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June 8th 2002.  The KC JET Q&A.

Well this interesting day started at noon for me.  The Q&A actually started at one but I was having some problems with my Visa application so I decided to go down early and see if anyone else was there who could figure the application out.   I was wrong. I got there and the door was locked and I could see no one inside, even though I knew they where there :).  So I went back down to the guard area for a few minutes until I got bored.  I went back upstairs and low and behold the door was now open.  I was the first to arrive and so everyone thought I would know something when they arrived also.  I didn't and was as confused as them.  Many of the JETS walked threw the metal detector as they arrived and set it off.  This was followed by a look of confusion as what to do.  There where no guards there so eventfully they would just come in and sit down.  This ended up being a big joke as those who had set off the machine before got a big kick out of watching new arrivals set it of also. 

Finally Tracie arrived and cleared up all our confusion.  She showed us where to set and got us ready for the presentations.  She had a full schedule for us and had 3 other speakers.   I was very surprised at how many people showed up.  Many of them had already been to my web page and recognized me. I on the other hand only recognized Lin and Liberty.  I would get a lot of AHHHH SAMURAI BRAD!  I even had this really nice lady give me 10 bucks to help with the web page.  I didn't want to take it but she insisted.  The first speaker was the assistant consulate general. I forget her name at the moment but will update it when I get my information out of the car. I apologize some of these pictures didn't come out very good. :( She seemed very nice and stayed all threw the day.  I enjoyed watching here as the other spoke to see what her reactions where.

Tracie got up and spoke for a while about what was in our little gift bags.  There was the big green CLAIR handbook and we went through a lot of that and finally she gave the floor over to David Albrecht. David works with Tracie in the Consulate offices and he is also assigned to me as my MENTOR.  He lived in Iwate for 3 years I believe and is filling me in on how horrible it is :).  Actually he tried to paint a nice picture but I wasn't buying it. Seems like this is what we or at least I hear a lot... Oh you will love it there, I am so jealous, its so beautiful. OH but there is no plumbing or heating and you will probable starve the first 2 months.  HEHEHE sometimes I feel as if I am being recruited for some strange CULT!  David spoke to us about culture shock, or at least I think that's what it was about.  We all enjoyed his talk and his animation.  

After David we had the a talk from Elizabeth Kizzie I believe is her name. If this is wrong someone please email me and I will change it. She spoke to us about what to expect from students and also helped us work up lesson plans.  She also talked about what to wear and so forth.  She seemed very nice.  

Final the talks where over and it was time for the real reason for being here, THE AFTER PARTY.  This was held at McCoys Public house down in Westport.  For those who don't know, Westport is the party/entertainment district of Kansas City. Lots of bars and music.  We all arrived and immediately order "REFRESHMENTS" to help us relaxed from our hard day.
This is a picture of David showing us the blackhand technique of karate.
Here is Tracie telling us all her SUPERJET stories :).

Here are a few JETS pretending not to notice the fat samurai taking pictures.  They don't seem to be doing a very good job of it.  Sorry I forget all your names :( I am really bad at that.

This was a surprise. I forget his name but I guess this was the guy who had Tracie's job sometime before she did.  He gave us a lot of matter of fact info about Japan and was really cool to talk to.  If you notice the girl in the back, she went to the same college that Tracie went to.... HMMMMM!

This is just a group getting ready to munch some decent food at McCoy's.  I wont even try to say all their names.

Fun was had by all and I left about 10:00.  I wanted to get home and call Melanie who doesn't like the word GIRLFRIEND so I wont use it.  When I got home I discovered I had received mail from Iwate-Ken and was very excited to open it to find out where I was going.  It had some good info in it but was mostly a letter saying "Sorry, we still don't know where you going but glad to have you"  oh well I guess I will find out at some point.  

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