Aghgahg I'm so tired from the Zion retreat on the weekend~
So Friday I
asked told work I had to leave earlier. Well I actually only told my manager (via. e-mail) so no one knew I was leaving early. Hm, maybe that was a bad choice... the fact that no one knew I was leaving early, everyone gave me funny looks but I didn't wanna hang around and tell him so I just left. Another bad thing was the big boss was around then so I think he might've saw me. Whether the manager actually told him I had to leave early is another story.
So, did I actually HAVE to leave early? Well, no, not really. I got home to do some last minute packing and then I vacuumed the house! Kinda strange but yes. But anyway, I was dying to vacuum the house the past week and everytime I came home, there'd be someone or something in my way... so finally yesss~! After moping around for far too long, Pat FINALLY calls me to ask if I was ready to go. So he comes, we're on the way.. going at like 160km/hr on the 99. We kinda play a bit of tag with a motorcyclist who decided to speed as well. We got there and arrived during the middle of the first talk so we decided not to join in until after. It looked like the schdule was behind. We poked around the camp site and checked out the beach. Soon enough they finally disband and move luggage into the rooms. I arrived at my cabin to see that my name was spelt wrong -- with an "I". I continued on in to find that my roommates were... an interesting mix: a leader and some highschoolers. After we did some icebreakers and then was introduced to a game that lasted throughout the duration of the retreat: each person had their own name tag with their name on it. Behind that name tag was the name of another person that you'd have to catch off-guard when no one else is around and tell them "Gotcha" to get posession of their tag. After receiving their tag, you look behind to see who your next target is. And of course, whoever that collects the most tags win. To my dismay, my name was spelt incorrectly beautiful on my popcicle stick name tag too. We had bedside fellowship and ended the day by 'mugged up' aka. midnight munchies. Lots of strangeness happened there...
The next morning... breakfast, devotions, workshop, lunch, then games/activites. We had to play a series of relays with eggs and water. The worst was probably filling the 2L pop bottle with water from a tub across the field with the use of only small sponges and/or yourselves. So we'd have guys doing the extreme -- dunking themselves into the pool and then churing all their clothes for water. For some reason it was not an easy task and we failed miserably. Other groups ended up using their (ew!) mouth to hold the water and other equally disgusting ways. As soon as that was over, it became a water fight where everyone was getting drenched, sprayed, wet.. yes, that was our cue to run. So! We went to the beach, Cresent Beach that is! I ended up hanging with some hongers and a CBC. The beach was really awsome at that time of day: the tide was REALLY low and it wasn't too hot either. We witnessed lots of dead mini crabs (perfect for Japanese soft shell crabbages? Mmm~) and very uneven land levels. The water would reach our thighs at some point and if we kept going farther, it would eventually drop to our calves. Though it was pretty gross seeing the tide wash up the beach, carrying a rootbeer-like brown foam with it. Haaha, sick.
After some free time, we had another talk session and wow was I really exhausted for some reason; I had trouble staying awake. We had dinner afterwards, followed by an interesting forum panel where we could annoymously submit Christian-related questions into for them to discuss and provide an answer for. As I mentioned in my previous posts, I'm having trouble feeling comfortable in an environment where everyone constantly swears on every other word out loud. I brought that question up for them to answer but it ended up getting mixed in with questions like "Is it ok for me to drink?" "Is it ok for me to go clubbing" cuz I guess they're meh, kinda related. My question didn't really end up being answered really well so I brought it up again during bedside fellowship... still not much good feedback.. but then again, come to think of it, there's no real problem solver for it. The bonfire started soon afterwards and everyone started gathering. Wow was the bonfire HOT. Everyone had to look away from the fire when they were cooking their sausages, fishballs and beefballs cuz it hurt -that- much. I had to pull my hand away from the fire every so often because I couldn't stand it myself. After everyone had their fill of half-cooked and/or cancerified snacks, a big group of us started to sing 90's retro songs [e.g. BSB, Spice Girls, etc]. So random, so good... fun times, fun times. Around 2am, we got kicked off the campfire area so everyone transferred to the kitchen instead. They started playing mafia, so I decided to hit the hay instead.
Morning rolls around... almost more than half the people show up late for breakfast because of sleeping very few hours. Devotions that morning was about how life is like snowboarding... the bumps may get you off guard then you land harshly. Then what? Yes, you keep on going. We finish the last of the talks in the morning and then moved onto packing up. Lunch comes and goes and we get treated freezies for dessert, even though it started was gloomy and started raining that morning. Then more than half the people disappear before the group discussion aka. feedback aka. reflection time to go watch the SOCCER GAME! We headed back home around 230, and I accidentally fell asleep in the car in the most awkward position, waking up with an extremely sore neck. Strange, I automatically woke up right at the turn to my house.
Overall, the food wasn't great. Someone said I complained too much about the food and then asked if there was anything positive about the food. Hm! No. Besides the fact that there is food at all. :b Yes, I admit I'm a picky eater. I blame it on the family for feeding me so well. XDD
Did I ever mention how much I love hongers? And how much they love pictures? especially WEIRD posed pictures? Hahah, those are fun times. The best photo pose was probably "the unison jump". Now, I gotta go ask for some of those photos. X33
Also, our new posed Ultimate game. We play as if we're too cool and too good to play Ultimate lol. To be the next best game ever.