Overnight Overhaul

*Warning: Another picture-laden entry.

Last Saturday and Sunday, our organization had it's 1st teambuilding for the year with their newly recruited ET (Englicom Trainees). The location for the team building is at Prajnetto Hills, somewhere in Antipolo (although, frankly, the ride going there feels so much farther than the typical Antipolo road trip). We kept asking each other "Where are we?"..

We were 13 in the van, including the driver. The rest of the group rode in more stylish well air-conditioned cars, while we were sweat-pooling in the poorly ventilated vehicle. We opted to open the windows, but somewhere down the line, we were confronted with the smell of carabao shit that we closed the windows shut without any hesitation.

Arrived at the location sometime 10.30 am (if my memory serves me right). We weren't disappointed at all. The place wasn't as bad as I've expected, considering we paid 900 bucks (for ETs) and 750 bucks (for old officers and alumni), for an overnight stay with five buffets (lunch, snack, dinner, breakfast, snack), access to the conference area and the pool.





Welcome...







There were lots of greenery all around.







Long Shot of the Pranjetto Hills House from the driveway.








A closer picture of the house, with Marvin, Jimmy and Jourdy leading the way.




After we've settled down, we began with a brief introduction of the day plan and the assignment of our rooms and room mates - we are to return to the conference area after we've put away out baggages.




The Conference Area







Our room keys
RM 109













Our 5- bed room, complete with two bathrooms, a cable tv, and fresh towels (sorry, wasn't shown in the picture)


The Housemates
From left: Jemelyn, Marie, Katrina and Charm















This is how the rooms are designed. Like apartment houses stacked on top of each other, and connected by long flights of stairs. At the left of this photo, imagine a playground with swings and slides.. That was real fun.




Like I said.. Stairs....





When we returned to the conference area, the had an ice breaker before lunch, an another one after. We were later brought to the pool for the last individual activity and a whole heck of swimming fun.



This is the shortcut to the pool area, but trust me, it still doesn't feel short when you're climbing up. The steps aren't exactly what I'd call "consistent".





After the canonball, twist and turn, Nestea plunges, we had our "Amazing Race", which was kind of a flop since the facilitators couldn't point out which group really won, but despite that little problem, overall, compared to the previous teambuildings I've been, this has been the most fun of them all.

The activities were phrased effectively that there was more time for interaction than competition. The new ETs were cooperative and in fact, were very open with us and therefore there was rarely any dull moment where the barriers of "oldies and newbies" could be felt.




There were even pusoy dos, mah-jong and poker sessions scattered throughout the place.






That night, was the most anticipated part of the whole day. Being one of the "oldies" we were allowed to initiate the newbies by blindfolding them and scaring them all night long, with three or four obstacles they have to get through (Soup Number 5 (Carabao's dick Soup), Close the candle with your fingers, the find the key from all the goo and eew, and the infamous trust fall). I screamed my lungs out, trying to get them into order and at some points, they kinda got intimidated. The finale, as always, was pushing the ETs into the swimming pool, which completes the whole process.

Unfortunately, while we were making fun of the newbies, my camera got passed around from one person to another, eventually getting lost. I went into a partial panic mode, but still had the mind to go swimming and later, truth and dare with the people.

Jourdan was real nice though to accompany me thrice in the scene of the crime (imagine climbing that flight of stairs back and forth) where the camera was last found. At that point, I did conclude that, even though my camera was close to being called obsolete, had no good focusing capacities and has a bad far-away lens, I still treasure it since it was my dad's gift for me from his visit in Japan when I was still in high school and that our pictures are all stored in that little piece of junk!!

No pictures, no tangible memory - No memory, then the experience has no concrete documentation to show off.

I was going everywhere in my shirt and shorts that I felt that I was going to have an asthma attack by the time the night is through! haha

Eventually, Jourdan and I (and also Jimmy, who eventually joined us in our search) agreed that since we've visited every possible station and inquired every possible person, someone either misplaced it in their bag, or the service cleaning crew might have picked it up and would return it by morning.

True enough, my camera was returned to me in the morning. It was found by the cleaning lady lying around. Lesson? Don't trust anyone with your things unless they promise to take responsibility of it. I'm so glad that there are still honest folks out there.

Had breakfast, slept again, met up with the group, pictures, left the place in the same van.. now packing 17 people inside. You can imagine how drenched we were with our sweat when we finally reached La Salle at 12.30 pm.

Phew!

Want another side of the coin? This is jourdy's entry on the matter. Click here"