Teen Ranch

            Canada's Wonderland, Marine Land, African Lion Safari; all fun places, but then there's Teen Ranch!  Have you ever been to Teen Ranch? If you haven't well then you haven't TASTED fun yet. If you have, than you know that there's a limit to fun but at Teen Ranch "the sky's the limit!" The amount of fun you'd have is endless. If you're wondering what the big fuss is about Teen Ranch is well… your about to find out. Teen Ranch was…words can't describe it; it was amazing, I'm pretty sure that 100% of the students there had fun. Orangeville hides a secret deep inside, 'Teen Ranch,' Teen Ranch consist of amazing food, outdoor activities, activities during free time and much more. I'd have to say that Teen Ranch was the highlight of the year so far, Teen Ranch "is yours to discover!"

          The food at Teen Ranch was amazing! In fact I don't think it should even be called just 'Food," it was gourmet, they prepared it so simple yet so elegant! It was like being in a fancy restaurant everyday. On the first day at Teen Ranch we arrived at approximately 10:41 a.m. soon after they served us lunch we had spaghetti and meatballs for dessert we had cinnamon cookies and for dinner we had teriyaki chicken with vegetables. Through put the week we had a variety if things like: lasagna, salad, pizza, sausages, fajitas, fries, rice chicken. For breakfasts we had things like cereal, Mc muffins, muffins, bacon, eggs, yogurt and pancakes. For desserts we had things like pudding, ice cream, brownies, cupcakes, cookies and puff pastries. For drinks we had things like: iced tea, orange juice, milk, cherry drinks, water etc. At nights while we were watching movies and doing Karaoke we ate things like: cookies, rice krispies, fruits, sweets, for drinks we had hot chocolate and juice. One night we had a bonfire it was amazing, we got to roast marshmallows and hotdogs. During all these meals we had to sit with different people each time. While doing this we got to know a lot about other people, we got to know people's likes, dislikes, their life stories and much more. I managed to sit with 2 different people at each meal, which was my goal from the begging. I think my favourite meal was when we were at the bonfire. At the bonfire there wasn't a limited amount of seats, there were about 4 gigantic benches, so that no one had to rush to the table they wanted. I sat in various places every few minutes. After awhile we started to roast the hotdogs, the sparks lingered and wandered into the dark sky and looked like stars, and then suddenly they disappeared like magic. After we began to roast marshmallow, I stuck my marshmallow in the fire where it then caught on fire, I thought I was doing something wrong, and then I was told that's how it was supposed to be done. I looked at the sky and the darkness of the sky carried me off to a hazy sleep.

          The activities we did all had to do with bonding with nature and using common sense. One activity we did was "wilderness survival." We had to go into the forest and make a shelter and fire. Our group included me, Tiffany H, Ashlen, and Kyra. We went to the forest and we began to collect big logs, sticks, and leaves. We had no idea where we were going to put our shelter but then our v.p helped us, we started to put some sticks, logs, and leaves on our shelter we continued for about 30 minutes. In the end we had the best shelter in our group. (group1) It had a sling shot, a slide, it camouflaged with the environment and when you entered it there were a lot of curved rocks and smooth rock so it looked like there was a table and chairs. We still weren't done we had to make our fire, we were very successful in our shelter but when it comes to making a fire we suck, we struck out  4 times and we still didn't get it but our v.p said it was okay. He also said that even though we didn't make the fire we still get an A+ in our shelter!  After everyone took a picture in front of our shelter. As we walked out of the forest we saw some beautiful horses in the stable. After we had lunch it was our turn to ride horses. (There were 3 groups and 3 activities so we rotated to the different activities) One of the advisors there (Agatha) explained what to do and what not to do on or near the horse so we would have a successful ride. We made our way down to the stable and we picked our horses my horse was named Tia she had beautiful ivory white skin, it was as white as snow. Soon after we began to ride we rode through the forest, up and down the hills and we trotted a bit. We got to ride twice that was the first time the second time we took a different route up and down hills at one point we had to go down a very narrow hill, my horse tripped over a rock and almost fell but she was still okay. Tia was so well trained she listened to every command I said. In all we had to complete 3 activities we only completed 2 out of the 3 so we had to complete 1 more. Our last activity was map orienteering. In map orienteering we had most of the ranch, our advisor selected10-16 # that we had to find in the ranch. When we found what we had to find it showed a letter or a horse breed, the letters when all found, had to be unscrambled and in the end spelled "celebrate." When we weren't doing serious activities we were doing fun things like skating. Skating was unbelievably fun we did it almost every day. The very first time I skated was in grade 1, I was the best one there, I was skating right next to the coach but before I knew it I was about to crash into the coach, and I fell and got my lip stuck to the ice. When I got back on t the ice I was a little rusty (or a lot) but it felt amazing to be on the ice again. On the first day skating at Teen Ranch I was really scared and I fell 3 times, but as the week went on I got better and I didn't fall at all.  On Thursday we played hockey I was completely TERRIBLE!  It was still loads of fun words can't even explain how exhilarating it felt. Another thing we did was souvenir making, on the second floor of the arena, it was originally a gym transformed into an art studio. We each got a circular piece of wood that we had to sandpaper & draw symbols of Teen Ranch on it. Once we were done we had to

Podge it so that it would last, then we waited for it to dry then we could take it home with us. Another activity we did was going on a hike on the first day at Teen Ranch, to get to know the area. We travelled through most of the ranch; we went to a place called Adventure Island, the stable, up and down hills, the barn, the forest, the cabin areas, the pond, some houses, waterslides and much more. On our last night at Teen Ranch we had a very tiring afternoon, we played predator and prey. The team I was on was the fox group. The objective of the game was to tag animals smaller than us like meadow mice, chipmunks, squirrels etc. The same thing applied for animals bigger than us. We played the game for about an hour, I hid in our shelter we made in the wilderness survival skills for about 10 minutes and absolutely no one found me. Then I got bored so I left, but since no one found me it showed that if we got lost or if we were actually were animals our shelter would've worked. We continued the game and in the end I got 15 points. After a tiring day like that it wouldn't be hard to fall asleep, the game acted like a Tylenol, I fell asleep instantly!!!

          When we weren't doing outdoor activities that had to be completed or stuffing our faces with food we had free time. We had a wide variety of thing we could do. Some of the outdoor activities we could do were volleyball, basketball, and trampoline, sit by the pond, pet the horses go to your cabin etc. The first thing I did when I got free time was volleyball. We gad about an hour to do what we wanted me and my friends would go down to the pit and play 5 on 5. We would play for about half an hour until a team got to 25, but we wouldn't get very far, when we played for about a minute, we would be serious then all of a sudden we would be on the sand laughing our eyes out, so we just played for fun. When we were done playing we would go to the trampolines, there were 3 trampolines and were like 2eyes and a nose, but the only way to get to a trampoline is if you sprinted there. Once the blue moon rose it was finally my turn I got on and started to jump then I noticed everyone was doing summersaults in the air, so I tried it. I figured out I couldn't even do half a summersault, and the one time I tried I felt like I was going to break my neck. Once we were done we would usually go t the sport courts we usually played badminton, but it didn't work well since there were only two rackets, so we would usually go by the pond. The pond was man made a few years ago; it was a beautiful, calming, relaxing place to be. It contained Lilly pads, fish, tad poles and scarce variety of flower and grass. Whenever you were tired, stressed or depressed the pond was a great place to be. In the mornings and night we would meet there to say our hi's and good bye's. Another thing we could do is seeing and petting the horses. There were two horses we could see at anytime, one horse's name was Ivy, and she was a beautiful snow white horse and her baby Zoey who was a soft warm grey skin tone. Ivy was a very well-trained horse but Zoey being only 3 months old sometimes nibbled or bit you. Another thing we could've done during free time or in the mornings was go to the cabin. Our cabin was cabin 4, it was in fair condition. When you enter on your left was one bunk bed (1Ashley ) across from it was another bunk bed (2christine's) between the two was a pole going horizontally, it was there to hang wet towels. Next to bunk two was the bathroom we had schedules for the bathroom, on the first day it was me who went first then I was second, then third, then fourth, then fifth. It worked out perfectly since there were 5 of us and 5 days. After we all finished showering the bathroom was no longer a bathroom it was an outdoor swimming pool with lots of bugs in it. Next to the bathroom was another bunk (3 Ashlen ) across from it was another bunk bed (4 Jodie) in the middle was night table. Side by side was my bunk (5) and bunk 4. There were 5 of us me, Ashlen , Ashley , Jodie, and Christine. When we weren't having free time we had night time activities like watching movies and doing karaoke. The first night we watched a movie called "Avatar." It was an amazing movie, it was the third time I watched that movie. It had to do with what we were supposed to learn by the end of the week. It was about people in the real world looking for a precious stone under a gigantic tree in the avatar world, so now the avatars have to work together to save their home. We watched the movie on Monday and we continued it on Tuesday. On Wednesday we had a karaoke night, it was unbelievably hilarious. A lot of boys attempted to sing and our teachers put on an amazing performance. A few girls tried it but it was little hard for us to go up, I think only me and 2 other girls were the only ones who didn't sing. I was glad I didn't sing because I would have embarrassed myself, I stink at singing! On the last night we watched "Robin Hood." Although we didn't get very far because we arrived late and we were all tired so they turned the movie off earlier. That night I hit that pillow hard and the next thing I knew I was on my way home!!!

 

                          Teen Ranch was an amazing experience. The things that I think will affect me the most was the skating and the wilderness survival challenge.  Skating was phenomenal, I haven't been on the ice for about 6 years and being on the ice again was the most amazing and most exhilarating feeling I ever felt. I wasn't the best at skating but for someone who hasn't been on the ice for a long time I was pretty good, until we played hockey where I was clearly terrible. Wilderness survival was one of my favourite activities; it really opened my eyes with being with nature. I also learned that when dealing with survival the number 3 is a very important number. (You can survive for 3 hours without warmth, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food, or if you don't you might face severe sicknesses and there are 3 letters in the phone number 9-1-1)  For the five days we were there we were supposed to learn about community living and by the end of the week that's exactly what we learned. The whole week we had to learn to co-operate with each other and rely on each other. We also learned to be independent since our parents weren't there to do it for us. Map orienteering was also lots of fun I finally learned how to read a map properly ad we learned a lot about the ranch. In the cabins we learned how to be calm in frustrating situations and how to co-operate with each other. During free time we learned to share very well, taking turns, and to include everyone. When we were on clean up and set up (This was during, before and after meals) we learned to clean up after ourselves and cleaning up after other people. Teen Ranch was the most exciting, interesting, and most amazing thing I have ever done, there was so much to do in such a small amount of time. As soon as you get there you'll have a great time and then before you know it you're on your way home. I hope we get to go back to Teen Ranch next year.  All you got to do is go there, have a good time and let the wind take you on a wild ride!

                                                                   By: Dani