work again...

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Saturday (7/17/10) was back to work for the three people that were guard only (including myself). The day went smoothly. We worked pretty much all day with an hour lunch break and a half hour break somewhere during the day. There was no problem that were major, just having to say “please walk” a million times, and once in awhile having to tell parents that they needed to be in with their child. Otherwise the day went smoothly. We also had a frosting fight with the MWR staff after work. The pool allows pool parties or in other words birthday parties; a mom gave the left over cake to the lifeguards so I started a frosting fight. It turned out really cool because we took a tone of pictures and video taped us all singing a camp song. That night was uneventful because of us being so tired. We decided to just go to bed and catch up on sleep!
Sunday (7/18/10) was the same as Saturday, well without the cake fight! Guarding was just as long as ever, but the plus side was this was our last day of guard only!!! It was kind of sad in a sense because we were just starting to really get to know the MWR staff and know we had to start lessons again. That night we went and saw the Last Airbender which was interesting. I will have to go and watch the other two movie that will come later. I guess that this movie was based on a series on Nickelodeon. I guess I was never a big Nickelodeon fan when I was little, Disney Channel all the way!! After the movie I had to make my lesson plans for the next day.
Monday (7/19/10) we were told by the MWR staff that rainy season was know over so it would be getting hot; they were right, just sitting down you had sweat coming down your face. I was really excited to get back to lessons! I was also nervous because I was going to be working with a new group of swim teachers so I did not know how that would go. Counteracting my nervousness was my excitement for my level 3 class. I was excited to teach a different level that was more upper level so that I would do more technic stuff with them instead of actually teaching them something that they have not learned before. Don’t get me wrong though, it is awesome to teach new things and see your students faces light up when they get it; getting there is the frusterating part. I am also this session (session 4) teaching level 1 again which I was not so excited for. It turned out that my excitement for the classes should have been turned around. My level 1 kids are great, they all want to try everything that I show them; not only that, but they want to try it on their own without help. It was really awesome to see them do it by themselves even if it was a few strokes. They also learned really fast which was also awesome! On the other hand my level three was a downer. They could do everything which was nice, but their were different personalities that were hard to deal with. Most of them had been through the level before so I think they are just bored, but it still was very hard.
The other “great” thing about Monday was that the BOQ pool (where we teach lessons) was really hot! We figured out that the pool was about 98 degrees which is way too hot for being in the water. Plus outside it was around 100 degrees. We could not keep the kids in the water the whole time because of it and we had to hose them off with cold water to keep their body temp down. This made it almost impossible to get anything done because after they found out they could get hosed off all they did was complain about the heat which I cannot blame them for. This problem was especially a problem for my level 3 class. All of the teachers felt sick during lessons because we were all in the water for such a long time. Then to make the day better we had to sit out in the sun to guard in the afternoon because we were teaching in the morning.
That night there was nothing really important that went on. We had our weekly meeting which as always took longer than needed. We did talk about important things though. We also talked about the upcoming cannoning trip on Sunday! I am so excited for this event because it will be relaxing and exilerating at the same time! And how many people can say they have been cannoning in Japan ( let me tell you…… not many!!!)!
Tuesday (7/20/10) was another hot day at the pool. The BOQ pool was again really hot, and the sun beating down on us did not help. Lessons were probably worse than the day before because of the hot water. We could not expect the kids to be in that water so we had to take them out as much as possible. We had them taking cold showers in the middle of the lesson so they would cool down. We also had to adjust our lesson plan to land so that we could keep them out of the water as much as possible. To make things even worse we had two teachers get heat exhaustion after lessons were done. This is bad to say, but because of them getting sick our complaints were actually taken seriously. Before the answer to our request to get the pool cooled off was that there was really nothing that could be done; after, we will figure it out. They found out that they had thought they turned the heat off the weekend before, but a valve was stuck that kept it on. The pool then had all weekend to heat up. That night we were all really tired because of the heat, but we still went out. We had a date night which was supposed to be a date with a counselor from the other camp, but our boss on the MWR side had planned a dinner at a Korean BBQ for anyone who wanted to come. I decided to go to the Korean BBQ because I had wanted to try it and because I love the MWR staff! It was a little expensive, but totally worth it. The best part about having a Japanese person with you when you go out to eat is that they know what to order. The food was really good! We first got salad and a meat which I am not sure what it was (although it was good) and as always a bowl of rice. Then we got a huge plate of different slices of beef to BBQ. You would choose which meat you wanted to cook and then put it on a little grill in the middle of the table. After the beef which we were all full another plate of meat came out which was pork. After the pork we got a plate of chicken which we hardly got into because we were so full. To top it off we got ice cream! The meal was a little expensive, but experience was priceless!
Wednesday (7/21/10) the pool’s temperature finally started to cool off. Even though it was still around 86 degrees it was much nicer and I was able to start getting things done with my lessons. The only thing that still was going on were the complaining by all the kids which I think I am finding is just the way they are. The MWR staff also started bringing us a cooler of ice to help us with the heat. I do not know if it is about the heat of if it is just because of the two people getting sick because of the heat. When we went to the pool to guard we also found a cooler full of ice! It made my day to have cold water. After work I went to the food court to skype with my roommate from school! It was awesome to get to talk to her! I then picked up some Popeye’s Chicken for Christmas in July! I was afraid that it would not be that fun, but it ended up being awesome! We first ate a bunch of microwave food “microwave potluck”. Then we were split into groups and remixed Christmas songs into camp adventure songs. My group got All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth, which reminded me of home and how Dad would never tell me what he wanted for Christmas and just say my two front teeth. I think we did pretty well with it. After the song presentations we all got in a huge circle and did the elephant gifts. I ended up getting a fan which was nice. There were a lot of cool and stupid gifts one being the one with 100 yennies in a envelope because we could only spend 1 yen. After the elephant gifts we sang our Yokosuka song “At the BOQ…….” And then took some pictures of the whole group. Just when we thought it was all over and time to go they gave us another surprise, gifts from our parents! They had sent a letter to our parents telling them about the party and that they would love for them to send us something so that they could give it to us. This was awesome, more because I did not expect anything because they had sent me things already. My amazing parents surprised me again and sent me a beach towel, some candy, and Nicholas Sparks (they know me so well) and a t-shirt from home. Along with our gifts another mom sent money for one of our directors to by cup cakes for everyone on her daughter’s birthday which was really nice! After that we helped clean up and then went home. Then my roommate and I decided to stay up late talking which was not the wisest choice on our part. O well a good talk is always AMAZING!!

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