7 February 2014, Friday

Today was the day of the actual catholic retreat 2014. It all starts in the Marketing Lobby, where we all gathered to get ready to leave at 12:30 p.m. I was assigned to be in the same bus and take care of grade 10 together with Patrick, Jonathan and Tiffany. Amongst us, we had to set jobs equally. So we all agreed that Tiffany would be documenting the entire event, Jonathan would be taking care of our luggages, Patrick would keep watch of the students and i would be taking attendance. It was teamwork getting everyone set and making sure everyone was present and transported safely to the bus and to the retreat place. I realized that when it comes to a large crowd, it is important to always have yourself heard when making announcements to the students. It is also important to take self initiative to help others even when you are not used to it. We planned to reach the place by 3 p.m., but we ended up reaching the place by 2 p.m. Which was good, our trip there was not long and this allowed all of us to settle down and rest before starting the sessions. Because this was our assigned jobs, we had to make sure that we would do our work before putting our 'free time' or 'playing time'. I had difficulties in giving out the grade 10 name tags, as they were all tangled and mixed up. But with the help of my friend, we were able to sort out the name tags and properly hand it out. We also circled the area to find locations for our respective amazing race positions and we did it greatly, as we all looked out for great different places. The night patrol was quite tiring, because we had to wander around making sure everyone is at their respective rooms. This made me realize that when you are doing something, you need to make sure you do it well and to the maximum. Meaning, you do not just leave it, you have to end the day making sure you did all the things you needed to do. Overall, the day was great, things went fine, everyone were at their places and the students enjoyed it.

5 February 2014, Wednesday

Today was our last meeting before the actual retreat. We had a lot of things to discuss and finalize. The most important thing was studying the schedule and our respective jobs. I was assigned to be in bus number 1 along with Patrick, Jonathan and Tiffany, with the supervisor Ms. Maria. We also finalized the attendance list and where students will be assigned to. We also discussed regarding the daily activities and what we would be doing during the sessions, and also the amazing race clarifications and preparations. There were a lot of things i learned today. First, was that having a large number of students, organization and most importantly, familiarity of the students is important. This is because you will be taking care of them and taking full responsibility for them while they are under your care. Knowing where you will be at all times and where the students will be at is important because you want to make sure that you are staying according to schedule and following the rules of the retreat. The second thing i learned was that being a part of this means you need to always be prepared for things before hand. I am usually lacking in preparations so now i know i need to work on that. For example, buses should have plastic bags for trash and tags so that we would know where to go. We were also given night patrol and jobs to wake up earlier than the others. The third thing i learned was that being the host of the event, you must always keep yourself working to ensure that all work is met. We had to decide on who takes the night patrol and where. This, we had done together smoothly, as we would be doing our patrol wherever our respective rooms will be. We also had a last minute explanation and finalization of the amazing race: place, ribbon colors, grouping, instruction, sequence, rules and clues. After everything was settled, we just had to wait for the actual date.