Calvin Russell Kensinger

Congratulations Brooke and Jesse! My nephew was finally born, healthy and handsome. Name is still being decided on! I am so anxious to get back home and hold the little guy. Lessons went by pretty fast this week. They were so tiring on all of us especially with the sun. For the most part, most of my kids are well behaved. There are a couple of kids who have horrible adhd, though. It is tough teaching those kids because they literally never listen. After lessons on Friday night the lifeguards I work with and I went out for dinner at Coco’s Curry. I realized quickly I do not like curry. Afterward we walked back to base. On our way back some guy was saying some pretty profane things to us, so my roommate walked up to him and he realized he was a foot shorter than her. Instead of stopping, he decided to throw his fist back and tried to start a fight with her. His buddy pulled him back and then a couple of other guys that were watching started yelling at him for being disrespectful to women. Not too much longer a brawl broke out between 10-12 guys. It was pretty scary, we ran away from it so we did not get involved.
This morning we had to wake up and volunteer at a race on Camp Schwab. We were supposed to lifeguard during the race, but they had too many volunteers, so we watched instead. My boss, Ashley, decided to race in it since we didn’t have to volunteer. She ended up getting first place in the 750m swim. It was pretty neat.
During the day we started our scuba certification and IT WAS AWESOME. It was so cool to sit on the bottom of the pool for 20-30 minutes. Our instructor is amazing, we go over to her house to take quizzes and tests. Our first ocean dive is tomorrow. I am so anxious to start diving in the ocean. I am a little nervous about having a panic attack while I am 35-40 feet under water, so hope for the best!
There is a HUGE softball tournament going on Camp Foster this week and weekend so Camp Adventure decided they were going to make us ALL move out of the barracks. We have to pack up everything, including food, water, clothes…EVERYTHING. It is going to be such a pain in the butt since we all just got settled in. Then after a week they are moving us back on Foster. We will be staying at Camp Kinser while the softball teams are here, so every day we have to commute 40 minutes to work at back…not excited about that. Hope everyone had a good weekend!

First day of lessons

Yesterday was our first day of swimming lessons. I taught 10 lessons today ranging from parent-child swim a and b, pre-school level 1 and 2, and learn to swim level 1. I was so tired at the end of the day. The sun really drains you over here. I was really nervous to teach the parent-child class because I wasn't sure how adults would take instruction from a 21 year-old, but it went very well. All of the parents were very kind and there is some really cute infants and babies in the class. I think I sang "The Wheels on the Bus," 45 times yesterday. A few of the kids were very timid about getting in the water. I had about 4 criers through out the day. The pool is at least 3 feet deep in all areas so it is hard with the pre-school aged classes because they have to go on top of thing called "top docks," which are like a table in the pool. 4 of the kids jumped off of them while I was teaching yesterday and started sinking to the bottom. A little scary.
I have always been known to get a little color through out the summer, but this time I have turned into a different race almost and it has only been day 1 of being out in the sun. The last two days have been black flag days but since the kids are in water, the lessons still continue.

Okuma, Japan

I had an amazing day yesterday. We left Camp Foster at 7:15 and headed to Okuma (another base on Okinawa). Okuma was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life. For the first few hours we had to do team building activities with all 60 of us camp counselors. It was a lot of fun and we did it along side the beautiful ocean. Afterward we went and signed up for some activities to do throughout the day. My roommate Kristine and I signed up for kayaking and banana boating. We first went kayaking. I had never done this before but it was so much fun. We tried going through a really small cave while we were doing it and Kristine's oar fell off of the kayak and she jumped in to get it and the coral reef below us cut up her legs. Then I looked above and around me and there were crabs the size of my head crawling all around me. I HATE crabs so I freaked out. It was not funny at the time, but now whenever I think about it I crack up. The ocean at Okuma was the clearest ocean I have ever seen. After Kayaking we went banana boating. Banana boating is a really long inflatable that gets pulled behind a boat. It can hold anywhere from 8-10 people. We got 10 girls to go with us and we had a blast. It is hard to hold onto the inflatable and you get pulled in all directions. I was towards the front of the banana and my swimsuit bottoms fell down multiple times. I was glad it was all girls in my group! There was so many fun things to do in Okuma, but we did not have time to do all of them yesterday so we are going back to celebrate my friend Austin's birthday in the middle of July. On the drive back there were so many pretty things to see. When we got home we all went off base to get dinner. We went to a restaurant called Dragon. We sat at the tables where you have to sit on the ground to eat. The food was the best Okinawan food I have had so far while being here.

We start out swim lessons tomorrow! Wish me luck!

Yesterday we had a conditioning day for lifeguarding. First they made us swim 500 meters and then we had to do a bunch of drills. Afterward we went over mock lessons and learned different songs we will be singing. After swimming we finished up our lesson plans and relaxed the rest of the night. Today we had an in service day for the pool. It was run by the pool managers and staff. We went through all of the rescues. We then had training over sexual harassment and we had a class over the Japanese culture. We learned how to bow to different people and also learned a little bit of Japanese. My roommate and I then walked to the commissary. We decided to walk home and on our way home a lady stopped and insisted that she drive us back to the barracks. This lady was a marine and so was her husband. She was 6 months pregnant with two children and her husband was currently stationed in Afghanistan. I cannot imagine going through pregnancy, having two children, being employed, and not have my husband around. This lady was so friendly and thanked us for helping families like hers on the island. The people of Okinawa are so friendly. I had asked a lady in the bathroom at Macaroni Grill last week and by the end of the conversation she had given me her number and told me she would love to have me and some of the staff over sometime for dinner or just shopping dates.
Camp Adventure surprised us and bought us a bus for the weekend to go to Ukoma. It is a little resort about 2.5 hours away that has banana boating, jet skis, snorkeling, and kayaking. It is super cheap and should be a lot of fun. It is really nice that Camp A is doing this for us because getting around the island has been really difficult. The public transportation is not widely used and is expensive and none of us have cars to get around. We walk between 3-4 miles every day to get around. The Green Line runs from base to base around the Island, but our base pass does not include all of the bases (unlike previous years) so we cannot ride the green line to many places. Luckily, the base I am stationed on has many things to do right off the base so it has not been much of a problem yet. Tomorrow is our last day of orientation and then we get to start working with the children next Monday. I am so excited to meet the little kiddos and be able to meet a lot of the parents. Next Saturday (if my sister does not go into labor any earlier) I will be an aunt again of my very first nephew! I am so excited for my sister, Jesse, and Peyton. I will be very homesick when the baby comes. It is sad to think I won’t be able to meet my nephew until it is almost 3 months old, but thank god for skype! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Hi everyone!
Sorry I have been very busy the last couple of days. Saturday my friends and I went to the last song and then headed to Gate 2 on Kadena Air Force Base. It was...interesting to say the least. Since we have a strict curfew we were all home by one. On Sunday we all relaxed and spent the day at the beach. We then went to a restaurant near the beach for dinner. The restaurant served American food with a little twist. For dessert they would put a french toast stick (just one) on the side of your plate. There were geckos on the walls and I wanted to throw up a little bit while I was eating. When I went to pay the store clerk I only had my debit card, he told me he would be right back and ran off with my card for 5-10 minutes. I was not sure what he was doing, but I was hoping he was not getting some sweet stuff on ebay. Monday we had a lot of training ranging from mandatory child abuse training to different types of diseases. It was not exciting since I have received most of the training through education at UNI. Today we had our first day in the water. We had to swim a 500 and then we learned a bunch of fun games to play with our kids during lessons. We got to play all of them and we all had a lot of fun. We are allowed to get the classes at the Marine's gym for free so tonight we took a Zumba class. It was one of the most fun things I have done in a long time. The teacher was very energetic and even came up to dance on me at one point in the class. It was a pretty intense workout as well. Hope everyone is having a good week!

This morning started out very early. Me and the other aquatics counselors had to wake up to start registration for swimming lessons. We arrived by 7:00am planning to start at 8:00am, and there were already 50-60 parents there. The first parent that came through the line told us she had gotten there at 3:00am. At the end we had registered 216 parents' children for swim lessons. It was a long morning.
Yesterday we had to stand outside the commissary (grocery store on base) and pass out fliers for the swim lessons. We had to do it for 3 hours and it was pouring. It was not the funnest thing I have ever done to say the least.
Since it rained all day yesterday we all just stayed indoors and worked on our posters for camp, they all turned out really well. We have the rest of the weekend to do whatever we want so we are going to spend the day at the beach.

Last night was my first night out exploring the island. Me and 5 of the other lifeguards on our staff went out for sushi. We went to this very cute restaurant called Genki. All of the menu was in Japanese so when the waitress came I just pointed at something that was cheap on the menu...I ended up getting raw fish. I wanted to cry when she brought my meal to me and sat it in front of me. But I finally grew some and tried one of every type of raw fish that was on my plate. I did not end up liking any of them, but I was still glad I tried. Afterward we walked along the boardwalk near the ocean. It was so beautiful. There were white little crabs scattering across everywhere. The ocean here is clear and you are able to see the bottom. On our way back we stopped into cute shops that had many cute clothes. Since all of the Asians are no bigger than a size 6, it has not been too easy to find clothes or shoes ha.
The base here has very strict rules. We learned a lot of them yesterday. The BAC level for driving here is .03, so you cannot even have a beer and drive. When you walk on base you cannot wear spaghetti straps, old navy flip flops, headbands, or anything that I would usually wear. Everyday at 8:00am and 8:00pm they play the national anthem followed by the Japanese national anthem. Everything on base freezes including cars to stop and salute the flags. It is really cool. Everyday they hang a flag on base indicating the temperature. Yesterday, the flag was black meaning children were not to be outside playing due to the severe temperatures.
Today we started our first lesson plans for swimming lessons. They are very tedious and are going to take all day to do so I better get started. Krisanne pointed out all of my spelling errors so just for the heads up, I am horrible at grammar and spelling. It is a good thing I am going to school for math. Happy Thursday!

Hi everyone!

Today our project coordinators surprised us and allowed us a day off of base. This was our first time off based since we had arrived. We went to a part of Okinawa called American Village. It was filled with many cute stores and boutiques. It was also right along the ocean so we had a beautiful view while we shopped. I found a store that had a fish tank in it and you could pay 5000 yen (5.00) to put your feet in it for 10 minutes and the fish eat all of the dead skin off of your feet. I am determined to do it before I leave, but I could not get the courage to do it today haha. After we returned back on base to the barracks we got ready to meet the parents of the children we will be teaching swim lessons too. There were many parents at the meeting and they all had many questions about how the program was ran. The man who ran the meeting said in the past parents have lined up outside the door for registration as early as 3:00am. The parents were all very friendly and some even brought some of their children. The children that we teach the lessons to are not allowed to know our real names. So my staff and I all picked the theme of cereal and we all came up with different names to be called by. The entire summer I will be Ms. Honey Bunches, which will be weird to get used to.
I am still struggling with jet leg, my roommate and I both woke up at 5:15am this morning, wide awake. I decided to read for a couple of hours. I get very tired around 8:00pm but I am guessing it will just take time to get used to the time change. Tomorrow we have a meeting with the military personal from 7-4 over rules and regulations.

Love,
Nat

Hello from Okinawa!
After about 32 hours of travel yesterday, I finally made it! Okinawa is 14 hours behind the US so I had a lot of trouble sleeping last night, even though I had been up for over 30 hours. I ended up traveling with about 40-50 other Camp Adventure staff, so it made things very easy. We went straight to bed right when we arrived and I woke up to the Star Spangled Banner being played on the base speakers. I guess they play it twice a day and everyone is supposed to stop what they are doing and face a flag. Traffic even stops when it plays. We got our roommates last night and I ended up being paired with a girl from Solon who I have been training with all semester, which was great! I can see the ocean from my bedroom window, from what I can see it looks crystal clear and is very beautiful. They won't let us off the base until we get all of our base access cards, which stinks! We have a lot of training in the next couple of weeks and we won't get to start working with the kids for two more weeks. We are now off to more meetings, have a good week:).

Love,
Nat

Getting ready to leave!!

Hi everybody:)

This summer I will be spending my 2 and a half months in Okinawa, Japan, for an internship, so I thought I would start a blog for my family and friends to follow me. I leave June 5th (tomorrow) for a 12 week program so I will first start by explaining what I will be doing. Last semester, I started training for a program called Camp Adventure. It is normally a 10-12 week day camp that services the military children overseas. We work 35-40 hours a week planning activities and taking them on field trips throughout the summer. I am doing a separate branch of Camp Adventure because I will be doing their aquatics program. I have been working hard getting certified in life guarding, water safety instructor, AED, CPR, and first aid. So everyday I will be teaching swim lessons to children anywhere from 6 months to 12 years of age. All of the children I will be working with will be American so their won't be any language barrier for me. I will be living on the Marine base called Camp Foster, which is one of the bigger ones in Okinawa. There is many other college students from around the US who will be living in the barracks with me and also doing camp. Along with getting an almost all expense paid trip, I will also be receiving 12 semester hours of college credit through the program. This will be the longest I will be away from home which will be very hard for me, especially when my nephew is born in a couple of weeks. I will try to update as much as possible! Please feel free to email me at natalieryther@gmail.com, I would love to hear from you.

Love,
Natalie