International Selection Weekend 16th-17th April 2011

Arriving at the centre was a little daunting as I had not previously met any of the other girls, however within moments we were all chatting.
For our first game we were asked to stand on a chair and without speaking arrange ourselves into age order, this seemed like the impossible since we didn't know each-others dates of birth. We all found the task highly amusing as we struggled to balance whilst moving past each-other to get into position. We did manage to successfully complete the task and were all relieved to stand down from the chairs!
My favourite part of the weekend was the ready steady cook that we did for our evening meals. We had been put into teams earlier on in the day to complete the challenging game of snakes and ladders and we remained in these teams throughout the weekend. During ready steady cook our team had 2 leaders and a Guide who had come along earlier in the day to tell us about her experiences in Mexico. We made pate for starter, stir fry for our main meal and banana based pudding. Making the meal was really good fun and it turned out to be quite a tasty meal.
Having completed the washing up after our meal we had our own Grand national! Each group had made horses out of brooms  earlier on in the day. These horses competed against each-other in the Grand national, within our groups we betted on the horse we thought would win. Playing the game was great fun, it involved careful betting and teamwork to gain winnings. Each of the 6 horses were assigned a number and the role of a giant dice would determine the winner of each horse race. Our horse was number 4, this proved a very 'lucky' horse coming in the top 3 almost every race. Since our team backed out own horse we quickly made money. The team who made the most money won, we came in 3rd!
That night we all slept together in a hall, and were woken at 6.15 in the morning to the sound of crashing pans! We were woken up to make muffins, ours ended up without any sugar in, I think this is an easy mistake to make given the time of day.
Later on that day we went Geocaching around Hixon in our groups. At each point we had to find there was Easter eggs as a treat! Following this we had the chance to sit in the sun and share our crafts. After this we sat down to eat our final meal together, we had been made a tasty treat of lasagne.
The weekend was a really enjoyable and I would definitely advise anyone who is given the chance to go along, although make sure you get an early night in the night before you go! All the girls were very friendly and it was lovely to meet other people within guiding.
Beckie Cooke, aged 18


                I think it’s fair to say everyone was apprehensive about the selection weekend, many questions filled all of our minds… Will I fit in? Will there be anyone my age? What are we going to be doing? Will I make a good impression?... These questions completely disappeared from my mind when I got there and realised how friendly everyone was, we all bonded straight away. One question though still remained in every girl's mind… What on earth are we going to be doing this weekend?
                We all sat in a circle and introduced ourselves and got given a present, this present was a bag of flour, we had to treat it like it was a friend meaning that wherever we went, the flour went! All the leaders were on lookout all weekend for any lonely ‘friends’ that had been abandoned….it’s harder than you think to look after a bag of flour!! We then went on to play some icebreaker games, one which involved standing on chairs in a line and had to get into birthday order…this proved difficult as the two rules were that we couldn’t step off the chairs and we also couldn’t talk; the second rule was more difficult, not talking was hard for a group of girls! We then got put into groups; we would stay in these groups for the whole weekend and tackle challenges together.
                Our first challenge was one that lasted for about 3 hours; it was a game of snakes and ladders but with a twist! Every time your groups counter landed at the bottom of a ladder or the top of a snake then we had to take a challenge card, there was 10 challenges we had to complete; A picture quiz and dressing in a sari, mastering the art of a friendship knot in a necker, making a hot drink for your group and a leader, making a makeshift shower, make a piece of furniture for our bags of flour!, plan a trip round Venice, make lunch for your group and a leader, plan a fundraising event, dress up for the Rio carnival and pack a rucksack; once you had completed  a challenge you then went up the ladder or if you landed on a snake then you carry on and don’t go down the snake. Some of the challenges were more difficult than others, my group struggled with the makeshift shower…our knots weren’t exactly great! In fact they were awful! 

                After finally completing all of our challenges we had a drink break during which we had the opportunity to talk to people who weren’t in our group; then we had a talk from some girls who had been on international opportunities trips before, this was brilliant as we got a really good idea as to what went on during the trips.
                Then we returned to our groups and got set off onto a new challenge, it was titled Ready Steady Cook, each group was given a bag of ingredients and three recipes; starter, main course and dessert. Our recipes were Swiss Cornets, Chilli con Carne and Hawaiian pineapple surprise. Our swiss cornets comprised of asparagus and cottage cheese wrapped in ham, I have to say they smelt extremely unappetising but the presentation of them was actually really quite good! Although I do have to admit I didn’t eat all of mine…they tasted as bad as they smelt! But the main course was much better, looked and tasted brilliant! Then on to dessert, I think the courses got better as we went through them as the dessert was fabulous! I really enjoyed this challenge as you found out each other’s strengths and weaknesses and really bonded with the other girls and also the leaders, after we had eaten we took on the HUGE challenge of washing up which was a delightful task as our chilli pan was really greasy!
                Once everything was washed up and packed away, then we had a fun night ahead of us. We all took part in a ‘Grand National Evening’ we all decorated brooms and made them into horses and then placed chairs in lines, all the horses were numbered so when the dice was rolled the number that was rolled was the horse that moved over one chair, the first horse to reach the end of the chairs won. This race was made more interesting and competitive as we had to place bets on the horses, this lead to people getting very serious and even discussing tactics! There was a bit of strategical rolling of the dice, legs just happened to meet the dice changing the score, completely by accident of course!! After several races and many tactical planning meeting all of the bets were counted and it was time to announce the winner, this was our team! We were treated to a box of chocolates as our prize which was very happily received!
                We then decided it was time to settle down for bed, although there wasn’t much settling down happening! We happily chatted until one of the leaders came in and turned off the light, (I think that it was a hint that it was time to sleep!!) we then noticed about half an hour later that one of the leaders was snooping around outside the room, we did wonder what they were plotting to do to us as we had heard many stories about previous selection weekends! But nothing happened that night.
                Sunday morning, 6am, Birds were singing, sun was rising, two leaders were banging saucepans with wooden spoons….girls were sleeping…or at least we were sleeping! This abrupt wakeup call took many of us by surprise! We were then ordered into the kitchen to be given a challenge, our challenge was to make blueberry muffins, welsh cakes and chocolate chip muffins, this was quite a difficult task as some girls had managed to get more sleep than others! After the cakes had been made, we then washed up, packed all our bedding away and then set the table for breakfast. We had a great cooked breakfast of bacon, sausage, egg and beans, which was fabulous!
After breakfast we went on our next challenge which was Geocaching around Hixon, which was a great success although our team wasn’t particularly successful, but we still had a brilliant time! We then returned back to headquarters where we were then faced with our next task, we had to show our swap craft to some of the other girls we had a great time, we sat outside in the sun and had a really good time, and also learnt many new crafts that would be good to try out again.
                We then were served our final meal of the weekend, which was absolutely delicious, after this we then had a huge group effort to tidy up and then a final socialise when we all took each other’s names and email addresses so we could keep in touch.
                The weekend was absolutely fabulous I arrived on Saturday not knowing anyone but then by the Sunday afternoon I knew everyone, all the things I worried out before I went I never even thought about during the weekend! By the end of the weekend there was only three people that hadn’t had their bags of flour stolen at all, many of the flour bags were sabotaged by the leaders and also most of them were put into the orphanage and we had to do forfeits to get them back again! I really enjoyed the weekend and would encourage anyone that is given the opportunity to take it; I did and had a great time!
Beckie Phillips, 16
Young leader, 1st Alrewas Guides