One Month Later

Dear readers - well, those of you that still exist - I am sincerely sorry for abandoning you.

That being said, I have officially been in Okinawa, Japan for over a month! Time has been flying by.

I am posting now from the School Age Care center on Camp McTureous, where I've been working. I have a half an hour break before I get back to the kids. Soon I'll resume playing mancala, doing arts and crafts, reading, drawing, playing flag football and octopus tag. My time at the center is absolutely exhausing but amazing.

I'm "Miss Lily" to the kids here. All seven of us have camp names - flower themed. Lilac, Daisy, Sunflower, Honeysuckle and Poppy are my coworkers and Mr. Snapdragon is our director. I'm the leader of Group 2 and please forgive me but I have to brag about my kids. They're not only hilarious but incredibly talented and strong little people. All eight of them have memorized our awesome Group 2 handshake and are the best at standing in a straight and quiet line.

I lose my voice at blitz every day where we all meet in the morning with our 30-50 kids (depending on the day) and sing camp songs at the tops of our lungs. The kids will join in when they like and watch our dances and hand gestures until they've memorized them too. Sometimes the campers know the songs better than the counselors, but hey, you can't blame us. It is 8:30 a.m. when we're doing this.

Okinawa on the weekends has been unbelieveable as well. Last Saturday we took an MCCS tour called the "Battle Sites Tour." It took us around the southern part of the island to key museums, battle fields and caves that played major parts in the fight for this tiny island during WWII.

We took a beach trip on Sunday and enjoyed some of the first actual waves we've seen all summer. The ocean is very calm here from what I've seen so far. It's also breathtakingly crystal clear and turquoise along the beaches. Where the white sand meets the tropical jungle on the beach that we visited Sunday there are hermit crabs in every kind of shell imagineable. They scamper around when you get close, but they're harmless and you can pick them up and watch them tumble off your fingers onto the sand inches below.

I'm about as tan as I'll ever be from the sun over here. The sky is always beautiful, whether it's blazing hot or in the middle of a typhoon. I've seen some of the best sunsets.

Well, break's over. Hopefully I'll write again soon. Until then, I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!

OKINAWA!

Hello all! Guess who's in Okinawa, Japan.

First impressions? It's gorgeous. It's hot and extremely humid - we're all sweating buckets just by standing outside. The accommodations make Lassen Hall on the Chico State campus look like a five-star Hilton. All Camp Adventure participants (not just Chico State trainees) are incredible people.

I woke up at 6:30 a.m. June 11 and hurriedly packed my one giant bag and two carry-ons. The trip to the airport went well, I said goodbye to my mom and got through security without a hitch. Then I stumbled along until I saw gate 77 and the 15-20 Camp A people clumped together with piles of luggage. That's when I got really excited.

I spent the next 10 minutes being very hyper, singing Taylor Swift and generally being happy that I wasn't the only camp person there. I even met two girls going to McT with me!

Then the flight. They loaded us onto the biggest plane I've ever flown on - and I've flown on quite a few planes. Motorcycles are to normal planes as minivans are to the Boeing 777 we were on.

Tessa, my airplane buddy who had the middle seat next to my window seat, fell asleep immediately. But who could blame her? Some of the people I met up with at the airport had been flying since 6 in the morning! What would be my first flight would be their fourth.

By only the second hour of our 11 1/2-hour flight I resorted to watching the Justin Bieber movie on in-demand and - gasp! - I teared up. It was actually good! Turns out he has quite an incredible story and is pretty darn talented as well. I think about 3 other girls on the flight watched it and had the exact same reaction.

I got so bored as hour four rolled around that I started writing notes to myself about nothing on my iPod. My Nook was a savior! I'm reading the Hunger Games trilogy. It's great.

We touched down in Tokyo eventually, and then rushed to make our connecting flight to Naha, Okinawa. Every single person in our forty-something group was exhausted, excited and hot.

I had the best view as we landed in Naha at almost 9 p.m. The city rose up next to me, illuminated in the pitch black against the ocean, sharply ascending tall and bright from the shoreline. It was so colorful! The lights twinkled in turquoise, yellow, pink and white. I never imagined the island would be this big or exciting.

We stumbled off the plane and piled onto a large bus, still tired but feeling the nearness of showers and bed.

The dorms are, well, dorms. My roommate and I have an amazing view of American Village and the ocean past some buildings. It, like Naha, lights up beautifully at night.

I have to go now, we start orientation today, but pictures will (hopefully) be on Facebook soon! Click here to see my profile. And comment and ask questions - I write for you.

夏を楽しむ!

An Introduction

Hello friends and family, coworkers, professors, neighbors, classmates and maybe even random internet surfers - my name is Lauren Beaven, if you didn't know that already.

I'm 20 years old and this summer I'm leaving for what's bound to be one of the most fun, hectic, insane, life-changing, eye-opening internships that's ever existed. I'll be working with children of military families who live on a base called Camp McTureous in Okinawa, Japan.

I will be a Camp Adventure summer day camp counselor.

You may have listened to me gush about the program all of Spring semester at California State University, Chico. But if by some fortunate chance you didn't, well, you're in luck, because you'll get to hear about it now for the very first time!

Chico's forty-something Camp Adventure trainees for the program this summer went through A LOT together. We swam - or rather, froze - through hail storms getting our lifeguard certifications, made giant cardboard shoes (shout-out to Yellow Group!), brought the life of the party to a Camp A conference in Sacramento, learned more songs, crafts and high/low active games than we ever thought humanly possible and, most importantly, came out of training as what I'm sure are some of the best camp counselors I will ever see.

I don't think I've ever met such an awesome group of people. There aren't many college students who can pull off the Camp A uniform like we do.

Now we're headed off to, or already at, our summer destinations. I know one of my friends is already in Hawaii and loving it. I leave for Japan tomorrow.

I'm excited and nervous and in utter disbelief all at the same time. I barely begun packing (it's so much more fun to blog) and my room is a MESS! Luckily I'll only have two bags of belongings in my military dorm room, so there won't be too much opportunity for disorganization.

Well, I'll be keeping you updated, so look for new posts! Comment and ask questions. Tell me what you want to hear about my travels and my work - I write for you.

夏を楽しむ!