm an idiot).

The bathrooms were horrible with spiders in every stall and moths THE SIZE OF MY FACE (no exaggeration), who flew around, even in to one girl's sleeping bag.. I counted 4 spiders in one of the showers, FOUR!

Two people got nose-bleeds and their lungs hurt if they sneezed/coughed/etc., one guy got his bank card eaten by an ATM, one guy lost his wallet, and a teacher got his credit card stolen.

Everybody was arguing with each other, one guy shouted at 5 girls in one night and made 2 of them cry. I caught people gossiping about me behind my back, and I was present when people were gossiping about a close friend of mine. So now the whole grade is pissed off at each other, covered in cuts, bruises, bites, and blisters (I personally have five), and our matric dance is tomorrow (basically the South Africa equivalent of a prom for our last year in school).

After this I get to school and receive my amazing D, D, C, C report card.

Finally get home and hear the [censored] CHERRY ON TOP: My girlfriend, who's going with me to the dance, has dislocated her hip and knee while on her own camp (she's a year below me), and now has to wear crutches to the dance :/

What IDIOT plans a camp right before a huge event like a matric dance?!

*sigh*

Ah, the happy years.

Bad day?

Ah school camp, I still remember our trip. Things always get crappy at school camp, we had our share of fun though tricking people with telling how a snake got into ones sleeping-bag or spreading rumours how 1 student jumped of the tiny pier and into the sea killing himself. Lots of other pranks aswell and stupid [censored]. I wouldn't have endured if we didn't think of fun stuff to do.

Crappy things:
- Falling into a small river
- Getting stuck in a swampy forest
- Getting a fishing hook stuck in your thumb
- Snakes and other nasty creatures
- Sleeping while being wet in a cold tent in the middle of nowhere (we had a hut though which I eventually convinced the teacher I had to sleep in)

Glad those days are over, must have been 6-8 years ago?

Indeed. That seems like an all right week to me, compared to the way the past couple months have been in my family and surrounding circles. So far for 2012 we're batting three funerals and one near-paralysis. And it's only March!

@ the OP - you can just call me the perspective fairy.

Your school trips sound crap. When I was at school we went to Alton Towers and Disneyland.

T.I.A (This is Africa)?

fixed

All I know about camping is to make damn sure that you aren't the first one to fall asleep.

Over here we didn't really have camping trips, but we did have residential trips sometimes. I think they're deliberately designed so you have a rubbish time.

At the one I went to in primary school when I was about 10, the food was crappy, it rained the whole weekend and me and a friend were poisoned by some dodgy orange juice. She threw up in the sink and got the poison out, but I couldn't and instead fainted and nearly drowned later that day when we were collecting bugs and plants in the river. The showers didn't work, and when I got home my hair was so unkempt and knotty I had to have it cut.

The school should have threatened legal action or got our money back really, it definitely wasn't safe. On the upside, on that trip I discovered I was a natural at rock climbing.

Was that how you got to breakfast, the stairs not working either?

The only trips I've been to were in elementary school. I vaguely remember a trip to Philadelphia and seeing some of the monuments there, some science center with an IMAX that made me sick, and a visit to http://www.medievaltimes.com/.

I opted not to go to those camping trips in high school, they didn't sound that great to me.

Never heard of any sort of camping trip in schools before. Hell the only real field trip I'm going to go on for the first time (that isn't just trying to convince me to be an engineer or something) in three years is a trip to Six Flags which should be really cool.

Hey she didn't dump you!

Then again she might dump you after or during prom.

What's a matric dance?

He explained in the OP.

I don't remember my camp too much, but it was fun because behind my cabin was a huckleberry patch that stretched as far as the eye could see. Huckleberries are my favorite kind of berry, you see.

4 SPIDERS! No way!!

You could see the positives, that trip built a lot of character.

EDIT: Accidentally posted instead of edited. My bad.

OP, that's hardly bad at all. Yes a lot of people gossiped behind your back but you still have your health, your girlfriend is still going out with you regardless if she's on crutches or not. I wouldn't worry about a dance, it's just one event out of a lifetime of events. The grades aren't great but you didn't get anything stolen from you at all, consider the alternative, it could've been a lot worse.

Downside:
upside:
no money to steal & not a lot of your laundry to clean & surely got some good cardio in

Downside:

upside:
Spiders: the joys of communing with nature
Moths: good time to practice killing B.O.U.S.'s (Bugs Of Unusual Size (handy in many games)) additionally they may be used to make more pants (think green, can't be wasteful)

Downside:

Upside:
Out with the bad air in with the good...

Downside:

Upside:
definite character builder plus a dance to remember

Downside:
Upside:
not the worst I've heard this week

Downside:
Upside:
She can't run out on you, just don't make her made now that she's armed


Upside:
it wasn't you

Possibly makes me thankful I was educated in England.

I remember my last school camp in Grade 9 last year was awesome.

We went to Hobart the capital of Tasmania, I was in a cabin with an awesome group of people, I had an awesome team for laser tag, we went to Port Arthur, I had the BEST meat pie I have EVER had, we were allowed to walk around the city and buy stuff, I got to hang out with the girl I have a crush on a lot and we went to parliament house (which was much more interesting than it sounds).

Only downside: the cabin site was a [censored] hole. :/

I can only hope this year will be awesome as well.

Even though its a long way from California to South Africa the O.P.'s post makes me smile and think "that all sounds so familiar". It may seem like a crap week, but there'll be a day you'll look back on it fondly. I know, I know, sounds ridiculous, but trust me, it will happen.

Why would she dump me?


It wasn't optional


True but I guess I'm just a cynic at heart.

Safe? SAFE? SAFE???

Try camping on Kaho'olawe. The oh so happy favorite bombing and training grounds of the US forces from WW2-1990's! While bombing the toilet i come to find out there was a 50lbs bomb not 10 feet away and 4 feet below the surface from our bathroom...and it was a pressure activated bomb...Cool trip though. Not exactly safe but it was part of a Hawaiian Rejuvenation movement thing I opted to go to for because of my teachers request.

Zodiak into a rock fairly high surf little beach with a few trashbags of gear each. Keawe(Kay-ah-vay) thorns, centipedes and scorpions(not too venomous but they sting like a mother@#%$#!) populate the island. Little vegetation as the water table was shattered from bombing by the US Military. A lot of unexploded ordinance left over after the US alleged "clean-up". Hot salty humid climate near the beach in which we were working most of the time to reconstruct traditional housing and carrying 50lbs buckets of rocks for use in making the Hale(house) foundation. Wake up at 4am every morning to take a traditional bath naked(with girls hehe was optional but I gotta love the Hawaiian girls that went with us, good looking too and I noticed some wandering eyes ) in the freezing ocean at the sound of the Pu(conch shell horn). Drinking Awa(Kava) and staying up all night talking story with the uncles, aunties and pulling pranks on the girls...

Hmmm...I started this off as something that was supposed to show how unsafe it was but now I am remembering it as one of the funnest things I have ever done while camping. Too effing bad they stopped going there because of some political BS...it was safe enough! I wonder if the program started up again...


ehhh dont mind me, just rambling on.