We went to Disneyland with the Jr High yesterday - it was CRAZY... Three weeks ago one of the kids came to youth group and said she was going to Disney on Nov 11th. She asked if we could go somewhere like that sometime, I think our chaplain heard and said "The youth is going on that trip too!" and the insanity started. This was announced 3 weeks before the trip. Parental consent forms weren't passed out until 2 weeks before, gathered half of them 1 weeks before, the other half one DAY before. Youth leaders didn't know when we were leaving, where we were meeting for the bus, who was going on the trip - if people on the waiting list were going to get on or not... All because we didn't have a big part in planning. It was a chapel sponsored event so the chaplains quickly took care of everything and we were left in a haze. As youth leaders we learned a lot and know how things could be handled differently on the next trip. We're discussing a ski/snow board/ sledding trip to Mt Fuji or something in February now. Call us crazy!
So back to Disney... It rained the whole day, and Mike and I were watching 8 pre-teens together. There were 16 junior high kids going and 4 youth leaders so we spilt into 4 groups of 4 (easy) but then MIke and I's groups just stayed together the whole time...
Disney was fun in the rain, but it would have been more fun had it been good weather. I only saw Gepetto (from Pinochio). And I didn't get a picture because the kids wanted to get to Space Mountain. =( Wendy and I created a photo scavenger hunt for the kids and I'm REALLY glad we did too. About 8 hours into the day we had walked around the rainy park and were looking for things to do. We were at the park for 12 hours!!!!
At the end of the day, the girls wanted to go shopping, so I took the girls and we went to the plaza, chose a store and split up. That was the second biggest mistake of the day. After some time went by, I finally found all 4 girls and we went to the clothing store across the street. I didn't know that the Clothing store was connected to the Accessory Store, which was connected to the Knick-Knack store, which was connected to the candy store... So, they all split up and went into different stores. BIG MISTAKE. I was doing good checking on each of them, knowing where they were in the clothing store, but then one by one they slipped away into no-where.
I found 3 of the 4 girls and sent them to the big Christmas tree where other people and leaders from our group were waiting - but I couldn't find Sara. For 15 mins myself, Mike, a few other jr high kids and one or two senior high kids looked for Sara (dressed in a brown leopard print minnie mouse hat, plaid coat, purple and black leopard skinny jeans, and black chucks). You'd think with that crazy of an outfit she'd be easy to pick out, but Japanese people dress like that all the time and there were leopard minnie mouse hats all over. She eventually walked over to the Christmas tree where a group of us were waiting and I suddenly had several emotions rushing through my head all at once (among them being relief, and rage). She apparently didn't realize she had to stay in the clothing store and had gone all through the plaza looking for some cute accessories. All I could think about was how patient and kind my youth leaders had been in the past... How hard that must have been!
It was definitely a day spent with Jr Highers. We passed the Winnie the Pooh souvenier shop and one of them said "Wanna go to the Poo Corner?!" WHY would disney name a shop Pooh's Corner? It's just asking for trouble. For the next hour, "did you see poo on a stick?" "Did you see poo in a cup?" "have you tried this poo candy" "YES, it's my favorite kind!"
Needless to say - I didn't eat very healthy. They had 5 flavors of popcorn in the park. Honey, Chocolate, Salted, CURRY, and Caramel. Disney Sea has strawberry popcorn, I was sad Disneyland wasn't good enough for 6 flavors. We tried them all except Chocolate. Some of the kids had been to Disney many times before and said that Chocolate popcorn was gross. =( I heard it was good! We had LOADS of popcorn, a few churros, pizza, and french fries.
oh - let me tell you about Japanese pizza. It's something else. They had the normal "Sausage and Mushroom" but that was it as far as recognizable pizza. They had chicken and veggie - but it was chicken with corn, onions, peppers, mushrooms, and other stuffs. You just don't expect to see corn on a pizza. They also had Red Snow Crab pizza - I had that and while I thought it was OK, it was still weird to have crab meat on pizza. Just not right! I had Green Dumplings with my pizza - thought I'd take a change and see if they were any good. Apparently green dumplings are a dessert. I got 3, one was filled with chocolate pudding, one vanilla pudding, one strawberry pudding. The green part that held it together was a dense jello type thing... Interesting, that's for sure!
Overall, it was a good trip. Everyone had white wrinkly nasty feet from walking around in the rain for 12 hours - I was VERY happy I wore my rubber boots. My feet and jeans were dry and I could enjoy splashing in puddles with no problem. =)
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