Retreat

This past weekend we went on a retreat to a national park in the mountains.  It was time to relax and get to know each other better.  Before getting to the park, we stopped by a reservoir to take a swim test.  We had to swim out to a buoy and back, and then tread water for 15 minutes.  The redeeming part of that experience was that we found some adorable puppies to play with afterwords.

Also at the swim test location, we were served a beautiful lunch with some interesting dishes...one of them was a jar with little shrimp that were still jumping around!  In order to eat them, you shook that jar to stun the shrimp and cover them with spice, and then took a bite.  They were pretty good, actually.

From there we headed to the park.  We were in a really beautiful location, with a waterfall about a 10 minute walk away.  The weekend included bananagrams, nutella, bonfires, s'mores, badminton, waterfall trips, as well as practicing some helpful scenarios such as evacuating a hurt person (in our case, a "broken leg") from the forest.

A weekend well spent.

Today, as part of our foundations class we went to two different markets to observe what was going on.  It was a fun outing.  Tomorrow I believe we are visiting a temple and learning a bit about Buddhism.  Friday we are visiting a fish farm.  I've got a full week ahead of me, and I'm looking forward to it!

-Grace