Another Congress successfully completed....

Can you believe this year was my 9th JCI World Congress!  My how time flies. 

Every year when registration slows down I become the complaint and information booth. I don’t know the answers to most of the questions people ask and some of the questions are just plain stupid. One man from Nepal came and waited in line and when it was his turn he said, “I lost my friends.” I just looked at him, not knowing what to say and finally told him that they weren’t with me. Another guy from Syria came to ask me for a program because he lost his. When I told him that I didn’t have any extras he asked if I could just copy the next two days for him. I told him I didn’t have a copier with me.


Communication can also be a problem. There were over 6,000 Japanese registered for Congress and the Japanese Organizing Committee who we have been working with took care of their registrations but there are several Japanese registering on-site, too. There were these three that came up to me and started speaking in Japanese and when I asked them if they wanted to register they gave me a blank look. I said, “do you want to pay with cash or credit card?” They all started bowing and saying, “thank you very much” and walked away. I couldn’t help but laugh. Needless to say, they came back. I have some sign language I’ve developed. I hold up a business card in order to get a name. If they don’t have a business card I point to the paper & hand them a pen to write their name. When they write it in Japanese I say, “English”. It’s even difficult to get them to write first AND last names. Most of the time the words “cash or credit card” are understood--I guess they’re pretty much universal. When the communication gets to the point where there’s a standoff, I have to summon a young girl who comes out to interpret for me.

I’m happy to report that I didn’t need to use my sign so I’ll be saving it for next year. We’ll be in Brussels, Belgium and I’m sure it will come in very handy!

I'm a big girl now

The first day of registration was yesterday and it wasn't too bad.  Luckily, I had Pedro helping me and there weren't all that many on-site registrations.  It did get a little hairy at first because the credit card system wasn't working but Leandro got it fixed and it worked the rest of the day. 

There are always new challenges every year and I have learned to go with the flow and not get too worked up.  I was under the impression that the weather (and I checked weather.com) was supposed to be in the 60's and sunny.  Nay, nay reindeer!  Although I don't know what the temperature was it felt pretty cold because it was very windy.  The registration area is in front of the Grand Cube and although it is covered, it is still outside.  It was like a wind tunnel with very strong gusts.  You should've seen how we had to hold onto everything to keep things from being blown away.  The delegates weren't too happy about having to stand outside either.  Anyway, I made it through and didn't cry but nobody really yelled at me either.  It makes a big difference when there's a man sitting next to you because people treat you differently.

I am on my second day of registration and there are not too many people coming so now I'm the compaint & information booth.  I really don't know answers to many of the questions so I send people along to the "real" information counter inside.  One man came up to me earlier to "give me feedback" about how he was treated yesterday.  Basically, he was calling me a bitch but with a smile.  I didn't really remember him but I discovered that he had a problem with the wire transfer he sent that we hadn't received.  Unfortunately, he came at the very busiest time and I may have been impatient (imagine that) with him.  Anyway, we solved the problem a little later and everything was fine but he felt compelled to come back and give me his "feedback" today.  I apologized and told him that sometimes I get stressed because people harass me.  After he left I looked up his name in our system and discovered that he was from Austria.  Well, when we had our congress in Vienna some years ago, the Austrians were some of the crabbiest, most sour-pussed, unhappy people (sorry Butch!) I had ever met so I say screw him!  And to prove him wrong I'm being extra, amazingly nice to everyone now.

It's not as windy today but it's pretty cold so I have a heater sitting by me.  You'll have to excuse me now because my lips are very chapped from yesterday and my chapstick ran out so I'm having to dip my baby fingernail in it to get anything out.  Until next time.....sayonara!

Hello from Osaka the second largest city in Japan

I am happy to report that after being awake for almost 24 hours to get here, I was able to sleep all the way through the first night. Granted, I didn’t sleep on the planes & I didn’t go to bed until midnight after arriving but still it’s an accomplishment for me to sleep all night upon arrival. I have been able to sleep every night since and am feeling good. Registration hasn’t started yet because the JCI World Congress officially starts tomorrow, Tuesday, Nov 2 but we’ve had several Board meetings & many committee meetings. I found out the other day that registration will take place outside in the courtyard of the Grand Cube Convention Center where the Congress is being held. It is a huge place and the courtyard is equally huge. There was a typhoon warning (but not in Osaka!) for a few days and it was rainy & windy but it has cleared up and the temperature for the rest of the week is supposed to be sunny/partly sunny and in the 60’s so I’m not complaining too much about having to work outside.


The food has been a challenge. A lot of my co-workers love sushi so they’ve been in heaven. I’ve been to MacDonald’s for lunch twice and the Hard Rock Café for dinner once. There was a big Halloween party at the Hard Rock and it was pretty neat to see everyone in costume. There were many unique costumes based on Japanese characters and also a lot of American costumes like Michael Jackson and Mario, Luigi & the princess (who looked like a transvestite). We all were taken out to a Japanese barbecue restaurant where they bring you the raw meat and you cook it at your table. I sat with Edson & two other Japanese which may have been a mistake as they were eating a lot of things raw. They raved over the raw liver which disgusted me! The beef & chicken we grilled was good but I didn’t like the pork which was 80% fat and I wouldn’t even try the intestines. I had it when I was in Japan in 2004 and I didn’t like it then so I refused to try it again. There is a cafeteria in the Cube where we get lunch and several co-workers have gotten the box of sushi which also has octopus testicles, oh, I mean tentacles in it. As Eduardo put it “that looks nasty in many different ways!” I got the egg salad sandwich today which was pretty good. It was crustless white bread layered with egg salad, bread, potato salad with a little wasabi, bread, cheese, bread and ham. Not exactly the way I make an egg salad sandwich but I liked it. Luckily, I got about 8 potato chips today which was more than the three I got yesterday. You should’ve seen me trying to spread those out to last through my sandwich!

Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!

Preparations for Osaka

I will be leaving tomorrow morning for the JCI World Congress in Osaka, Japan.  As you all know from my posts from previous years while working at Congress, I usually cry at one point or another.  Normally it's because of my being emotional from lack of sleep and people getting angry while registering.  This year I'm prepared with a sign:

                      Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.

                      L’ impolitesse est la pretension du force de l’homme faible.

                      La rudeza es la imitación de la fuerza del hombre débil.

I have this printed on cardstock in three of the official JCI languages - English, French & Spanish.  The final official language is Japanese but I decided not to write it in Japanese because they usually aren't mean or rude.  I already have permission from my boss to wave it in front of anyone that yells at me during registration.  I'm determined to be a big girl this year....                      

The Armadillo

After Mom’s funeral the whole family came back to my house.  Some of the kids were playing shuffleboard when they came upstairs to tell us that there were maggots on the table. I told them they were crazy because it wasn’t like we had raw meat down there or anything that maggots would be living on & I blew them off. The next thing I knew Jim came traipsing through the house with the shop vac and by the time I got downstairs to check he had vacuumed them all up. Everyone was freaking out and trying to figure out where they had come from. As I looked around, I spotted the armadillo that Janice had sent to me 2 or 3 years ago. It was a real (dead) armadillo that lay on its back and held a bottle of Lone Star beer to its mouth. When I got it in the mail & opened it up, it scared me. It had wiry hairs on it and it was real ugly. My first reaction was to throw it away but I knew that when Janice came to visit I’d have to produce it so I put it down on the bar. I figured it would be a good conversation piece and it was. I grew to like it.

Anyway, as I was looking around trying to figure out where the maggots came from I remembered that there had been some mysterious dust around the armadillo that I had cleaned up a couple of weeks earlier. As me & the kids looked closer, the kids exclaimed that there were maggots on it! So I got some bags out and pleaded with Morgan to put a bag on each hand, pick the armadillo up & place it in the third bag I was holding. We brought it upstairs and put it in the trashcan in the garage which should’ve been the end of the story. Nay, nay, reindeer. I got the brilliant idea to play a trick on Jim. I asked Morgan & Madison to take the armadillo to the back yard and put it down on Jim’s new path he made in the woods that he’s so proud of. I thought it would be funny for him to find it the next day. I made them promise not to say anything because he needed to find it on his own or the joke wouldn’t work.

Well, it took him a week but he finally saw it. We were under the deck & he was on the ladder getting a few of my wind chimes down for repair when he spotted the armadillo. He didn’t know what it was and started making comments to me about it & I had to turn away so he wouldn’t see me smiling. I ignored him & talked about other things. He kept looking & trying to figure out what it was until he finally walked up to the beginning of the path to get a closer look. He was freaking out thinking it was an animal and he even said he thought it was something growing. Then he realized what it was and started to get mad until I joked that the kids must’ve thrown the armadillo there as a joke. Then he spotted it. A Natural Light beer can right under some flowers at the top of the path. Ronnie! He said there was proof that Ronnie had done the dirty deed!

We went back up to the house just as Angie & Brian were pulling up. Jim told them the story and as they were in on the joke, they went along with accusing Ronnie. Jim proceeded to call Ronnie who denied ever having put the armadillo there and said that I knew all about it. Brian told Jim that Ronnie was just trying to cover his ass by blaming me. Jim called Scott next and ended up getting a good laugh out of it.

Barb said in her blog about Mom, “our family has a great sense of humor and so did she”.  This just goes to show you that even when we are grieving, we never miss the opportunity to play a good joke on someone. Mom would’ve loved it!