Yesterday I had the opportunity to participate in my first social outing with my coworkers. We knew the day was coming for about a week, but our bosses wouldn’t tell us what we would be doing. A lot of us speculated that we would be heading to check out our new office that we should be moving into in the coming weeks, but no one really knew. So at the end of the day, our bosses gather us around and told us we would be doing a scavenger hunt. They divided us into teams, collected our phones, and gave us our first clue. From that moment on for about the next two hours we on a mad dash to victory, with the wining team receiving a $200 budget to use toward items for the new office space.

Our first stop was in fact the new office, but we then had to decipher more clues and head to five other places in the neighborhood/zone around the office. One of the stops even included finding and buying one of our products in a store nearby! The whole objective of the hunt was to familiarize us with the zone around our new office, and show us around in a fun way. I must say this is definitely a fun alternative to your usual guided walking tour, because we were actually running most of the time, and asking the locals a lot of questions because we only had a very small map and no phones to use the internet. Our team ended up finishing first, but in true team fashion, all of the participants will work together to decide how to spend our budget for the office.

From there, we were all invited to dinner at a newer restaurant where they served larger plates that could be shared by all. After a few rounds of food, we were also treated to live music in the restaurant and everyone jumped in to sing along. We ended up staying at the restaurant for almost three hours; eating, talking, and laughing together as a company. This was one of my favorite parts of the night because we truly set work aside and were able to enjoy the atmosphere, while talking and just having a good time. I also enjoyed it, because these more informal events are a great way for me to practice my Spanish speaking with less pressure than the traditional work setting.

Overall, I really enjoyed the evening and was glad that I was invited to join my coworkers. The night certainly lived up to what I have been told about how Spaniards like to go out and be social with their coworkers as a way to do some team building while having a lot of fun at the same time. I truly felt that I was a part of the team, and I look forward to having the opportunity to do something like this again.