Trans Canada Expedition - Day 1

14 July 2013

Today, the leadership woke up at 6:00 while junior leaderships and students woke up at 6:30.  As usual, overall cleaning took a while as all overseas students were preparing to leave, while Trans Canada students began packing for their upcoming exciting expedition. With the busy day going in a rather chaotic sense, Trans Canada students began coming in. Given that several students were overseas, piles of administration work followed. During the afternoon, Billy drove the overseas students of Me3 Foundations – Alpha to their sad departure, (goodbye my friends!) Giving extensive amount of time for the pre-trip planning. Unfortunately, our work speed was inefficient and resulted with Billy giving us a lecture when he came back. Billy gave a brief idea of what was up ahead, what was realistic, tips, rules, and helped us back on track. We were gradually improving and picking up speed. With all of this in mind, everyone took a small break to have dinner at our favorite, the tasty noodle house. Well, that’s it for the day, hope everyone will have the greatest and most unforgettable experience of their lives!

Marco

            Today was a tired day. We had to do work for almost the whole day, we also got jobs, I am the Master Blog Typer. But because no one wrote their blogs yet so I have to wash 2 Sprinters. We also went through the 101 again because there is 3 new people.

Kendra

            Today is the first day of camp and it was really tiring. Who knew that planning a trip can be so hard? There were many things to plan and everyone was running around trying to get things done so we can start our trip. Today, I also met some new people and got to work with them. Hopefully, we can get things done by tomorrow and start our trip. The meals for today was simple because everyone was really busy. We had bread for lunch and for the people that were still hungry, they could eat an extra cup noodle.  Most of my time was spent on finding gas stations and cleaning vehicles. I also found out that we were going to the world’s biggest mall!! That was today, but there are still many days ahead and many things to do.

Quince           

            Today is first day of monticle. We packed for tomorrow. Then we washed the car. We washed three cars. We chose our job. I chose the safety and cleaner job. We are going to eat dinner now. So we will sleep after dinner.

Owen

            Today, we woke up at 6:00 a.m. We needed to pack up our stuff withen 15 mins or else we have to do some PT. After breakfast, we got so much work to do, Finding routes, motels, packing things… and so on. As I didn’t get a job to do, I need to clean the kitchen and the cleaning area. But, we still got a nice dinner.

Tiffany

Today was a day of happy reunions and also depressing failures and problem solving. We deal with our first and foremost challenge question, How on earth are we going to go to the Artic circle with the limited resources, a map and a phone? What Billy did was as simple as such: Here is one atlas, a phone, some food, good luck to the Artic. We then struggled with communication failures, planning issues, loss of reality sense, etc. Every minute we spent planning, is a minute lost on traveling. Now I can see the challenge ahead of me, or simply just a small part of it.

Mickey

            Today I make a new friend. Because my English is not well. Many friends more care about me. And I am a photographer in my team. Teach me how to cooking . Here anything is nice. And I felt happy to make a new friend. Today is my birthday, even not cake, but it must is a unforgettable birthday! I can see the heart, friendly. Everybody come here is happy. I don’t know why? But Billy is very friendly. I like him. Hope tomorrow is a nice day!

Matthew

            Today was suppose to be a very busy day and it was! Leadership woke up at 6:00 P.M, while junior leadership and overseas alpha group students had a half hour extra to sleep. For the TransCanada group, our goal was to plan the trip; planning the route, the amount of food, our jobs, etc. Sadly our planning wasn’t being done efficiently which resulted in Billy helping us out. In the end we ended up doing things much better and efficiently.

Howard

             As one would expect from the first day; a day of introduction and expectation, I’m quite tired. Not physically, since there was minimal work and movement, but mentally exhausting as the day included planning , and planning and a bit more planning.

After being split up into teams, we swiftly decided to split the job among people. Originally working on logistics, I was shocked as I was loved to work on Navigations after we decided to move as a large convoy instead of separate groups.

Other than having spent the past few hours calculating distances between locations, nothing much happened today so I hope that something more exciting will happen tomorrow.

Jason Wong

I came to monticle HQ this morning; I had my hiking was put in the trailer. We had a review of monticle 101 and rules then we were separated into 3 teams. So we had to decide which job (clean/safety, logistics, cook, masterblog typer and navigators. I got the clean/safety job while everyone got a different group from my team. Each team had a team captain assistant captain and an administrator. If anyone was hungry there were leftover buns but I didn’t eat it. We all decided to merge the teams but bill had suggestions to make it better. For lunch I had c noodles. After that I helped clean the inside sprinters. Then we went out for dinner.

Justin Tang

Today, I felt unparallel anxiety and excitement. I was alone in an alien environment, facing different challenges.

I am glad that I was offered such a valuable experience. I have great expectations, I hope to greatly improve myself in the end of this journey. And I will try my very best to achieve it. I wish myself good luck

Alan

This morning after I cam to monticle I put my stuff in the trailer. And I went inside. We had a meeting and we talk about what we were going to do. We were all assigned jobs and did our job. I was assigned to the cleaning job.

Grace Pan

Today is the first day, we did the preparation. For the next 28 days. Unfortunately we aren’t leaving tomorrow. I did the cleaning part, which was really tiring. Then we had a nice dinner.

Kathy

Today was the first day we stayed in monticle. We hadn’t started our traveling yet. We introduced ourselves to others and have a meeting about the activities at first we were separated into 3 groups. Monticle was different from other normal summer camp. We discussed how we achieve the place we wanted to get our self. It was so exciting. Then we separated to be the cleaner, we cleaned the cars carefully. I think it must be a good beginning of the trip.

Roman

We stayed at hq today and planned for our trip! I am assigned to cook for the first 3 days. As the day went on I got to know the people better, some I did like, some I will try to like. We are planning to start our trip the day after tomorrow. Before I got to HQ I would ask myself: what if I’m going to miss my family? But when I got there I realized that these people make me feel like I’m home; Billy is our “big mama” and our leaders are my big bro and sis. I think I will have a great time.

Mireille

Today is the 1^st day of TransCanada. Actually we stayed in the office because we have to prepare the planning of the 28 days. Each team have 10 people I’m in Charlie group. There are about 20 children only 3 children are here for the 1^st time. I feel it’s very different from the last 14 days trip me3 foundation. Because children are more mature/serious. Today they shared their jobs for example 3 people have to play their food for 3 days. 5 people are responsible of clean up vehicle… I hope that we will go on trip tomorrow

Edwin Cheung

Today, was a Busty day. It was first day we meet our old friend. We meet a lot friend from last year. We take care of a lot of things. We have 7 safety/cleaning/photographer, navigator, cook and logistics. We separate to many different group to work for trip. Finding hotel, gas station and many more. As a leader, I learn that preparation take a long way to have a good trip.

Ryan Hoang

Today was the first day of the trans Canada west adventure. I was given an orange shirt before meaning that I have many experiences in monticle. However I was placed with the members that are given yellow shirts meaning that they have less experience then me instead of being given a more senior role. As well my captain is also a yellow shirt so even though the assistant captain has lees experience then me he is my superior and I must listen to him. Furthermore I am also the only orange shirt that did not receive recognition for my achievements lie all the other seniors that are in or above my rank.

We started our day with an overview of what we are doing for the entire 28 days program. We are told to take care of everything and all Billy and the other instructors will be doing is driving. This gives us a chance to be independent and hopefully stronger people. We were divided into 6 different group each doing various different things. Later on Billy took away 2 jobs that he said the seniors will do this of course not including me. After we cleaned the 3 sprinters we went out for dinner at tasty noodle house.

Mike

            Today , I woke up at 6:30, as we had to wake up early so the Alpha (14 day) group could go to the airport while the arriving trans-canada student had to do administrative stuff. Afterwards, we started to plan for our upcoming trip, but then we planned inefficiently, so when Billy came back from the airport, he gave us a lecture and taught us how to plan better, and also said what a second-in-command should do. Now, we are ready to go to dinner and I’m hungry.

Jennifer

This is real strange. It’s very hard for me to take a step back especially in terms of the blog. I had thought that the one responsible for the general blog for the TransCanada would be me, but I was wrong. I think this is a good experience for me, because I now feel an extremely strong need to prove that I have many, many, many, many, many, many, many many, MANY, MANYMANYMANYMANY skills besides my writing skills though they seemed to be overlooked in wake of them. Well, today I learned lots, but I’m going to condense it all because I’m currently surrounded by a blob of people who also need to get their blogs written and done with. So basically: leadership and teamwork is utilizing team members’ skills to the best of their ability. I’ll strive for this with those following me and for people to recognize that I have skills other than writing the blog, since now I can concentrate my efforts elsewhere and prove that I’m just as good as the other team captains. Also, egg tart party. J

Crystal

            Today was the first day of the Trans-Canada West Expedition. Everyone arrived at HQ at 9am and I recognized many familiar faces. We were then re-taught the Monticle policies and rules (even though some of us already knew them). After, we were assigned to our groups, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie. I’m in the Alpha group with a total of 10 (including me) people, staff and students. Then, each member in each group was assigned jobs: Navigator, Cook, Cleaner/Safety, Photographer, etc. However, later after, everyone realized that it was better and more benefical to work and travel as a single unit (all 30 people). I’m working with a few others to organize all the food supplies for the next few days and the cooking too. Today was a super long but non-tiring day. Can’t wait for tomorrow!

Jason Wang

            Today is day one of the 2013 Trans Canada Expedition. Even though we did not move out today, we did many important tasks. At 0600, the senior leadership sleeping over at Monticle HQ, woke up and began an attempt to prep for the day. By the time it was 0630, all the students that were sleeping over had also woken up, so we began to clean up HQ and load up the personal items of the students that were leaving. The new batch of students that arrived for the Trans Canada trip began arriving at about 0730, where they were processed by our administration staff. Later on we had presentation on the teams and the jobs each member of each team would have. Then were placed into groups, where we began to plan the routes, meal plans and job rotations for the groups. Even with the hiccups we had along the way, I think we did a good job today. I can’t wait for tomorrow, where I can hopefully I can prove myself as a worthy team captain despite my age difference and youth compared to the other designated team captains. 

Michael Fung

Since my first day in Monticle in 2010, Monticle has given me such impression – every student will just wait for instructions from the instructor, sit back and enjoy the show like audience in the cinema. Revisiting Monticle two years later, that impression (which I got 2 years ago) undergoes some kind of subtle metamorphosis. This time, Billy will let go part of his what-we-expect duties and responsibilities partially to the three new team captains, namely Michael Fung from the Alpha, Jennifer from the Bravo, and Jason Wang from the Charlie. The most distinctive feature that shows the differentiation of the Monticle Leadership training program is that each team is composed of 10 people, within which we have a structure that is unprecedented – a driver (Billy, Edwin Chan and Calvin), team captain (as aforementioned), assistant team captain (Tiffany, Matthew and Mike), Administrator and their assistances (Peggy, Vingi, Michael the Senior, Mirielle, Edwin Cheung and Lemuel), navigator, cook, photographer, logistics and a person in-charge-of safety and cleaning-up.

If I were allowed, I would like to describe this morning as a tormenting one. Indeed, I am avoiding myself from making excuses to camouflage my weaknesses and flaws, but truly speaking, the jetlags and the weariness inherited from the previous rehearsals and concerts just piss me off a bit. I have never experienced the feeling of being incapable to focus and conduct process of thinking at several times. When it came to dinner, even though it is held partly on behalf of Mickey (celebrating his birthday after several hours of misery and disappointment, perhaps), I just could not find a good way to cheer myself or to adjust my mind except reading a book. Well, things did become more visible after listening to Billy’s advises on how to distribute the jobs without waste/ while maximizing the efficiency. Before the advisory period, all three of us probably had ignored the potential for photographers and safety-cleanup people to do the clean-up of the HQ and the Sprinters. Moreover, we had ignored the importance of the connection and interaction between the cooks and navigators – navigators are in-charge-of the places that we stop not just for fuel-refilling, but also for food. Therefore, the cooks must have prominent knowledge of how they are going to deal with the three meals (or 2 meals if we have brunches to save time and cost when necessary). If the navigators do not know that we are missing out cooking oil or any other vital food supplies (which I expect that only the cooks will know because they are responsible for the inventory), then we might just leave the whole team starved for at least half a day.

Additionally, we also learn something that is quite subtle but indeed clever. When we are struggling on how to accommodate ourselves in the first three days, we just thought of camping for the first day, followed by consecutive days of motels or hotels. However, as we observed that the team members are not that coped with intensive routines and following commands, Billy just suggested a new plan – 3 consecutive days of camping in order to get the peers learn how to set up and pack the tents, clean them and perhaps learn to perform multi-tasking (cooks focus on cooking while the safety-cleanup people focus on setting up tents). After knowing that we could not depart tomorrow, what I now could do is to keep calm, and carry on… good luck for everybody J