Me & Holly went to Staffordshire this weekend as we've signed up to UpRising which is a leadership programme to help young people to make a change. We got an email about it after attending World Merit Day back in July & thought we'd sign up to it as it sounded interesting. Being completely honest I wasn't actually too sure as to what we had signed up to as there's been 2 inductions but I've been unable to attend either of them. Holly went to the first one & was still unsure. We also didn't get much detail about the weekend retreat we kind of just turned up to it. It was all paid for so we thought why not just go!
We met at Fact in town at 8:50am yesterday, I think there was meant to be around 60 of us attending but there was only 19 of us along with 2 members of staff Carolyn the programme manager & Natasha the programme co-ordinator. We left at 9:30am & got there around 11am. We were staying at the Yarnfield Park Training and Conference Centre. The place wasn't great not exactly 5 star hotel but it was fine for the 1 night & we weren't paying.
We met up with the Manchester group who we felt really sorry for as they left at 7am!! Like it wasn't meant to start till 10:30am anyway so we don't understand why they had to leave so early when we planned to turn up late! We sat around tables & then did some ice breaker tasks & had some talks from a councillor & an alumni from the project last year. We had lunch which wasn't great & I stocked up on biscuits as they were free!
Lunch. The pasta sauce was bland & really watery.
We finished around 5 where we got to check into our rooms & just chill before dinner at 7.
Hat - Asos
Long ling blazer - New Look
Turtle Neck - Asos
Skirt - Topshop
Boots - Urban Outfitters
Oversized White Shirt -
Matalan
Necklace - New Look
Leather look leggings - H&M
Cutout Boots - Zara
I did end up getting the black sambuca off my shirt from new years eve which I'm really surprised about as I left it for over 12 hours before I soaked it in a bucket with washing powder for a couple of hours!
Holly brought her polaroid
We were actually given a room each but decided we'd rather share as we were scared to be in the room on our own!
For dinner I got stir fried vegtables, courgettes & salmon. It was alright but tasteless until I found a hair in my stir fry! It was definitely not mine as it was too short to be so I had to change it & get a new bowl! The food looked niceish well the salmon does but the food was just bland.
After dinner we did a quiz. We were in a team of 8. There was 20 questions & we got 16/20 & was tied with 2 other teams so the tie breaker was name as many ways a Southerner says "bread." We literally just named a load of types of bread, burger, ciabatta, soda bread but some how managed to win! Which is the 2nd time this week for me & Holly!
We won little trophies, medals & some sweets!
We then went back to out room at like quarter past 9 as we were shattered! We watched a bit of Bad Teacher that was on tv but we ended falling asleep at 11. Well Holly did it took me a while as I don't sleep well when I'm not in my own bed.
We got up at 7:30 & went down for breakfast at 8:15.
Me & Holly got the exact same. Fruit & fibre cereal, watermelon & a Danish pastry which I think was custard with almond flakes.
We then had a session about coaching & had to talk to knew people to network with them & the last session we had to make short videos 30 seconds - a minute about something we're passionate about which we've already done before at World Merit Day.
We were meant to leave at 4 but didn't end up leaving until half 4. I'm so glad to be home now as even though we didn't do much, sitting & listening all day does drain you!
It's been a really good weekend we really enjoyed the conversations we had with the different people & glad we went. Even though I'm still not 100% sure on what we are doing on this project the weekend was worth it!
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