M-ASS proudly presents….. (Adeshola)

Arts Camp 2012!

I’d heard so many people talk about Arts Camp and all the shenanigans people got up to, so when I was finally a first Year Arts student I was pretty keen to attend. After some serious Facebook stalking to find out the details, I was told to secure tickets (they only sell 100) for these extremely popular event, you had to be on the South Lawn somewhere between 6-6.30am! So after spending Wednesday of O-week making numerous phone calls to cover my work shifts, I was all ready to go to bed and get up sleeplessly early the next day.

So the alarm went off at 5.00am and surprisingly, I was not tired and quickly get dressed and make my way down to uni. For those of you who aren’t usually at the uni at 6.00am it’s really quite spooky in the dark, adding to the already eerie mood that the Old Arts building has. Sprinting up the stairs to the South Lawn (quite paranoid I was going to find 100 people already there) , I found a couple of groups waiting around and joined a group of girls as we began the 3 hour wait. Watching the sun come up and feeling the concrete beaneath us warm up kept us busy until finally the M-ASS committee arrived and we began to fill out forms and get excited for what was going to be an amazing weekend!

On Friday we met our fellow campers in the Old Quad and were placed into coloured teams. I was put in the one and only Black team (although we soon become known as ‘The Champions’ as that’s how much we rocked this camp). After a good solid 20 minutes of ghosting targeted students (and a couple of professors!) around uni and sometimes even across the whole of the South lawn, we went on a booze run, stocking up on cheap goon. Then, it was on the bus with a short stop before we arrived at Camp Allambee, somewhere in Gippsland, although I don’t think any of us were entirely sure of our bearings.

There are some distinct differences about uni camps versus school camps: Firstly, ALCOHOL (and wow this makes a huge difference!) and secondly, now single-sex dorms. So, we ran freely off to find our cabins. The girls in my cabin (yes, we ended up in a single sex dorm due to the guys kicking us out of theirs!) were all amazingly lovely and hilarious! First night was “Rubix Cube” night where everyone had to wear different coloured clothes and aim to be in one colour by the end of the night. Heading down to the shed at the bottom of the campsite, the party began with “boat races” of people sculling beer and then we danced the night away to the skills of Dj Ben (a fellow M-ASS member).

The next day consisted of rain, rain and rain! We were woken up by the ridiculously energised M-ASS leaders who barged into our cabin to wake us up with renditions of songs from the night before. Then, after a breakfast in the dining hall we spent the day in our cabin avoiding the rain. Later in the afternoon, Black Team reunited to complete some “challenges” that earned us points. We rehearsed and performed a 5 minute Musical to perform to all campers, finished a goon sack in under 5 minutes, and watched two of our (extremely brave) team members roll down the steep hill in the pouring rain! Then, we got changed into our “uniforms” (ie. school girl, cop, nurse) and again spent the night dancing till we could dance no more in the shed (note: My calf muscles have only just recovered from the pain of dancing so much this night!).

Sunday morning we were awoken at 8.30am and groggily packed up and cleaned the campsite before hearing the much anticipated announcement of the winning team…. Which no surprise was my team, Black Team!!! Our prize was free tickets to the Week 3 party which I’m already looking forward to. Then, it was back on the bus and before we knew it, camp was over and we were pulling up at the Grattan Street bus top back at Uni.

Without a doubt, Arts Camp has been my favourite (and wildest!) University experience so far! To future students, I highly recommend attending a camp of your faculty or even one of a different faculty. Such an amazing experience and a great way to form friendships that extend beyond tutorials and lectures. As a result, my fellow Arts Campers are popping up all over Uni which really make such a big campus feel less scary! Thanks so much to the amazing Melbourne Arts Student Society for making us freshers feel so welcome and organising such a brilliant camp!

Adeshola