Adventures of SuperMai, Summer 2008 (pt 4)

This was actually done a while back, but I haven't had time to put it up so here it is now!

My last two camps were held in a hotel by a beautiful lake in the mountains somewhere by Mount Fuji. The place was somewhat secluded, but was beautiful. Some of my teammates and I went for a bike ride the first day we were there and probably went about a quarter of the way around the lake. I think it might have been about the same size as Phalen Lake, but slightly larger.

We were told that we weren’t suppose to go in the lake and Peter’s reasoning for why we couldn’t go in was because there were dragons down there. Hmong myths say that dragons live at the bottom of lakes looking for wandering people to drag in and eat them or looking for maidens to take in as their wives. Actually, the reason why we couldn’t go in was because of biological reasons and no one knew how deep the lake was so we could end up drowning because of depth or dying in the long run because no one knew what biological diseases could be in there.

Anywho, the place was pretty, we had a splendid view of the place from our balcony and there was a freakin wine bath, yes, you heard me, a WINE BATH!!!! Well, actually, I think it might be like wine salts or something, but either way, the bath was wonderful! Can’t drink out of it though, considering that there’ve been other butts sitting in the same water. Lol Darn! No drinking party tonight! (^_~)

With such a beautiful place, and considering that the campers paid an extra 200 for each AC to be there, it seemed like the next two camps would be great… Well, we shouldn’t have expected so much outta the girls. Our next two camps were all from one school, but were split up into two. It was a private all-girls junior high school with a bunch of snootty nosed, obnoxious little (excuse my French but…) bitches. I have never had so much annoying little stuck up girls who could care less about the camp. Ok ok. Perhaps it was just because school finished the day before they came or perhaps they’re so used to having things their way because their parents were hoppin with cash, but what sucked ass was that they didn’t give a shit about the camp or the ACs.

The first day was somewhat challenging. They didn’t know what to expect from camp nor from the ACs so it was to be expected. The only thing that really bugged me the whole day was that they kept snapping pictures of their friends EVERY SINGLE MINUTE! One minute they’re running to one group with their friends and the next, they’re with another posing and flashing those damn cameras of theirs! ARGH! It was so FRUSTRATING for me and the other ACs because one girl would come and disrupt one group with her stupid camera and that proved to be frustrating as the AC with the missing girl would be trying to look for her and the group that the girl was disrupting would be distracted from the activity that they were supposed to be focused on.

The female ACs also came across another problem. We were supposed to room with the girls as well because it was the teachers’ wishes that we do so. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any room for an AC to sleep in. My room group the first night didn’t want me to sleep there. It didn’t help out that I knew some Japanese because they were talking about the whole time in Japanese and how they didn’t want me in their room. One girl came up to ask me if I was going to stay in their room the next night and I said that I would be in the next room. The look on her face made me feel as useless and worthless as they come. Her face lit up with so much stuck-up happiness that I wanted to cry. No humbleness, no shy or quiet “ok’s,” she just exploded into a frenzy of excitement and blabbered to her roommates in Japanese that she was glad that I wouldn’t be with them the next night. Another girl came and told me that there was no room for another futon for me, the AC, and that I couldn’t stay there.

It was the most depressing camp that I’ve ever had and the most complicated camp that I’ve ever worked with. The second camp was hard, but it was because the girls just started English four months ago and kept turning to the one fluent girl in their groups. This one camp just made me want to throw myself into the lake and be done with it. When the girls left on the third day, no one cried or anything and the ACs were so glad to see the girls go. They didn’t wave back to us at all or anything. Other campers, when they were leaving, they would wave back or something, there’d be something that would indicate to us that they liked the camp, but these campers just didn’t want anything to do with us. Oh well, we didn’t either. At least we tried.

Our AD later told us that in the campers’ surveys, they had actually wanted more freetime to have fun (MORE FREETIME!!!???) There were only THREE “intensive” English activities (that’s if you count camp skit which was actually more fun than suck-y) and all the other activities were “fun.” We know they’re having fun when we start sweating and never have I ever sweated so much in my life!!! They had more fun than working and yet they wanted more? The point of English summer camp is LEARNING ENGLISH!!!!! Damn little she-pricks… Also, they also pointed out that they didn’t want to talk to the ACs at all… AT ALL!!!! They just wanted to hang out with their friends and because of that, there was no communication between us ACs and the campers! BLAGH!!!!!

Ok ok, enough of that. Anywho, the night they left, we threw a toga and white elephant party in the girl ACs’ room. For the first half of the “party,” we just took pictures of everyone posing and so on. I took a crapload of pictures myself! (^_^) And then we did the white elephant part and had fun trying to steal other peoples’ gifts and trying not to get Brandon’s gift which was somewhat filled with a little bit of tea and a towel shoved halfway in. In the end, my crane ornament that I spent an hour on making (the sewing took up most of it, lol) ended up with Reggie and he liked it so I’m glad that hour didn’t go to waste.

My gift though… was a condom. Thankfully not used yet and still in the packing tightly sealed, but there was a cute picture of a teddy bear on one side of it which was a plus!... Unfortunately, there’s no one to share the gift with!!! (if you know what I mean! LOL) Just kidding, I gave it to one of the girl ACs who didn’t attend and she took it with a somewhat happy face. I think she actually thought that it was supposed to be for her, but oh well, hopefully she uses it for good and not for evil. Hehehehe…

The next camp, despite everyone dreading the worst, actually came out good! The girls I roomed with were much nicer and didn’t complain when there were no room for another futon. I told them point blank that no matter what, I had to fit in somewhere because their teachers were the one to arrange it in the first place. We also banned cameras during English activities so that totally cut down on the wandering and distracting girls. This group was far better in comparison to the first and on the last day, I saw leakers! There were actually girls who cried!!! WAH!!! There is a god!... in all of us! Lol I was so happy and I actually cried for this group because we got through to them and they got through to us!

We also got hats as a thank you present from the school. I hate the hat (it’s a straw hat) but I don’t wanna throw it away because it was a gift from a good camp this time and my skit group also wrote their names and stuff on it too! *sighs* We’ll see how far it goes with me. If it makes it to America, I’ll give it to either Dad or Mom. They wear straw hats for gardening or whatever. They can have it.

Also, during this camp, I learned that for our next camp, which will be split up, I’ll be in charge of the next camp as the AD for my half (of lack there of because I’ll be getting less then half the group as I learned on the last night of camp). I’m totally worried and scared that I’ll mess up and do so many things that’ll earn everyone’s anger at me! WAH!!!!!!!!!!!!! So much responsibility… With power comes great responsibility… lol that’s kinda funny to think about… but still… WAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m totally freaked out! Ixchell, our AD, let me try being AD by making announcements during the last camp, but that’s nothing compared to all the other stuff she does and I’m really worried about those jobs because I haven’t seen her do them or tried them out! BLAH!!!!!!!!!!!! We’ll see how far I get if I survive it.

The next camp that I’ll be going to is a college camp and after that, we’ll be taking care of 70 junior high boys… Ehm… Not really looking forward to that camp, but first one seems like it’ll be ok. There’ll be a total of eight ACs, our JD and one JC for our side. The ACs are me, Diana, Sabrina, Reggie, Jon and John, Tony and Brandon. Of our group, Brandon’s the only one I know who’s up and at-em, very energetic and loud with his groups. Everyone else is somewhat quiet so I’m itching to see what’ll happen during dance party with the campers. Lol Maybe there’s a secret talent hiding amongst our group that I’ve yet to see! Teehee!

As of the moment, I am with my second host family. Their apartment is filled with so much stuff, I’d have to say that they’re much more like a packrat than me. It also smells like mold here, but they don’t seem ashamed of their current living condition (or sanitation) but I’m impressed that they’re not ashamed or worried of what I think. After a while, I started not caring about it either. Lol Other than that, they’re really nice people and I absolutely adore their daughters!!! They have a two year old named Cotori and a nine year old named Rio. Rio is just an angel and she even made breakfast for me on my first day at their place! Ah! I feel so special!!! Teehee!

When my host mom came back from work (she works at MacDonalds, but she’s got a really cute outfit! It’s so pretty and colorful and even comes with a skirt and matching socks with an M on it!), she brought pizza and fries. Lol American food in Japan, what are the odds of that happening? I’ve always had Japanese food or Japanese style food here, but American food? Thank the great deities around for Mickey D’s and pizza! (I’ve yet to taste the teriyaki burger! I’ve heard great things about them though!)

Our second day, we went to my host dad’s parents place and then went to a fireworks festival. I thought we were going to go to Asakusa, but I guess not. We went to place where the whole street was taken up for the festival and the place was half filled with Brazilians. My host mom explained to me that one of the big companies nearby hired Brazilians to work there. Ok, so you thought America was bad with bringing their companies overseas? Japan has the same thing, but brings overseas workers right into their own backyard and still pays them cheaply because they’re not Japanese citizens so the company can do what they want. Seeing them reminds me of home when I go to the flea market and see Hispanic people there mixed in with asian people. Ah… nostalgia…

It was kind of boring and I was trying to find my friends there, but I didn’t realize at first that we weren’t at Asakusa, but I soon found out after we left. I feel like a dork, but oh wells. I hope my teammates could find one another and have fun there. The next day, my host family and I went to a Safari park. Ok, so I assumed we were going to a zoo cause that’s what my host fam told me, but hell no. We went to a SAFARI park, like, driving around in your car and having a zebra or bear walk up against your car! I took a crapload of pictures and actually in one of them, I didn’t realize that the lion, whose picture I was taking of, had his balls in my picture. Lol RATED NC-17 FOR INDECENT EXPOSURE!!! Lol It was a nice picture of a lioness submitting to the lion (which has NOTHING to do with what my friend Joe would say), but his balls just had to be in there. Darn! I deleted it though… or at least I think I did…?

Okies, so one picture I took was of two bears… well, I should say that my host mom decided to go through the park one more time because my two year old host sister wanted to see the white tiger that was MIA the first run-through we had. Still couldn’t find the white tiger, but I did take a picture of two bears… copulating…? Lol Whatever the hell they were doing, a second after I took a picture of them… snuggling with on one on top of the other, one of the park guys drove his jeep in to scare them off each other. What is with Japan and animals having open “funplay?” Tsk tsk tsk. Lol During orientation, a friend of mine snapped a picture of two beetles making babies too. Same thing also happened last year too. Lol

Anywho, getting ready for next camp so yeah. Next camp, here I is! I is coming! (^_~)