Detroit Day #2 (Sun Feb 24)
Woke up at 6:30am (the normal wake-up time for the whole trip), had breakfast, and started OPERATION ADVENTURE. Operation adventure is this really cool event UMD does. We were split into groups and had different activities to do at each station. The first station we did, we learned a bunch of random games (that don't require anything but people to play!). The second station we did was the "island challenge".....basically, each member stands inside a hoola hoop and they're all placed around to make a circle. In the middle of the circle is a rope hanging from the ceiling. You have to find a way to grab the rope without anyone leaving their island (and you cant move the islands around) and then everyone has to switch islands (and you cant just jump over to the one next to you). So, we had to swing on the rope like tarzan to get to the other islands....it was awesome. The next station was this weird cube suspended in the air that had 6 sides and we all had to go through it (without touching it) and no one could go in or out the same as the other. It was pretty interesting! The next station was called the "tank" game. One person is blind folded (the tank) while the other person is the driver. The driver directs the tank (without any contact, only talking them through it) towards balls and then the tanks have to throw the balls at eachother (battleship!!). The next station was really complicated. We were workers at a nuclear power plant and had to figure out a way to get the reactor over to the other station without touching it or spilling any of the beads inside. We had rope and a rubber ring to use. Once you got it to the other station, you had to find a way to flip it so that it would go into a new reactor without spilling. The second time around we had to do it blindfolded (not very successful). The next station was a wooden "balance beam". basically, we played leap frog on a thin wooden boards. Second time around we had to do it blindfolded (imagine that chaos!). The last station was the rock climbing wall. We had to get our whole team to climb certain parts of the wall and ring the bells. Their belay system is scary. Once all the groups finished operation adventure, we had lunch and then headed out on our tour of Detroit! We had a 3 hour tour of the city, it was amazing! We learned so much about its history and saw all the beautiful sites (we even saw the trailer park on 8 mile that Eminem grew up in). We had dinner at Mexicantown (Detroit is full of TONS of different cultures). Then, we had an OSCAR PARTY that Fedex put on for us. They had a redcarpet set up, big screen, decorated tables, and any/EVERY movietheater candy you could possibly imagine, along with popcorn, drinks, and some other snacks.