San Juan Island Retreat (06/10-06/12)

This is a story about 15 people, who chose to live in a trailer, within a fifty acre land full of trees and wild animals, for 3 days and to find out how much fun and excitement there will be once the party gets started.
(c) real world theme, with a few words of my own.

Beeyoootifuuulll Town


When we arrived at San Juan, deja vu hit me. You see, this wasn't really my first time on the island. When I was a bit younger, my family and I went on a ferry trip to the island. I remember that we did some walking around the town and base on what my mom tells me, we also did some whale watching too. I couldn't remember that time since it was a bit long ago. But, when I saw the town, everything fell into place in my head.

It is such a nice town. It's like one of those towns where every store and every restaurant that you go into is so cozy and "home-y". The town wasn't that busy at all and I think that the majority of the people I saw were tourists.

The House

The place that we called "home" for three days was an absolute vacation spot. If you just want to get away from it all, and when I mean all, I mean ALL -- this place did not give our cellphones any signal, there was no wifi signal, no shopping malls nearby, no buzzling -- go to this spot.


This place gave us a perfect view of the ocean, sightings of wild animals such as deers and foxes, and a forest perfect for a hiking trip.

Highlights of the Party

1. Awards

The awards night was a pretty funny one. We actually didn't know that we were going to have this activity. It just happened to be sprung up on us when we were all gathered in the living room. The titles of the award given to us were pretty funny. Mine was this:


.... since I'm a big chicken eater.

2. Team Building

The team building event was a fun one too. The deal is that we all have to be partnered up with someone and with that someone you will take turns in leading each other to the beach blindfolded. I was the first to lead mine. I got scared at one point when I saw that I had to lead my partner to this really grubby area that's full of leaves, branches, mosses, thorns and a hole. I was scared because one wrong move that I make him do, something might happen to him (you know who you are.. hehehe.. ).


This activity gave me two lessons: (1) as a guide/leader: you must take care of the one that your are leading and make sure not to break the trust of the one that you are guiding. (2) as the one who is being lead: you must trust that your leader will not let anything happen to you.

The only bad part about this activity was when they told me, when I was blindfolded i might add, that we were close to a snake. DAMN.. that scared the heck out of me.

3. Water Balloon Fight (No Pictures, since I didn't want to go home with a broken camera)

The water balloon fight that we had on the last day that we were there was unexpected, yet fun. When our adviser was leading us to this tree where he carved our club initials on, three guys came out of the trail bushes and started throwing water balloons at us. That got me all fired up so I went inside the trailer and filled a water bottle with hot water to throw at them. And after the water bottle was done, I grabbed the hose and started to spray water at them. YEP. Fun Fun Fun. Fun getting revenge. LOL.

NATURE'S FINEST

I had a field day with my digicam since I was taking pictures of every single natural being that I saw in that place. I saw 2 deers roaming around the trailer grounds. We saw a fox (didn't get a chance to take a picture of it) while we're playing volleyball. And at the end of the team building activity, we walked to the beach.




There, we saw a school of whales swimming around.



It was a relaxing experience, being one with nature and all that crap.It was also fun experiencing sleeping outdoors. I experienced my actual first camping out experience during this retreat. Sleeping in a tent is not bad. hehehe.. I guess it's safe to say that I appreciate nature more now compared to before. I used to hate nature trippings, because I'm afraid of things that crawl, dirt, rain and all that natural events that happen when you do a tripping. But, this island trip changed my whole perspective.

SPENDING IT WITH FRIENDS MADE IT ALL WORTHWHILE.

At first, I wasn't planning on going on this trip for reasons that I can't disclose because I might get killed (hehe). But, when my mom said I could go, which surprised me, I decided to go. It was fun laughing with them and sharing moments with them.




(click on image to see the bigger picture)


After this trip, I realized that I enjoy outdoors-y trips with friends rather than with family. It's much more interesting that way. I'd rather go to Vegas or to California with family rather than go to the beach with them. hehe.. but that's just me comparing... hehehe..