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Goa offsite: Fun, Learning, and New Discoveries
Hello, it’s Advik again! You might remember my previous blog about Neoschool and how we meet every six months. Well, today I’m going to share my experience from one of our offsite meetings. We call these get-togethers “Offsites,” so that’s the term I’ll use in this blog. This time, our offsite was in Goa, and let me tell you, it was an amazing adventure!
Day 1
The first day of our offsite was absolutely fantastic. We all arrived and explored the hotel where we were staying, the Amoravida Resort. The resort had three floors:
- Ground Floor
- Underground Floor
- Lower Ground Floor
Let’s start with the Ground Floor. This floor had the reception, our rooms, and the swimming pool. The reception area also had four sections:
- Reception
- Restaurant
- Banquet Hall
- Lounge Bar
The Reception Area had a big tank full of colorful fish, which was really cool. The restaurant was on the second level. It had two sections:
- Outdoor
- Indoor
We mostly ate in the outdoor section, where we set up a “kids table” by joining two tables together. This is where we had all our meals. Now, let’s move on to the Banquet Hall. We used this hall a lot during our offsite, but not as a banquet hall. It became our main discussion room, so keep this in mind as I’ll mention it a lot later! The Lounge Bar was a place we didn’t really use, so I’ll skip it for now.
Next, the Swimming Pool was right to the left of the reception. It was a regular pool, no need for a big introduction! Now, onto the Rooms. There were six blocks of rooms, and ours was in Block 3, room 310.
Moving to the Underground Floor, this was where the Play Area was located. We turned this area into our headquarters, where we had tons of fun with games like:
- Chess
- Badminton
- Tug of War
- Carrom
- Table Football
It was such a blast!
Finally, the Lower Ground Floor had the Amphitheater, some statues, and the backwaters. The amphitheater was where we did an activity called Tie and Dye (I’ll explain it later). The statues included a snail, two goats, and two dummies. Oh, and I learned something interesting here: wood ear mushrooms grow on rotten wood! The backwaters were a small pond, nothing too special, but still nice to look at. That’s how the first day ended—full of amazing discoveries!
Day 2
My parents woke me up at 7 a.m. because they were rushing off to watersports, leaving me behind in the room. But no worries, I was excited because today was Hiking Day! I joined my friends and coaches for breakfast at the restaurant. We laid the kids table, of course, and had a great meal together.
After breakfast, we gathered at our headquarters in the Underground Floor, waiting for everyone to get ready for the hike. From the Lower Ground Floor, we headed into the jungle. Little did we know, there was a secret shortcut to the jungle right from there! As we hiked, we spotted a big spider in its web and saw lots of unusual plants and trees. I even recognized a cactus! Eventually, we reached a village, and after a tiring hike, we stopped at a temple to rest.
We hiked back to the hotel and, of course, jumped into the pool to cool off (even in November, Goa was hot!). After some pool time, we gathered at the amphitheater for the Tie and Dye activity.
For Tie and Dye, we were given three handkerchiefs and a t-shirt. The handkerchiefs were for practicing different designs, and the t-shirt was for our final design. We soaked everything in a chemical for 20 minutes, and in the meantime, we watched videos about tie and dye techniques. We learned three designs:
- Marble Design
- Spiral Design
- Ponytail Design
For the Marble Design, we crumpled the fabric, tied it with rubber bands, dyed it, then washed it. For the Spiral Design, we twisted the fabric into a spiral, tied it with rubber bands, dyed it, and washed it. Lastly, for the Ponytail Design, we folded the fabric like a hand fan, curled it in places, and tied it before dyeing it. I chose the spiral design for my t-shirt.
After the activity, we swam some more and had a fun time. Later, I hung out with my friends until my parents returned. Exhausted but happy, I went to bed.
Day 3
On the third day, after a good sleep, we were ready for the Community Center and Mangroves! We gathered where we had met for the hike and boarded the bus. Our first stop was the Community Center, where we met local kids and played games like Rock, Paper, Scissors, and Duck, Duck, Goose. It was so much fun!
Next, we went kayaking in the mangroves. We received a tutorial on how to kayak, and then we set off on our adventure. We kayaked all the way to a small island, where we had a mini picnic before rowing back to the mainland. We got back to the resort and had dinner at the kids table before heading to our rooms to sleep.
Day 4
On the last day, I was feeling a little sad because we had to leave that evening, but I tried to enjoy every moment. My parents woke me up early at 5:30 a.m. because we were going to the beach! It was an amazing time at the beach, and I was so obsessed with it that I didn’t want to leave.
After returning to the resort, we had the first activity of the day: a Treasure Hunt! We didn’t find any gold, but we did find some small hidden statues. Then it was time for brunch at the kids table.
After brunch, we had a Pool Party, followed by a Cooking Competition. We had to make a parfait, pizza, and a fruit-veggie platter. Our teams were named after colors—Team Orange, Team Red, Team Yellow, Team Black, Team Green, and Team Blue. I was on Team Black. We watched a presentation on how to make the dishes, then we got to work. Unfortunately, we didn’t win—Team Yellow took first place!
Then, everyone got ready to go to the beach one last time. I was feeling sad about leaving, but I tried to make the most of the time left. Eventually, we packed up and prepared to go home.
That’s the story of Goa offsite : Fun, Learning, and New Discoveries!
