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Annual General Meeting 2010
Allensbach, Baden-Württemberg
Wong Kit Yeng, Dossenheim
And so, it is the time of the year again, when the sun starts to shine through the grey skies of Germany. Indeed, the sun did shine for us during the long Pfingsten weekend the SSAG hung out at Allensbach, amidst the rainy days prior to and after the event.
We had 26 SSAG members flocking from all over Germany and Switzerland to Allensbach, a cozy getaway located in the vicinity of Konstanz. It was a pretty sight of the Bodensee which greeted and welcomed us to the wooden huts, which would be our "homes" for the following couple of days. The Bodensee was literally right at our doorsteps!
We spent the rest of the first evening (there was not much left of it by the time we arrived) having a Thai buffet at the campsite's restaurant, getting to know new fellow Singaporeans, catching up with old friends, and settling down into our cozy huts.
The next morning, after a sumptuous buffet breakfast at the campsite, we travelled to Schaffhausen, a town lying on the border of Germany and Switzerland. There, we were awed by the majestic view of the Rhinefalls.
We had some free and easy time there — some of us took a boat ride to experience the heart of the falls, some strolled along the Rhinefall Park and others simply took a coffee break while taking in the sights and sounds of the surroundings.
Hungry and exhausted after the little hike to and from the Rhinefalls, we went for lunch and shopping at the town centre of Schaffhausen, a pretty little place where we got to buy Swiss products and eat Swiss food.
Following our short but nice stay in Switzerland, we headed back to Konstanz, Germany, where we had a guided tour (courtesy of Xi Zhen), after which we explored the city (read: shops! Singaporeans never get sick of them, do they? ;-) ) on our own in little groups. We met again for dinner at a Greek restaurant, where we immersed ourselves in homely Singaporean chat over great Greek food.
The rest of the night was spent bonding and observing beautiful celestial bodies (courtesy of Hadi's binoculars) back at our campsite. Many of us had the opportunity to see planets, stars, and the moon with its craters in such great detail for the first time, being away from big cities and light pollution. What we were missing was just a guitar, to which we could strum and sing along to under the starry skies!
The AGM was held on Sunday morning. The new SSAG Committee was elected, feedback was collated and future plans were discussed. We played a few rounds of Charades after that, which brought lots of laughter and enjoyment as we tried sabotaging our opponents with hard-to-act and/or embarrassing words and phrases, as well as guessing what our friends were trying to act out.
We then headed out to the jetty, where we took a boat ride to Reichenau, an island declared as an UNESCO World Heritage Site because of the Abbey of Reichenau. The Abbey, founded in 724, belonged to the Holy Roman Empire and had a rich history. We hiked around the island, feeling good to be at a countryside full of fruit and vegetable fields, had an uncanny resemblance to Pulau Ubin, and, most importantly, to be in the midst of familiar-sounding Singlish voices. We were kindly guided around the island by a Singaporean lady who had immigrated to Allensbach and whom we had bumped into by chance near our campsite.
Tired from the hike, we headed back to our campsite for some rest-and-relax time, with some of us doing some water sports and others soaking our feet in the cool waters of the Bodensee during a "conference in the sea"!
Then, it was time for our barbeque. Many thanks to our brave young men, who helped get the fire started, and also the Singaporean lady, who kindly made us nice cucumber salad!
Some of our young men then engaged themselves in an exciting soccer game with their German opponents. It was Singapore vs. Germany, and the Singapore team actually had girls to cheer them on! Of course, we won (as a result)! ;-) The rest of us sat along the banks of the lake, playing card games and chatting over beer late into the night.
The two-and-a-half days flew by really quickly, and it was soon time to check-out and return to our respective cities on Monday morning. We bid our farewells, sad to leave, but knowing that this would be something that we would be able to reminiscence over together later on in our lives, having shared such an experience together — the friendly locals we encountered at the campsite, the 4-minute-long showers we were limited to (the showering system worked on a chip-coin system), the fun we had — they would all be unforgettable …
Here are the people who showed up for the AGM. Can you find them in the picture?
Lester / Aachen
Melvin / Berlin
Kit Yeng / Dossenheim
Marcus / Dresden
Samantha / Dresden
Tuan Leng / Freiburg
Bernie / Heidelberg
Hadi / Heidelberg
Jiamin / Heidelberg
Phoebe / Heidelberg
Shouheng / Heidelberg
Shubei / Heidelberg
Malcolm / Ludwigshafen
Adeline / Mannheim
Chi Fang / Mannheim
Jianrong / Mannheim
Lloyd / Mannheim
Miao Jing / Mannheim
Sook Yee / Münster
Kheng Hui / Osnabrück
Ian Chen / St. Gallen
Ian Loke / St. Gallen
Samuel / St. Gallen
Wee Ling / St. Gallen
Hui Heng / Wuppertal
Xi Zhen / Würzburg
Teddy / Zürich