Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Blog Entry 1: One and A Half Days over… Four and a half to go

By Allison Brennan


It’s 10:15 p.m. on Monday and thus far there have been no fatalities. It’s been an amazing first two days. After all of the parents cleared out on Sunday we were taken to Venture Out, a team challenge course on campus. For the next few hours we played “ice-breakers”, name-games, and completed challenges that required team work and lots of trust. For example, we had to balance a group of ten people on a 3’ by 8’ (ish..) plank that was suspended on a 12”-wide log. It was practically a giant teeter-totter, with five people standing at each end and only three touches on the ground before we died and had to start over.




In another challenge there were three small (4’X4’) raised platforms that were in a line separated by several feet. Eventually we had to move everyone in the group from the first platform to the last one using only two 2” by 4”s that were alone not long enough to stretch the distance between the platforms. Oh, and no touching the grass because it was “lava” (they’re actually looking for funding for real lava if any of you parents would like to make a contribution).


Once again we had to work as a team to correctly apply the laws of physics to safely move everyone to the last block, and we suffered as a team when someone made a mistake and was blindfolded or not allowed to use their arms.

Around eight o’clock we were done at the team challenge course (and a little tired) and we arrived back at the dorm. We then had 45 minutes to shower and meet in the lounge on the second floor (called the “Portal” ?). Forty-five minutes for groups of four girls to use one shower and get dressed. So really the team challenges weren’t done for the day.


At nine our counselors treated us to Shakespeare’s pizza, and afterwards we played even more ice-breaker games. By then everyone was laughing at everyone else and we were all successfully not dying of awkward silences. From the Portal room (give me a couple of days and I’ll figure out how it got that name), we meandered back to our rooms and crashed for the night.


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