life outside the box: our marshmallow is way better

When it is May...

The end of the summer months and you are wanderlusting of more places to see and exciting moments to experience.

Then goes that place you call work handing you over NOT full seven hours of English classes BUT loads of fun, food and more fun and food. ;)

I work as an online English trainer to French learners and have only 15-minute breaks in between my one-hour classes which I usually spend in prepping up for the next class, going to the bathroom, or occasionally making small talks with my colleagues just inches away from my work station. Hence, my work schedule rarely gives me the chance to rub shoulders with most of them, just a simple Hi and Hello and that's it, usually.

But that weekend was un extraordinaire! I had the chance to get to know them a bit more through a rest and recreation activity organized by the company. I was not overly excited about it at first, but the idea appealed to me. :)

Somethin' Fishy.

For our first stop: buffet breakfast at Somethin' Fishy. We had to wake up EARLY to get there in time for brekky. But because I am such a sleepyhead, I woke up a bit late and got there a bit late, which kicked me out of the "early birds" list. But I am glad I still made it and was not left behind. Yey!

Anyway, not all colleagues could make it to the trip but they made an effort to still join us for brekky. They were indeed part of the send off band. :)

Done eating puto bumbong and some other kakanin? Yes?
Time for some photos then!

Three truths and a lie

What is happening here? Everyone's so smiley.

Time to get on board means time to catch some sleep, right? Uhm, not exactly.

Phebe, our R&R facilitator, did not include that in her to-do list for the day. She kept us busy thinking, guessing and laughing.

She made us think of three truths and one lie about ourselves and make our colleagues guess which is which. This was one tough, puzzling task as my colleagues really gave such trivial statements. Nevertheless, it incited a lot of laugh out loud moments.

I tried to recall what my 3 truths and a lie were but to no avail. I have such a goldfish memory! ;)

Attitude of gratitude: type and send!

In addition to that, she asked us to think of three things we are thankful for and send it via SMS to someone from the team. Uhm, mushy-senti thing to do but it was nevertheless one activity that got me reflect more and think of the things that I should indeed be thankful for -- (1) great people in my life: my family and friends (2) safe travels (3) formal education and life experiences.

From this activity, I realized that we perceive our life differently relative to numerous factors such as age group, lifestyle, dreams and goals, values, status, experiences and the list goes on. The things we are thankful for are influenced by these elements as well.

Are we there yet?

After a couple of "Are we there yet?"s and two hours and a bit more (because of sluggish traffic somewhere in the south expressway), we reached our destination -- Balai Isabel!

I feel so dainty as Jed seems to be ready to rock & roll!

The complete team while freshening up before the next activity. One chill photo plus one goofy shot. Off topic: The watermelon and pineapple shakes served were really, uhm, thirst quenching.:)

How to go speed Dating in uhm... less than 5 minutes?

1. Arrange seats in two rows, opposite each other.
2. Pair up the players and have them sit across each other.
3. Ask a "getting-to-know-you-better" question which should be discussed by the pair in 30 seconds.
4. The game master then signals everybody to stop discussing and move to the seat to their right as a new question is revealed.
5. Steps 3-4 are repeated until the players go back to their original seats.

What did this game do to us? Well, it was not exactly a speed date for us but it somehow gave a quick overview of our colleagues' personalities, preferences and experiences which we could just miss out of BUSY-NESS at work. It was fun doing it, think of upbeat music and time pressure. ;)

speedy-datey really?

Time to do some art

The following activities were more like art projects to me. I grabbed some crayons and a clean sheet of paper, drew the person next to me, which happened to be Bo. I imagined myself back when I was in pre-school, just started drawing and adding more colors. I didn't care much about what others think how my drawing would look like. I felt carefree and I liked it. :)

The other art stuff we did was to create different images out of the 30 little circles drawn on the paper. And again, there was time pressure. I think I drew about 16 images while some drew more. I felt a bit competitive so, the result was a heartbreak. hahaha

The little artist's sketch (left) and what you make out of all the circles (right)

The Marshmallow Challenge

Then the challenge I love the most, the marshmallow challenge.

In a group, we had to build a marshmallow tower with the following materials: dry spaghetti, a yard of tape, a yard of yarn and a marshmallow. Time limit: 18 minutes.
Oh my! Must plan before you build, right?

So our team focused on the foundation of our tower, must build a free-standing marshmallow tower, eh? And voila! We built a sturdy Eiffel tower-like one and we felt proud. Might not have been the tallest one, but no doubt, it was the last tower standing for the day. :)