Lost in London...

Looking at the title, you might be wondering, what does she mean and what happened? I'm here to tell you exactly what I mean. 

Lost in London is the title of an annual event hosted by the Bruneian Student Society at University College London (UCL). It is an event hosted every year around November where Bruneian Students that are currently studying at the UK and Ire gather together in London for a race. More like run to be honest... By run, I mean literally run. In just a time span of 5 shorts hours, I'm pretty sure I ran enough to cover a week's worth of exercise. But hey, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start from the beginning. 

What is it about? 

It is like an amazing race where a team of 3 are required to use the clues given to venture around London and find specific checkpoints. At the Checkpoints, the teams are required to complete a task and they will be given different tokens (Gold, Silver and Bronze) depending on how they carried out the task. The volunteers at the following checkpoints would be the ones judging the token that the teams deserve to receive. At the end, depending on the number of points collected from the tokens, the top three will be chosen as winners of the race. 

The day before...

It was my first time participating in this event and well, I was super nervous. I was afraid that I wouldn't been able to cope with the intensity of the event from stories I've heard from friends who have taken part in the event in the previous years. 

"You legit have to run the whole way"

      "The challenges at each checkpoint is super hard, my team couldn't even get one "

  "My legs were hurting by the end of the day that I couldn't even move" 

Those thoughts from previous participants came rushing in my head but heck, I wasn't going to let any negative thoughts ruin this special day. 

D-Day.. 

It was finally the day!!! The event was held on the 4th November 2017 and the assembly point was at the Main Hall in UCL, London. Upon arriving the building of assembly, my team and I weren't able to find the entrance. We walked back and forth at least 6 times looking for the door where in fact, it was just where we started walking from. What a start to the day! 

Once we arrive, there were hints pasted up on the walls all around the walls and the paper was so confusing. Even though the event hasn't started, we already felt as if we were lost. We take photos of the hints and sat down trying to figure out where the places were while waiting for other guest to arrive. There were 10 different spots in London and my team were able to figure out some of the places, some by memory and some by the help of Google!! Some of the places were Primrose Hill, Tate Modern, Hyde Park and London Eye. 

The President of the Brunei UCL Society (pictured above) gave an opening speech and started the race. Everyone, literally everyone started running out of the building. It was so hard to even get out of the building. 

During the course of the race, we had to carry out a number of task such as singing the national anthem or answering a quiz. Sadly, my team were only able to visit a number of checkpoints and couldn't finish everything as at a certain point of the race, we ended up wasting half an hour looking for the nearest tube stations and eventually arriving but waiting another hour for the tube that was late.. 

Like I said before, this race was actually more like a run. My team and I had to run to a number of places and we tried taking the tube and buses but we always got down at the stop before or after which resulted in us having to run to the checkpoints. One of the most memorable checkpoint was where two out of the three members of the team were blindfolded and had to reach their hand in boxes and grab as many marbles as possible. What lies behind those boxes were insane. In one of the boxes, there were gummy snakes (which felt like actual snake, I got this one!) and another with a toy spider which had actual fur and could actually move around the box... 

At the end of the 5 hour limit, my team and I headed back to the assembly point and even though we didn't finish all 10 checkpoints, we were happy that we were able to snag 1 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze tokens for the ones that we went to. 

What amazes me the most were the hints given to us... Not only were we given the pictures of the place we were suppose to go to, but there were several lines of different colors crossing the picture vertically. Beside the photos, there were also a few random numbers. My team and I didn't understand what that meant and just thought it was just there for the sake of it but at the end of the race, we were told by other participants that the lines and numbers were relevant to the clues. The vertical lines of different color represents the color of the tube lines that can take us to the location while the number represents the number of the bus line that can take us to the location. That was so amazing! Never in a million years would I have figured that out. 

Even though my team and I didn't manage to win the race, we had a tiring and long but fun day! We managed to learn many things and got to know each other more through the course of the event. The best thing about the entire day was that I got to spend the day with two of my good friends running around and getting lost in London, in the midst of our busy schedules in University. It was definitely a day to remember! See you again next year, Lost in London. 

Jie Chie Yong - Brunei Student Ambassador