Okinawan Sloth

HEY all you!

Last week I went to Okinawa with everyone from IES. Okinawa is the southern-most island of Japan; it's tropical and beautiful and more humid than anywhere I've ever been before. I can't believe I thought summers in DC get bad...
We were there for 4 days, and while IES way over planned activities during the day, I had 3 of the best nights of my life. We got to do some pretty cool stuff during the days though, like glass-blowing, Okinawan-painting, and even playing an Okinawan instrument, the sanshin. So overall I really don't have a single speck of a complaint.
Our hotel was on the beach, but they told us we were not allowed to be on it past 10pm. So what did we do? We walked around a big rock to the next section of beach, about 30 seconds away! It was me and about 10+ guys swimming in our clothes, drinking in the ocean, and basically just being ridiculous. It was pretty funny being the only girl, because a lot of them got way too drunk and decided they could tell me everything from their personal lives. I learned about a lot of people that night! One guy ended up gashing his face open though, and another guy pissed and bled on his futon, and then slept on it. So overall it was..... interesting, to say the least!
The second night got even better. Instead of drinking the overpriced hotel booze, I walked to the nearest convenience shop in the rain with 6 guys, and it ended up being about 40 minutes away. The rain turned into a downpour, so we stopped under and asian-style gazebo type thing. This is the night of the cell phone pictures on facebook, which many of you have probably seen and been very confused by. Well, on this phone you can take pictures of kanji, and it translates them. But we started taking pictures of everything, like our faces, etc. and seeing what it had to say. Basically, it got everything spot on! It told us about truth, beauty, the future, the universe! One guy called the japanese girl he had just broken up with and proposed to her. It was intense. It was the most religious experience I've ever had!
Nothing could top that night, but the 3rd night was definitely up there. Again, the long walk
for alcohol. Again, the gazebo. Erica was with me this night, along with five guys. We had some really great talks, and then.... started making songs. First it was some tapping of the table, some clinking of cans, then it was humming, whistling, then tribal screams and dancing and jumping around, and then someone started rapping about Lee-San, the most amazingly adorable woman who works for IES. It was so much fun that I can't do it justice in a description. Then we went down to the beach, watched a far off lightening storm, drank some more, made some more songs, danced a bit. I ended up stumbling back to the hotel at 5am.
I was ready to never leave.
BUT, the day we flew back it was my friend's birthday, so luggage and all, we decided to go out in Tokyo. We went to an izakaya with a few people, and met up with someone's friend, this Japanese guy who speaks English with a Mexican accent. Everyone headed home except me and the birthday boy, who decided to chill with this guy and meet his friends. Well, I'm so glad I stayed, because I got to smoke in Japan! I don't know if any of you realize how lucky that is... it's incredible! We smoked in a karaoke room in Shinjuku, and then went to a club in Shibuya. It was the perfect ending to my island adventure.
So, I've been a very happy sloth!
I guess many of you are back in the states / heading back soon, but I'm only just beginning to have midterms! Crazy, huh? Well this is way too long, but I miss you all and can't wait to hear about everything you've been doing.
Here's a HUUUUGE HUG!
-Kyra

Shalom!

It’s been a while since I wrote. My family came to visit for 10 days and we traveled all over Spain. The day they left I flew to London and saw Larry and Cheyenne for a few days. London was great but definitely made me spend more money than I have. I arrived in Israel a little over a week ago and it’s been great so far. Eiad moved in with me and I just relax a lot, see friends and go out. Last night I went to a show by this jazz singer (she does more than jazz now, but still got the groove), she went to school with one of my friends but she became famous on TV last year so now she’s becoming a big deal but she’s only our age. It was a really good show. I also have been looking for a job.. it’s actually going relatively well. I found a job for 3 weeks in July (which pays pretty well) to work at a day camp in a nature resort. It’s pretty funny because the resort is actually a place by Jerusalem/ Arab villages where they try to show how things were done in biblical times. It’s nothing religious but they try to maintain things the way they were thousands of years ago and grow trees and plants that grew back then. So since I know nothing about that I have to learn a lot now.. I’ve been reading a lot about pomegranates, figs etc. pretty funny but I think it should be sweet. In the meanwhile I also need to find a job until July and after but so far haven’t found something that I really like. I got a job to work in a hotel in Tel Aviv but I rejected it last minute because they wanted me to do night shifts also. But I’m not too worried, I’m sure I’ll find something sooner or later so in an impulsive move I decided to change my flights back to London and the U.S to August. I’ll only be back in the States on August 18^th! Damn!

That’s about it for now.. please keep updating and tell me what you’re doing/where you’re living for the summer. I miss you all very very much.

Holler back sloths!

Tut