I can't believe I am actually writing this blog right now. The summer has completely flown by.. faster than I ever thought was possible.
This past weekend in Oki was amazing! The perfect way to end a perfect summer with great friends! Friday Shelby, Breanna, Kenzie and I went out to Gate Two Street and met up Maggie & Hailey. (Breanna and I's roommates from Ohio) We had fun just hanging out, dancing, and walking around. On Saturday we woke up and headed straight down to the beach! Made the mistake of not wearing sunscreen.. which was especially bad because the weekend before I wasn't out in the sun at all because of the typhoon. Yikes! Got burnt on the last weekend in Okinawa.. surprising! We hung out and relaxed all day at the beach house, then got ready early and headed to dinner at this place I have no idea what it's called. It was alright... Justin ordered a legit fish.. and it looked like it had just been caught out the ocean an hour earlier. My food was okay but Breanna, Shelby, and Kenzie hated theirs! Lol. After that we headed to the sea wall to a bar that Justin's friend owned. We hung out and met up with Justin's roommate Andy and his friend Pat! They are both super nice guys and we always have a lot of fun with them! We hung out and walked the sea wall going to different places to go dancing. At the end of the all 6 of us crammed into a tiny little Japanese cab..... lol. Surprisingly the cab driver let us all in. 2 in the front passenger seat.. and 4 in the back! It only went a few blocks then dropped us off at a corner with more cabs so we could go back to the beach house for the night. Me & Kenzie danced on the sea wall and were having a good time :) It was such a fun last night to spend with those girls!
On Sunday, we woke up and went and got coffee! Then, Justin let me drive his JAPANESE car off base! It was so exciting. I didn't go very far.. cause obviously it's unsafe.. but it's still cool to say that I drove on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on the right side of the car! After that we headed back to the beach house, and decided we wanted to venture to the southern tip of the island and go to Peace Prayer Park since we hadn't been to any war memorials. It was super awesome and very scenic! There were lots of walls with Japanese names and American names on them.. and also lots of monuments. We couldn't read anything, but I'm sure if we could have the monuments would've been very meaningful! The park was huge.. and we literally walked a few miles to get to the other end of it.. when we got there we saw some stairs that headed very far down. Turns out it was actually over 1000 steps... and it headed straight down to the water! Exactly where we wanted to be! We were all excited.. there was tons of sea glass, shells, and rocks when we got down to the sand and it was amazing. Only problem was.... we were all exhausted with no water. Breanna was really dehydrated and it wasn't good at all. We jumped in the water to cool down a bit.. then I saw a couple bags sitting next to this rock. No one was around so I opened the bag trying to find some water. Boom! A giant water bottle. We were in luck! There was no way all of us would've made it to the top without something to drink. We found an easier way back to the top... instead of walking all those stairs again. We also found some vending machines and bought more water! It was a fun adventure. Then we stopped at McDonald's on the way home for some chicken nuggets! It was a really fun weekend!
Right now it is Monday of the last week of camp! I come home in 5 days! So crazy! It's a very bittersweet feeling.. but more bitter than sweet because I know I am going to miss a lot about Okinawa. The people, the kids, the culture, the scenery, the food....well, maybe only a little bit of the food! ;)
Week 9 of camp was crazy! First off, the weather was ridiculous. The island was on a severe storm watch for a few days, and then a typhoon somewhat hit the island. It didn't hit very strong, but it was severe enough to cancel work all day until 3 o' clock in the afternoon. Over the weekend we had to sit in our barracks all day Sunday because the island was under a TCOR 1 warning. During typhoon season the island is always in TCOR 4.. and then Monday morning (The day work was cancelled) the ratings dropped down to TCOR 1C which means Caution. After this warning is sent out on the island, military personnel and families living on the bases have 1 hour to return home before the base shuts down. It was kinda crazy to experience some crazy tropical storm weather because it's something that doesn't happen every day in Iowa. :P
Another crazy thing that happened was that I got so sick I had to go to the hospital. On Saturday morning we woke up before the crack of dawn (4am!!!!) and helped run a triathalon for kids and adults at the Foster pool. Afterwards I wasn't feeling very well, and hadn't had much water to drink and my head started hurting so bad. It turned into a severe migraine that hurt to open my eyes, so they took me to the hospital. After 4 stabs in my arm, they got an IV hooked up to my arm and put fluids back in my body because I was pretty dehydrated. Lesson learned.. there is no such thing as drinking too much water in Okinawa. Seriously.
On Wednesday of this week the weather had finally cleared up! We had our end of the summer Foster Day Camp party at a little outdoor shelter house nearby the barracks. I volunteered to grill the hot dogs haha.. and we exchanged gifts from our secret counselors. I was kinda clueless to who had me, but I had my roommate Hailey, and she had no idea :P I'm so sneaky! I bought Hailey a really cute lacey tshirt from this Japanese mall, a picture frame with 3 pictures of us, a ring, bracelet, and a cute pair of heart earrings. She loved it all! Breanna had been sneaking behind my back for a few weeks trying to get her present for me ready. She told me she stayed up til 2am some nights with Shelby finishing it. It was a huge scrapbook with pictures from our entire trip in it! Seriously the cutest thing EVER. I love it so much! Also, she left she cute little notes throughout the week.. the first one was a little card that said "Goodnight" in Kanji Japanese symbols. I had a counselor named Tess translate for me :) Also, a pair of chopsticks with a holder, and even flowers the day before the party! It was so awesome! After gifts we played a few party games and hung out and enjoyed the night. It was an awesome way to spend time as a whole group.
On Friday it was Dessertfest! Basically what us counselors.. (and kids) had been waiting for all summer long! It's a huge gathering of parents, campers, staff, and counselors where we show the parents what CAMP A is all about! Each small group got a turn to go up and present a song or dance they had made or practiced. My group .. Group 8, did a Dance to Cotton Eye Joe! .. In honor of the Gold Miners theme that we had that week. Everyone loved it, and the kids even decked out in western clothing to really set the stage. It was a lot of fun. Us Camp A counselors also revealed our real names. All summer long the kids had only known us by our "Camp Names." Mine was Miss Toad because it was Mario Kart characters. I performed the song "Camp A, Say what?" and I sang "My name is Taylor... they call me Toad." and the kids all got excited as each of the counselors revealed their real names. After the performances each group was dismissed to go get desserts. The dessert table consisted of Ice cream, fudge bars, brownies, cookies, lemon cake, cookie cake, cupcakes, white cake, oreas, fruit, and even sprinkles for the ice cream! It was crazzzzzyyyy. The kids were obviously lovin' it, and probably on a sugar high because they never get any "unhealthy" foods for snack. We also got the opportunity to get pictures with some kids. We had to ask permission from their parents first though! :) It was a great start to our last weekend in Okinawa!
