lucky cha cha cha!

Yesterday we had a field trip! We took an average-length bus ride to Kearny by my mom's old nursing home to the Archidosces (sp?) Youth Center-place, though I think most of us refered to it as Boystown since they had signs like that up as well. Talk talk, yadda yadda, prayers, etc.

Then we had an exercise where we were split up into groups. One or two people (though in my group's case, one) person/people were blindfolded, while others were mute by way of tape over the mouth or crippled because their hands were tied behind their backs. I was crippled, which became frustrating as you may think while you read what the exercise was about. Firstly, we had an envelope. Inside the envelope was a piece of paper cut up into five or six strips. Our task was to align them again so that they retained the shape of the original piece of paper. The only catch was that only the "blind people" could touch the paper, while the rest of the group used whatever senses they had left to guide them. Our group was the last to finish, after about ten minutes, so after a while the coordinator told us to just take the tape off our mouths and the rope from behind our backs (though one of my groupmates had already done that by turning around and manipulating the pieces). It still took us a few minutes to actually get the pieces in order, however, which was actually kind of pitiful.

Like the size of that last paragraph! Wow! I don't know if anyone has the attention span to read that. And there's still more! A lot more! That's barely 9:30 a.m.

So then we're split into groups, and I'd name my groupmates off the top of my head but I don't want people finding this so I'll just refer to them by their first intitals.

Our first task was the "Wall of God". A twelve foot high wall constructed of planks of wood with a small platform on one side. The task was to get the entire group over the wall using only teamwork and no other equipment. I'm glad we had a lot of hardworking people like B. and M. or else none of us would've been able to get up. Even volunteering to just jump up and be caught without any support, wow. I almost got up, one of my arms was around the top and they were pushing my legs up as hard as possible, but someone lost their grip on my and I dropped, so our coordinator just told them to let go of me and get on with whoever was next. I wanted to get up, but hey, there were still people waiting. My arms didn't ache them, but damn do they ache now. I thought it would be my legs, actually.

Then we did Noah's Ark! Of course nobody listened to instructions, so it was a bit unorganized, but easier than last time. It's basically a huge see-saw that can fit a group of teenagers, all standing up, on it. We only did two things while on it, balance it while on both feet and balance it while everybody stood on one foot. Pretty easy.

Then snack! Nothing to say here.

Finally, the Catwalk, or as they later renamed it, "Peter's Walk". Basically, you climb up this 30-foot pole, much like a telephone pole, and sidle accross another, horozontal pole that is connected to it. How do you get down? You jump backwards! Don't worry, there were harnesses. The whole experience there was really awesome, the view from the top was amazing, regardless of the ugliness that is the Newark area (XP) and the air was crisp. I scoff at those not willing to take the risk, unless you're A. and falling from heights "makes you feel like you're gonna die". I don't know if I should be pissed or sympathetic toward that. Some people's climbs were funny, like C. took a few steps then slipped and fell, and while the instructor was lowering her down he asked, "You didn't mean that, right? 'Cause you're supposed to tell me first!" while C. kept flailing around because she wasn't ready yet. (In her words, "Climb, climb, step, river! Fall.") And D. was climbing up too high! We were all yelling that he was already too high to reach the horozontal pole but he didn't notice until he had to climb down. A. was really awesome too! He wasn't in our group, but since all the groups were down by the catwalk, we were all watching him. He was stuck at the mid-section between the vertical and horozontal poles and you could visibly see him shaking 30 feet off the ground. We were all encouraging and cheering for him, it was a really awesome sight.

Next was lunch, which was pretty much lunch as usual. D. had this weird corned beef spread that apparently smelled nasty to everyone else but I thought it smelled like normal corned beef.

Then we did the Islands! Argh, those are so annoying. There are three platforms on the grass, each one about four or so feet from each other. They give you three planks of wood, one is about three feet, the next two, and the last about one foot. Our group had to use the planks of wood to move the entire group from one "island" to the next, which turned out to be frustrating because the planks cannot slip or else the team cannot use them anymore. So naturally we lost the largest plank within five minutes, though the coordinator let us start over. We put a lot of weight onto the plank to make it stay, but the only problem was getting the people used as weights accross. It was annoying because they said, "as soon as you step onto the wood, jump to the next platform as fast as you can", but there's no room to stabilize yourself because the entire free plank is off of the platform where it may slip, so you have to almost double jump to make it correctly. Naturally, I fell. We just gave up after a while.

Then we just hung around and watched the other group do the next activity. They gave up so some of my group went and did it! It's hard to explain it, though. There are two long, narrow strips of wood, just narrow enough to balance your foot on each and just long enough to fit about ten people, all standing on the wood. Ropes hang off of the sides, just long enough to pull on while in a standing position. The objective is to use these to cover a set amount of distance, though, because we were bored and doing it for fun, we were just going to the Islands, which were about 30 feet away. Everybody gave up after about ten steps though, each step was about an inch in my opinion (XP). So we watched the last group (there were three groups, my group, the group that was on the wood-with-ropes exercise, and the last was on the catwalk) climb up the catwalk. The entire area with God's wall and the catwalk were slightly lower than the area with the islands and such, like it was cut into a hill, so we had a slightly better view of the climbers as they ascended. It was pretty fun.

When we got back, which was not long after watching the last group's catwalk, I fell asleep on my desk almost immediately. The next thing I know, I hear my teacher calling everybody to leave, while I'm barely packed. The only things my friends did was get my backpack but leave it near my chair. They didn't even wait for me to pack! We barely had any homework, but that's not really the issue here. I walked out pissed with a huge headache.

Wow, this entry turned out long so I'll put some random musings in my next one, to be posted in a few minutes. >.<