Let's race!

Ok, so 2 months and a couple of days into my SSA employment, I joined their first Social Activity. Initially, with some hesitation, as I am still not in my "comfort zone". And people who know me can attest that I don't normally go into situations outside my "comfort zone."

However, if I didn't go... this would have been the 4th office activity I'd miss and I don't really think it would look good on my "image" as a team player if I kept foregoing such events. So, I signed up.

I realized I really do have to let go of Sun Life and really embrace my new job, new people, new experiences. What better time to widen my circle of friends right?

I knew I made the right choice once the activity started. :) It was an Amazing Race! We were divided into 5 groups, and my team was composed of 7 people, 3 of whom I already knew, and 3 others who were really game na game so it wasn't hard to get into "team spirit" mode.

Our first task was to list the 8 SoC (Social Committee) members and our names on a piece of paper. Of course, I didn't play much role in this task, as I didn't know all the SoC members. We were the 3rd group to finish the task, and we raced with the two other groups in last place to LKG foodpark. John and Roxy were ahead of us, and the rest of us had to wait for another elevator to take us up to the 11th floor.

When we finally caught up with our teammates, they were sewing popcorn onto a piece of thread, turning it into a necklace. Roxy was having trouble with the needle slipping so *ahem*, I stepped in. Now, I'm far from being an expert at needlework, but I can hold my own, so I strung the popcorn into the thread, with my teammates handing me kernels. Afterwards, John wore it as a necklace and we were given our next clue.

Next stop, Salt and Pepper at Rufino. We had to get 6 bottlecaps, but we already took some from the LKG bar so we quickly passed this stop. Next was Starbucks, we had to give the SoC committee member "sample" coffee. This was another easy task, and afterwards we made our way to our next stop, McDonald's in Valero to collect 2 large cups and 3 small ones.

Two other teams were ahead of us, so we spent some time here. I even had the gall to ask two women if we could get the empty cups on their table! But we managed this task, and even tried to stall the other teams by throwing the cups we found. But from what I heard, the other teams took the cups even though they were in the trash :P.

Then we were off to 7/11 to buy (get this) a Premiere, Striped, Chocolate flavored condom! Hahaha... what a laugh, and a woman had to buy it! There were a couple of 7/11s in the vicinity and as we ran to the one nearest our office, We met the two other teams who were ahead of us, and we heard them talking that what we were looking for wasn't in that branch. But we went on, thinking they might have just gotten the next clue. Roxy played this one really, really well. And immediately asked the counter person if there was that kind of condom in stock. Apparently, there wasn't so we settled on a Chocolate flavored one.

When we brought the goods to Jam (the SoC rep there), he pointed out that it wasn't striped, nor Premiere. Kakai argued that it was out of stock so we should settle for that particular type, the rest of the team were quick to back her up. Jam seemed to think it over, but was already smiling before he handed out our next clue.

We had to head back to the office and form a human pyramid! So we rushed back and without any expectations, arrived at the starting point and found out we were the first one back! Yay for us! We won P1500, hehehe, and the privilege to eat first. :)

Apparently, the condom bit was really a challenge where we had to talk to Jam. :) So the first two teams tired themselves pointlessly... oh well, lessons learned here is that you really should talk to people when you're not sure with the clue or if you want to argue a point.

I had fun, I really did. Maybe coz we had a come from behind win which was really, really satisfying. Or maybe because for the first time, I finally let go of my SLF past and welcomed my SSA present and future. :)