School Retreat

So, I went on a retreat with my school last week on Friday to Monday evening. I was really looking forward to it, but was kind of stressed, because I was going to be with a group of serious Christians 24/7 ( Okay, maybe not 7) and I didn't want to offend anyone accidently by saying something in all that time or anything like that. Also, I was kind of stressed about Saturday, because I've heard them talking about Sabbath earlier, and I didn't know if they recognized that and did that or not. Fortunately, they didn't. The only thing that was really Christian is when we sang and heard a talk by a student twice a day. Which wasn't really as big of a deal as it sounds. Mellow. 

The place that it was at (Cerna Hora) is owned by a couple of students at my school, and is about 5 hours by bus away from Prague. It's kind of secluded in the woods, and is absolutely gorgeous. I was kind of expecting a place that was falling apart, and was lame, but this was perfect.

It was awesome. I had tons of fun, didn't offend anything, and it was perfectly normal. I mean, I was playing poker and B.S. and it was all fun. I thought that they wouldn't like poker or anything because of gambling. 

We played tons of games, and went in the woods, and had a campfire, which we cooked hotdogs and marshmellows over. I had five girls in my room with me, who were all people I was friendly with, and there weren't any arguments or anything. AND there was excellent food that was all homemade. :) 

It was absolutely gorgeous there too. I brought my camera with me, and was able to take a lot of pictures, but they were mostly of the trees. :) Unfortunately, my battery died pretty early, on Saturday.

It was really nice, because we got to play soccer a lot (which I've been missing) and we had about 2 or 3 hours of free time after lunch ( not including other times, that was just the longest break) and we would go and play soccer for the entire time, and it only seemed like 20 minutes. 

On Sunday, it was the funniest soccer game I've ever played. We had just had birthday cake, because it was someone's birthday, and so we were all pretty hyper, and funny things just kept on happening. People were literally rolling on the ground, cracking up. And two kids, Josh and Alex, started a vendetta against each other, so whenever one of them got the ball, the other would full on charge and tackle them. They'd stand next to each other, far away from everyone else, and ask the goalie to give the other one the ball so they'd have an excuse to tackle each other. It was all good natured though. I don't think that anyone there is ever mean to each other, which is really refreshing. 

We had showers in the dorm area, but the hot water ran out pretty quickly, which was a bummer. I usually woke up pretty early so I could still get some, but the last day I forgot. That wasn't fun. 

When we went on a walk in the woods, we played my new favorite game, Bomb. It's where one person is it, and they will randomly call out BOMB with a megaphone. They close their eyes and count to ten while everyone else runs and hides. The it-person opens their eyes after ten seconds, and pivots on one foot to find anyone they can. They have to say something like "I see Coral behind THAT tree" and point, and if it's the wrong person, then they don't have to come out. When they can't find anyone else, they call out SAFE and set off this alarm on the megaphone and then everyone else can come back out. We all ended up diving into ditches and laying on hillsides, and covering ourselves with leaves, and then struggling to get back out after its safe. Tuns of fun, I'm not kidding.

Another game we played was called Assassins, which we played at night. There was a building in the area that they didn't use anymore, though it wasn't in disrepair or anything, so we played the game in there. In this game, there's only one room in the building with the lights on, so it's pitch black everywhere else. 2+ are Assassins, and hide, while everyone else waits in the light room. The Assassins get a rolled up paper to tag people. After about 5 minutes everyone leaves the light room and walks around the building, trying to find the Assassins. The point of the game is to tag the Assassins before they can tag you. If all of the Assassins are caught, the game is over, and everyone but them wins. When an Assassin tags you, you have to go to the light room without telling anyone where they are. Then, you wait for the game to end. The Assassins are trying to get everyone out. THAT game was really funny, because a couple of people who were Assassins just ran out into the hallway near the light room (where you can see stuff because of the window in the door) and tagged as many people as they could before someone got them. One guy, Josh, got like 15 people before he got caught. It might be kind of hard to understand the game in writing, but hey, I tried.

So, to put it simply, it was excellent. I kind of wish that we were going to have another one, but unfortunately, we aren't. I was thinking about not going on the Ski trip later, but I think I will now, though I haven't snowboarded and skiied all too much, and most of the people at my school grew up in the snow. Oh well. The students are some of the least judgmental people I know.

:)