Wednesday, June 25, 2014

First few weeks

So things are still going really great.  I'll just catch you up on the first few weeks while getting internet was such a pain.
-The flight over was alright.  I went from Sacramento on Saturday the 7th to San Francisco to Narita arriving Sunday afternoon.  I met up with a fellow Camp Adventure Project Coordinator (PC) in SF. We're the one's who where black shirts instead of the normal white camp usually wears.  Once in Narita I was able to meet 3 of my staff and the Point of Contact (POC) Mr. Chance, who is great.  We had to wait a few hours at the airport for the other 3 arriving from Iowa. I am supervising 4 day camp counselors: Josh, Emily, Danielle, Victoria; and 2 teen/middle school counselors: Zac and Bianca.  Once everyone had arrived we rode a bus back to the base 2ish hours away.  We all tried to stay awake for the trip home so we could get on Japan time as fast as possible but I think I was the first one out.  Once on base they dropped off all the girls, we have a house on the family housing base near our School-Age Center (SAC) where we are working.  The boys had to take the bus another 20mins away to the actual Zama base.
-Housing: The girls housing is good.  It's a 2 full bedroom and a tiny room with 1 and 1/2 bath.  When we arrived there were 2 real beds and 4 air mattresses.  I quickly claimed a bed.  After a little finagling I was able to get us all a real bed then it got a little more interesting deciding where everyone was sleeping.  Only 1 girl works with the teens so she works later so I wanted her to have her own room so we didn't bother her while the 5 of us are getting ready.  She also couldn't have the tiny room because we'd need it in the morning since the 1/2 bath is attached to that one.  Which left us 1 regular sized room and the tiny room for 4 people.  I decided I'd just move things around and I am now living in the dining room.  We put the table in the living room and I moved the hutch so it blocks half of the room off.  I got a shower curtain and just like that I live in the living room.  We also have a nice kitchen and washer and dryer so we're very happy with housing.
-Orientation week: We had a pretty normal orientation week. Getting to know the center, staff, and children was fun.  The center is beautiful! It's only 2 years old. I'll post some picture soon.
-First weekend: Friday we went to the town right off base for ramen. Saturday we went to Yokohama, the second largest city in Japan.  I really had no idea what was going on in Yokohama when we decided to go and just went with everyone.  I did not realize it was a full day thing so after walking around aimlessly for a few hours me and 2 of the girls went home to rest.  Sunday we went to the center to do laundry (the washer was broke but is now fixed) and hang up posters.
That's the first 2 weeks - I'll start a new post for the first week of camp :)
Kasey 

No comments:

Post a Comment