Anthony, Gwenaelle, Mari
27 fevrier 2010 (Day 180)
It was pretty nice this morning waiting outside to get picked up for the YSA stake activity “Mission Impossible concerning the five senses.” We all met at the church and then split up into two cars and headed off to Angers. We went through the countryside this time and it was really pretty. I road with Christophe, Quinton, Gwenaelle, and Anthony.
Christophe gave the spiritual thought at this activity. It was a really interesting talk about dependencies (like/usage -> want/abuse -> need/dependence). We talked not only about the typical dependencies (drugs, alcohol) but other physical and behavioral (running, food, internet, avoiding responsibility). It gave all of us a lot of things to think about. Afterwards we had our picnic lunches and then split up into four teams of about 5-6 people. I was in a group with Benjamin (who I met last time), Hannah, Ophelie, Celia, and a boy whose name is escaping me right now. We then went to different rooms where different activities dealing with the five senses were set up. Each activity generally had an explanation before actually explaining how that sense worked. For sight we had to try to find 20 objects that were hidden outside in five minutes. It was funny because Benjamin started picking them up and carrying them instead of writing them down on his paper! For smell we had to smell things (nasty things mostly): ash, smelly cheese, stinky shoes, clementines, onions, spices, etc. I did terribly trying to identify smells. I also epically failed at guessing what was in the concoction we all tasted (luckily this was for team points). My team actually guessed five out of the six ingredients (and I didn’t even know what 3 of the ingredients were when I was told the correct answers!). For the sound activity we had to guess the decibels for certain sounds and my group didn’t too well (but we didn’t do horribly). My favorite activity was touch. They had 5 or 6 buckets filled with various things and we had to reach in and find objects that were hidden in things like: wet marshmallows (which freaked a lot of people out), broken eggs, flour, newspaper, rice, etc. I was the only one on my team that found all the items (yes!).
I went with Gwenaelle to the grocery store to find something to eat (she’s diabetic) because they weren’t planning on having dinner for at least an hour. When we got back from the store we found out that due to the big storm that is coming! We definitely had enough food this time (way too many crepes). They were so good! I had a nutella & banana, blueberry, that wonderful gingerbread-tasting spread, and lemon with powdered sugar crepes. I love crepes. After eating and Benjamin telling me about a zillion times that I am so nice (over and over) and having him zip up my coat all the way and put my hood on my head and getting a picture (since I’m so cute like that) we left to go back to Nantes.
The ride home was definitely noteworthy. We were listening to some great church music and Quinton started talking about how he doesn’t have any skills, how no one likes him, how his mother would be happy if he died and all these other terrible things. We spent most of the ride trying to convince him that he was a good person and not mean and that his logic was ridiculous. We played an accidental game of tag with the other car (trying to find each other so they didn’t get lost). Eventually Christophe was having a quieter conversation with Quinton in the front and we were listening to the church music. Then Gwenaelle started crying. Then Anthony started crying. Then I didn’t cry and tried to consolidate the two instead. It was a good bonding time although awkward to have an 18-year-old boy crying in a car due to music along with a 20-something year old girl.
