Day 2: "I Bhaant Quality, not Quantity"

OK, so that wasn't a good start. But then, who says it will be any different today? The bus started late yesterday, it will do so today. And with that began the process that made an entire batch of students 'defaulters' and also gave us half an hour's break.

The lesson that we all took away from Day 1 was that taking this camp seriously is injurious to health (both mental and physical). So, we had already made up our mind to enjoy ourselves. Some, of course, took it more seriously than others and spent the entire day on the riverbank. Well, to each his own.

The practical is actually very difficult to do: taking bearings, distances and angles from all stations. And we discovered even more properties of our traverse, such as the invisible Station No. 8 or the truant Station No. 5, not to mention the shit-laid route to Station No. 3. Fortunately, the professor told us that he wanted good readings from a few stations, and we would merge readings later. Therefore, the work was shortened significantly, since working on more than three stations in a day was impossible. Quality, not quantity, was the mantra. Bad move, really.

Oh, we've made new friends among the hogs in the area: they're friendly, but thoroughly disgusting and rather sex-obsessed.

Surprisingly, the food was much better today and the beds in the hall (not meant for us) rather refreshing. After all, never before have boys and girls eaten together over a sleeping late-night gamer. And the professor seems to be coming around to the realization that we are not the ideal, disciplined officers that he was hoping for. Not that he isn't trying to make us such, but at least we've come to a common understanding.

Now, here comes the troublesome part: tempers are rising in general. I don't deny that it's my fault to some extent, but then, everybody is frustrated. In particular, when there is a clear bias in favour of those who took ICE-03, there are a lot of sly remarks going around. Nobody can really stand each other for too long anymore during the camp, and the only way to talk is to burst out random cuss words at the pigs. Add an ugly UG-PG confrontation today, and it was not a pretty picture.

The bus journey back was, again, very gloomy. Nobody has the energy to talk and after the initial chit chat, most of us went back to sleep. Waking up in the morning is the hardest part of all and the realization that we are using thoroughly outdated techniques with no practical significance only makes it worse. For now, everyone just hopes to get through the next eight days. No geodetic endeavours here.