Adventures of SuperMai, Summer pt 5

Okies, so getting back on track... this is kinda long btw so make sure you got time to listen to my mundane lifestory thus far...

I left my host family’s place the next day. My host mom took me to get breakfast at McDonalds and I remember why I don’t like eating there too much, because I had eaten from McDonalds for three days already and it can get rather tiresome, but nevertheless, she got me a McGriddle. After her daughter came back home from summer school, we went to the train station. There, I gave away my straw hat to my host sister because I didn’t want to carry too much junk with me and the hat was just added junk so I happily gave it to her and she was happy to accept it.

I met up with Mom and Dad (our AD and JD) at the Ueno train station. I also met up with Peter there too, but four of our ACs were missing. OMG! What to do!!!??? Turns out later, that they went on ahead without waiting for the J-staff so two of the J-staff were freaking out thinking that the ACs were lost, but they had gone on ahead to Tokyo station and the J-staff there told Dad that they were there. They got a stern lecture later that no matter how late the J-staff were in getting there, they had to wait no matter what.

We then split up and went our own ways on two different buses. Jules looked like she was about to cry again when we parted and it was sad, but we departed our own ways. Dad went with us as well as Auntie Natsuki and Mom went with the other group. Out of the whole team, only 8 ACs, including myself, went to our destination. It was towards the end of this bus trip there that we realized how talented the bus driver was. He drove and turned into a small street that we never thought possible, well, at least for regular drivers as well as American drivers. America, you’re up against some of Japan’s most elite drivers! Fast and the Furious? Pshaw! Give me a way cool bus driver who can drive in VERY narrow and can turn into nearly impossible roads anytime! Hah!

Anywho, at the next camp, itturns out to be a National Heritage place or something or other like that. Here, there were no or hardly any spiders and though there was no wine bath, the no spider part and the fantastic students totally made up for it all. Here, I put my LAC powers into great use! Actually, I didn’t do much but speak before every activity and led meetings (which I wasn’t too sure of myself and Dad/Kaz did most of it in my own opinion). The only time I actually abused my power was telling Diana to sit her ass down during a meeting (can’t remember what she was doing though) but it was actually just a joke so I guess it really doesn’t count.

We met the students the same day, or rather, that evening we arrived because we had to introduce ourselves and our team song. It was somewhat hard because we had less people, but we had the J-staff join in as well so it all worked out for the better. The students enjoyed it so that’s all that mattered. It was a small group, about 25 students that we worked with. They were put into four groups and two ACs were assigned to each group and we rotated to each group for each activity so we got to know the students really well and they got to know us pretty well too.

The next day, Sabrina, Tony, Diana and I went on a mission to find some coffee. Unfortunately, the place where we went to had a breakfast that was rather…lacking. So we set out on a quest for coffee and came across several, actually many cafes on the same street. We walked into one that looked like a house from America and drank coffee and ate cookies outside. I used my pathetic Japanese with the two elderly women, whom I assumed was the owner and a worker, and somehow got by with asking them were the convenience store was and they went further by telling me there was a supermarket nearby.

They were so nice and while we were ordering, they were asking us if we wanted cake, like chocolate cake cause that was all they had, and though Sabrina wanted pancakes, we settled for the cookies they made. They were good (like paper) but we had Sabrina eat them all cause she liked them. The lady was so nice that she even gave us cream cheese as an apology for not having cheesecake cause Diana and I were thinking of getting that earlier. The total came up to 450 yen each, that’s about $4.50. Kinda expensive in my opinion cause the coffee was really tiny, but if you add in the cookies they gave us and I think there was some sort of pastry before that, it makes up the total.

Afterwards, we went walking towards the supermarket and eventually found it. I wasn’t sure if it was open, but seeing two girls in school uniforms walking out, we kinda figured out that it was open and went in. We headed on over to the snack section. I bought stuff that came up to about 2000 yen (about 20 bucks) and had only 1500-ish yen (about 15 bucks) to live on for the next week or so. The snacks were for the ACs during our meetings and also just in case the food there wouldn’t satiate our appetites. Dad later gave me a can of coffee as a good luck gift as LAC. It was tasty. I have never loved coffee more in my life since coming to Japan. Being stuck in the middle of nowhere with only trees and spiders as company does things to you.

Later that day, we met up with our students for camp this time and they introduced themselves to us. Turns out, they’re not college students at all, but highschoolers with an interest in improving their English because they all want to go study in America. None of them knew each other before coming to the camp and they weren’t sure what to expect, but over the course of three days, they got to know each other, as well as the ACs, very well. The first day was somewhat nerve-racking cause no one knew what to expect, but in order to get them more loose, after our first activity (or at least I think it was) we showed them how to play Bibbidy, Bibbidy, Bop. They loved it. I’ve never seen a group of students so into the game the first time we ever showed them how to play it. Most other students we’ve had were very wary and weren’t that interested in the game, but these campers were very into it, as well as with our other games we taught them.

I can’t quite remember how the activities went chronologically, but I can remember each one with each group. Since this camp was an advance camp, meaning the schedule was different, we had them do more intensive English. For 1-Minute Drill, instead of the sentences we usually use, we had them learn Tongue Twisters and at the end, the winners from each group would compete to see who could say Tongue Twisters the fastest and most correct without messing up. The last one standing was a girl who was half American and half Japanese.

Although it was somewhat unfair considering her English was better than the others (though I wouldn’t say it was near fluent, it was rather broken as well as her writing but we understood her and she understood us), everyone seemed ok with it. The only problem I had with her in her group was that there was one boy in there whom everyone loved because he was so out-going, but his English was not very good. We were all somewhat worried that he would feel inferior because her English skills were way above everyone else’s, but he seemed to be doing fine though.

Another activity we had was Group Presentation, which took over what was supposed to be My Story. The whole group had to decide on one topic to talk about and deliver their part in English each. I forgot to mention that I had John as my AC partner and we worked very well together. Our group decided to talk about famous places in or around Tokyo. Each student talked about two places and we corrected their spelling and grammar. One girl from our group missed the first part of the activity that day and made it for the second part where we had the students memorize it. She did very well in writing something up and memorizing most of it by the time we had them present later that evening. For the presentation, John and I acted like America tourists in Tokyo and were asking each passerby (our students) where we could go. It was fun and everyone loved all the presentations.

Considering there were only four groups, we decided not to have winners for Group Presentation or Tongue Twisters, but we did have one for My Story. My Story this time, was somewhat different because it stemmed off from what we had them talk about for Group Discussion. For Group Discussion, we had to have the students talk about how Japan could benefit or change the world for the better. John and I talked to the students in our Group Discussion group (which was also our Program Orientation group where we had them make nametags and a name for their group) and though it was somewhat slow at first, when we asked them how Japan could change itself to make the world a better place, they began really getting into it. One of the boys in my group came up to tell me that he was glad I asked him what he thought about changing Japan. He told me that he had many ideas and though he couldn’t express it in English, he was glad that we listened to what he said.

Continuing from what was discussed, for our My Story group, (a different group this time) we had them write up how Japan could change the world for the better. Unfortunately, what the students wrote about was basically how Japan’s technology kicked ass and how it was cool, convenient and so on forth. Oh well, we tried. I basically had to write one up for one of the students in my group cause his English was poor, but he tried so hard so I have to give him that. Other than that, they were pretty good. One of the girls in that group had also been sick, but she came back the second day before we could do My Story. The My Story activity was written up the second day of camp and the students had a certain amount of time the last day to memorize it and then present it. They were really good My Story’s. The best I’ve listened to since last year and this year, but they’re the only advanced group I’ve ever had and the best.

An activity that was reserved for the advance schedule was Word Building. There are three words that are given and the students have to make up a sentence using those three words. John and I included ourselves in and tried to make it harder for us when we were helping the students practice. It really helps by having yourself go through the same things as your students so that you can also share the same experience. There was also a contest between groups to see who could make sentences the quickest and who earned the most points. Each AC wrote in three words randomly and the students quickly wrote them on the white board. John and my group made it to the finals and went up against the winner of the other group. Kaz/Dad wrote up most of the three random words per student.

For one particular round, the three words included hairy, man and turtle. One of the students wrote something so hilarious about a hairy turtle that we decided to make an award looking like that. Towards the end, both groups were tied and the last one was just hilarious. The three words were Santa Claus, deer and fire. I kind of assumed how it was to be played out and one of the students had done that, but the other one ended up giving us an idea for an award. She had written something about Santa Claus giving her a fire deer and all the ACs loved it, but she didn’t win. In the end, it was John and my group who had won and all the ACs decided on another design for an award aside from the hairy turtle. I think we decided not to give that activity, winners. The only activity that got winners was in My Story.

Each night, each AC was given a room assignment and had to room with the students. The boys had more ACs and had to rotate, but us girl ACs stayed in our rooms both nights. Diana, Tony and I ended up talking to each other until about 2 in the morning. I don’t know why or how we did it, but we just talked. It was fun and we laid down on the ground as we talked and just hung out. Students and other ACs who got up during the middle of the night gave us weird looks, but it was cool.

Campfire was great and we tried a new skit called “Superhero” in place of “The King’s Papers” that we usually do. I actually stole the idea from “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?” It worked out well because the students liked it and Natto Girl was born. Lol Diana was spectacular as Natto Girl. I think it’s a name that’ll stick. I was in “Soup Skit” and Brandon, being one of the ACs leading campfire and the “Soup Skit” director, told us to do several ways of playing our parts, but that’s also part of the show. I hate it when he tells us to do it Opera-style. I hate singing and I have no clue what to do for it. Oh well, improvise right? That’s basically what you have to do for “Soup Skit,” aside from acting of course. People really seemed to like Western, especially when I said “Hold on, lemme spit out my tobacco. Ptooey! Ding!” (although the cowboy accent ended up being a dirty southern accent, teehee!) That actually came from last year’s campfire so I hope they don’t mind me using it again this year. One of the girls really liked the S’mores, but all in all, all the students loved it.

American carnival was smaller this time, but I ended up doing coin drop instead of cake walk and ended up giving all my tickets away! Wah! Lol The students really had fun with that, but one of the students had a clown phobia (because we had a clown) and had to leave (strangely enough he likes horror movies, so maybe too much “It?”). Anywho, we all loved having Reggie be the American Carnical emcee because he always says something funny as he tries to stall what he wants to say, but the prizes in the end were all girly. One of the guys won a Hello Kitty wind-up toy. Lol Maybe he’ll give it to his sister. We also had Dance Party the first day and I felt like I was working extra hard this time because there were less students. One of the students was a hip-hop dancer or something so she was tearing up the floor with her moves. She enjoyed Dance Party a lot so I’m glad we have that activity.

For our awards and good-bye ceremony, we all decided to do an award for each camper for what trait of theirs stuck out. They all loved their awards and in the end, they got their USA Summer Camp graduation award. When it came time to say our goodbyes, about two thirds of the students cried. Even the boys cried so I know we really did something good cause the ACs cried too, even John started to cry when I told him one of the boys was crying. I cried before it came to my turn and had enough energy to stop crying and make my speech.

It sucks when there’s also sad, sappy music going on in the back as well. It really adds to the emotion going in the room. One of the boys refused to cry, but when they were in the bus and leaving, the ACs including myself ran after the bus waving goodbye and I saw him cry as he waved to me. YES! I made him cry! Lol Our goal at the end is to make them cry, it makes it worthwhile. They didn’t want to leave us and we didn’t want them to leave either. Ah well, c’est la vie. Two of the students emailed back to me because I gave them my email. They really enjoyed camp so I’m happy.

By the way, we made a joke that Kaz/Dad and Ixchell/Mom were havinga fight and were temporarily split with the kids/ACs and that Dad was cheating on her with a high school girl from that camp. Everyone of the campers seemed to have been enamored by the greatness of that of Dad. lol That one high school girl especially. She always almost fainted whenever Dad was nearby and was asking EVERY ONE if Dad was single. Of course not! He has Mom still, so that makes him off limits! lol j/k tsk tsk tsk... what a bad example Dad`s setting for his kids. lol

Afterwards, we to a facility and met up with everyone again. We just hung around for three nights though one half of our group had to leave after two nights. It was an R&R time for us. The second night there, we all drank our asses off. I only had three cans of a sort of Japanese cocktail drink and I was beyond buzzed though not drunk. I was still somewhat in control and though I did a lot of stupid things that everyone said was funny, I was still conscious and remembered what I did the next day… well, most of it anyway.

The day when the other half of our team had to leave, Ong, Diana, Jules, Xiong and I decided to throw a skit for everyone. Two of our team members seemed really down so I suggested to them that we should throw a skit to cheer them, as well as everyone else, up. We secretly decided to make a parody of each of the camps we went to, including the split camps we had. The last hour we had together, everyone was asleep or resting. I went to wake everyone and told them to meet in our “meeting room,” which was actually the second girl ACs’ room but they decided to leave it open for a play room. Everyone grudgingly got up to go there for the “meeting” that I told them to go to. Even Mom and Dad wondered why there was a meeting. When everyone was there, it was like looking at a room of zombies. Noone wanted to be there for the “meeting” but when I told them that we had a skit for them, they suddenly brightened up.

There were seven parts to our skit. The first part were two scenes from our orientation. The first scene was when I was teaching everyone how to play Bibbidy, Bibbidy, Bop. At that time, Xiong was in the middle and went over to Ger and told him to do all the moves and screamed at him. Everyone thought it was funny then, so we reenacted that scene and everyone laughed at that memory. The second scene was when Natsuki did a funny pose of the statue we were supposed to meet at. The second part was our first camp when the boys in the camp showed the ACs how to do a certain gesture for “Lotteria” which was from a commercial for a fastfood burger restaurant.

The third part was from the hotel with the billions of stairs. There was a really long facility orientation that everyone almost fell asleep through and learned that there were killer bees and thunder. The ACs also joked that there were snipers on the hill so we acted all of that out where Xiong gave the long and boring orientation and we all fell asleep through it. As we headed off to our “room,” there was an earthquake and Jules jumped out the window without estimating the distance down and fell to her death so the living ACs continued on a safer route. Diana stopped to tie her shoe, but killer bees came and killed her as Ong and I ran away. Going “outside,” Ong saw thunder and got struck by it. Then I saw the snipers on the hill and Xiong played the “Shooter” game and I got shot and died.

The fourth part was with the crappy load of campers we had at the spider hotel. There, one group named themselves Pi-ya, which is something some Japanese comedian uses in his comedies, so we all remembered that when they presented their group name. The fifth part was when our Team 5 mascot, Zak, died. We played out his funeral service with Jules being Zak in the middle and then we did a tribal funeral around Jules by whooping and dancing around her.
The sixth part was cut into two. The first scene was Diana and me acting as students doing the hairy turtle and fire deer during the Word Building activity and Xiong was Kaz/Dad. Then both of us acted as ACs going up a long hill with Jules, Xiong and Ong and then split up and ran away from one another after seeing a gigantic spider.

Afterwards, for the seventh part, we saw each other again, (this scene showed us meeting again at that facility we were currently staying at) and hugged one another and then went to the other ACs watching us and hugged them. Then we got them together to do what we always do after a camp by putting our hands in the middle and shouting Team 5, or something like that except this time, we shouted Jim Healy Award.

Everyone really seemed to have enjoyed it and we also did different versions of soup skit because everyone was pumped and awake. We did Hmong soup skit, several versions of it including a hmong poetry/song version of it. There was also a UP-per (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) accent and it was hilarious. There was also a Californian ghetto version and the J-staff did an Engrish version. It was really funny! The best soup skits ever.

Of course afterwards, we split and the next day, our part of the team went to our next camp. Mom and Dad switched custody of us and Auntie Natsuki went with Dad, but we got Mom and Mike Phelps/Yutaka and kept Yoko. We also met two new JCs, Milano and Tsubasa. They were cool. The facility was nice, but I had a crappy ass time there being sick and having stupid problems. I feel like a dork when I think about it and how I kinda brought down the team. On the night before camp was over. hearing about a hmong girl on Team 1 who had cancer and was in the hospital now with no one from her team or family around her, thinking about how hard she must have it made me change my mood. If she can be strong, then I have no reason why I couldn’t either.

I was more chipper the last day, but on the ride to the train station for homestay, I got sick and felt like throwing up. I’m getting better now, still a little sick, but I think I’ll be fine. I like my homestay so far but I will write about that later. So this is it for now. Ja ne!