Thursday, June 12, 2014

Treasure Hunt

So two weeks into Fun Week, the woman who has been in charge up until now, choosing days etc... has decided to pass the buck.  So now, we have split up into teams, with each team claiming a day and deciding what to do on that day.
My group got Tuesday, and I suggested we do something like Treasure Hunt Tuesday instead of bringing in food, since everyone brought in food and making clues and finding them would be more fun than a sandwich swap.  Nobody wanted to have to come up with clues, so I was over ruled.  We tossed around some other ideas, one was having a veggies and dip day, but we could think of a way to make that alliterative with "T". Someone else suggested bringing in different kinds of fruit for a fruit salad and calling it Tutti Fruity Tuesday, which reminded someone else of pies, but since 2 out of the 5 of us have no ovens, we couldn't really do the pies.  We tried taking a vote, but since everyone voted for their own idea, that didn't really work out.  In the end we decided on a veggie fruit pie day.  Basically, everyone was just going to do whatever they wanted, and it would be a sort of themeless Tuesday, which would have worked better on a Thursday, but it was the best we seemed to be able to do.  I volunteered for carrots, because they are cheap, I could find them at the local shop, and they required almost no preparation.
Each day that brought us closer to Tuesday brought some sort of change.  On Sunday our group members changed unexpectedly.  We lost some people and we gained some people.  Rebecca, who has just announced that she is pregnant (seriously, at least half of the teachers are pregnant or were just pregnant), joined our team.  I liked her right away since she thought my original idea of a treasure hunt was pretty cool. So, now that I had help, we decided to go ahead and do the treasure hunt since it was no theme Tuesday and it wouldn't matter anyway.
On Monday, we suddenly found out that half the teachers were going to be sent to  a language institute to teach a summer school session there starting tomorrow.  Since there seemed to be no rhyme or reason for who was being sent where or why, we decided it was best to cancel our fun week.  This way the burden didn't fall on only half the group members, and those sent to the the other site wouldn't miss out on the fun.
Rebecca and I were crushed.  We spent a lot of time working really hard on our clues, which we wrote in the form of limericks and haiku's.  We even rounded up a bunch of classroom supplies, like dry erase markers, red pens, and sticky notes to hand out as prizes.
We had one final shot, everyone would have to come to the University on Thursday for an end of year celebration, so we decided to do it then.  It was so exciting!  We wrote out our clues on different colored paper for each group and hid them all around the office and the building.  Each clue leading to another clue, until the final clue led to the school supply prizes which had been neatly wrapped by Rebecca who is much craftier than I am.  There were four teams, but only two prizes, so the teams to arrive first would win the prizes.
I didn't anticipate the competitiveness of some of our co-workers.  The minute we handed over the first clue to the team captains, they went crazy.  Grown women were running through the hallways, shouting clues at each other, tossing tables and chairs out of their way, and frantically looking under pillows on the couches and underneath stacks of books.  You could see groups huddling together as they read the next clue, and then dash off excitedly when someone figured out the next location.  It was really really entertaining to watch.  The best part was that all of the students were still wondering the hallways, and probably wondering what had happened to their normally composed teachers who were now crawling under tables and chairs looking for clues.
It couldn't have lasted more than ten minutes. The ladies were so determined to win that they found the clues in record time, but it was probably my favorite ten minutes I've ever spent at work.

To pass on the enjoyment, see if you can figure out these common office locations from the clues:

Location # 1
When the day is too long to pass
It’s a place to put down your mass
Grab a blanket and pillow
Make yourself mellow
And sit yourself down on your @$#

Location # 2
One button, four walls
Many crowded journeys down
Calories go up

Location # 3
You can heat and eat but beware
This is a hygienic nightmare
It’s dirty and smelly
And bad for your belly
Are you really putting that in there?

Location # 4
Swamp of water and waste
Sweet relief in a hole
No solace for nose

Feel free to make your guesses in the comments section.  I'll post the answers to these clues in a week or so under the comments section.

2 comments:

  1. 1. couch, 2. elevator, 3. microwave? 4. toilet stall

    What do I win??? :)

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    Replies
    1. The satisfaction of know you are right? Or if you prefer, i'll bring you back a ninja mask niqab. It might come in handy for a halloween costume someday....

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