Its a sad thing when you start an entry (like this one) on Sat. and are still working on it on Wed.
Ok, high-school retreat time!
Ok ok, I know I should begin this entry with the fact that senior year has started, but basically that's the only exciting thing that has happened until this retreat, (school started Sept. 5th and the retreat was Sept. 21st-23rd).
Anyway, this retreat thing was basically an "escape" from the city into the "wild" (more like an abandoned place, miles from any store) with just each other (and you know that just sounds like trouble). Technically (for me) this trip started a NIGHT before, I was fighting with a cold and wasn't winning. I was up until 3 A.M. coughing like crazy and my mom was really against me going. I was cool with not going and all, but with so many people ditching, I went so people wouldn't think I ditched too, and besides I didn't want my non-refundable 40 dollars to be wasted.
The next morning at school everyone looked more "blah" than excited to go, can't blame them really. School that day was like a majorly warped day, ALL of our classes were crammed together before lunch; it was insane! Speech was cool that day too beside we had to give our "Silly Subjects for Senior Speeches" speeches (it was a list and we had to pick a topic), we (or actually Mrs. Lane) were trying so hard to try to finish as soon as possible but we had snack break before class, scores from our storybook speech being passed out, and when we finally got settled the fire alarm went off! Needless-to-say not everyone had a chance to go, but I was one of the lucky few who got to get theirs over with. My topic was "Shortcuts for Dressing to Prevent Tardiness" or something and I did a countdown of the 10 "best methods" (basically it was mostly in the order I came up with them); I remember my number one method being something like "quitting society and letting nature be your clothing". The only other memorable class that day was math, by that time my cold/allergies/sniffles/frostbite/whatever-it-was was reached its maximum point and I was as sick as a dog by then. How I could tell was when I didn't talk, lift my head, or get any problems (the easy ones) correct.
Sooner or later we finally were prepairing to leave. It wouldn't have taken so long if some nameless underclassmen (a.k.a. stupid freshmen) wouldn't be so hardheaded and move their things like we asked them. I know that kinda seems unfair to them, but it really isn't. See we, as seniors don't get many privilages, but the little we do get we cherish (hey, it is our last year after all); also it's fair because we had to wait 3 years (or for some like 14 years) and we always respected our upperclassmen so we should have the same kind of respect. After TWENTY MINUTES of seat situations (yeah, it was REALLY annoying), we FINALLY left the school. Unfortunately, a little later on the road we had to stop the bus and send the other bus back to school because someone forgot their bag!!! (It was kinda funny in a way) The only other thing about the (5 hour) bus ride was NO RESTSTOPS, why the driver thought it to be an abomination I will never know. By the time we got to the middle of nowhere...I mean the campsite...most of us were dead; ...and the rest of us died as soon as we saw the place. The place resembled a scary movie; with it being all abandoned, in the middle of nowhere, and run-down; it was a surprise weird things didn't start popping out and killing us one-by-one... >.> Dinner time came as soon as we got settled in, and for dinner we had...chicken sandwiches! (That's what I ate for lunch and ate pieces of on the bus; basically it wasn't something I looked forward too, but it was still good ~.^). After dinner we had some free time, which i enjoyed to the fullest. It had been such a long time since I just sat down not having to worry about anything, and just reflected on life; times like those are the best!!
Sooner after it was time for the service, (the day was going by fast). The preacher at the retreat (Bro. Tony Brazen) was a really good speaker, especially to young people. He had a lot of effective visuals, interaction with us, and he was amazingly good with names. After the service, it was "fun time" (as defined by J. Postleweight, definitions apt to vary...). We all were split into teams (permanent until we left the place) and started playing some games. We played a physical game (everyone on the team had to hold heads and we had to get into a circle without letting go, not very easy), a mental game (one person from each team went place and got asked a question about their entire team), and then Deal or Don't (which to this day I still don't know the rules of). The game went along rather smoothly, except for a major cough attack near the end which I'd rather not recall. Night was cool because we were allowed to talk after lights out, (we never got to do that at camp before, it was awesome). Unfortunately, good things sometimes don't last forever, (u.u *sigh*). The 9th grade girls (some, not all) were really loud that night and it was difficult to get to sleep. Also, they were so dramatic! They were talking about something like hatin', likin', and everything under the sun! The next morning, because of the girl drama, our cabin was stuck with bathroom cleaning duty. The worse part of the morning, however, wasn't our punishment (which some of us didn't deserve...); it was the fact that it was FREEZING COLD!!!
<== (penguin)
I still consider it a miracle how I didn't just collapse from the combination of my cold to nature's cold. After getting ready to face the day (took awhile...) we all headed to breakfast. Unfortunately, Ashley (Sammuels) made me promise that if there was either pancakes, waffles, or french toast; I'd have to sing the Waffle Song during breakfast. Well guess what? Yeah, we had pancakes. Luckly while I was singing no one was listening... ^o^ Anyway, after breakfast was the real time to clean the cabins, but since we had always finished it, we were able to jump right into God and I time, (yay!!!! :D).
After God and I time, we had a morning message and soon after we had another team activity, basketball. Another thing I liked about this was that we didn't have to participate if we didn't want to (YESSSSS!!!!!!! FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!). The basketball thing was more like the ability to do certain basketball moves and being judges (yes we have judges....out teachers). A little later we went to lunch and then we all went swimming! I was happy because I never got to go swimming ALL summer long, so I tried to use this to ease the pain. Swim time was fun and I learned that my attempt at swimming was getting a little better, major problem I need to fix though is learning how to breathe. Unfortunately as we were leaving the pool I cut my foot....on the rusty fense. Now I'm all paranoid that I have tetanus because everyone keeps saying that I need a shot and that its good for 10 years (great....if I only knew the last time I got it!!!). Soon after swim time it was snack break and free time. All we (the senior girls) did was go into the gym and rest. People commented on the seniors lack of...uhh...action, but we were really to tired to do anything else. A little later I got bored and started playing with my yo-yo with everyone watching, then someone said we were allowed to take showers and I ran back to the cabins, (That was our activity during guys swim). Unfortunately, one of the major problems everyone comments on about this place is the showers, and their MAJOR lack of warm water!!! I was seriously so cold that I just got enough water on me to turn off the shower and clean myself. Someone joked around and said they had hot water, we all almost threw her out until she said she was joking....then we all wanted to hurt her, lol, jokingly of course. After my shower we had like 2 or 3 hours until dinner, so I just sat in the cabin bored because all of my friends were asleep.
Finally it was time to head to supper; seniors got to be at the head of the line so we enjoyed that. I FINALLY learned how to rock-the-craddle with my yo-yo while we were on the way to dinner, I was so happy. While waiting in line, J. Post saw me practicing my new skill he showed me how to rock-the-craddle-cha-cha-cha (basically its rocking the craddle but letting the yo-yo go around before swinging back and forth) it was cool; until he decided to do around-the-world. While he was doing it the yo-yo shot (like literally) out, hitting the roof of our little line shelter (HARD, I might add; it didn't dent though -.-) and rolling around. It scared like everyone and I nearly were balistic. J. Post promised to get me a new string...which I still have yet to see... Soon after supper it was service time and we got a good message about giving your life to God (with...cerial as a visual aid).
Straight after the service was "fun time". That night we had the opportunity to do skits, where we got to be our teachers (basically we got to mock them to their face) and superheroes (err...yeah...); we also had to do a group theme songs, but that went so badly I'd rather wipe that from my memory...
Anyway, our teacher skits were really funny. Clara did a good job as Mrs. Post, she acted exactly like her! Brittany did a good job as Mrs. Post too, but fixing everyone's clothes with tape! XD; Robert got all of Mr. Mccreight's gestures down, Jaeger also got Mr. Thorpe's usual gestures too. Steven did a good job as J. Post, by doing his normal responses and Candice was so funny as Mrs. Lane and her facial expression!
Later, after all our skits of the teachers were finished, the teachers had a surprise of their own. They decided that since we got to mock them, they would show us a skit of how we look to them in class
(oh boy...
).
The skit began with J. Post as Johnathan Harris; he did a good job playing out his obsession with choir practice and the song, "Into the Harvest". Other people done were: Robert by Mr. Mccreight, Daniel Moore and Steven by Daniel Webster, Jaeger by J. Post, and Kenny by Mr. Fingleton. They played on things like stupid answers (ex. "Hey this question on the test, will it be on the test?), the whole lunch incident last year with Dustin, Chad, and Steven, and Jaegar and his "girlfriend" (only problem was that she was the only one who didn't get the joke.). Those were all the guys done (that I could remember); but there were also some girls done as well. Mrs. Lane did some girls, which to this day I can't remember who they were. Mrs. Post also did a good job...as me.
Se did a good job portraying my love for anime and my ability to ask random questions in class that have nothing to do with the lesson. Later Mrs. Post told me that she didn't know what to do, but the other teachers filled her in on what to do. Basically this skit was a parody, its basically done by taking a major characteristic of a person and just playing on that for some laughs, but sometimes it can be blown out of proportion.
That night they told us that we only had 15 minutes left until bed; byt apparently everyone else took that as 2 hours, because thats how long they stayed out there. While everyone was out I attempted the ancient form of blogging! writing with paper! (I don't think I'd be able to live in the past...) A little later it was time for bed, everyone was tired so we went to sleep earlier than the previous night. The next day was very exciting because it was the day we left. We all enjoyed coming back home, except for the traffic and difficulties; even if the other bus had to wait for us for 1 half-an-hour. Ok, it was cool, after going to K.F.C. for lunch and throwing Fruit Loops on the street, and singing, the bus ride was fun too...
And that's basically it for my Retreat adventure; If I ever think of anything else I'll edit this; I just hope that I will never EVER work on a journal entry for like 4 days ever again. Later until next update! (Which better be soon, I hope....)
Ok ok, I know I should begin this entry with the fact that senior year has started, but basically that's the only exciting thing that has happened until this retreat, (school started Sept. 5th and the retreat was Sept. 21st-23rd).
Anyway, this retreat thing was basically an "escape" from the city into the "wild" (more like an abandoned place, miles from any store) with just each other (and you know that just sounds like trouble). Technically (for me) this trip started a NIGHT before, I was fighting with a cold and wasn't winning. I was up until 3 A.M. coughing like crazy and my mom was really against me going. I was cool with not going and all, but with so many people ditching, I went so people wouldn't think I ditched too, and besides I didn't want my non-refundable 40 dollars to be wasted.
The next morning at school everyone looked more "blah" than excited to go, can't blame them really. School that day was like a majorly warped day, ALL of our classes were crammed together before lunch; it was insane! Speech was cool that day too beside we had to give our "Silly Subjects for Senior Speeches" speeches (it was a list and we had to pick a topic), we (or actually Mrs. Lane) were trying so hard to try to finish as soon as possible but we had snack break before class, scores from our storybook speech being passed out, and when we finally got settled the fire alarm went off! Needless-to-say not everyone had a chance to go, but I was one of the lucky few who got to get theirs over with. My topic was "Shortcuts for Dressing to Prevent Tardiness" or something and I did a countdown of the 10 "best methods" (basically it was mostly in the order I came up with them); I remember my number one method being something like "quitting society and letting nature be your clothing". The only other memorable class that day was math, by that time my cold/allergies/sniffles/frostbite/whatever-it-was was reached its maximum point and I was as sick as a dog by then. How I could tell was when I didn't talk, lift my head, or get any problems (the easy ones) correct.
Sooner or later we finally were prepairing to leave. It wouldn't have taken so long if some nameless underclassmen (a.k.a. stupid freshmen) wouldn't be so hardheaded and move their things like we asked them. I know that kinda seems unfair to them, but it really isn't. See we, as seniors don't get many privilages, but the little we do get we cherish (hey, it is our last year after all); also it's fair because we had to wait 3 years (or for some like 14 years) and we always respected our upperclassmen so we should have the same kind of respect. After TWENTY MINUTES of seat situations (yeah, it was REALLY annoying), we FINALLY left the school. Unfortunately, a little later on the road we had to stop the bus and send the other bus back to school because someone forgot their bag!!! (It was kinda funny in a way) The only other thing about the (5 hour) bus ride was NO RESTSTOPS, why the driver thought it to be an abomination I will never know. By the time we got to the middle of nowhere...I mean the campsite...most of us were dead; ...and the rest of us died as soon as we saw the place. The place resembled a scary movie; with it being all abandoned, in the middle of nowhere, and run-down; it was a surprise weird things didn't start popping out and killing us one-by-one... >.> Dinner time came as soon as we got settled in, and for dinner we had...chicken sandwiches! (That's what I ate for lunch and ate pieces of on the bus; basically it wasn't something I looked forward too, but it was still good ~.^). After dinner we had some free time, which i enjoyed to the fullest. It had been such a long time since I just sat down not having to worry about anything, and just reflected on life; times like those are the best!!
Sooner after it was time for the service, (the day was going by fast). The preacher at the retreat (Bro. Tony Brazen) was a really good speaker, especially to young people. He had a lot of effective visuals, interaction with us, and he was amazingly good with names. After the service, it was "fun time" (as defined by J. Postleweight, definitions apt to vary...). We all were split into teams (permanent until we left the place) and started playing some games. We played a physical game (everyone on the team had to hold heads and we had to get into a circle without letting go, not very easy), a mental game (one person from each team went place and got asked a question about their entire team), and then Deal or Don't (which to this day I still don't know the rules of). The game went along rather smoothly, except for a major cough attack near the end which I'd rather not recall. Night was cool because we were allowed to talk after lights out, (we never got to do that at camp before, it was awesome). Unfortunately, good things sometimes don't last forever, (u.u *sigh*). The 9th grade girls (some, not all) were really loud that night and it was difficult to get to sleep. Also, they were so dramatic! They were talking about something like hatin', likin', and everything under the sun! The next morning, because of the girl drama, our cabin was stuck with bathroom cleaning duty. The worse part of the morning, however, wasn't our punishment (which some of us didn't deserve...); it was the fact that it was FREEZING COLD!!!
<== (penguin)
I still consider it a miracle how I didn't just collapse from the combination of my cold to nature's cold. After getting ready to face the day (took awhile...) we all headed to breakfast. Unfortunately, Ashley (Sammuels) made me promise that if there was either pancakes, waffles, or french toast; I'd have to sing the Waffle Song during breakfast. Well guess what? Yeah, we had pancakes. Luckly while I was singing no one was listening... ^o^ Anyway, after breakfast was the real time to clean the cabins, but since we had always finished it, we were able to jump right into God and I time, (yay!!!! :D).
After God and I time, we had a morning message and soon after we had another team activity, basketball. Another thing I liked about this was that we didn't have to participate if we didn't want to (YESSSSS!!!!!!! FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!). The basketball thing was more like the ability to do certain basketball moves and being judges (yes we have judges....out teachers). A little later we went to lunch and then we all went swimming! I was happy because I never got to go swimming ALL summer long, so I tried to use this to ease the pain. Swim time was fun and I learned that my attempt at swimming was getting a little better, major problem I need to fix though is learning how to breathe. Unfortunately as we were leaving the pool I cut my foot....on the rusty fense. Now I'm all paranoid that I have tetanus because everyone keeps saying that I need a shot and that its good for 10 years (great....if I only knew the last time I got it!!!). Soon after swim time it was snack break and free time. All we (the senior girls) did was go into the gym and rest. People commented on the seniors lack of...uhh...action, but we were really to tired to do anything else. A little later I got bored and started playing with my yo-yo with everyone watching, then someone said we were allowed to take showers and I ran back to the cabins, (That was our activity during guys swim). Unfortunately, one of the major problems everyone comments on about this place is the showers, and their MAJOR lack of warm water!!! I was seriously so cold that I just got enough water on me to turn off the shower and clean myself. Someone joked around and said they had hot water, we all almost threw her out until she said she was joking....then we all wanted to hurt her, lol, jokingly of course. After my shower we had like 2 or 3 hours until dinner, so I just sat in the cabin bored because all of my friends were asleep.
Finally it was time to head to supper; seniors got to be at the head of the line so we enjoyed that. I FINALLY learned how to rock-the-craddle with my yo-yo while we were on the way to dinner, I was so happy. While waiting in line, J. Post saw me practicing my new skill he showed me how to rock-the-craddle-cha-cha-cha (basically its rocking the craddle but letting the yo-yo go around before swinging back and forth) it was cool; until he decided to do around-the-world. While he was doing it the yo-yo shot (like literally) out, hitting the roof of our little line shelter (HARD, I might add; it didn't dent though -.-) and rolling around. It scared like everyone and I nearly were balistic. J. Post promised to get me a new string...which I still have yet to see... Soon after supper it was service time and we got a good message about giving your life to God (with...cerial as a visual aid).
Straight after the service was "fun time". That night we had the opportunity to do skits, where we got to be our teachers (basically we got to mock them to their face) and superheroes (err...yeah...); we also had to do a group theme songs, but that went so badly I'd rather wipe that from my memory...
Anyway, our teacher skits were really funny. Clara did a good job as Mrs. Post, she acted exactly like her! Brittany did a good job as Mrs. Post too, but fixing everyone's clothes with tape! XD; Robert got all of Mr. Mccreight's gestures down, Jaeger also got Mr. Thorpe's usual gestures too. Steven did a good job as J. Post, by doing his normal responses and Candice was so funny as Mrs. Lane and her facial expression!
Later, after all our skits of the teachers were finished, the teachers had a surprise of their own. They decided that since we got to mock them, they would show us a skit of how we look to them in class
(oh boy...
).
The skit began with J. Post as Johnathan Harris; he did a good job playing out his obsession with choir practice and the song, "Into the Harvest". Other people done were: Robert by Mr. Mccreight, Daniel Moore and Steven by Daniel Webster, Jaeger by J. Post, and Kenny by Mr. Fingleton. They played on things like stupid answers (ex. "Hey this question on the test, will it be on the test?), the whole lunch incident last year with Dustin, Chad, and Steven, and Jaegar and his "girlfriend" (only problem was that she was the only one who didn't get the joke.). Those were all the guys done (that I could remember); but there were also some girls done as well. Mrs. Lane did some girls, which to this day I can't remember who they were. Mrs. Post also did a good job...as me.
Se did a good job portraying my love for anime and my ability to ask random questions in class that have nothing to do with the lesson. Later Mrs. Post told me that she didn't know what to do, but the other teachers filled her in on what to do. Basically this skit was a parody, its basically done by taking a major characteristic of a person and just playing on that for some laughs, but sometimes it can be blown out of proportion.
That night they told us that we only had 15 minutes left until bed; byt apparently everyone else took that as 2 hours, because thats how long they stayed out there. While everyone was out I attempted the ancient form of blogging! writing with paper! (I don't think I'd be able to live in the past...) A little later it was time for bed, everyone was tired so we went to sleep earlier than the previous night. The next day was very exciting because it was the day we left. We all enjoyed coming back home, except for the traffic and difficulties; even if the other bus had to wait for us for 1 half-an-hour. Ok, it was cool, after going to K.F.C. for lunch and throwing Fruit Loops on the street, and singing, the bus ride was fun too...
And that's basically it for my Retreat adventure; If I ever think of anything else I'll edit this; I just hope that I will never EVER work on a journal entry for like 4 days ever again. Later until next update! (Which better be soon, I hope....)