Ah, Teambuilding

As part of our MBA curriculum, we all had to participate in a 'team building' trip. We took a wed and thurs off of school and headed up to the Great Wall for a 5 hour up-hill hike to a guardtower. A couple days before we left, we were given a briefing on what to expect...we we divided up in teams and had to work as a team to make it to the top. We were going to be given backpacks and water bottles and we needed to carry everything we needed for the two days on our back on the hike. They also stated that dresses and heels would not be appropriate for this trip. This advice, of course, was for all the froo-froo Chinese girls that make it a daily habit of wearing party dresses to class. Additionally, each group had to come up with a performance to be presented to the class after the hike.
Anyways, we had to wake up at 6 to get to school by 0750. We hopped onto two large busses and made our way to the Great Wall. Three hours later, we made it to our first stop: a dirty, gritty country bathroom. It was truly glorious. Below is a picture of all of us girl waiting for our moment...

Due to the need for brevity, I didn't take a picture...but basically the inside of the bathroom was completely concrete with two holes in the floor. You could clearly see that the holes were more like a excrement laden slide that ended in a common pit. in the very few times I glanced down, it was very clear that the combination of urine and feces was supporting some kind of life form--not only maggots, but some bigger creatures too. They were also making a decent bid for freedom through the hole I was trying to pee down. Needless to say, it was obvious why I didn't linger to get a picture.

The next stop was the bottom of our hike. Cliff and I were divided up into two different groups...Cliff took the camera for this trip, so below is a picture of his group:


We struggled up the hill for several hours. Our group had to stop a couple times, because a couple of our team mates had some difficulties getting up the slope. It started out with about a mile of roughly paved stairs, followed by a half mile or more of dense brush, then some very steep grassland area. After 3 hours, we made it to the top to this view:

Actually, our main goal was to get to an ancient watch tower. On the way up, Cliff carried the backpack of one of the girls in his group. Nicole is a really sweet girl and she was very thankful for Cliff's help:
Here is a picture of a couple girls from my group...we were the "super happy power go go team, yeah yeah yeah" team. Basically we couldn't decide on our team name and combined then all together.


Here is Cliff and I on the top of the watch tower:


and a couple of international girls from our class:

Add a couple of guys from the class:


Which eventually equalled all of the international students from the class:


After the hike up, we thought that the walk down would be a breeze...we were wrong. It took another couple hours to walk down. We took a different path, which was complete overgrown. By the time we got to the bottom, I was exhausted. We hopped on the bus and made the trip to our hotel for the night: the days inn great wall. We ended up overshooting the exit, which added another 40 minutes to our trip. We finally arrived, hungry, dirty, sweaty and grumpy. After a very quick dinner we started our presenations. The first group did a parody of snow white...you can see the starring princess below


Cliffs group spelled out letters with their bodies...


The next group did a cheerleading dance...

My group did a dance to YMCA, but instead mimed the letters B-I-M-B-A. As you can see, we didn't really have alot of practice...we're basically all signing different letters:


At the end, we all got the entire room to stand up and sing with us...it was great, we only had to perform for less than a minute.

Afteward, we were given the run of the hotel...so, we decided to go bowling. We bought a ton of beer, rented some shoes and went at it. This is the best form I can muster...unfortunately, it doesn't equal big points on the board...

Instead, i just tried some trick shots, like this between the legs try...


Cliff did well enough, but was mostly a social butterfly, flitting between our lane and the other lanes.


of course, it all had to boil down to drinking--specifically baijiu. Below is our friend John, with the before picture:


and the after effects:

After a very late night, we woke up very early for a short management class. Next we learned that we would be treated to a special field trip: a wine tour at the Great Wall Winery. We were given a detailed tour of the entire wine making process at Great Wall. We were also given some basic wine education, as most of our Chinese class mates were not that familiar with wine (as it is a new libation in China).


Below is picture with one of my teammates, Daisy:

They also took us to the tasting room...


After the tour had completed, we were led to the company dining room for lunch. On each table was a bottle or red an bottle of white wine and some snacks. The company president talked for about 15 minutes about the company and their acomplishments. i got the feeling that we were being recruited. In typical Chinese business fashion, lunch soon became a ridiculous drinking debacle. After awhile, it was clear that the company president was not pleased with us. it may have been when a couple of our classmates started drinking the wine out of the bottle. Thank god I had alittle too much to drink the night before, otherwise I'm sure I would have brought shame on the BiMBA name.
After getting usher out of the dining room, we were loaded into the bus again for one last stop. We drove anothe hour down the rode and stopped at Great Wall's vineyard. We were given a short tour and a box of grapes to take home with us--it was so great! overall, we had a great time with our class mates, but we're glad to be home again....