The Retreat. Day 2. Of Course It's All Dairy.

I woke up this morning around 7:15 and about a minute later Tzvi was texting asking to video chat with Hallie. They were cuddling. I got ready to go and headed to breakfast around 7:45. The eating area (and no, I don't mean dining room, because it's not a dining room, it's just an area with food) is exactly like you would imagine. Big square tables.

The food was okay. There was cereal, hard boiled eggs, some rubbery scrambled eggs, granola, yogurt, muffins, bread, sunflower butter. I had some eggs, a muffin, granola and some coffee that was eh. After eating I had to clean up myself and put everything in the correct garbage. I’m sure the compost police are going to come after me but oh well. 

I met a lot of new faces at breakfast. My team is national, so most people rarely see each other. It was nice to put faces to names, or at least actually speak to them in person as opposed to Zoom (video conferencing). 

At 8:30 we headed outside for our morning of ‘team bonding.’ First we all introduced ourselves and gave an ice cream flavor we liked. I said cookie dough. Then we did some random activities that basically everyone knew from summer camp. I did not. I do not regret that. There was this one game where you play rock paper scissors and when you win the loser has to start cheering for you. From there we trekked to the woods. I called it a hike, even though I guess it was a road. Then we had to stand in the forest, on wet leaves. Basically what you avoid stepping in on a regular basis, you were purposely stepping in. We were divided into three groups to do even more activities! So many activities! One activity was standing around a person who sort of did trust falls, and we would push them back up. Then there was this thing that involved swinging on a rope. Yep, I swung on a rope. It was interesting. That ended around 10:30 and we went back to change into more professional clothes. 

The rest of the day was filled with sessions. All interesting things. We broke for lunch around 12:30. For lunch they served salad, soup, fries and…fish sticks. Yup. Fish sticks. To adults. I guess if you like fish sticks that’s good? Thankfully someone asked the kitchen for some plain tuna, so they brought that out. So weird.

After lunch we had more sessions. Between sessions we had snack, and they gave us chocolate covered raisins.  So far the snacks have been better than the meals.  We ended the day around 5:30. Dinner was scheduled for 6-7ish, so I went to the gym for a short time. I figured we were going to be eating garbage tonight, and we're going out the next two nights. The large bug was still at the gym, but it had moved from the tissue box to the window, which I guess means it's not dead. I wonder where it will end up next! Probably our room. 

Dinner was… underwhelming.  It was the same salad and a vegetable lasagna that of course had cheese. BUT there were also string beans and garlic bread. I ended up eating a ton of string beans, lettuce, garlic bread, and rice cakes with sun butter and jam. Oh! I forgot to mention. Before we arrived they gave us strict instructions to not bring anything processed with nuts, as one of the participants in the other group that’s here at the retreat center has an airborne nut allergy. So we get here, and between sessions they have snacks for us, and what do I see but a huge bowl of mixed nuts! I was excited about the nuts, but pissed that I didn’t bring any of my nut products! 

After dinner we had a bonfire with snacks. I made two smores, one regular and one with a reeses pb cup. We also had popcorn, milk duds, and twizzlers. It was all good. Someone was playing guitar. It was all just so campy and made me glad I neveer went to camp.  We came back to the room. The big bug hadn't made its way yet, but there were a few ants. Isn’t that nice?  Back in the room I showered and went to to bed.  Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.