Hi hi!!!!

おはようございますみんなさん！みんなは元気ですか？天気はいい？おさかはひどいよ！たくさん雨がふりましたよ！

Anywho, yeah, morning from Osaka, er, rather from Nagano everyone! As many of you may have heard, there was an earthquake, typhoons and hurricanes all throughout Japan, but we missed all of them or they missed us. I was in Osaka and I'm ok. It rains quite a bit here, that's because it's the freakin rainy season. I got my shoes wet and had to cleaned them and leave them out to dry.

Well, after that last blog, we had our first camp at the hostel and it was rather busy and stressed me out a bit, but that goes for everyone in the camp. There were around 80 girls from a private christian school that attended and we all had an average of 5 to 6 girls. They were quite the handful and they were supposedly advanced in english, but my girls weren't that great at all. They spoke very little and knew their alpahbet and it was hard to work with, but they were all so goddamn cute and as stressful as it was, it was fun. I've learned a lot from my first camp and it was sad to see them leave on the last day. They cried, MANY of them cried and I almost did too. But it was good.

After that, we went to the train station to be picked up by our host families. My host mother came and picked me up and she reminded me sooooooooo much of grandma! (damn I miss her!!!!) she dressed the same way grandma would (minus the skirt) and she was wearing a backpack. She had a lot of spunk and yet, she had that maternal feel to her, like grandma does. We went to a cafe and talked and drank tea. I showed her pictures of the family and hmong people. She lives along with her cat Chibi. She has two sons and the oldest runs a small tempura restaurant where she took me later.

The food was oishii!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so good!!!!!!! It was fresh and delicious! After that, we went to her apartment and I saw her cat. He's gi-normous!!!!!!!!! The next day I went to work with her and she works as the laundry lady at the Osaka University Hospital, which is the largest hospital in the osakan area. I went strolling for a bit and then wrote in the journal that Natah gave to me. I wrote quite a bit for the next five-ish hours. Then at noon, we ate and then went sightseeing. We went to a 100 yen shop and there were quite a few things I wanted to buy, but it's just like the dollar store, only with japanese writing (almost) everywhere. We went to a Museum of Ethnology? later. It was cool. There were outfits, instrument and tools that people used from all over the world there. When we got back to her place, she had me try flower arranging and it was fun (kinda boring) and she took pictures. I made a pretty flower arrangement! Teehee!!! Lol

the next day, we went window shopping and then she took me to a korean shop. She's an avid korean drama and singer fan... Like, SUPER korean fan! Won Bin is her favoritest actor, next is Ryu Shi Won (singer) and then Baek Young Jun? from Winter Sonata. She spent almost over 100000 yen on stuff for her korean craze. (YEESH!) At the shop, there were four other old women there who were uber obsessed with korean actors and singers and were basically squealing and ranting about their favorite korean guy and they musta been in their 50s and 60s. It kinda scared me a bit. I love korean men, but not THAT much.

Anywho, we went back to her son's restaurant and ate there for lunch. Tempura again and it was still delicious! We went window shopping again later and after that, we went back to her place. We made yakisoba and pan-fried salmon. It was sooooooooo good!!!! And then she had me try on a kimono. It was so pretty and... pretty! I didn't look good in it and could barely breathe, but it was pretty!!!! That night, we stayed up late watching Spring Waltz and Ryu Shi Won singing.

The next day, she dropped me off at the Osaka Train Station and we all went back to Nose... Yay... Not really. Back to damp beds and bugs everywhere. The day after was the first day of camp and the first camp of six camps back to back. Blagh... It would be our smallest number of campers. It was fun. The campers ranged from elementary school to high school age. I dealt with the elementary school kids and they were hard to handle at first and they wre very quiet, but after a while, they loosened up and opened up more. Two little girls cried because they were homesick, but they got better. This camp was was more laid back, compared to the first one. When they left, a few girls cried, but it was good. The goal is to have the kids cry at the end (in a good way) and we've accomplished it so far.

Right now, we are in Nagano getting ready for our next camp with over 100 students which will be in about a few hours. This place is wonderful! It's like a bed and breakfast place and I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here, for some reason, I really miss my family and friends. I've been really busy and haven't given them much thought, but we've had time to kick back and relax for a bit so I've been thinking about them quite a bit.

I am so tired and so... tired... I've gotten up early every morning and gone to sleep late everynight cause of meetings. My host mother got up early every morning and therefore I had to, and we stayed up late watching korean dramas so I haven't had much time to really rest... blagh... tired...

Anywho, this place has wi-fi and so today, I checked my email and found out that one of my classes got cancelled!!!!!!!!!!! AGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! shit! So I had to go find another class and add it in so I'd have 15 credits. pissed me off... also found out yesterday that a co-worker from walmart passed away recently. It's sad, she was so nice to me. I really liked her... *sighs* many things happening and I miss many things. I wanna hear gigi soooooooooo bad.... Oh well, I need to find a phone card soon!!!!!

Ok, I have a meeting in 5 minutes so laters!!! じゃね！

Continuation of the Denver Disaster...

So anyway, our bags were missingand so, we had to leave without them after getting some help. The airport people said that they would send it to us. We waited for the plane ride to Osaka and right before we were to leave,they came!!!!! YAY!!!! We were sooooooo happy!!!!!....

And then on the plane ride, we got delayed for an hour.... Blah... I hate plane delays.... SO MUCH!!!!! But we were all sleepy and tired from everything that happened so we napped for most of the time there. After about an hour of just driving around the airport, the pilot finally took off. We hit some turbulance but it was ok. We got to Osaka and met the some more people from our group, groupleaders and The great Guy Healy himself.

We went to sleep and the next morning, we left for Nose Camp in rural Osaka. We had to to go through Osaka city to get to our destination, but Osaka is HUGE!!!! The city is like Chicago, only that the roads are very elevated and there are a lot of buildings!!!! WAH!!!!! Takai tatemono yo!!!!!

Our orientation went on for a week and one day of our orientation had to be cut out cause we were a day late. We were all so sad, because it was our dance party day!!!!! Despite all that, we all bonded and got to know one another.

I interviewed people on the camcorder that I brought with me and wasted five disks already. I have five left and one is halfway done!!! I NEED MORE DVD-R's WANG!!!!!!!!!!! SEND ME SOME!!!!!!!

We prepared for roles for camp and now we are in Osaka at our first place. Tomorrow, we'll be working with our first group. They're sixth grade girls with advanced english. Wah. Imma feel a little swamped.

Anywho, a shout out to my parents. There's no info from me because the place I stayed at had NO phone or internet service!!!! So no way to contact. When we were stuck in Denver, the girl whose phone I used to call home was running out of minutes so I couldn't call and I had no phone card and couldn't find any. AH!!!!!! It's crazy not to have internet or phone with me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was very much outdoorsy where I was and my bed bunk was damp. Sorry mom, the suitcases are dirty and uh... very chipped. I had to bring them with me through rain and mud to get to our destination at the camp for orientation.

Anywho, last word to people because I have a meeting in a few minutes, leave me your addresses if you want a postcard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Btw, don't feel weirded out if I don't send anything to you or something. I might not be able to cause I'm really busy and can't contact cause some places we go to will not have the net or phone. Kay I have to go now so laters!!!!!!!!!!!!! JA NE!!!!!!!!!!!

おはようございました！みんなはげんきですか？
Morning from japan everyone! how is everyone?

Well, I suppose I should get started with how my trip has been so far. I met five of my other team members going on the same flight. Their names are Joanna, Drew, Ghee, Talia and Vanessa. We were supposed to fly from Minneapolis to Denver to San Francisco to the Nagoya airport in japan, BUT things did;t turn out how we wanted it to.

We flew to Denver just fine, but then our flight from Denver to San Fran got delayed due to mechanical problems. We waited and waited and the flight kept getting delayed until finally, it got canceled around noon. By that time, our flight from San Francisco to Nagoya had already left. We and a bunch of our unhappy passengers went to the customer service to get new flights over, but there was a LONG line and we had to wait there for two hours!!!! The customer service lady wasn;t helpful much and she gave us an alternative flight that we had to talk to Guy Healy about. She said she;d be ther another two hours and that we could come back and talk to her. We went off for an hour to figure things out and when we came back, SHE WAS GONE!!!! LIAR!!!! So for the next hour or so, we went around trying to get help not wanting to get back in line cause the line got lomger!!!! Finally we talked to a manager guy and he got us boarding passes for the next day that guy healy (the program) had bought for us through e-ticket.

unfortunately, we had to spend the night there and by then, everyone hated denver. WE HATE DENVER!!!!! The night was uneventful and uncomfortable. We woke up around 4-ish and got ready for our flight at 6am to los angeles and from there, we would fly to san fran then to nagoya... Of course, things got in the way again. we got to los angeles, BUT the flight got delayed as well because san fran had a freakin fog!!!! we were going to miss our flight... AGAIN! so we talked to　someone and she really helped us out!!!! so we would fly to tokyp and from there, to nagoya. but we had to wait till noon, but it didn;t matter. just as long as it wasn;t denver, we were ok. we waited till noon, then there was another delay (yet another one!!!!???) but then we flew off in an hour. The flight was long, but I played my DS and listened to music and slept most of the time.

We got to Tokyo, but then, our bags were missing!!!!! There was a guy healy rep there to help us and three of us found our bags. _I got one of mine but the other was missing... dou shiyou ka_