CTY Best Activity Ever
Two days ago I participated in the Best Activity Ever at CTY.
It started out with the leaders saying that we would be heading to an ice cream parlor in Palo Alto. Everybody was really pumped and wanted to get moving. However, soon after the activity started, we were washing a car with scraps of rags. How did that happen? Well, they said that the car was dirty and we couldn't go to Palo Alto in a dirty car. The first thing I noticed was that the car was a 4-seater. I began to get a bit suspicious, but still went ahead with it because of the incentive of the ice cream. We were washing the car with rags 2 cm wide and around 10 cm long, and it was hard. You had to dip them in water, then drag it all over the car and rub off the dirty spots. If you didn't work hard enough, it was push-up time. The car was very dirty. It was hard work, and Peter (an RA), one of the two adults brought over a 4-pack of ginger beer and together they started sipping it. It was very hard to watch them luxuriating and drinking beer while we worked. After around 20 minutes we had finished washing the car. Now we had to dry it. They gave us poker cards, and we weren't sure what they were for. They demonstrated. They flapped the cards at the car, and told us to dry the car that way. By then we were all a bit frustrated that we hadn't gotten ice cream yet. We soon discovered that this was not very effective. Some people wiped their cards on the car, hoping to dry it faster, but this just ruined the cards. After their cards got ruined, they either had to ask for more cards or do pushups. Most people asked for more cards, and they got dry leaves to flap with instead. It was a horrific experience that I will not forget soon. After the car was clean and had been inspected thoroughly, they took us to the courtyard and said the shuttle was waiting outside. Suddenly, Donald (another RA) brought in two styrofoam take-out boxes. To our horror, we discovered they were filled with the uncooked dry rice from the cafeteria. They tossed around ten handfuls of rice out, and then they gave us all chopsticks. They were like: "Oh no! Everything is so dirty!"They said to use the chopsticks to pick up the little grains of rice and then put them back into the styrofoam containers. At that point, everybody realized that we weren't ever going to go the ice cream parlor. We worked and worked and worked for over 80 minutes, but we were never finished. At the end, we weren't even 1/3 done. We were really unhappy because Peter was playing games and blaring out cheerful music on a speaker. When a different activity passed by, 4 people rushed to join them. They were all picked out and forced to do 15 burpees each in front of everyone else. At the 40 minute mark, the RA told everyone it was a bathroom break. One person snuck into a different activity, the Worst Activity Ever, where they were watching a movie and eating popcorn and candy. Nobody noticed, because everyone thought that after the bathroom break we would do something fun. No such luck. Everybody was right back to work after the break. By this time most people were just doing pushups because even pushups were more interesting than scraping your fingers and legs on the granite where all the rice was. Nobody used the chopsticks, and everyone was just picking up grains grain by grain with their fingers. My thumb got its skin rubbed off and it hurt a lot the day afterwards.
At the end, they said: "I guess you guys didn't work hard enough. The shuttle bus was waiting all along."
In the end, we didn't get to go the ice cream parlor.
It started out with the leaders saying that we would be heading to an ice cream parlor in Palo Alto. Everybody was really pumped and wanted to get moving. However, soon after the activity started, we were washing a car with scraps of rags. How did that happen? Well, they said that the car was dirty and we couldn't go to Palo Alto in a dirty car. The first thing I noticed was that the car was a 4-seater. I began to get a bit suspicious, but still went ahead with it because of the incentive of the ice cream. We were washing the car with rags 2 cm wide and around 10 cm long, and it was hard. You had to dip them in water, then drag it all over the car and rub off the dirty spots. If you didn't work hard enough, it was push-up time. The car was very dirty. It was hard work, and Peter (an RA), one of the two adults brought over a 4-pack of ginger beer and together they started sipping it. It was very hard to watch them luxuriating and drinking beer while we worked. After around 20 minutes we had finished washing the car. Now we had to dry it. They gave us poker cards, and we weren't sure what they were for. They demonstrated. They flapped the cards at the car, and told us to dry the car that way. By then we were all a bit frustrated that we hadn't gotten ice cream yet. We soon discovered that this was not very effective. Some people wiped their cards on the car, hoping to dry it faster, but this just ruined the cards. After their cards got ruined, they either had to ask for more cards or do pushups. Most people asked for more cards, and they got dry leaves to flap with instead. It was a horrific experience that I will not forget soon. After the car was clean and had been inspected thoroughly, they took us to the courtyard and said the shuttle was waiting outside. Suddenly, Donald (another RA) brought in two styrofoam take-out boxes. To our horror, we discovered they were filled with the uncooked dry rice from the cafeteria. They tossed around ten handfuls of rice out, and then they gave us all chopsticks. They were like: "Oh no! Everything is so dirty!"They said to use the chopsticks to pick up the little grains of rice and then put them back into the styrofoam containers. At that point, everybody realized that we weren't ever going to go the ice cream parlor. We worked and worked and worked for over 80 minutes, but we were never finished. At the end, we weren't even 1/3 done. We were really unhappy because Peter was playing games and blaring out cheerful music on a speaker. When a different activity passed by, 4 people rushed to join them. They were all picked out and forced to do 15 burpees each in front of everyone else. At the 40 minute mark, the RA told everyone it was a bathroom break. One person snuck into a different activity, the Worst Activity Ever, where they were watching a movie and eating popcorn and candy. Nobody noticed, because everyone thought that after the bathroom break we would do something fun. No such luck. Everybody was right back to work after the break. By this time most people were just doing pushups because even pushups were more interesting than scraping your fingers and legs on the granite where all the rice was. Nobody used the chopsticks, and everyone was just picking up grains grain by grain with their fingers. My thumb got its skin rubbed off and it hurt a lot the day afterwards.
At the end, they said: "I guess you guys didn't work hard enough. The shuttle bus was waiting all along."
In the end, we didn't get to go the ice cream parlor.
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