WEEK ONE: DONE!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! Week One is OVER! Oh man, I am so glad this week is finally done! Though, truth be told...I would be lying if I said I wouldn't miss the kids--actually, I already do...

So let me give you a quick update:
Yesterday we went on our first field trip, and it was to Children's Land. Children's Land is a huge park located just outside of Tokyo with tons of HUGE play structures, a crazy-bicycle speedway, a pedal-powered roller coaster, a pony ride, a petting zoo (with the CUTEST cows EVER), farm fresh ice cream and MUCH more! We all had a blast--but the kids were EXHAUSTED from all of the walking (I was pretty pooped too!). My favourite part was the pedal-powered roller coaster, I have never been on anything like it and it was SO much fun (the kids were furiously pedalling, so cute). To and From Children's Land we watched the movie Like Mike (since it is Sports week)...and I have to say I got choked up at the end (the kids were RELENTLESS with their teasing).
Today was the last day. While we were doing our rotating activities, our little A**** got his hand slammed in the door by his buddy when they were coming back from the bathroom. His screaming broke my heart--poor little guy. He was a champ though: he came back and played for a little while before his mom came to get him. I saw both him and his brother A*** at dinner tonight, they said they'll be at camp in two weeks (I can't wait!). As a group activity we had a race to see who could make the longest Olympic ring chain. When we put all the individual strands together we had 229 rings total! It was a great way to kill an hour (yes, we spent an hour making and counting chains--AMAZING :) ).
At the end of the day we had our first ever Camp A Presents, which is a show that we put on for the parents. Since a lot of these kids have parents involved in Business, not a ton of parents showed up and some of the kids were really upset. Nevertheless, the kids sang Summer's Here and Camp A Rocks PERFECTLY, and they had TONS of fun Chuggying their parents (Chugi Chugi is a cute dance we do, which involves some poking of audience members at the end--very funny). Britt and I performed the 'Spit Around the World' skit which was a big crowd-pleaser. The parents all joined us for closing--we sang and signed Lean on Me and sang and danced the Alleluia song.
We had a few tearful goodbyes today--a lot of kids were trying to convince their parents to let them stay at Camp for more weeks (I feel bad for them--I wish they could come back too!) As soon as the last kids left it was DOWN with the Sports week posters and UP with the Fairytale/Fantasy week posters. It is AMAZING how fast one can tear down an entire weeks-worth of painting...I was a little sad to see things go. For Fantasy week I painted an awesome turret, a HUGE dragon with disproportionately small feet, a frog prince, a magic wand (with magic), a bubbling cauldron/pot of gold (it is hard to tell which it is) and a UNICORN (which everyone thought was going to be a donkey...). I can't wait for Fantasy week to start...but having a short vacation from Camp is great (though I still have to finish my programming for Week 3: Barnyard Bonanza!).
Tomorrow Brittney and I are going to Kamakura to see the giant Buddha, meet up with some Camp friends and take in some of the history. We're thinking about staying in Yokohama and going there on Sunday (though honestly there is still a lot to be done with the camp room...)...I'll be sure to post more pictures soon (maybe even later tonight!)--thanks for reading (send me more emails!).

P.S. I didn't mention in my last post (I think) but I found a place to exchange money! With the fees and the conversion rate I lost about $20 off of $220...which seems like a lot. At least I have yen now :/