DAY 1 YWAM LOS ANGELES
Friday, June 29th, 2007
Greetings from bright and sunny Los Angeles, California! This is Betho reporting about our team’s first couple of days together.
For those of you who came to the airport to send off our team, we give you a big thanks and lots of love. Especially… to those of you who made wonderful signs (Warren and Benry eh heh).
After a tearful departure from our loving families (lol Steven),
we all passed through security easily - with the exception of Enoch who got confined into the inspection area because of his cast. Apparently, they thought that his cast could’ve held a bomb.
Because we reached our gate about 1 1/2 hours before boarding, JenJen pulled out her MacBook and saved us all from boredom with hilarious episodes of The Office.
This TV show also helped pass by half of the 3 hour plane ride for Michael and me since we were privileged with the presence of JenJen who sat between us. Best seats on the plane, as we appropriately put.
Shortly after landing in LA, we were picked up by some YWAM staff and taken directly to In-N-Out as ordered (by us). After settling down with our delicious burgers and freshly-cooked Animal style French fries, In-N-Out became invaded by a mob of red shirts. We soon learned that we’d be rooming with these red-shirted Canadians (from Calgary) at the base and that their team amounted to over 40. As time passed, we felt our team size shrinking by the minute. I suddenly became aware of that fact that we are one of the smallest groups on the entire base. But in all honesty, I like it much better. Yay for team unity!!
On our drive to the YWAM base, Alice, being the wonderful little genius she is, came up with an awesome game that we hope to continue playing throughout this trip. So far, the most creative title we’ve come up with is “The Lose Points Game.” Basically, the title says it all. If someone does something stupid or gets “pwnt,” Judge JenJen decides if that situation deserves a “Lose Point.” JenJen keeps score, and the person with the most points loses. Obviously. So far…
Enticing Emily gained a point for calling Michael sexy.
Poo-Poo Peter gained a point for telling Michael he didn’t need to take off his shoes for the security check point, but soon learned that he had to.
Juicy Jie gained a point for making his own chessboard and playing it on the plane. He gained another point for wearing the “So… What the Crap?” shirt alone.
Squishy Steven gained a point for making his own chessboard and playing it on the plane.
Awesome Alice gained a point for calling Mini Me a “cute little drunk.” And I quote.
Beautiful Betho gained a point for getting owned by our leader Mark on the first day (not really).
Macho Michael gained a point for singing. Yes. Just singing.
Yea, so if you haven’t noticed yet… we got bored to the point where we decided to have fun with a little literary device called alliteration (HAH, I even used alliteration right there). Ominous Oriana, Elegant Enoch, Jen JenJen, and Jigglypuff Josh remain scoreless.
Anyway, enough on that. The base is the same as I remember it from 2 summers ago. The newest thing that I have experienced thus far is showering. Wow. That sucked. Instead of a shower head, there’s a garden hose protruding from the spout on the wall. Also, the water refuses to be warm. It’s either scalding hot or freezing cold. In short, it was one of the worst showers I’ve ever had.
The girls got a room with 6 beds in it, so our space is somewhat cramped. Though sometimes uncomfortable, Connie (serving as a member of the YWAM staff) made us feel at home with a sweet green sign on our door. We decided to make it even more beautiful by adding our individual creative touch. Nighttime was extremely cold. First time I actually climbed into my sleeping bag in awhile. I guess we better appreciate the coldness before we head out to Thailand. Eek.
So that was the girls’ night. The only thing I’ve heard from the boys about their night is complaints about Steven’s infamous snoring. All I can say is… I’m glad I’m a girl?
Our speaker is a Canadian named Troy. He’s pretty funny and ends up making fun of his own kind a lot (haha, Josh gets 0wned).
This morning, everyone on the campsite participated in a simulation called MA Land. It was designed so that 7 campers formed a family with 3 tasks – find food, find housing, and find income. Each family started out with 200 US dollars and the first action to take was to exchange currency. The catch to this game is that all the staff spoke a “different language” (which we later discovered to be backwards English – ex: closed is desolc/bus is sub/no is on/ you get the picture), and we’re all supposed to be in a foreign country called MA Land figuring out how to function and fulfill our tasks. It was extremely confusing and chaotic, which is the lesson they wanted to teach us. ACC got split into two families. In my group, the Soft family, there was Alice, Peter, Josh, Oriana, Enoch, me, and two other guys from a different church. Our team wasn’t very successful in completing our tasks. However, we did finish with a lot of money in our hands. Steven, Jie, Michael, JenJen, and Emily’s family were able to acquire food, but I’m not sure what else they got done. Anyway, the whole simulation was very interesting and a unique experience. At times, I would stop and think “this is so stupid,” but I’d then realize that things like this may happen in Thailand, and I’ve got to learn to be patient and understanding. Hooray.
In the afternoon, our team got split into two since we’re doing two different dramas. My drama is called “Hearts” and Enoch, Jie, and Emily are in this with me. The other drama is called “The Prodigal Daughter” which includes Alice, Steven, Peter, Michael, JenJen, and Oriana. “Hearts” is very moving and emotional. I hear “The Prodigal Daughter” is also powerful. I’m very excited about performing our skits. Yay for drama team training!!!
Please continue to pray for us. Thank you for all your support and love! We wouldn’t be here without you guys. Also, huge praise to God for being continually faithful and awesome! There’s much more to come, so be sure to keep reading! Enjoy the pictures as well. J
God bless,
Bethany “Betho” Tsui
