A Day Out With The Form 3's

After 1.5-month long preparation and a week of Lower Secondary Evaluation (Penilaian Menengah Rendah, PMR) exam, it was over (on Friday, October 17, 2008). For us the tutors (Andre, Sharon, Aaron, and I), we have promised to bring the PMR teens (consisting of Adrian Oyog, Ashleigh Dibble, Benjamin Han, John Stanley, Joshua Joseph, Nicholas Chin, Nicholas Choong, Jaslyn DeWitt, Li Ann Tan, and Rachel Lim) for a day out for picnic on the Sunday after their end of exam (October 19). And, so be it!

All of us attended Mass either on Saturday evening or Sunday 7am, so that we could leave early for the picnic. We met in church at around 9:30am. As I arrived, I was shocked to see the amount of food they brought. Each of the teens brought food worth for 10 people. Yes.... sandwiches, lots of sandwiches, plus fried chicken, fried rice, and I-dunno-what-else...

We left church at about 10-ish. Since we went with different cars, all of us reached Miami Beach at around 11am. Helena and Adeline joined us as well.

The boys were extremely excited. After about 10 minutes of loitering they were in the water!


Next were the girls... dunking each other at around 11:30am.


I guess they enjoyed getting wet so much that they gathered in a circle... hmm... perhaps having some secret discussion.


Well... with the teens in the water and adults by the beach, at once you would have guessed what would have happened next. Helena became the first victim! She got carried by the teens, and into to the water she was thrown!!


With captions...


Next, they tried the trick on Andre, but it was proven that 10 of them would not be able to lift Andre by an inch. Wait... they did! As a result, (I think) Andre lost some armpit hair... Hahaha!!!


I was then not in a proper attire - was wearing khakis shorts that time. And, I did not like the idea of getting wet with such an uncomfortable attire. So, I changed into my swimming shorts. And, as I was spotted then, I was approached by the teens. So, being sporting, instead of fighting back, I carried Adrian back into the water!!! Hahahah!!! Yeah, I finally got myself wet with the not-so-clean Miami Beach seawater!


We spotted a couple of sea otters resting on a rock about 100 feet from the shore. So, Aaron and I took a couple of shots. Since Aaron's camera is a SLR, of course his picture quality is far much better la. So, here is the photo of the sea otters with Aaron's camera.


We also managed to 'bury' Benjamin and Jaslyn.




After the 'burial' and lunch, Benjamin, Adrian, Choong and I swam towards the rock. Upon arriving at the rock, there was a great stench of fishy smell (I guess from either dead fish or the sea otter itself). And, on the rock, we spotted a pile of droppings. So, the sea otters were not simply sunbathing after all. The rock was filled with dead corals which made the rock surface quite rough. We all were cut while holding on to the rock. Nevertheless, Benjamin and Adrian managed to get onto the dry part of the rock and posed for some pictures!!


There were much fun by the seaside despite the dirty waters.

Next, we went to Tropical Spice Garden, where the teens were invited by UnoQuest lady boss Christine Ho (Chin's mom) for some teamwork-based games. They were "Code Silence", "Nine Inch Nails", "10 Grams", and "Handcuff". The explanation is as follows (I hope I won't get condemned by UnoQuest for leaking their games - they were pretty basic games anyway).

Code Silence - Each member of a group is required to line up. The person at the end of the line must pass a code comprised of a series of numbers by drawing/tapping on the back of the person in front of him. After the last in line completed the passing of message, the next person need to continue the step towards the person in front of him, and this goes on till the first in line returns the correct message to the facilitator.

Nine Inch Nails - An set comprised of 9 pieces of nails and a styrofoam base (with a nail hole) was given to each team. The team needs to balance 8 nails on the 9th nail which is to be affixed on the styrofoam base.

10 Grams - A set of 2D geometric cards (of different shapes and sizes) is given to each team. Each team has to use ALL the cards to form specific complex shapes provided by the facilitator.

Handcuff - Team members need to arrange themselves in a circle, and each member is handcuffed by tying a piece of string around both wrists. The string of each member needs to be intertwined with the string of the persons next to him. The task - unlock themselves from the intertwined strings. The cuffs must not leave the wrists.

The fun was to watch them struggle while trying to accomplish all tasks and solve problems given to them. It is indeed great to see them work as a team. Although they were having though and frustrating 2 hours to finish all the tasks, they were having a lot of fun and enjoyment from the teamwork activities.

And lastly, the debriefing by Christine...

During our time in Tropical Spice Garden, we met the lovey-dovey couple - Benignus and Patrice. They were there to help out the teambuilding with UnoQuest customer earlier that day.


At about 5pm, we left Tropical Spice Garden, and at the exit gate, we managed to snap a group photo (Helena left early, even before the teambuilding, so she was not there).


We had an early dinner at KFC, before we headed for Batu Feringghi night market for DVD, games, and clothes shopping. It was indeed a tiring day (can see from some faces in the following picture), but it was also a great gettogether activity amongst the teens - far much better than spending the day on the Internet, or worse, in the Internet cafe.



Some of the fun photos captured.