When I say Camp you say Adventure! "Camp!" "Adventure!" "Camp!" "Adventure!"

Alright so one week down eight more to go! Can't believe how fast time flys. Its week three in okinawa and sometimes it feels as though I just arrived yesterday.

The kids are great! We have roughly 60-70 of them ages from 5-10. Although I interact with all of them, my small group is ages 8-10. I have eight of them and though they can be a bit of a handful sometimes, they are a lot of fun there is never a dull moment.

We are located in an elementary school cafeteria. The kids usually have a big center that they go to but its under construction for the summer, thus we are stuck in a lunchroom, but some how we make it work. At times its very difficult because there are soooo many kids, counselors and other staff cramed in there, and it gets VERY loud haha. We are still trying to get the hang of organization and transitions.

This week was Ocean week. Each week there is a theme. We put up posters, sing songs, perform skits, play games and create crafts that all revolve around the weeks theme. Next week will be fourth of July themed. Which here, on a military base is a BIG deal. Not sure what I'll be doing for the holiday yet, but its gaurunteed to be the most intense, exciting, partying 4th of July i've ever celebrated.

Outside of camp I am getting to know the counselors pretty well. Everyday we become more of a tightly glued team. We do have a few kinks to work out, but that will probably always be the case. lol The military has a softball tournament next week where teams from all sorts of bases in different countries come up for the tournament. All of them stay on base in the barracks which means camp adventure will be temporarily relocated to a new base. We are moving to Fatema for 8 days. perks are we get our own room with bigger beds and we only have to share a bathroom with one person. downfalls, we may not have internet access, and its an extra 15-20 minutes we have to get up earlier each morning to make it to camp on time. After softball is over though we will be able to return to our original barracks.

Life here is awesome. I can tell it will be difficult when the time comes to say goodbye. One of my kids is moving this week. It will be an emotional couple of months, but definitely a growing experience, for both the kids and counselors.

I love you all and miss you sooo much! I saw a pick up truck on base the other day with a marine driving, he even had a cowboy hat on. Made me miss Idaho. lol

<3 Ms. Sardine

Orientation done, day at the beach, and camp starts tomorrow!

One more day till the kids show up! Tomorrow will be the first day of camp, where I will meet the kids that I will be spending the majority of my summer with. I’m stoked, from what I hear the first day can be kind of overwhelming and usually is the worst day of the summer, but I plan to go into with my head held high, prepared to take on any challenge.

This last week has been a bit crazy. We finished up orientation on Thursday, and Friday we went to our sites (Elementary schools) to decorate and get an idea of how camp will go. My school is Zuekeran Elementary. I’ll put up some pics eventually. It’s pretty big, but that is understandable as there are only two elementary schools on base. The other school of which the other half of foster day camp staff will be working is called Killen elementary…I still can’t get over that. They named an elementary school Killen, just doesn’t really seem appropriate. Lol

Yesterday (Saturday for me, Friday for the rest of you haha) the entire camp went to Okuma beach. It was gorgeous! The water was sooooo blue and it was warm and just simply beautiful. The water was really salty making it easy to float. There were also a lot of activities we could sign up for like banana boats, jet skis and the one I participated in, the bottom glass boat tour. A group of us loaded up onto this boat that had a big glass bottom so you could see deep into the ocean. Our driver/guide took us over some coral reefs where we saw so many colorful fish, starfish, and anemones. It was awesome. My favorite beach so far and possibly my favorite day of this adventure too. Pics are up on facebook. Please check them out!

Today a couple of friends and I will be venturing off to a Father’s Day Bull fight. I’m interested to see what it will be like, because apparently its bull vs bull not bull vs man. I will definitely be taking a lot of pictures and probably a video or two. With that said this weekend should be pretty awesome as a whole and a nice way to enjoy our last few days before camp starts. Hope everyone back home is having just as much fun as I am! Love you and miss you all!

Orientation

Alright its orientation week, and its been arlight so far. Learned some useful things but a lot has been review. today was particulary exciting because the marine tour people came and spoke with us about specific tours they offer around the island, such as snorkeling trips, beach trips, historic tours ect... this weekend we are going to a bowl fight for fathers day. Not a normal bull fight either. At these events the bulls are fighting each other. No matadors just bull vs bull. haha should be an interesting site to see! I'll be taking a lot of pictures. Kids show up on Monday, i'm really excited for camp to start and to get back into some form of a routine. I can't wait for the exciting adventures that are to come! Hope to go to the beach again on saturday this time with more than one coat of sunscreen! Found out too that Okinawa has the strongest UV rays in the world...haha so even I can burn. Wishing the best to everyone back home! Love you all and miss you!

Friends and family! I've officially been in Japan for a whole week! woo hoo! It was a busy week but it went very very fast. Today I started the morning with our songfest, where we went to a beach (thankfully not in uniform) to practice all of our camp songs. We did it in public so all of the locals and military families around got a good glimpse at what we are about. haha After that we went to the beach where I got decently sun burned and then to the mall for shopping! I got mom some beautiful fabric :) and a delicious ice cream cone for myself. Everything here is so cute and pretty, its hard not to want to buy everything, but I've always been more of a saver anyways so my money should last me for the summer...hopefully ;) Tonight some girls and I are going to go to a local karyoke bar, not sure if we will actually sing or not, but we are going to check it out. Not sure what I'll be doing tommorrow, definitely sleeping in (which means waking up at 6:30-7) and exploring more of the local town area. This next week will be all orientation stuff so not too much playing and then the week after we will be working with the kids. Its official that i'll be working with day camp not the child developement center. So thats pretty exciting. I've made a lot of great friends and I'm sure that as a camp we will all grow even closer as the summer goes on. Miss you all! Love you! <3

The Adventure Begins!

Woo hoo! I made it! It’s my third full day and it’s been nothing but excitement and fun since I’ve arrived. I’ve experienced a lot of firsts these last few days but they’ve all been good. :)


Alright so after arriving we were assigned rooms and roommates. My lovely new roommate is Christina, she goes to Florida State and is majoring in Computer Science and Japanese, which is awesome because she is able to communicate well with the locals and has even taught me a few phrases! Our rooms are small, basically boxes with beds in them. Reminds me a lot of my dorm freshman year. Anyways we also have two weeks of training before kids show up which means lots of free time. Monday was pretty much spent wondering the base and getting to know the area. Tuesday we were taken off base to a local mall-like area called American Village to shop and see a bit of Okinawa. One of the highlights was a fish pedicure. We paid 5 yen to put our bare feet in a pool full of little fish that ate the dead skin off of our feet. It was totally gross! Haha but fun and ticklish too, and I have to admit those fish do their job well, my feet have never felt so clean! Today (Wednesday) we had a military newcomer orientation and were assigned our weeks for programming. My partner for programming is Faviola and we are doing world celebration week. This means we have to plan posters, activities, clubs everything for the entire week. Should be fun!

Oh and we’ve decided on a fish theme for camp names! I’m Ms. Sardine!

Goodbye USA

Tonight is my last night in the home of the brave. I've got bags all packed and have double checked everything many times over. Emotions of excitement, fear, nervousness and even a bit of sadness run through me, but I know the experience will be incredible. Okinawa, Japan here I come!!!!

Tickets!

Yay! My very first, super, awesome blog post! haha Ok so got my plane tickets and check in the mail today! My flight departs at 11:35am June 5th, from there I'm off to Vancouver, to Tokyo to my final destination, Okinawa!!! Time to start packing and getting real about this adventure! : )