Preparation Day for Bravo Group

Today, we took it relatively easy, as it’s our resting day between the Alpha group that graduated and departed yesterday, and the Bravo group that will start tomorrow evening. And by “relatively easy,” it meant to convey the image of our leadership group (which Quince has been promoted to), waking at around 7, give or take some minutes, and walking all the way from the apartment to HQ, given the requirements that we all walk, that all of our gear would be brought with us, and to arrive at 9:30. The approximately 4 km distance was a lot more difficult than it sounded and seems. Especially since we had started too early and were caught by the early morning rush hour traffic, and construction sites which closed down most of the sidewalks that we could use. We were able to find detours through the industrial sectors, luckily.

However, being both overly cautious and overly zealous, we actually arrived around 8:20, so we stopped for a break at Subway near HQ. We got to HQ to find that we were the first ones there, and when Billy reached HQ, he congratulated us, but told us that since we were told to arrive at 9:30, we should have planned to arrive at 9:15 at the earliest, and that by arriving a whole hour earlier, it showed that we had planned poorly, and by extension, showed poor leadership.

We had breakfast and discussed our successes with the Alpha group, things to be improved on or changed in preparation for the coming two groups. We discussed a whole range of issues, but decided that communication, or the lack of, was the main concern. And so, we created 8 functional groups and delegated jobs—the loading team, electronic equipment team, cooking team, communication team, general equipment team, cleaning team, budgeting team, and the safety team.

Soon after, our budgeting team got to work planning their first meal—today’s lunch. Then they, and the cooking team, walked to Costco to acquire the materials that they needed for our lunch; setting out to get ingredients for chicken noodle soup, and coming back bearing, instead, hot dogs and fries. It was all within budget though! After lunch, we did an inventory of all of the equipment that we have, in preparation for the camping we will soon be doing.

The Bravo group will be arriving tomorrow evening. So, until then!

Jennifer

Whoowheeeeeeee. I’m so relieved. We were going to do our man-overboard exercise across Lake Ontario at midnight today (or would it be considered last night?) but Billy decided that we wouldn’t. But he did add that Quince would now be joining our line-up for the 8 hour swim, which still worries me despite his vivacity.

Today was our day of rest, but why do I still feel so very weary? Oh, that might be because of the fact that we slept at the apartment last night, and were given the responsibility of getting ourselves, as well as our gear, to HQ at 9:30 in the morning. Sound easy? Here’s the catch: No Sprinter for us (no taxis, nothing with wheels, no magical shoes, no portals or anything of the sort). Did I mention we needed to carry all of our stuff? Yeah. All of us had our big packs; most of us had hiking packs, but some, like Edwin and Jason Wong, had huge duffel bags instead, which was quite a bit more problematic….. especially since the walk to HQ was a little more than 4 km. On our way there, we encountered many obstacles, such as crossing roads right before highway ramps, taking industrial sector detours when construction projects blocked our routes, and even things as small as other wayward pedestrians, and simply staying together as a team.

I learned that age has very little to do with leadership. I was very impressed with Quince’s tenacity while we were walking to HQ. I was encouraged, by his resilience and determination, even when he was tiring. Leadership is inspiration. And for this very resilience, Quince, at 9 years old, has been promoted to one of us leaderships, and is now our youngest. As well, with big Edwin, who had a cumbersome duffel bag, had to carry it in many different….innovative ways. He admitted that it was indeed very heavy (after much prodding on my part), but he never complained about its weight even once. Leadership is knowing that the bag was heavy, and that you’re tired, but carrying your own weight and continuing on because those around you are also carrying a heavy load. Leadership is strength.

We stopped for a break at a nearby Subway, right on the edge of Shields court, at about 8:20, more than an hour early, then went on to HQ. Billy had told us that the same walk would take him 35 minutes with no gear, and we took about an hour; we didn’t beat Billy’s time, but I have a feeling we just might, one day. There was no one there when we arrived, and we were lectured by Billy when he arrived about our timing. An hour early would be a poor show of our planning and leadership, because we may compromise our own safety (especially since we ended walking to HQ during the morning rush hour because we’d left the apartment so early).

We had a quick breakfast, and then began discussing the Alpha group as well as improvements to be made for the coming Bravo group. One of our biggest challenges that we will have to overcome is communication—both within the leaderships, instructors, as well as the students. Communication calls for mutual respect and a certain sensitivity to the person, or persons, that you’re communicating with. Your intentions don’t matter as much as the way that your actions, words, and mannerisms are interpreted.

So, to try and reduce these sorts of problems, we discussed and delegated jobs, with 8 main functional teams. Alastair and I will continue working on the blog, as we are now officially called the “Communication Team,” but most of the responsibility of the blog will be shifting to me because Alastair’s many skills are in much demand (he’s in 5 of the 8 teams). Let me tell you right now, it’s a hefty job, and I hope I can manage it as smoothly and efficiently as Alastair did. I am also part of the budgeting team, with Ryan as our head. He is one of our junior leaderships and he’s absolutely basking in his new responsibilities, and I am sure he will do brilliantly at his new post.

We cleaned up HQ while some of the cooking team with helpers walked to Costco  to grab our lunch of chicken noodle soup. They returned with hot dogs and fries, not that I’m complaining. We did an inventory of all of our camping equipment, while I did research on Darlington Provincial Park, where we are heading next with the Bravo group, who will arrive tomorrow evening. I had to make a few calls to flesh out the situation and fees in the park, which I was surprisingly not nervous about, as I usually am with phone calls. I’m slowly growing more confident.

We are heading back to make dinner at the apartment. This may be the last day of comfort and luxury for us for a while, so I’ll definitely enjoy it as much as I can! I think I may be getting sick though, but I’ll tough it out.

Jacky

Today we had a relaxing day with a early PT in the morning. We woke up at 7:20 at the apartment and left to the HQ by foot, 4 km and took 1 h to arrive at the HQ. As a group we felt like we achieved a huge goal because we were determined. We then ate breakfast at HQ and had a group meeting. As we reflected on our past group and experiances we made goals and tried changed our ways for the up coming group. We then did a whole floor clean up and waited for further instructions. A few mintes later we ate lunch. We then did a large inventory on our camping equipment. We are now resting and awaiting for another adventure.

Quince

Today, I walked with the leaderships to go back to HQ. Well we are early for one hour and we have a break in Subway. It is about 30-40 minites. Then we start walking back to HQ. Nobody is in HQ except for some staff. Some staff is not here. Not even Billy is in here. But there is a reason for that. That also shows that we are early and in time. Then we ate breakfeast. We stayed in HQ and pack stuff we need for camp for the rest of the day. We look at tents if they have been damaged. We also do some games with Edwin and his brother, so that is the day going.

Jason Wang

Today we woke up early because our PT for today was to walk to the HQ with all our gear. This taught us that a leader should be able to carry your own weight before you try carrying someone else’s. When we got to HQ we had a lecture from Billy on how everyone leads in a different way but that mutual respect is mandatory no matter how you lead. The rest of the day was reletivlly relaxed although some of us needed to walk to Costco to get food and Billy needed to go to the doctor’s due to his high blood protin.

Jason Wong

We woke up at 7:20 a.m. this morning. We packed up anjd got ready for our first leadership challenge was to walk with our stuff from the apartment to HQ. We started the walk to 7 something. Sometimes I had to carry my duffle bag on my shoulder, and sometimes I just use one hand. I was sweating a lot and getting a little physicaly tired. We went to Subways for a small break then continued on back to HQ. We reached HQ at eight forty something in the morning. We had cookies, fruit for breakfast. Me and Edwin cheung worked out before lunch came. Billy was at the doctors to make sure he was ok. We had the usual Costco lunch which was hotdog and French Fries. After lunch we cleaned up and checked the inventory.

Ryan

Today I found out that Quince is going to join leadership and we got 2 new students from Hong Kong Edwin and his cousion henry. We were also assigned to varioys teams me being the head of budgeting and a worker in cooking. I decided to get chicken noodle soup at Costco but we decided to get hotdogs and fries instead because it was cheaper and the cooking team did not want to cook. We realized however how heavy the stuff was so I am guessing we wont be doing that anymore. When we got back and ate Billy told us to do an inventory check and I was sent to do consumables working with Edwin and Henry. At first it was difficult because Henry has problem understanding English but it worked out alright. My only problem during this task was not checking on Edwin because he messed up a couple of times.

Edwin

Today is July 18, 2012. 2 days after gradate for Alpha group. On the morning today, we walked from the apartmene to HQ for morning P.T. We hade a breakfest meeting with Billy and Kenny about communication with children/teenagers. In the meeting, Kenny and Billy taught us what to do, and what not to do. If I learn having a good communication is about caring. If we communicate well with people there will be No yelling required. Billy start proposing new Job for us. There are total 8 functional teams. I am parts of 3 functional teams. I feel really good. Because I become part of Monticle leadership team. I believe I will learn more because of doing more. This afternoon, we prepared for Next wild camp in Daring-ton. We cheaked all the tents equipments and Cooking equipment. I learned that “plan A Head” could minize problem.