6/5/2012.
Adventure Challenge: Constructing a bridge, underwater, with you eyes closed. Reassembling a precious statue surrounded by a force field. Working with a partner, while blind, to avoid a deadly mine-field.
All in the day's work of being an Intern during KIP. No big deal. Confused yet?
The Interns did not start their day out in dress casual and at CKI as they had on Monday, but at a local park in athletic gear!
Today, as a team builder, we were assigned into 5 teams, of 12 people, and set to complete (or at least do our best to complete) six tasks. I have given a quick summary of some of them; however, it very well may be a little dramatic. Our group started out at a task where you had two people blindfolded and linked by their elbows. They were receiving directions to various objects laid out in the field. This, however, was not the end of the confusion. The blindfolded individuals were receiving directions from two individuals: One who had the exact instructions and could see where the blindfolded individuals were going, the other was looking at the person who had possession of the instructions. The individual who was capable of seeing the blindfolded individuals had to, without speaking, convey the instructions to the person opposite of them. Our 4-person group managed to complete the task, twice. Compared to the other groups 3, if not 4, times of completion. We required some time to warm up.
The tasks throughout the morning continued to be challenging. Our 2nd task of the day involved using PVC pipe-gutters that had 4 strings attached to them. You had to keep the "gutter" at least one foot off the ground and at least 1 foot away from your body. There were 4 or 5 of these gutters. The object was to transfer different types of balls (a ping-pong ball, a racquetball, and a small soccer ball) from one spot to another. It involved having 2 people manipulate the gutters to move the ball from one bucket to another. There were additional rules that made things more difficult, of course. For example, once the ball was in your gutter, you were unable to move your feet. You simply had to wait for the next gutter to be ready and carefully tilt the ball into the next gutter.
We managed to complete this task-mostly. We may or may not have skipped the part where we navigated around a tree.
Our third task was a total jam. We were assigned 2 sets of numbers in a half circle, 1-6 with an orange circle in the middle. We had to stand on the circles and with only moving one person at a time, and only crossing a person who you were facing, while never moving more than 2 spaces at a time (still following?) rearrange the half circle so everyone on the yellow side (1-6) ended up on the red side (6-1), while pretending the ground was lava and not stepping off a circle. Our group thought we had successfully completed the task, until we read the rules. In which case, we eventually gave up.
Our fourth task, another tedious one we didn't finish, but managed to actually make progress on, was one that even the directors of the day said was virtually impossible. We had to stack 6 cups in a 3-cup pyramid style and then place a PVC-gutter on top of them. However, we had to devise a contraption that would go through the "force field" that prevented human flesh from entering. We were the first group that was able to actually make progress on this event. We were very excited!
The fifth task was quite entertaining, and one we all completed successfully! A rectangular minefield was set-up with a large number of "mines" (water balls). A partner was blindfolded and then had to be told how to navigate by their partner outside of the minefield. Of course, there was a catch. You could not use a commonly known language: English, French, Spanish, etc. In essence, you had to create your own. My first time through, my partner and I utilized (nerd alert) Harry Potter Spells (or variations of them). Accio meant move forward, Wingardium Leviosa was a large step, (I split this one) Avada-left, Kedavra-Right. Prego (I was trying to think of Protego, but we improvised!) was stop. It was quite humorous. After everyone successfully navigated through the field, you had to find another partner and combine your languages. This made for some interesting variations!
The sixth (and thankfully final task) was to reconstructed a bridge, based on a picture our team leader had taken previously in the day, while "under water." Of course, no one was actually submerged (thankfully, because it was a cool day for DC standards). You had to stay outside of the roped off area unless you closed your eyes and held your breath to find and construct the bridge. Your bridge was only completed once you could roll a ball off of it over the "river" (which you also had to assemble). It was quite the adventure, but our team was very effective and managed to complete this task as well!
After all our team-builders were successfully (for the most part) completed, it was lunch time! We stayed at the park and had a choice of turkey, ham, chicken, or pesto (I think) boxed lunches from Corner Bakery. I'm not entirely sure where this place is at, but a lot of our food has been from there, and it's quite yummy!
Upon finishing up our lunch, we returned to the Institute where we watched The Smartest Guys in the Room, a movie discussing the rise and rapid fall of Enron. It was an interesting movie, which we then discussed. It was quite an interesting discussion.
At the end of the day, I was exhausted. By the time I got back to my apartment it was around 6pm. I went to my room and attempted to blog, but gave up. After vegging out and working on some small projects, I decided to watch an episode (or 3) of How I Met Your Mother and called it a night. I was now prepared to take on my third day--the final day of training for the week and the day before I start in as my role as a Regulatory Policy Intern.
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