I know this is not quite about my week, but let me just say that living on an overseas military base is unlike anything else I have ever experienced. I know that to the kids and families I work with every day it is the norm (as for most of them this is not their first overseas tour), but to me it is the adventure of a lifetime. Not only do I get to live in Japan, but I also get to do so with most of the comforts of home. Yes, there are times that I wish I were living in a nearby cho, because then I would be forced to learn the language and communicate with the Japanese on a regular basis. I do not feel nearly as immersed in the culture as I did in Spain two summers ago, and even then I was living in a dorm that housed mostly my American classmates. If I were to just go to work and go home every day, other than the security checkpoints I could be fooled into thinking I was in any American town (that is if I do not look at any of the gorgeous nearby mountains). Yes, I know that is a huge exaggeration of just how Americanized the base it, but I sometimes think that if I only had a Wal-Mart and an IHOP it could be as though I never left home. Just one more reason this whole internship experience is so unique.
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| A Sasebo Burger! |
This week might have been a short week thanks to the federal holiday on Monday, but it was nonetheless quite full! Tuesday I spent the day helping out around the center, went and enjoyed another Sasebo burger, and then I spent the evening with the pre-teens. We ended up combining centers so that they could work on their clay sculptures for the exhibit next week. I enjoyed getting my hands dirty (well, really just my gloves dirty because we were all trying to avoid red hands) and we hand some good discussions. The teens made some pretty cool sculptures, and I cannot wait to see them on display.
This week’s managers’ meeting was cancelled, so it did not feel like a normal Wednesday to me. Every other Wednesday is now SAC & Youth training day, but the SAC side of things did not get the memo about this week’s training, so only Pre-teen & Teen staff was in attendance. Because there was an odd number at the beginning of the training I was roped into acting as a participant – wearing a blindfold and all. The experience gave me some good new training tools, like backwards block building and sensory Jenga, so I enjoyed the opportunity. This Wednesday was also the last Photography Club meeting so everyone spent some time going through the photos they had taken over the past few weeks. Although it was the last club meeting, most of the kiddos are exhibiting photos in the contest next week. We also had our Girl Scouts meeting which seemed to flow a lot better after we moved to the school cafeteria, illustrating the important of proper facilities and space.
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| The Youth staff during training... |
On Thursday I went with the preschoolers on their trip to the Aquarium! SOOOOO much fun!!! While it was a little stressful to make sure we kept an accurate count and knew where all of the kiddos were, they had a blast and because of that I did too. I had three rambunctious preschoolers in my care during our venture through the aquarium, and we all made it out alive, so I’d say it was a successful trip. The children’s favorite exhibit (and mine) was the dolphin exhibit, and we even got to watch a dolphin show.
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| My kiddos! |
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| They loved the dolphins... |
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| FISH! |
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| The Dolphin Show! |
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| In the air!!! |
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| We were in the splash zone... |
After the field trip I came back and got ready for our teen activities tonight. We made sushi from scratch with the teens and pre-teens. (Yet another benefit of having Japanese nationals on staff.) Everyone got into the cooking process, and I enjoyed being able to informally education the teens on safe cooking measures, such as how to handle raw eggs and chicken and how to use knives safely. The sushi was AMAZING and very fresh, and we all ate to the point that it probably should not have been considered a Fit Factor activity anymore. And yes, I think it was odd that we went to the aquarium AND had sushi on the same day....but it was with different groups of kids, lol!
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| Making rolled eggs... |
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| Teriyaki Chicken! Soooo good!!! |
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| Fresh Salmon! |
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| A messy, but yummy sushi roll!!! To die for!!! |
My Friday started late because I was schedule to have events until 9pm with the Girl Scouts. The youth staff had been planning a visit to the nearby Thai restaurant because they wanted to expose me to yet another local favorite, and I was all for the adventure. I should have gone with the mild, and not medium, level of curry…
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| Chai Tea...it was, um, interesting... |
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| My Thai food...yum! |
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The brown sugar cube I ate in an attempt to get rid of the
burning in my mouth! |
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| Our ice cream dessert... |
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| The views from the restaurant...beautiful! |
From 4pm – 9pm my life was consumed by Girl Scouts. The girls had voted to tour the Harbor View Café (our nice restaurant on base) so that they could learn about what it is like to be a chef and also practice money management skills. The “behind-the-scenes” tour was pretty short, but with 14 easily distracted elementary school girls it was just the right length. Everyone enjoyed the chance to eat out, and I took the opportunity to educating my table about the importance of tipping, understanding tax (although that doesn’t apply on base or anywhere in Japan), and budgeting for your meal. We also talked about table manners, and the cutest part of the night was when they all decided to pretend they were high school girls – someone has been watching too much Disney Channel. When we got back to the cafeteria we spent some time helping the girls earn badges and also having them get their swaps ready for when they met the Japanese girl scouts next weekend. By the time I left a little before 9pm I was exhausted, and ready for bed! It feels as though we crammed five days of work into four...it was a great, productive week, with beautiful weather the last few days!
