So I woke up this morning around 7:30, eager to get my things ready for the flight back to America. It turns out that we had continental breakfast this morning, up on the 54th floor. I headed up there and took a look at the skyline of Osaka City. It was an incredible sight! Even better, breakfast was fantastic! WE HAD CRUNCHY BACON FOR BREAKFAST!! Seriously, most bacon served here in Japan isn't served crunchy/crispy/what have you. It's always soft. I had that, along with some potatoes, scrambled eggs, a small bowl of cereal, some broccoli, and spaghetti. I know it sounds like a lot of food, but it was just in small portions.
We left the hotel around 10:00, on a shuttle bus to Kansai International Airport. The airport is actually on an island separated from the mainland, so there's this gigantic bridge you take to get there. When we got there, I had my luggage checked, and my luggage only weighed 46 pounds! WAHOO, NO LAME OVERWEIGHT BAG FEE FOR ME! EAT IT, AIRLINE INDUSTRY!
After that, Ami, Erik, Jeff, Phil, PK, Yusuke, Takashi, and myself waited for the rest of the group to arrive (I think they were late, though I'm not sure). We chilled for a little bit before Yusuke had to leave for his flight. After that, we all said our goodbyes.
I was really sad that I had to say goodbye to Sean. He's an amazing, awesome person and it's an effing shame that he lives in Washington instead of Wisconsin. His humor is very similar to mine, plus he's outgoing and always willing to talk about stuff. To me, he's a member of Stop That Nun, through and through. Thanks to him, I felt very comfortable about talking with others and sharing my sense of humor with everyone, along with himself. What else can I say? He's a Nun, and to me that's one hell of a fine compliment. He would fit right in with us.
After saying goodbye, I walked through the security checkpoint area, and realized that I forgot to say goodbye to Ashley! I had a phenomenal time working with her, she was my partner for a couple of camps and when we worked with campers, our work was solid, top-notch stuff. She's an amazing person and just like Sean, I wish she didn't live in Alaska.
And the same can be said for Lauren, who lives in San Francisco. The same can be said for Steph, who lives in New Jersey. The same can be said for Vy, who lives in Boston. I'm going to miss everyone on Team 4, but I'm especially going to sorely miss those of us that don't live in the Midwest. Hopefully, one day our paths will all cross again at some point.
As far as the rest of the team, those of us from the Midwest, I don't know how much I'll miss them. After all, at the most they're a 3 hour drive away from my house, so it's not so bad. Besides, I plan on heading to Milwaukee and Minneapolis in the near future, so for me, it's no worries. In fact, Phil and Takumi also go to UWSP, so I'll miss them for maybe a week at the most. Our time together has only just begun, in some respects.
Well, right now it's 3:56AM back in America, I made the time jump official and what not since I changed the clock on my computer back to Central Time. Sure, it's about 6PM in Osaka right now, but at the current moment it's way too freaking late for me to be awake. It's only a matter of hours now before I'm back home with everyone, less than 12 hours, in fact :)
After this entry, there will be no more updates to this blog, as it has successfully fulfilled its purpose.
Before I end this final entry, I'd like to say one last thing -- All my life, I've seen pictures and movies of foreign countries, of how other people live their lives. Trying to wrap my head around the lifestyles of other people around the world has been inconceivable. I have always wanted to travel to another part of the world, to see how other people live, how they communicate, how they eat and sleep and move about in their daily lives. I always wanted to see what constitutes as "the norm" for other people. And now, thanks to UWSP and Guy Healy Japan, I have finally lived that dream. This was a huge milestone in my life and I couldn't possibly be happier. Alongside of living that dream, I also met a group of amazing, stellar people who all rock at life, and changed the lives of hundreds of Japanese children. I feel that I am returning home older and wiser. For that, I cannot thank everyone enough for making this possible.
Thank you Dianne Smith, without your help I would have never found out about this program, without your letter I would have never made it into the program. I feel that I have grown immensely as a person thanks to this program.
Thank you Mary Shaw, with your patience and understanding, I was able to get the applications submitted with consideration for this experience.
Thank you Luke, Erik, Seth, Henry, Brett, Gibs, Katrina, and all the other Nuns, thank you for your support and your words of advice for my first time abroad.
Thank you to all the readers of my blog, I've enjoyed entertaining you all with my life experiences on the other side of the planet. I know that my host families are also reading my blog, so to Tamiko, Shinichi, Makio, and Miyuki, thank you for reading about my time here with you and of course, ARIGATO GOZAIMASHTA!!!!!
Thank you my love, Kaitlin Reim. Even though you knew I was going away for two months, you gave me a shot at love. And by God I've never had it this good with anyone in my life. Seeing you when I get back will be well worth the two months that I've been without you. I love you, my guarantee.
Thank you to my entire family. Grandma and Grandpa, for encouraging me to go to Japan even though Grandma would have preferred it if I stayed in America, heh. Marie, for being supportive even though the times we get to talk together are short.
Thank you, Mom and Dad, for supporting me since Day 1 when I told you I wanted to go to Japan to teach English. You have been there for me the entire time, as you always have. You helped me get the right clothes for camp, you helped me find the right luggage and helped me get all the information I needed for my time here. And when I showed you my appreciation with your new computer, you returned the favor by e-mailing me every day! You two are my guides in life, everything I do is influenced by your wise words and incredible support. Same as me, Mom & Dad.
With that, I conclude a chapter, a turning point, a milestone in the amazing ride that has been my life.
Sayonara. See you, Space Cowboy.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Day 51
This morning we woke up at 7am for the last time in Japan. I was able to sleep soundly last night, mostly thanks to the noisy campers in my cabin asking me if they could go visit Justin (to which I happily obliged). It was raining, so I packed my umbrella and after breakfast, we made the walk back to the facility for Eigo-Kai.
We started off with My Story, and my campers did okay at best. The one kid that refused to memorize his story realized the consequences of his actions when he stood up there completely lost. I helped him, of course, but I knew that he finally understood what he SHOULD have been doing.
We moved on with Camp Skit shortly after that. Allow me to tell you a bit about Camp Skit, since I didn't talk about it in yesterday's entry. As you may recall, we had an idea down for the skit, but no script was written. Well, halfway through practice last night, the kids changed their minds and we did a skit based on Peter Pan instead. One of the kids wrote the script, but they wrote it in Japanese, and Takumi had to quickly help translate it in about 10 minutes worth of time. Some of the kids also started making props, but really they only made a wand for Tinkerbell, and a bajillion pieces of confetti. I didn't realize it, but some of the kids in the group were making confetti just to make it look like they were doing something.
So for one last time, I gave everyone my big rousing Eigo-Kai welcome, and we watched everyone do Camp Skit. It came time to do my skit, and, well, it was worse than I had expected. I had to say just about every line for the kids, since they didn't even try to memorize it, and the kid playing Tinkerbell zoned out right on stage, messing with some confetti that was on the floor! This glorious clusterfuck was my swan song for Camp Skit. I was laughing so damn hard at the end of it, and so were the AC's! None of them could believe that I had such a large amount of patience to work with these kids, and not get mad when it blew up in my face.
After that, we went back to the mess hall for lunch, and held the awards and graduation ceremony there. I'll tell you what, folks -- I didn't feel this camp. I didn't feel it the way that I had felt a lot of the other camps. Most of the kids didn't want to do anything relevant to practicing English, or even talk to us. That's not to say there weren't kids who were awesome and wanted to work with us, in fact those were the kids that got the awards, heh. Unfortunately, I didn't get to work with any of those kids. This camp was unfortunately, a crap shoot.
And you know, sometimes that's how life is. It's not going to always end fantastically. As much as I really wanted this camp to be the best one, and as much as I wanted to move these kids and change their lives, most of this group didn't feel that, no matter how much energy we gave them. And believe me, we gave them everything we had, there was just little to no response from these kids.
Damn near inconceivable how this turned out. But, cest la vie, as that saying goes.
We left Camp Nose around 2, and Sean gave one of the camp staff members a kiss on the cheek! Her name was Pikaichi, but she insisted we call her Pikachu. And apparently, she told one of the AC's that she wanted to marry an American and have American babies. . .yep. I was the one that encouraged Sean to go give her a goodbye kiss ;)
We headed back to Osaka, and everyone was relieved, happy, yet a smidge depressed that our time with camp was finally over. We went to a hotel that was about 2 kilometers away from Kansai International Airport, and this place was freakin' classy! If I had to guess, I'd say it was at least a 4 star hotel, and it had well over 50 floors! Good lordies this place was classy.
But despite the classiness, I was tired. I went up to the room and relaxed for a bit, chilling on the Internet until we headed out for dinner at 5:40. We ended up going to a nice restaurant in the train station next door. Everyone (save for me and maybe a couple other people) were dressed up, people who had curly hair like Steph had their hair straightened, everyone was looking classy for one last night on the town!
Well, except for me that is. The clothing I brought with me for classy-ing it up doesn't really fit me anymore. Heh, that could define a lot of my clothing that I have with me now. What an interesting feeling it is, to know that my clothes are too big for me.
At the restaurant, we had okonomiyaki, yakisoba, beef strips, and french fries. Brent, Shane, Steph, and myself split two bottles of Sho-Chu, and let me tell you folks, Sho-Chu is some wicked liquor. I ended up getting drunk to the point where I was laughing like a hyena (much to Shane's delight), but even so, we had some final things to do.
Kelly and Yusuke gave out awards for everyone. I was awarded "Best Camp Shit EVER" (thanks to that abysmal Camp Skit from this morning), and everyone else received other awards. Justin stood up and gave out awards to everyone too, giving me an award for Best MC. Then, they handed out certificates (written in Japanese) that congratulated our hard work and dedication to USA Summer Camp. Alongside that, they announced the winner of the Erik Spindler Award (which was given out to the counselor who worked with their kids the most), and Ali won that award. I was very glad to see Ali win that award, as I felt there was no one more deserving than her.
Ali and I didn't talk and hang out as much as I had hoped we would, but it was incredibly easy to see that Ali is a PHENOMENAL AND AMAZING PERSON who rocks at life. She was always with her campers, always focused on working with them and having fun with them. Her charisma and personality made camp successful for a lot of the kids that we worked with. I couldn't be any prouder of her :)
After that, we moved back to the hotel and spent the rest of the time signing each other's certificates and awards. I went to bed around 2AM, downloading some episodes of One Piece for tomorrow's flight, and I packed my things into two bags (one checked luggage and one carry-on), just in case Northwest Airlines wanted to nickel-and-dime me for something.
I had one last shower and shave tonight, and it felt AMAZING. I really should shave once every day instead of once every three days, the hairs on my face get unbelievably itchy.
So that's that. My last full day in Japan. Tomorrow, back to America, back to my family, back to my Kaitlin, back to the Nuns, and back to school. Hoo boy! Adios for now!
We started off with My Story, and my campers did okay at best. The one kid that refused to memorize his story realized the consequences of his actions when he stood up there completely lost. I helped him, of course, but I knew that he finally understood what he SHOULD have been doing.
We moved on with Camp Skit shortly after that. Allow me to tell you a bit about Camp Skit, since I didn't talk about it in yesterday's entry. As you may recall, we had an idea down for the skit, but no script was written. Well, halfway through practice last night, the kids changed their minds and we did a skit based on Peter Pan instead. One of the kids wrote the script, but they wrote it in Japanese, and Takumi had to quickly help translate it in about 10 minutes worth of time. Some of the kids also started making props, but really they only made a wand for Tinkerbell, and a bajillion pieces of confetti. I didn't realize it, but some of the kids in the group were making confetti just to make it look like they were doing something.
So for one last time, I gave everyone my big rousing Eigo-Kai welcome, and we watched everyone do Camp Skit. It came time to do my skit, and, well, it was worse than I had expected. I had to say just about every line for the kids, since they didn't even try to memorize it, and the kid playing Tinkerbell zoned out right on stage, messing with some confetti that was on the floor! This glorious clusterfuck was my swan song for Camp Skit. I was laughing so damn hard at the end of it, and so were the AC's! None of them could believe that I had such a large amount of patience to work with these kids, and not get mad when it blew up in my face.
After that, we went back to the mess hall for lunch, and held the awards and graduation ceremony there. I'll tell you what, folks -- I didn't feel this camp. I didn't feel it the way that I had felt a lot of the other camps. Most of the kids didn't want to do anything relevant to practicing English, or even talk to us. That's not to say there weren't kids who were awesome and wanted to work with us, in fact those were the kids that got the awards, heh. Unfortunately, I didn't get to work with any of those kids. This camp was unfortunately, a crap shoot.
And you know, sometimes that's how life is. It's not going to always end fantastically. As much as I really wanted this camp to be the best one, and as much as I wanted to move these kids and change their lives, most of this group didn't feel that, no matter how much energy we gave them. And believe me, we gave them everything we had, there was just little to no response from these kids.
Damn near inconceivable how this turned out. But, cest la vie, as that saying goes.
We left Camp Nose around 2, and Sean gave one of the camp staff members a kiss on the cheek! Her name was Pikaichi, but she insisted we call her Pikachu. And apparently, she told one of the AC's that she wanted to marry an American and have American babies. . .yep. I was the one that encouraged Sean to go give her a goodbye kiss ;)
We headed back to Osaka, and everyone was relieved, happy, yet a smidge depressed that our time with camp was finally over. We went to a hotel that was about 2 kilometers away from Kansai International Airport, and this place was freakin' classy! If I had to guess, I'd say it was at least a 4 star hotel, and it had well over 50 floors! Good lordies this place was classy.
But despite the classiness, I was tired. I went up to the room and relaxed for a bit, chilling on the Internet until we headed out for dinner at 5:40. We ended up going to a nice restaurant in the train station next door. Everyone (save for me and maybe a couple other people) were dressed up, people who had curly hair like Steph had their hair straightened, everyone was looking classy for one last night on the town!
Well, except for me that is. The clothing I brought with me for classy-ing it up doesn't really fit me anymore. Heh, that could define a lot of my clothing that I have with me now. What an interesting feeling it is, to know that my clothes are too big for me.
At the restaurant, we had okonomiyaki, yakisoba, beef strips, and french fries. Brent, Shane, Steph, and myself split two bottles of Sho-Chu, and let me tell you folks, Sho-Chu is some wicked liquor. I ended up getting drunk to the point where I was laughing like a hyena (much to Shane's delight), but even so, we had some final things to do.
Kelly and Yusuke gave out awards for everyone. I was awarded "Best Camp Shit EVER" (thanks to that abysmal Camp Skit from this morning), and everyone else received other awards. Justin stood up and gave out awards to everyone too, giving me an award for Best MC. Then, they handed out certificates (written in Japanese) that congratulated our hard work and dedication to USA Summer Camp. Alongside that, they announced the winner of the Erik Spindler Award (which was given out to the counselor who worked with their kids the most), and Ali won that award. I was very glad to see Ali win that award, as I felt there was no one more deserving than her.
Ali and I didn't talk and hang out as much as I had hoped we would, but it was incredibly easy to see that Ali is a PHENOMENAL AND AMAZING PERSON who rocks at life. She was always with her campers, always focused on working with them and having fun with them. Her charisma and personality made camp successful for a lot of the kids that we worked with. I couldn't be any prouder of her :)
After that, we moved back to the hotel and spent the rest of the time signing each other's certificates and awards. I went to bed around 2AM, downloading some episodes of One Piece for tomorrow's flight, and I packed my things into two bags (one checked luggage and one carry-on), just in case Northwest Airlines wanted to nickel-and-dime me for something.
I had one last shower and shave tonight, and it felt AMAZING. I really should shave once every day instead of once every three days, the hairs on my face get unbelievably itchy.
So that's that. My last full day in Japan. Tomorrow, back to America, back to my family, back to my Kaitlin, back to the Nuns, and back to school. Hoo boy! Adios for now!
Day 50
We woke up this morning around 7am, and Phil and I brought the kids down for Morning Assembly. I found out through a couple of the other counselors that the two kids that had left last night went off to Justin's cabin and apparently made fun of me for telling them to leave.
I thought these kids were from a private school, but compared to all the other campers from private schools that I've worked with, unlike those kids these were incredibly rude and disobedient.
In any case, we moved on with breakfast, and after that I worked with my kids for One Minute Drill. They did alright, I suppose, save for one kid who absolutely REFUSED to practice at all. All he did the entire time was look off towards the wall and not even pay attention to me. He didn't talk, and barely responded to anything we did. I'm fairly certain that he just doesn't want to be here. When it came time to test the kids for how many sentences they could do in one minute, everyone had average scores (about 20-29), except for this kid who got 4. Literally, 4.
We moved on with our Recreation activity, which was a lot more fun than doing the Drill. Mee and Ami and I stayed at the facility with one group of campers, while the rest went up the hill to play in a soccer field. We played Sentence-Picture-Sentence, where you write a sentence about a topic (say, "The cat was smiling"). Then you pass it to the next person, and they have to draw what the sentence means. Then you fold the paper to hide the original sentence, pass it on, and have someone write a sentence based on the picture. It led to some pretty funny outcomes (in one case, the cat went from smiling to being a fat, singing cat)! After that, we played some Zumi-Zumi and some Soundball. In the end, the group of kids we worked with had a really great time, and so did I!
We headed down for lunch, then back up for My Story. All of the campers in my group were doing fictional stories about themselves (saying that their real names were Snoopy, or Spongebob Squarepants), and they were all good, but one of my kids, who was doing a story about Mickey Mouse, wrote about half a page and for the life of me, I couldn't get him to write any more or even practice memorizing his story.
Something tells me that these kids were forced into doing this or something.
After that, we had American Carnival in the gym. I ran the Dice Toss for one last time, handing out tickets and candy to everybody. My voice was a bit shot, so I had to refrain from doing my usual carnie-meets-vaudeville loud voice with the toss, but the kids enjoyed it :)
We held a water balloon fight after that, and all the kids (plus a couple of the counselors) got SOAKED. So soaked in fact, that we had to spend an hour taking them all back to their cabins to get fresh, dry clothes.
Shortly after that fiasco, we had dinner, and moved on with Group Discussions and Campfire. I liked the group that I was talking with for Group Discussions, so I stuck with them for a bit (even though I had to switch to another group, heh). Campfire came and went, unfortunately Jeff took over my scary story, but he did a really good job with it, so it was okay. Sean accidentally broke a window pane in the main building, thankfully he wasn't hurt, but he DID feel pretty embarrassed.
After that, we held bath time, but one of the kids from my cabin took my towel! Seriously, they left me with a crappy wet towel! I was PISSED. I was really really hoping this was done by accident (but really, how do you NOT grab the towel you brought with you for camp?), so I waited patiently to see if my towel would turn up. It didn't before I went to bath, but it somehow showed up after I took my bath. Talk about weird. . .
We held another meeting, and Phil and I spent a good chunk of our time laughing our asses off. Phil told me that he had pretty much ran out of sanity, so he was being extremely goofy, and I couldn't help but laugh :) At the end of the evening, however, Kelly suggested that we have another "let it all out" kind of talk like we did back at Nagoya. Some of the other counselors didn't understand, but Erik and I understood it fully. First, Jeff mentioned that tomorrow's the last day, so we have to be full of sunshine and awesomeness. Erik and I talked about how we felt in regards to the night before, and I also spoke about how I had heard through the grapevine that people were mad about my disappearance from camp yesterday. Steph spoke up and told us that she was angry about us using the common room to sleep because it was just that -- a common room. She pointed out that we had been given a place to sleep, and we chose to sleep elsewhere. I knew at that point that she did not know exactly what had happened, so I calmly clarified exactly what drove us down to the main room. I also apologized to Vy for yelling at her that night and told everyone that I had forgiven them for what had happened, and I hope that they can forgive me for my actions that night as well. I also pointed out that my sickness yesterday had everything to do with the stress and the lack of sleep. At the end of it all, we were all on the same page, and no hard feelings were to be had :)
Tomorrow is my last full day in Japan. Adios for now!
I thought these kids were from a private school, but compared to all the other campers from private schools that I've worked with, unlike those kids these were incredibly rude and disobedient.
In any case, we moved on with breakfast, and after that I worked with my kids for One Minute Drill. They did alright, I suppose, save for one kid who absolutely REFUSED to practice at all. All he did the entire time was look off towards the wall and not even pay attention to me. He didn't talk, and barely responded to anything we did. I'm fairly certain that he just doesn't want to be here. When it came time to test the kids for how many sentences they could do in one minute, everyone had average scores (about 20-29), except for this kid who got 4. Literally, 4.
We moved on with our Recreation activity, which was a lot more fun than doing the Drill. Mee and Ami and I stayed at the facility with one group of campers, while the rest went up the hill to play in a soccer field. We played Sentence-Picture-Sentence, where you write a sentence about a topic (say, "The cat was smiling"). Then you pass it to the next person, and they have to draw what the sentence means. Then you fold the paper to hide the original sentence, pass it on, and have someone write a sentence based on the picture. It led to some pretty funny outcomes (in one case, the cat went from smiling to being a fat, singing cat)! After that, we played some Zumi-Zumi and some Soundball. In the end, the group of kids we worked with had a really great time, and so did I!
We headed down for lunch, then back up for My Story. All of the campers in my group were doing fictional stories about themselves (saying that their real names were Snoopy, or Spongebob Squarepants), and they were all good, but one of my kids, who was doing a story about Mickey Mouse, wrote about half a page and for the life of me, I couldn't get him to write any more or even practice memorizing his story.
Something tells me that these kids were forced into doing this or something.
After that, we had American Carnival in the gym. I ran the Dice Toss for one last time, handing out tickets and candy to everybody. My voice was a bit shot, so I had to refrain from doing my usual carnie-meets-vaudeville loud voice with the toss, but the kids enjoyed it :)
We held a water balloon fight after that, and all the kids (plus a couple of the counselors) got SOAKED. So soaked in fact, that we had to spend an hour taking them all back to their cabins to get fresh, dry clothes.
Shortly after that fiasco, we had dinner, and moved on with Group Discussions and Campfire. I liked the group that I was talking with for Group Discussions, so I stuck with them for a bit (even though I had to switch to another group, heh). Campfire came and went, unfortunately Jeff took over my scary story, but he did a really good job with it, so it was okay. Sean accidentally broke a window pane in the main building, thankfully he wasn't hurt, but he DID feel pretty embarrassed.
After that, we held bath time, but one of the kids from my cabin took my towel! Seriously, they left me with a crappy wet towel! I was PISSED. I was really really hoping this was done by accident (but really, how do you NOT grab the towel you brought with you for camp?), so I waited patiently to see if my towel would turn up. It didn't before I went to bath, but it somehow showed up after I took my bath. Talk about weird. . .
We held another meeting, and Phil and I spent a good chunk of our time laughing our asses off. Phil told me that he had pretty much ran out of sanity, so he was being extremely goofy, and I couldn't help but laugh :) At the end of the evening, however, Kelly suggested that we have another "let it all out" kind of talk like we did back at Nagoya. Some of the other counselors didn't understand, but Erik and I understood it fully. First, Jeff mentioned that tomorrow's the last day, so we have to be full of sunshine and awesomeness. Erik and I talked about how we felt in regards to the night before, and I also spoke about how I had heard through the grapevine that people were mad about my disappearance from camp yesterday. Steph spoke up and told us that she was angry about us using the common room to sleep because it was just that -- a common room. She pointed out that we had been given a place to sleep, and we chose to sleep elsewhere. I knew at that point that she did not know exactly what had happened, so I calmly clarified exactly what drove us down to the main room. I also apologized to Vy for yelling at her that night and told everyone that I had forgiven them for what had happened, and I hope that they can forgive me for my actions that night as well. I also pointed out that my sickness yesterday had everything to do with the stress and the lack of sleep. At the end of it all, we were all on the same page, and no hard feelings were to be had :)
Tomorrow is my last full day in Japan. Adios for now!
Day 49
I woke up this morning around 7:30, and not by choice, either. The staff came in to make breakfast, and they made it a point to push all the chairs in for the tables, banging and clanging things everywhere. I woke up unbelievably groggy and not even interested in talking with anyone.
Without another thought, I opened my laptop and started to write a document. I was upset, but I needed some advice. A pep talk. Words of encouragement. Something, anything positive, and I needed it from Kelly and Yusuke. I knew that if anyone would understand how I felt about what happened last night, they would. Here's an excerpt of my letter:
---------------
The AC Guidelines in our Counselor Handbook clearly state that ACÕs should 'Get Sleep'. I would assume that this means a healthy amount of sleep in the vein of 7-8 hours, however it seems that several members of our team do not believe in this concept, have not believed in this concept, and in this case, lack the consideration of others to apply this concept and think of others.
Waking up this morning, I felt detached from this team, not interested in conversation of any sort, finding it nearly impossible to look anyone in the eye, and finding it completely impossible to smile.
I am more than aware that we are at the Òfinal stretchÓ Ð this is the last camp before I am sent back home to America Ð however I do not feel that I can cooperate with this team any longer.
I am in a pinch right now Ð I am torn between wanting to be here and not wanting to be here. I am saddened at the current state of this team, and it is on those grounds that I am completely confused as to how this situation can be resolved.
---------------
Yusuke and Kelly took the time to read the letter, and shared my sentiments in that this type of inconsideration had gone on all summer. So not too long after that, we had a meeting.
Kelly volunteered to express my feelings for me to the entire group. She pointed out that two members of the team were hurt and felt detached from everyone else about what had happened, and that everyone had to be much more mindful.
We moved on with the day, even though I was groggy as hell and not feeling too good, and the campers came. They arrived about 40 minutes early, and about 3 hours before we even had orientation! So, Phil and I went up to Cabin 7, and dropped off our things.
The cabin setup at this part of Nose was that everything was really high up. Imagine walking 5 floors of stairs, and that'd be comparable to how high one had to walk to Camp 7. It's doable, but my God it's tiring, especially with over 50 pounds of luggage dragging behind you!
The cabin itself was clean and dust free, which is NOT what I expected compared to the crappy ghetto room I was in last night. Phil checked the place for spiders, and there were none, so it was all good. I picked a bottom bunk that wasn't part of a corner of the room (and out of the 5 available, it was the only one), so I felt pretty good about not having to deal with bugs hiding in the corners or whatever. I had run out of bug spray by this point, so contact with bugs while I slept was a high priority for me, heh.
We moved on with camp, and to be honest, I don't have much to say about it. These kids knew English and could speak it, but most of them didn't want to participate in camp. They were all between 13 and 14 years old, and they were more interested in talking with each other and doing nothing with us.
That lack of interaction defined the entire day we had with the kids. However, there was one thing that happened to me that made me miss out on about 4 hours of time with the campers. Shortly after performing the Camp Song, I walked into another room and had to sit down. I felt like throwing up. My eyes weren't focusing, my head felt woozy, and I felt like I couldn't do my job at all. The stress from last night, this morning, and the lack of sleep broke me down into nearly throwing up. Yusuke took me to a nurse's office not too far away, and told me I should sleep so that I would get better and be able to handle the rest of camp.
I slept for those 4 hours, and came back right at the end of My Story, and worked with my group for about 5 minutes. Erik had worked with my groups today, and told me sarcastically that they were an absolute delight.
Dinner came and went, and we moved on with Camp Skit. I spent the entire time trying to get my group to come up with an idea, and they "sort of" settled on a skit based on Doraemon, but at the end of practice, we didn't have a script. So we moved on with Dance Party, and we held it in the gym. However, there wasn't a sound system to be had, so Kelly had to use two CD players with a microphone connected to a small sound receiver to play the music. It was HILARIOUSLY ghetto.
After that, we sent the kids to bathtime (with only 2 bath areas for about 90 campers!), and that took about an hour and a half to get them all through. After that, we held our AC meeting, and I went to bed.
Well, I tried to anyway. Some of my campers were talking and eating snacks, even with the lights shut off. Even after I asked them to be quiet, after I asked them to go to bed after 5 more minutes, after I shut off the big lights and the small lights and the outside lights, they continued to talk and use a flashlight. Finally, I got up out of bed and did a "bed check" with my flashlight, seeing who wasn't in bed. One kid was sitting up on the top bunks with two other kids who were up, and I practically ordered him to come down. I told all three of them that if they wanted to talk, that they had to leave the cabin and talk outside, because they were being incredibly rude in keeping the rest of us awake (and there were 7 of us trying to sleep).
After that, 2 of the kids left and the other one went to bed, and I finally got some shut eye. Adios for now!
Without another thought, I opened my laptop and started to write a document. I was upset, but I needed some advice. A pep talk. Words of encouragement. Something, anything positive, and I needed it from Kelly and Yusuke. I knew that if anyone would understand how I felt about what happened last night, they would. Here's an excerpt of my letter:
---------------
The AC Guidelines in our Counselor Handbook clearly state that ACÕs should 'Get Sleep'. I would assume that this means a healthy amount of sleep in the vein of 7-8 hours, however it seems that several members of our team do not believe in this concept, have not believed in this concept, and in this case, lack the consideration of others to apply this concept and think of others.
Waking up this morning, I felt detached from this team, not interested in conversation of any sort, finding it nearly impossible to look anyone in the eye, and finding it completely impossible to smile.
I am more than aware that we are at the Òfinal stretchÓ Ð this is the last camp before I am sent back home to America Ð however I do not feel that I can cooperate with this team any longer.
I am in a pinch right now Ð I am torn between wanting to be here and not wanting to be here. I am saddened at the current state of this team, and it is on those grounds that I am completely confused as to how this situation can be resolved.
---------------
Yusuke and Kelly took the time to read the letter, and shared my sentiments in that this type of inconsideration had gone on all summer. So not too long after that, we had a meeting.
Kelly volunteered to express my feelings for me to the entire group. She pointed out that two members of the team were hurt and felt detached from everyone else about what had happened, and that everyone had to be much more mindful.
We moved on with the day, even though I was groggy as hell and not feeling too good, and the campers came. They arrived about 40 minutes early, and about 3 hours before we even had orientation! So, Phil and I went up to Cabin 7, and dropped off our things.
The cabin setup at this part of Nose was that everything was really high up. Imagine walking 5 floors of stairs, and that'd be comparable to how high one had to walk to Camp 7. It's doable, but my God it's tiring, especially with over 50 pounds of luggage dragging behind you!
The cabin itself was clean and dust free, which is NOT what I expected compared to the crappy ghetto room I was in last night. Phil checked the place for spiders, and there were none, so it was all good. I picked a bottom bunk that wasn't part of a corner of the room (and out of the 5 available, it was the only one), so I felt pretty good about not having to deal with bugs hiding in the corners or whatever. I had run out of bug spray by this point, so contact with bugs while I slept was a high priority for me, heh.
We moved on with camp, and to be honest, I don't have much to say about it. These kids knew English and could speak it, but most of them didn't want to participate in camp. They were all between 13 and 14 years old, and they were more interested in talking with each other and doing nothing with us.
That lack of interaction defined the entire day we had with the kids. However, there was one thing that happened to me that made me miss out on about 4 hours of time with the campers. Shortly after performing the Camp Song, I walked into another room and had to sit down. I felt like throwing up. My eyes weren't focusing, my head felt woozy, and I felt like I couldn't do my job at all. The stress from last night, this morning, and the lack of sleep broke me down into nearly throwing up. Yusuke took me to a nurse's office not too far away, and told me I should sleep so that I would get better and be able to handle the rest of camp.
I slept for those 4 hours, and came back right at the end of My Story, and worked with my group for about 5 minutes. Erik had worked with my groups today, and told me sarcastically that they were an absolute delight.
Dinner came and went, and we moved on with Camp Skit. I spent the entire time trying to get my group to come up with an idea, and they "sort of" settled on a skit based on Doraemon, but at the end of practice, we didn't have a script. So we moved on with Dance Party, and we held it in the gym. However, there wasn't a sound system to be had, so Kelly had to use two CD players with a microphone connected to a small sound receiver to play the music. It was HILARIOUSLY ghetto.
After that, we sent the kids to bathtime (with only 2 bath areas for about 90 campers!), and that took about an hour and a half to get them all through. After that, we held our AC meeting, and I went to bed.
Well, I tried to anyway. Some of my campers were talking and eating snacks, even with the lights shut off. Even after I asked them to be quiet, after I asked them to go to bed after 5 more minutes, after I shut off the big lights and the small lights and the outside lights, they continued to talk and use a flashlight. Finally, I got up out of bed and did a "bed check" with my flashlight, seeing who wasn't in bed. One kid was sitting up on the top bunks with two other kids who were up, and I practically ordered him to come down. I told all three of them that if they wanted to talk, that they had to leave the cabin and talk outside, because they were being incredibly rude in keeping the rest of us awake (and there were 7 of us trying to sleep).
After that, 2 of the kids left and the other one went to bed, and I finally got some shut eye. Adios for now!
Day 48
Today was the beginning of the end. The Final Countdown. Today, we'd be heading back down to Camp Nose, for our last round of camp before heading back home.
I woke up this morning around 10, feeling INCREDIBLY refreshed! And even better, the Internet was working this morning! Last night, it really didn't work at all, probably because everyone else was either downloading things or using Skype to call back home. Well, I had a certain someone to call, so I Skype'd it up and called Kaitlin.
We talked for probably 30 minutes, which definitely wasn't enough, but worst of all I had about 30 more minutes to clean my room up, shave and take a shower! I wanted to call Kaitlin back, so I raced to get all of my things done (which included a quick e-mail to my Mom, and updating the blog), and managed to finish everything with 5 minutes to spare. When I called Kaitlin back, I don't think she was expecting me to call back! I was determined to talk to her just one last time, even if it was for only 5 minutes, I'll take that over nothing!
After talking with Kaitlin, I brought my things down to the lobby, and walked to Nagoya Station. I talked with Takashi, our new Japanese Counselor, about buying an issue of Shonen Jump. The issues of Shonen Jump are released here every week, and they only cost about $2.40 for well over 150 pages of manga. We didn't see any stores selling it in the station, so we both ran back like mad to the 7-11 and picked one up before getting on the bus.
The bus. . .well. . .hoo boy. We had a 7 and 1/2 hour bus ride back to Osaka. The long drive had nothing to do with going straight to Osaka, in fact we had to go to two other camp facilities throughout Nagoya and pick up everybody else! I spent some of my bus ride talking with Takashi, and it turns out that he knows an old friend of mine, Lindsey Wollan! Lindsey was a graphic design student at UWSP that did the Guy Healy program 2 years ago. What a small world we live in.
Throughout the day, we stopped at a couple of rest stops, picking up snacks and whatnot. I found a package of Oreo cookies (with milk not too far away), along with some C.C. Lemon and Georgia Max Coffee. Everyone spent most of their time on the bus ride sleeping, myself included.
Eventually, we made our way back to Camp Nose in Osaka. I wasn't looking forward to returning to the hot humid weather, the super-steep roads, and those GIGANTIC FREAKING BATHROOM CRICKETS!
But there was hope! We drove straight past the cabins where we had stayed before, and it turned out that we were staying at a different set of cabins! YAY!!! Also, it wasn't hot at all, in fact it was drizzling just a bit, and there wasn't a bathroom cricket in sight.
Of course, there is also the fact that this camp has very few western-style toilets. I'm fairly certain no one wants to use the Japanese style toilets (I tend to call them "stop, squat, and drop toilets"), so there's no doubt going to be wait times to use the bathrooms.
We brought our things up to a different building from where we would be doing camp (we would stay at Facility #2 tonight, and use Facility #3 for camp), and we were split into two rooms (one for boys, the other for girls).
Except, when I got into my room, and set down my things, someone pointed out that there was a spider in the sink. . .and it was a big one. And by big, I'd say about twice the size of a quarter. One of the guys flushed it down the sink, but two minutes later, it came right out of the drain! Someone flushed it again and placed the plug in the drain to stop it from coming back. But oh no, that wasn't the ONLY spider. Another one started climbing up the wall, and he was moving fast! At this point, I wasn't feeling too comfortable about staying here. Then to top it off, Phil "tried" to kill it by trying to swipe it towards our beds! At that point I ran out of the room.
Yep. I ran out. I stood at the guard rails near the stairs and tried to compose myself. After about 5 minutes, I came back to the room, and found another spider climbing onto Erik's bed. At that point, I was done. I couldn't feel comfortable sleeping in this room!
And context be damned, it's worse than it sounds -- I freaked out when I saw these spiders moving all over our room and on our things. I couldn't think straight, I couldn't talk straight, and I had tears in my eyes.
Yusuke and Kelly talked to the facility people about their spider infestation and agreed to set up a cot for me in the mess hall. Not too long after that, Erik messed up his ankle something fierce, and had to sleep in the mess hall as well. So it was going to be the two of us sleeping in the giant mess hall. Thankfully, there'd be no bugs (well, spiders anyway). Call my situation a freakout, arachnophobia, or a buildup of stress with a fear of spiders, whatever it was, I reacted irrationally about the whole thing.
I went to bed around 2am, but not by choice. Most people stayed in the room, cutting pictures, listening to music loudly through their earbuds, playing card games, and chatting it up with others. I took some Melatonin to try to sleep anyway, but it was no good. It didn't get quiet until I turned off a couple of the lights for Erik to sleep. At that point, Vy asked me if everyone was being too noisy. Asking this question after staying up late into the night. Right. I yelled "IT'S A SLIGHT POSSIBILITY." and walked back to my bed, angry and frustrated that I had to burst out like that in front of everyone for them to get the point. There was absolutely no consideration for Erik and I!
Once everyone left, Erik and I talked about our frustrations with what had just happened, contemplating an early leave from Japan. I had felt like with one night, many members on my team that I had respected and enjoyed working with, those who I gladly laid down for and did favors for on a whim, had just stepped all over me without another thought.
Needless to say, I went to bed upset. The moods I had today were complete opposites. I never expected my night to end like this.
I woke up this morning around 10, feeling INCREDIBLY refreshed! And even better, the Internet was working this morning! Last night, it really didn't work at all, probably because everyone else was either downloading things or using Skype to call back home. Well, I had a certain someone to call, so I Skype'd it up and called Kaitlin.
We talked for probably 30 minutes, which definitely wasn't enough, but worst of all I had about 30 more minutes to clean my room up, shave and take a shower! I wanted to call Kaitlin back, so I raced to get all of my things done (which included a quick e-mail to my Mom, and updating the blog), and managed to finish everything with 5 minutes to spare. When I called Kaitlin back, I don't think she was expecting me to call back! I was determined to talk to her just one last time, even if it was for only 5 minutes, I'll take that over nothing!
After talking with Kaitlin, I brought my things down to the lobby, and walked to Nagoya Station. I talked with Takashi, our new Japanese Counselor, about buying an issue of Shonen Jump. The issues of Shonen Jump are released here every week, and they only cost about $2.40 for well over 150 pages of manga. We didn't see any stores selling it in the station, so we both ran back like mad to the 7-11 and picked one up before getting on the bus.
The bus. . .well. . .hoo boy. We had a 7 and 1/2 hour bus ride back to Osaka. The long drive had nothing to do with going straight to Osaka, in fact we had to go to two other camp facilities throughout Nagoya and pick up everybody else! I spent some of my bus ride talking with Takashi, and it turns out that he knows an old friend of mine, Lindsey Wollan! Lindsey was a graphic design student at UWSP that did the Guy Healy program 2 years ago. What a small world we live in.
Throughout the day, we stopped at a couple of rest stops, picking up snacks and whatnot. I found a package of Oreo cookies (with milk not too far away), along with some C.C. Lemon and Georgia Max Coffee. Everyone spent most of their time on the bus ride sleeping, myself included.
Eventually, we made our way back to Camp Nose in Osaka. I wasn't looking forward to returning to the hot humid weather, the super-steep roads, and those GIGANTIC FREAKING BATHROOM CRICKETS!
But there was hope! We drove straight past the cabins where we had stayed before, and it turned out that we were staying at a different set of cabins! YAY!!! Also, it wasn't hot at all, in fact it was drizzling just a bit, and there wasn't a bathroom cricket in sight.
Of course, there is also the fact that this camp has very few western-style toilets. I'm fairly certain no one wants to use the Japanese style toilets (I tend to call them "stop, squat, and drop toilets"), so there's no doubt going to be wait times to use the bathrooms.
We brought our things up to a different building from where we would be doing camp (we would stay at Facility #2 tonight, and use Facility #3 for camp), and we were split into two rooms (one for boys, the other for girls).
Except, when I got into my room, and set down my things, someone pointed out that there was a spider in the sink. . .and it was a big one. And by big, I'd say about twice the size of a quarter. One of the guys flushed it down the sink, but two minutes later, it came right out of the drain! Someone flushed it again and placed the plug in the drain to stop it from coming back. But oh no, that wasn't the ONLY spider. Another one started climbing up the wall, and he was moving fast! At this point, I wasn't feeling too comfortable about staying here. Then to top it off, Phil "tried" to kill it by trying to swipe it towards our beds! At that point I ran out of the room.
Yep. I ran out. I stood at the guard rails near the stairs and tried to compose myself. After about 5 minutes, I came back to the room, and found another spider climbing onto Erik's bed. At that point, I was done. I couldn't feel comfortable sleeping in this room!
And context be damned, it's worse than it sounds -- I freaked out when I saw these spiders moving all over our room and on our things. I couldn't think straight, I couldn't talk straight, and I had tears in my eyes.
Yusuke and Kelly talked to the facility people about their spider infestation and agreed to set up a cot for me in the mess hall. Not too long after that, Erik messed up his ankle something fierce, and had to sleep in the mess hall as well. So it was going to be the two of us sleeping in the giant mess hall. Thankfully, there'd be no bugs (well, spiders anyway). Call my situation a freakout, arachnophobia, or a buildup of stress with a fear of spiders, whatever it was, I reacted irrationally about the whole thing.
I went to bed around 2am, but not by choice. Most people stayed in the room, cutting pictures, listening to music loudly through their earbuds, playing card games, and chatting it up with others. I took some Melatonin to try to sleep anyway, but it was no good. It didn't get quiet until I turned off a couple of the lights for Erik to sleep. At that point, Vy asked me if everyone was being too noisy. Asking this question after staying up late into the night. Right. I yelled "IT'S A SLIGHT POSSIBILITY." and walked back to my bed, angry and frustrated that I had to burst out like that in front of everyone for them to get the point. There was absolutely no consideration for Erik and I!
Once everyone left, Erik and I talked about our frustrations with what had just happened, contemplating an early leave from Japan. I had felt like with one night, many members on my team that I had respected and enjoyed working with, those who I gladly laid down for and did favors for on a whim, had just stepped all over me without another thought.
Needless to say, I went to bed upset. The moods I had today were complete opposites. I never expected my night to end like this.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
The Final Countdown!
I have about 4 more days left here in Japan, and I won't have Internet access for awhile, so this is the last you'll hear from me until I'm back in America. This has been an amazing trip, and I am stoked to come back home to everyone.
But first, I have the final stretch. One more camp at Nose, but first a 7 hour bus trip back to Osaka today. I'll be sure to get in contact with all of you when I get back, but for now I have to race to get my things packed, a shower taken, and all that good stuff.
I'll see you all when I get back! I love you all and it won't be long now!
IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWWWWWWNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!
But first, I have the final stretch. One more camp at Nose, but first a 7 hour bus trip back to Osaka today. I'll be sure to get in contact with all of you when I get back, but for now I have to race to get my things packed, a shower taken, and all that good stuff.
I'll see you all when I get back! I love you all and it won't be long now!
IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWWWWWWNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!
Day 47
Today was the last day of camp with the young kids. We only had a 2 day camp session with them (THANK GOD! I'M BEAT).
My kids were fairly well behaved last night compared to what I feared they would be like. They woke up and were talking when I came to bed at 12:30, but Brent yelled at them to make them go to sleep shortly after that. They woke up at about 6:50, but they were kind enough to not bother me, even if they were talking loudly.
Brent and I cleaned up the Tatami room that we were staying in, being completely baffled at how we were supposed to put away the futon beds and the blankets. Following the instructions on the wall, it was nearly impossible to copy what they had instructed. The futons just didn't fold the way that they said it would. So, we kind of half-assed it and made it look the best we could and shut the door.
I brought down the sheets and the key to the room, and the guy at the front desk asked me about having multiple keys. I didn't quite understand what he was talking about, we only had one key, but one of the teachers came by and talked with him, so everything was worked out.
Breakfast came and went, and we moved on with practicing Camp Skit today. We had the option of either doing a skit, or a song with our campers, since they were so young. Ashley and I opted for a song, and we debated heavily over what song we were going to do.
I suggested we do That's Amore, by Dean Martin. I taught the kids how to dance the waltz, and we'd teach the other kids how to sing like ol' Dino. Everything was going fine until I tried to get two of the campers to dance together. They weren't interested in dancing together, in fact they were quite embarrassed, and one of them started to cry.
Yep. This was bad.
Kelly came in to save the day! She came by and suggested we do a medley of two songs from Disney -- Hi Ho from Snow White, and Under the Sea from the Little Mermaid. The kids liked this idea much better, so we immediately got to work. I typed out the lyrics (since I had the song on my laptop), and wrote them on the chalkboard. We first taught the kids how to sing the song, then we taught them how to say the words, and then we taught them again how to sing the song. We had about 2 hours of practice this morning, and we managed to get quite a lot done despite the setback. I was so thankful for Kelly's help!
We moved on to the next activity, which was Scavenger Hunt. The idea behind Scavenger Hunt was that the kids would ask questions to the AC's about how old they were, where they were from, and if the answers matched the questions on the Scavenger Hunt checklist, we would sign them off, and the first team to complete the hunt would get a prize. This essentially meant that several of us could go down to the lobby on the first floor and sit in chairs, and relax while we wait for the campers to come to us.
And believe me, we needed that opportunity to rest.
After Scavenger Hunt, we had lunch, and after that we held another practice run of Hi Ho and Under the Sea. I told the kids that I would sing with them to help them memorize the words, and that I would help sing with them at Eigo-Kai in case they got too nervous and such. Ashley and I also worked on props, she made fish masks for everyone while I made a cutout of "the sea", which was basically a blue piece of paper with waves and seaweed on it. It wasn't much, but most of my time was spent working with the kids on singing the song from memory.
Eigo-Kai finally came, and we watched all 4 groups perform camp songs. The kids were ridiculously cute with their songs, even if they didn't speak a lot of English, they still tried their best and could do the songs with no problem. My group did alright, we didn't win anything but I was very proud of them regardless :)
After that, we held Graduation and watched the kids leave. Eventually, we headed back as well, and when we arrived at the station, we met Azumi, the American-obsessed girl from last camp! We talked for only a little bit, as she had just finished shopping at Nagoya Station and her dad was waiting for her in the car.
We headed back to the Daichi hotel where we had been staying in Nagoya, and after our meeting, I sought out an ATM. I withdrew about 7000 yen, the last time I'd be withdrawing money in Japan. My funds are fairly low at this point.
I went shopping for just a little bit and found some batteries for my camera. After that, I went to the 7-11, picked up some food for supper and breakfast, and headed back to my single room.
Ahh, how nice it is to have a single room! I took a hot bath and relaxed, listening to Cannonball Adderley on my laptop, ate my supper, and just chilled until I passed out for bed at about 9:00. I woke up at 7 in the morning, so I got a good 10 hours of sleep in. Ahhh, what a rest! Adios for now!
My kids were fairly well behaved last night compared to what I feared they would be like. They woke up and were talking when I came to bed at 12:30, but Brent yelled at them to make them go to sleep shortly after that. They woke up at about 6:50, but they were kind enough to not bother me, even if they were talking loudly.
Brent and I cleaned up the Tatami room that we were staying in, being completely baffled at how we were supposed to put away the futon beds and the blankets. Following the instructions on the wall, it was nearly impossible to copy what they had instructed. The futons just didn't fold the way that they said it would. So, we kind of half-assed it and made it look the best we could and shut the door.
I brought down the sheets and the key to the room, and the guy at the front desk asked me about having multiple keys. I didn't quite understand what he was talking about, we only had one key, but one of the teachers came by and talked with him, so everything was worked out.
Breakfast came and went, and we moved on with practicing Camp Skit today. We had the option of either doing a skit, or a song with our campers, since they were so young. Ashley and I opted for a song, and we debated heavily over what song we were going to do.
I suggested we do That's Amore, by Dean Martin. I taught the kids how to dance the waltz, and we'd teach the other kids how to sing like ol' Dino. Everything was going fine until I tried to get two of the campers to dance together. They weren't interested in dancing together, in fact they were quite embarrassed, and one of them started to cry.
Yep. This was bad.
Kelly came in to save the day! She came by and suggested we do a medley of two songs from Disney -- Hi Ho from Snow White, and Under the Sea from the Little Mermaid. The kids liked this idea much better, so we immediately got to work. I typed out the lyrics (since I had the song on my laptop), and wrote them on the chalkboard. We first taught the kids how to sing the song, then we taught them how to say the words, and then we taught them again how to sing the song. We had about 2 hours of practice this morning, and we managed to get quite a lot done despite the setback. I was so thankful for Kelly's help!
We moved on to the next activity, which was Scavenger Hunt. The idea behind Scavenger Hunt was that the kids would ask questions to the AC's about how old they were, where they were from, and if the answers matched the questions on the Scavenger Hunt checklist, we would sign them off, and the first team to complete the hunt would get a prize. This essentially meant that several of us could go down to the lobby on the first floor and sit in chairs, and relax while we wait for the campers to come to us.
And believe me, we needed that opportunity to rest.
After Scavenger Hunt, we had lunch, and after that we held another practice run of Hi Ho and Under the Sea. I told the kids that I would sing with them to help them memorize the words, and that I would help sing with them at Eigo-Kai in case they got too nervous and such. Ashley and I also worked on props, she made fish masks for everyone while I made a cutout of "the sea", which was basically a blue piece of paper with waves and seaweed on it. It wasn't much, but most of my time was spent working with the kids on singing the song from memory.
Eigo-Kai finally came, and we watched all 4 groups perform camp songs. The kids were ridiculously cute with their songs, even if they didn't speak a lot of English, they still tried their best and could do the songs with no problem. My group did alright, we didn't win anything but I was very proud of them regardless :)
After that, we held Graduation and watched the kids leave. Eventually, we headed back as well, and when we arrived at the station, we met Azumi, the American-obsessed girl from last camp! We talked for only a little bit, as she had just finished shopping at Nagoya Station and her dad was waiting for her in the car.
We headed back to the Daichi hotel where we had been staying in Nagoya, and after our meeting, I sought out an ATM. I withdrew about 7000 yen, the last time I'd be withdrawing money in Japan. My funds are fairly low at this point.
I went shopping for just a little bit and found some batteries for my camera. After that, I went to the 7-11, picked up some food for supper and breakfast, and headed back to my single room.
Ahh, how nice it is to have a single room! I took a hot bath and relaxed, listening to Cannonball Adderley on my laptop, ate my supper, and just chilled until I passed out for bed at about 9:00. I woke up at 7 in the morning, so I got a good 10 hours of sleep in. Ahhh, what a rest! Adios for now!
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