12th Grade China Trips: The Finale

For the China trips this year, the 12th graders traveled to Lantau Island in Hong Kong for the week. This specific trip is shorter than the rest of the China trips as it is only 4 days and 3 nights. The seniors left on Monday morning and hopped on a three hour bus ride to Lantau Island. The seniors spent most of their time at YWCA where they ate and slept. Once they arrived, the grade split into their activity groups to bond and to meet their Dragonfly leader. They then had dinner, and were split into their room groups to shower and get some rest for the next day.

On Tuesday, the grade woke up and began a rotation activity, where the individual groups had to find each Dragonfly leader. Each leader had a different game where they required the groups to work together to achieve one goal. They had Subway for lunch, and then proceeded to their first activity. There were three different activities that the seniors participated in during this trip: kayaking, canyoning and hiking. The groups rotated through the activities throughout Tuesday and Wednesday.

In kayaking, the group was split into pairs to be put into double kayaks. The group then paddled out together to a private beach nearby. At the beach the group did team-building activities such as attempting as a whole group to all get onto one kayak at the same time in the middle of the water. Gil Cohen said that her favorite activity was kayaking because, “I jumped off the boat and just floated in the water. It was one of the first times I was able to relax this year”. The group then paddled back and washed the equipment and bought popsicles at the local store nearby. They then trekked back to the bus to go back to YWCA.

 

Another activity was hiking where the group hiked up a giant mountain for five hours. The hike involved many large spiders and an amazing viewpoint of the whole town. Andrew Renfrow said jokingly “the best part were the water breaks”.

On the way, the group encountered dogs and goats! The goats jumped on our very own Jimmy Kim, who says the experience was “traumatizing”. The hike was quite steep but along the way there were many waterfalls and little creeks to stop at. It was a time for the groups to really interact and talk with each other. They were able to get to know each other better and learn more about their Dragonfly leader. The group was then picked up by the bus to return to YWCA.

The last activity was canyoning which involved hiking up hot rocks. There were little waterfalls along the way and a large lagoon near the end. Throughout the climb, the group was required to wear helmets and at one point, also required to wear harnesses. The harnesses were for allowing those who chose to be able to hook themselves onto a rope at a certain point that was a little tricky to get around. “It was challenging, but in a fun way” said Belle Feldmayer. The leaders for the canyoning activity were fun and supportive and it added a great aspect to the trek.

On Wednesday the 12th graders woke up and participated in the two activities that they had yet not participated in. For the night activity, the seniors were ‘pirates’, as they attempted to steal ‘money’ from other groups to collect for themselves. The game involved a lot of running and rock, paper, scissors (that was the method of stealing the money). The night ended and the students went to bed for their last night at YWCA on Lantau.

Thursday morning, the students woke up and got ready and packed to leave on a bus back to Guangzhou. They had one last activity before they could head out and that was a catapult competition! Each group was required to create a fort and a catapult out of the supplies given. Supplies included tent poles, tarps and life jackets. Then, all the groups gathered in a circle and competed against each other to shoot down each other’s forts with sponges and tennis balls. Once this activity was over and cleaned up, the bus picked up the seniors and they went on their way home.

This trip was exciting and memorable and a great end to their AISG China trips experience. If you are interested in seeing a video of the full trip, check out Tiffany Chan’s video of the experience at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRE1aDHR09U