During the retreat this year, I met many new friends and we had some amazing experiences. On the first day of the retreat, the teachers put us in groups and instructed us to build tents along with the new students. My group had two other new girls. After what seemed like hours, we built a tent and got in it. When we sat down, I started talking to the girls about where they came from and where they were before they came to TIS and so on. 

“I want to sleep there!” Vera yelled as she flopped onto her sleeping bag. 

It took us hours to decide who was going to sleep where, and after all that, we all got out of the tent and went to eat. It was like we were a pack and we were inseparable. Though it was the first day meeting them it had felt like we'd known each other for years. 

“Time for dinner everyone!” we heard a teacher shout.

We hurried to eat, and by the time we were all done eating, we were all laughing so hard for no reason.

Later that night, it was our curfew, so we went into the tent and started playing a game called “Spot It”, which Vera had brought with her. Klea then went to bed which left us with Elia, Vera, and me. We couldn't sleep at all so we decided to stay up and talk and make jokes. We were all starving at the moment, but then Elia asked, 

"Does anyone have food?" 

I then offered them everyone cookies then immediately they went rummaging through my bag and started devouring everything in there. 

This is where it gets funny, Vera had started eating the cookie, then she choked on it a bit, confusingly stared at the cookie, then ate the rest. For some reason, Elia and I found that hilarious. Unfortunately, though, the fun had to end. Klea was feeling sick and started to vomit, so Elia went to the bathroom with her and they stayed there for at least an hour. While they were gone, Vera and I just made jokes and tried new challenges in the tent. We then got scared because it had been at least an hour since Klea and Elia hadn't returned, so Vera and I decided to sneak out at around 2 a.m. and check on them. Klea wasn't feeling well at all. 

When we ran back to the tent, we were super loud which was obviously uncontrollable for a group of girls. The next day, we woke up to hear that Klea left because she was sick. We then continued the day normally. The others went to the beach while I just walked around talking to myself. People were playing volleyball and hitting our tent with the ball and we all got mad so when the ball hit us again that we caught it, closed the tent, then threw it out of the back window. 

Everyone started running to our tent and broke our tent. We went out and fixed it, then packed our stuff and went to the bus. While we were on the bus, we had to separate because all the seats were taken. I only had Raina behind me but she was sitting next to a boy who was sleeping the whole time, so she was stuck with him. It was like we were all falling apart. As soon as we returned to school, I made sure to stick to the rest of my friends so that we wouldn't have to stay apart for any longer.