At Nexus, residentials and international trips are a cornerstone of our learning experience, offering learners the chance to grow beyond the classroom, build independence, and connect with the world around them. These experiences provide rich opportunities for developing leadership, resilience and global awareness.

In this blog, you can hear about one such adventure firsthand from one of our learners, Jaeden, who captures the excitement, challenges and memories of the Year 10 residential to Bali.

Prologue:

May 5th. Half of Year 10 wakes up before the sun does. We gather in the sports hall hopeful for their journey ahead. Excitement fills the halls and onto the buses where it continues to grow. Soon we reach the airport, the final hurdle keeping us from paradise. Learners eagerly enjoy breakfast, gossip and exploration as they wait for boarding to begin. The other half of the Year follows suit and as Group A departs, Group B arrives at Changi.  The day had come for Year 10 to finally have their residential trip to Bali, the furthest school trip they’d ever gone. Long awaited was their getaway and well-deserved break from academia, especially after the trial exams only a few weeks prior. 

Bali:

First stop in Bali? Lunch! Year 10 dived immediately into Balinese culture in the best way possible, with a hearty meal. After stuffing their stomachs everyone was divided into three clusters which they were going to work with for the rest of the trip. Each cluster would do each activity on different days meaning no two clusters would be at the same place at the same time. But don’t fret, learners were able to reconnect with their friends in other clusters, eventually…

School:

Another interesting destination was a local vocational school. We didn’t study English or Maths but instead participated in traditional festivities. The local students gladly shared their culture through the arts. From dazzling dances to traditional games to a certain nursery rhyme I can’t get out of my head. Seriously, I can’t stop humming it.

Mud:

Since everyone loves Peppa Pig, mud wrestling was also on the agenda. The Mepantigan is a place that even the likes of Kim Kardashian has visited, and now it was Nexus’ turn. The way our instructors taught us and performed the rituals beforehand, made it seem like more of an art form than just “throwing hands”. Their dedication to keeping everything natural was surprisingly admirable. The Mepantigan was certainly an experience worth remembering. 

Shadow puppets:

After an exhausting morning mud wrestling, learners got to wind down their muscles and exercise their brains with Balinese shadow puppetry. We watched the “Romeo and Juliet of Bali”, at least that’s what they told us. A tale as old as time, good VS evil, hero VS demon, wrong VS right. And of course, there was a princess that needed saving because there always is. But here’s the kicker, it didn’t end. They told us to finish the story ourselves. So, could a bunch of year 10s come up with a worthy ending to a story centuries old? I’ll let you decide. Some ingenious ideas the groups came up with were making the characters fruit, adding cartoon characters, among us, and of course, inserting our friends into the story. If you expected us to come up with the next Hamlet, that’s your fault.

Trekking:

Possibly the most physically demanding part of our trip was the hike across the outer caldera of Mount Batur. But before that was an informative trip to the Geological Museum where we learned about volcanoes and how the caldera we were about to trek through was created. The walls of caldera stretched to over a kilometre in the sky meaning we were literally in the cloud. Personally, my favourite part was the view. The entire caldera was picture perfect, a village on one side, a lake reflecting the sky on the other, and incredible mountains acting as a backdrop. Being up there, it felt  like I would never have to do another summative assessment again. Nothing could’ve gone wrong. For my group at least. Cluster 1 was not so fortunate as on their trek disaster struck. No, the volcano didn’t erupt, it just rained, but when it rains it pours. Luckily they got to their destination only slightly drenched, and got to relax by basket weaving

Rafting:

Ah rafting, my personal favourite of the activities. We took a short hike down to the river and before you knew it, it was time to get wild and wet. Each raft had an instructor who we all owe our lives to. Really it was quite simple, paddle forward on the calm bits, hold on tight on the rapids. Even then falling off the raft was all too common of an occurrence.

Some rafts took things slow and enjoyed the scenery, while other rafts raced to the finish line. Some rafts even battled, splashing water at each other. 

Ms Nicola Birthday:

Something that wasn’t on the itinerary was a certain someone’s special day. None other than Ms Nicola herself celebrated her birthday on the penultimate day of our trip. 

Odyssey institute:

Of course, none of this would’ve been possible with the kind folks over at Odyssey Institute. We are so grateful for everything they did, and while we’re at it let’s also thank all the teachers who came along and had to endure our shenanigans all day, every day for a week. Of course I can’t forget the friends whom we shared laughs with and who truly made this a once in a lifetime trip. And I appreciate you too for taking the time to read this. To everyone mentioned and more, matur suksma! It means thank you.