I know all my passionate blog followers have been saying,"Greg why haven't you quenched my thirst for posts about your every waking moment lately?" Well crazed fans (whom I am now going to block on Facebook), to put it simply, I have been busy. On July 13th, I flew home to America. Though it was a quick weekend trip, it was worth it. I got to see two great friends get married and also got a chance to meet up with other friends outside of the wedding too. Also, there is nothing quite like summer in Muskegon. Its something I always took for granted. I can travel all over the world but I still have a hard time rivaling any place with the Muskegon State Park in the summer. I truly wish I had more time. I feel bad that I spent that extra day due to a cancelled flight saying whoa is me instead of truly enjoying it.
After a 14 hour flight, I worked my way through Japan. I got into Sendai at 9PM Wednesday exhausted. I had to work at 8am the next day to prepare for summer school. Still Jet lagged, I pretty much slept the rest of the day. The next day we had to be at work at 7 to head to Camp for 3rd and 4th Graders. We took the 4 hour bus ride with the kids to Iwate and had lunch at this pretty sweet park. It had a random Peter Pan theme. Japan always tries to throw in little surprises like that. From there we went to Kenji World (an indoor water park).
I kept telling my kids we were going to Kanji World which is the name for Japanese symbols. I thought it was the funniest thing. I became that guy that says a joke a million times even though no one thinks its funny but me. My kids have learned how to roll their eyes at my horrible jokes pretty well. Anyway, Kenji World was pretty awesome looking, it has a huge wave pool, and several slides for kids to go down. However, as a teacher/adult in charge of small children it was the scariest place I have ever been. The kids were basically let loose with a partner to roam the place. The first thing everyone did was jump in the wave pool. All of a sudden I'm in the deaper water rescuing 3rd graders that don't know how to swim but were pulled out there. I literally was carrying 4 kids that had a shear panic look on their face back to the shallow end of the pool. I had to say, we needed to make sure students had a boundary for how deep they can go. Once they got got used to their boundaries I actually got to enjoy myself and had a great time. This place knocked me out. I was exhausted and still a little jet lagged. Sadly, we had another 30 minute bus ride to the camp.
Camp had the welcoming facade of a prison which is pretty common for Japanese schools actually. When we got there we set up the kids beds and went outside to play. Then we went straight to dinner, to campfire, to bed. It was like clock work with no rest in between.
5am I get woken up by giggling students who were bright eyed and bushy tailed ready for the day. I was supposed to wake everyone up at 6:30. I still had not gotten a full nights sleep since being back from America. Of course, I spend the next 90 minutes getting the kids to stay quiet until the others are supposed to wake up. Then, I had to prod 12 boys to get up, get changed, and pack to leave. All but one were pretty good. By the time they were heading to breakfast, he was still sitting mesmerized by his own shadow.
From breakfast, it was time to head out and climb a mountain. Iwate is a beautiful Mountainous area. This prefecture was also pretty severely damaged by the earthquakes. Luckily, we were quite a bit more inland. We got to the mountain and went on a mile hike to get to this mountain that was essentially a ski resort. We get to the mountain and ride ski lifts for about 30 minutes and hike to the top.
It was just beautiful. It was one of those moments where it all felt so unreal that I was teaching here in Japan and enjoying this beautiful view with all these kids. It was a moment, I would have never expected going into college or even up until last summer when I applied...one of those moments that everything just felt so bizarre but so right at the same time.
From the mountain, we heading back to Sendai. By the time I got home, I laid down for a nap at 6PM and woke up the next morning. I was probably about as exhausted as someone that is actually reading through this whole post, jk. Luckily for me, I volunteered to work at 8AM sunday morning to make up for a day I missed. We spent the day setting up for 1st and 2nd grade camp.
Their camp was at Takamori's campus. I spent the next two days helping out with them, shooting squirt guns, playing in the pool, making tie dye, lighting fireworks, etc. That all leads me to today and my thoughtful bosses that gave us a half day so we could get some rest.
We have one full work day and then tomorrow starts a week of summer school. Then, I finally get to relax on the beaches of Thailand and the Philippines. I'll let you know how they compare to the State Park at Muskegon, Michigan.
After a 14 hour flight, I worked my way through Japan. I got into Sendai at 9PM Wednesday exhausted. I had to work at 8am the next day to prepare for summer school. Still Jet lagged, I pretty much slept the rest of the day. The next day we had to be at work at 7 to head to Camp for 3rd and 4th Graders. We took the 4 hour bus ride with the kids to Iwate and had lunch at this pretty sweet park. It had a random Peter Pan theme. Japan always tries to throw in little surprises like that. From there we went to Kenji World (an indoor water park).
I kept telling my kids we were going to Kanji World which is the name for Japanese symbols. I thought it was the funniest thing. I became that guy that says a joke a million times even though no one thinks its funny but me. My kids have learned how to roll their eyes at my horrible jokes pretty well. Anyway, Kenji World was pretty awesome looking, it has a huge wave pool, and several slides for kids to go down. However, as a teacher/adult in charge of small children it was the scariest place I have ever been. The kids were basically let loose with a partner to roam the place. The first thing everyone did was jump in the wave pool. All of a sudden I'm in the deaper water rescuing 3rd graders that don't know how to swim but were pulled out there. I literally was carrying 4 kids that had a shear panic look on their face back to the shallow end of the pool. I had to say, we needed to make sure students had a boundary for how deep they can go. Once they got got used to their boundaries I actually got to enjoy myself and had a great time. This place knocked me out. I was exhausted and still a little jet lagged. Sadly, we had another 30 minute bus ride to the camp.
Camp had the welcoming facade of a prison which is pretty common for Japanese schools actually. When we got there we set up the kids beds and went outside to play. Then we went straight to dinner, to campfire, to bed. It was like clock work with no rest in between.
5am I get woken up by giggling students who were bright eyed and bushy tailed ready for the day. I was supposed to wake everyone up at 6:30. I still had not gotten a full nights sleep since being back from America. Of course, I spend the next 90 minutes getting the kids to stay quiet until the others are supposed to wake up. Then, I had to prod 12 boys to get up, get changed, and pack to leave. All but one were pretty good. By the time they were heading to breakfast, he was still sitting mesmerized by his own shadow.
From breakfast, it was time to head out and climb a mountain. Iwate is a beautiful Mountainous area. This prefecture was also pretty severely damaged by the earthquakes. Luckily, we were quite a bit more inland. We got to the mountain and went on a mile hike to get to this mountain that was essentially a ski resort. We get to the mountain and ride ski lifts for about 30 minutes and hike to the top.
It was just beautiful. It was one of those moments where it all felt so unreal that I was teaching here in Japan and enjoying this beautiful view with all these kids. It was a moment, I would have never expected going into college or even up until last summer when I applied...one of those moments that everything just felt so bizarre but so right at the same time.
From the mountain, we heading back to Sendai. By the time I got home, I laid down for a nap at 6PM and woke up the next morning. I was probably about as exhausted as someone that is actually reading through this whole post, jk. Luckily for me, I volunteered to work at 8AM sunday morning to make up for a day I missed. We spent the day setting up for 1st and 2nd grade camp.
Their camp was at Takamori's campus. I spent the next two days helping out with them, shooting squirt guns, playing in the pool, making tie dye, lighting fireworks, etc. That all leads me to today and my thoughtful bosses that gave us a half day so we could get some rest.
We have one full work day and then tomorrow starts a week of summer school. Then, I finally get to relax on the beaches of Thailand and the Philippines. I'll let you know how they compare to the State Park at Muskegon, Michigan.
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