My adventure has just begun in Okinawa! I arrived at the airport late on Sunday night, and was transported onto Foster Marine Base where me and my fellow Camp A counselors would be living for the summer. It was night time when we drove, so I couldn't really see much. They pulled up to a little shopette right through the base gates and we got a few snacks and breakfast foods for the next day. When we got to our barrack-style building we were paired up with roomates. I met my roomate, her name is Haley and she is from Toledo, Ohio. We somewhat unpacked our suitcases into these tight crammed rooms, and crashed for the night. We were all exhausted from a full two days of traveling. I had trouble sleeping the first night. Me and my roommate were up at 3 am wide awake since it was 1pm in the afternoon back home. The jet lag was really kicking in, and the time difference has been one of the hardest things to adjust to.
The next day, a lot of unorganized directions were being given to us.. and it was a lot of waiting to find out what we were supposed to do. In the morning, we walked to the place where we got our military base passes. They allow us to go on and off base when we want. We parted for lunch at Subway.. So American.. and the rest of the day we had lots of meetings, discussed a lot of information, and got more settled into our rooms. It was awesome to see the island during the day, and soon realized our view from our housing was beautiful! The ocean was only a few miles away, and the hill that our housing was on overlooked the small towns and American Village which included a pier, restuarants, and a giant ferris wheel! That night, a few friends and I started exploring the base and found the gym, which has wifi! We were all excited to call home and talk to family and friends. It was an early night as we were all very tired.
The following day, Tuesday, we began our orientation! It was a short walk up the hill to the classroom building, and of course it was raining. The weather was extremely hot and humid, yet constantly raining. We hadn't seen the sun yet since arriving on the island, and I was a little bummed out. We sat through morning lectures briefing us on the SAC Center we would be working at, and just basic rules. While we were sitting there, an announcer came over the intercom saying that the Roach Coach was available for lunch. We had no idea what that was, but our teacher dismissed us to go get some food. We walked outside, and it was a a smaller truck that had been turned into a little restuarant on wheels. It was kinda a cool experience, and a lot of the marines were gathered around getting food. It had burritos, breakfast sandwiches, pb and j sandwiches, chips and an assortment of drinks! We all enjoyed that, even though it was pouring. The vender told us that a typhoon would be coming near the end of the week and into the weekend. We all freaked out, but he told us that we were in a typhoon safe zone.. as long as we stayed inside. I got excited because we definitely don't have tropical storms back home in Iowa. :) We finished the remaider of our classes, and were dismissed in the afternoon around 2. Next began poster making, which is my favorite part of the day! Each week we have different themes, and Camp Adventure tries to make the theme come to life in the Children's centers. We made about ten posters and spent about three hours perfecting them. I drew an underwater Scuba diving panther to represent UNI. It was very neat! The rest of the night we all just relaxed.
Wednesday was military briefing day! We woke up early, and walked to the base community center. Continental breakfast was provided, it was delicious! Different speakers gave announcements about a variety of topics. We were briefed on military base rules, the customs of the Okinawan people, and were also informed about what Camp Foster had to offer! We were given a lunch break, and all of us Camp A counselors walked to a nearby Japanese restaurant called Ocean Breeze. It was buffet style serving, and even had a chef making homemade shrimp and chicken fried rice. The restuarant also has wifi, which was awesome so we all called home and chatted with friends. After lunch, we returned for a few more lectures and then returned to our housing where we finished up posters for our week two theme "Earth Friendly Extravaganza!" I finished painting my panther, and he turned out good! After painting a few of the girls and I decided to go on the hunt for wifi. Because we had not been given a base tour.. we weren't really sure where to go. We began walking, and after a few miles and a few wrong turns we made it to a place called Mediodi. We rented a cable modem and it was very cheap! We walked back and after two hours and a few very early phone calls to Dad.. we had internet!
On Thursday, it was another day of training. We woke up early and walked to the classroom up the hill, again. We sat through morning lectures about different sicknesses and diseases that we might come in contact with over the summer. We were advised not to sit in the sand when visiting the beach, because you may get worms. Nasty! We finished afternoon lectures around four, and were dismissed back to our barracks. Nothing was on the agenda for the night, so we just hung out, ordered a pizza, and watched movies.
Friday morning, I woke up and it was incredibly sunny. First time we had seen the sun since we arrived! Everyone was so excited. The skies were blue, and it looked so pretty outside. How a tropical island should look! We headed to our last training classes, and met with the Foster SAC technicians who would be our supervisors for the summer. They answered tons of questions, and we were told we would be meeting the kids and visiting the center in the afternoon! So excited.. We were dismissed at 9:45 for lunch. Hah. Which meant it was time to be productive and get a head start on the rest of the posters and misc. things that needed to be finished up. I drew lots of sea creatures such as fish, crabs, starfish, and whales! They looked really good. Then, all the girls painted them! After we were done with lunch and posters, Mr. Glen transported us to the Foster SAC childcare center where we would be working. As we walked inside all the kids started screaming in excitement. It was a crazy good feeling to know the excitement was because of us. The directors gathered all the kids in the back gym as we were given a tour and then we got the chance to introduce ourselves to all 150 kids. We did a mini blitz with only three songs to get the kids pumped up! Then went one by one and said our "camp" names. It is a tradition of Camp Adventure to use fake names to create excitement for the children. This summer we all have mario kart names, and mine is Ms. Toad! The kids all loved it, and then we got some free time to go around and play with them and get to know a few of them better. It was a lot of fun, and I personally didn't want to leave the center for the day. That night almost all of us went to Ocean Breeze for the danceclub night. We sat and ate dinner, then the DJ started playing music. It was really fun. I played a few games of pool and met a few of the marines. They were wayyy better at pool than any of us girls. We danced a lot and it was a lot of fun! We had to be home by 11 because tomorrow morning we have to get up early for a full day trip to the northern part of the island. Sooooo excited!
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