Water Queen

These last couple of days have been so busy. But good busy. I like good busy.
Monday I went to the beach and swam in salt water for the first time in the Sea of Japan. How exciting. It was so calm it looked like a lake, but the water tasted disgusting. I got severely burnt. I think me and Kaila will be good candidates for skin cancer in 20 years or so.
Then we drove around the Oga Peninsula, which was absolutely beautiful. We got to climb up a lighthouse that was right on the tip of the peninsula. It's kind of a tourist attraction, so you had to pay 150 yen to go up. I pretended to be a tourist and didn't speak any Japanese to the money lady...or the girl at the top we got to take our picture. I'm a horrible person...but it's a pretty fun game. I kinda made us look like idiots though because when we went back down the lighthouse, I started speaking Japanese to the money lady who was closing up for the day. I forgot I was playing the tourist game.
Then we drove up a mountain to the most beautiful lookout I have ever seen. It overlooked the whole peninsula, and there was ocean on three sides. It was one of those places where a photograph just doesn't do God any justice.
Then Tuesday...oh Tuesday. I went to Sendai for a youth retreat. This is how my day started: me waking up to the phone call at 6:00am from the people who were coming to pick me up and take me to the bus station in five minutes; my alarm hadn't woken me up. And I conveniently hadn't packed the night before so I just had to throw a couple things in a bag and go. So I got on the bus and sat there falling asleep peacefully (as peacefully as I could with a horrendously sunburnt back), until I realized I didn't know what to do or where to go when I got to the bus station in Sendai; I had failed to receive a few important details like that. Four hours later I got to this city whose sidewalks are wider than the two lane streets in the town I'm used to (not unlike going from Rosetown to Calgary) and was completely lost. I phoned the Nordaas for help, but it didn't help much, besides learning that apparently I needed to take a train to the right suburb that the seminary is in. Once I got on the seminiary side of the train, I walked around lost, over and over, past the same buildings and down the same streets, trying to find this place hidden in these impossible Japanese roads. Two hours later, with the help of the 6th person I asked, I found the seminary. I was a little grumpy by the time I got there.
But the rest of the retreat was super fun. I played soccer a little, with cones and bare feet (my knee only hurts a little...). We got to play with fireworks (which were, in my opinion, just like glorified birthday cake sparklers, but fun). I was the female MVP of WaterWorld (like an afternoon of water games). I'm not sure I did so much to be amazing, but I was crowned Water Queen or 2006. How prestigious. I got flipflops and a tierra. I also had a fan club (it was only a couple 15 year old girls but still, it's a fan club none the least). One of the girls started crying today when I told her I was going home because I'm pretty sure I'll never see them again. The people there were so amazing; they had so much patience with my pitiful Japanese, and helped me understand things. I am very thankful for them, and I'm glad I got to go and meet all these new people; hanging out with people my age is very refreshing.
So what have I learned these past 4 days? God is definitely teaching me patience right now. These fruits, they're tough to get if you don't go to the right store. But good things Jesus is the manager of that store, and he gives the fruit free of charge, just a little growing pain here and there. But I guess it's worth it in the long run, as long as you get to be a little more like Jesus. And who would expect any less of the most recently crowned Queen of Water?