Fort Miley
Instead of going to class, the Leadership team went to FORT MILEY! I woke up like it was a band day, remembered it wasn't and dozed off for another 10 minutes before getting out of bed. My clothes were fugly and mismatched because I had to wear stuff I didn't really care about getting dirty. Somehow I envisioned low-hanging nets ("ropes courses") that you had to pass under by crawling in mud. I watch too many army movies.
I tried to sleep during the drive to San Francisco, but it was really loud and I ended up closing my eyes for an hour. Some of my friends were playing MatchMakers in the back of the bus.
It was sort of drizzling, and it was really really cold, but I guess that can only be expected, because we had a great view of the beach. Fort Miley (or the part of it that we visited) was in a big pine forest. One of our guides, Glenn (or however you spell his name, we didn't ask), and some other guides whose names I've forgotten had us do some pretty cool activities.
Icebreakers? What do you call these?
YEAH.
We high-fived as many of our classmates as we could.
TAG
We got in groups of 4. One person was IT, and the other three people joined hands. The person who was IT picked one of their teammates and tried to tag them. The other two people had to try and get in that person's way without letting go of each other's hands.
GLENN'S BOAT
When Glen said "Captain's coming!", everyone saluted. When he said "lighthouse!" we had to find a partner, form a lighthouse, and spin around in a circle and bleep. When he said "man overboard!" we had to get in groups of 3, join hands around one person in the middle, and pretend we were a boat. When he said "row for shore! (or something like that)" 4 people had to get in a line and pretend to row. When he said "grub time!" 5 people had to stand in a circle and say grubgrubgrubgrubgrubgrubgrubgrubgrubgrubgrub while pretending to eat. If one group had too few or too many people they had to stand off to one side and 'walk the plank' while singing "Row, row, row your boat..."
THE TRUST GAME
One person fell backwards into a partner. The faller had to tangle their arms together so they wouldn't panic and smack their spotter, and the spotter had to put their strong foot behind them and catch the faller. I dropped my partner.
FAR AS YOU CAN (I'm just making some of these names up)
Two people stood facing each other and fell in, met at the palms, and pushed back out. Each time we did so successfully (not falling over) we each took a step back.
ROPE RUN
Basically we all ran through a turning rope without tripping and falling flat on our faces. Later one in the game Glenn came up with a rule (for example, nobody could run through the rope alone) and we had to follow that rule and all make it through. We played a game where he came up with a rule and we had to find out what it was. He only told us when we'd broken it. April found it - we all had to get through with 8 turns of the rope.
TRUST GAME - 2
We all formed a line, put our hands on the shoulders of the person in front of us, and walked blind to the actual ropes courses.
ROPES COURSES (they split the Leadership team into 2 groups - each of us did a different activity)
#1 - There were two metal ropes, each about a cm thick, nailed into trees about a foot off the ground. They were connected at one end and gradually split apart. The goal was to start at the joined end with a parter and walk along the rope, using only the rope and our partners for balance. It was pretty had, because the two people had to communicate and switch hand positions, lean in to keep each other's balance, etc. The rest of the people in our groups had to 'spot' for them (catch them in case they fell, which everyone did). The first time I went with Chow Yu. We didn't get very far because our balance was way off. The second time I went with April, and we got the farthest out of all our groupmates.
#2 This time there was only 1 metal rope, but there were two normal ropes (like sailing ropes, also about a cm thick) attached to the trees waaay above our heads, one on each end, so that they hung down. Two people had to walk sideways along the metal rope, holding the hanging sailing rope for balance. In the middle the two people had to switch ropes and get past each other, then they would walk to the tree that the sailing rope was attached to.
AFTER LUNCH
...it was a freaking playground :D. There were 5 activities. This time, all of them were like, 15 or 20 feet above our heads. They involved the same metal wires we'd used for the activites before lunch, with harnesses (like rock climbing) to replace the spotters.
1) There was one metal rope that we walked across while holding on to two others acted as handrails. It was kind of scary because a lot of people were either scared of heights or scared of the wobbling rope. It was about 15 feet long.
2) There was one metal rope that you walked along, and sailing ropes hung down over it at regular intervals. You edged along the metal rope while hanging on to a sailing rope. When you reached the next one you had to grab it and drop the other one.
3) To do this one you first had to cross either the first or second one. This was just like the Flying Squirrel I did in fifth grade on that field trip to Alliance Redwoods, except the Flying Squirrel was twice as high, three times as long, and you were flying over a sunny, grassy field instead of through pine trees in freezing cold air. And you were required to jump off the platform from a sitting position instead of jumping, which I had originally planned to do. And this time it was much less enjoyable because the harness hurt.
4) This one was just like the one a foot off the ground, with one metal wire and two sailing ropes. Except this time it was waaay up in the air.
5) You had to wear a full-body harness for this one. This was was called "The Perch". There was this tree trunk about 8 inches thick or something like that. You climbed up a ladder, and then there were a bunch of rings bolted into the trunk. At the top there was a flat disk that you could stand on, but the problem was that it SPUN. The goal was to get on top of it and jump into thin air, aiming to hit either a blue tubey thing
[OMG 8:48 pm - EARTHQUAKE: 5 seconds long or so. The stuff on my shelf was shaking.]
which was about 5 feet away, or a rubber chicken, which was about 8 feet away. A couple people hit the blue thing. 1 person tried for the chicken.
Anyways, this entry's getting a little long, and I have homework, so I guess I'll do a reflections entry tomorrow if there's nothing else to post. :D