Once a semester, my a cappella group the USC Troy Tones goes on a weekend retreat. The main purpose is to get the newbies acquainted to the group, but it’s really a lot of fun for everyone! The retreat is always held at a secret location, known only to the social events coordinators until the day we leave.

This semester’s retreat was held just after our fall concert, which was last Wednesday night. We had a great night performing with the USC Sirens and introducing our newbies. Our theme for the concert was “Alice in Wonderland,” which we had a lot of fun with. Check out some pictures from the event:

Phil Cho singing “The Way You Make Me Feel” by Michael Jackson

Alice “fell down the rabbit hole” and broke a bone along the way

A very merry unbirthday to you, to you!

On Saturday, we left USC for the undisclosed retreat location, which I soon realized to be Malibu as we headed up the Pacific Coast Highway. We got the retreat house and settled in momentarily before we were whisked off to the beach to start the day. It turns out the retreat was Survivor themed so we were immediately separated into tribes. Throughout the day we competed in physical, mental, and artistic challenges.

First we started outside with the physical challenges

Tribe huddle

A particularly raucous game of steal the bacon

and then moved on to the mental ones

Blindfolded participants had to build a puzzle with help from their team members

Piecing together a puzzle of Troy Tones trivia

And finally we ended with dinner and bonding activities

Dinner time!

The Troy Tones newbies!

All in all, it was a great weekend and I definitely feel like I got to know the newbies a lot better. I’m excited to see what’s in store for Troy Tones for the rest of the semester!

Until next time,

Will