It's Begun!

Hi everyone!  It's AnneMarie.  After many months of anticipation, we arrived at the Institute for Cultural Communicator's (ICC's) Training Center in Tennessee this past Monday!  I, for one, am super excited to be starting this adventure at last.

These first few days have been pretty busy.  Here are some of the quick highlights:

• Fun team-building challenges when we first arrived.  These ranged anywhere from changing a tire on a 12 passenger van, checking said van's oil, and unloading all our luggage (in 20 minutes, with no guys on the team being allowed to touch the car and no one being allowed to touch their own luggage) all the way to creating a team worship presentation (in 20 minutes, without being able to use any personal pronouns while speaking). 
• Beginning work on team presentations.  Yes, the very same presentations we'll be presenting at every fall conference are already well under construction!  
• Painting boxes.  ICC has 6 core values: peacemaking, innovation, transformation, mentoring, community, and cultural communication.  We also have symbols and colors for each of our core values, and to create some bright and meaningful atmosphere we've been painting and stenciling boxes with those logos.  It's a great, fun activity to do together as a team. 

 That's a very, very skeletal list of all we've been doing so far.  It's all been great, and I've learned so much already.  However, one of the very first things that we did upon arrival was very striking to me.  We turned off our cell phones, handed them in to our team leader, and (temporarily) forgot all about texting and Instagram...for three days.

It was actually really funny seeing how everyone dealt with this change.  For the first day and a half, people were reflexively reaching for their pockets to check their phones (and panicking for a millisecond when they encountered an empty pocket...not that I did that or anything...).

But by day two, this compulsory phone checking began to disappear.  We actually started to appreciate how enjoyable it is not to be constantly tied to a cell phone.  In fact, when we finally did get our phones back earlier today, I realized that I don't need to rely on my technology as much as I thought I did.  Through the brief phone hiatus, I (and I think it's safe to say, we as a team) rediscovered the value of connecting with the people right in front of us.  There's something really freeing about being able to focus all your attention on a task or conversation.  After this, I know that when needed, I can make the choice to set distractions aside and focus on the experience of the moment.  

That being said, I'm happy to have my cell phone back now. :)

Be looking for a video blog from Jessica soon!

Until next time,
~AnneMarie