Day 1 - Let's Get It On!!!

This is where it all begins...After waiting for nearly 10 months, the day is finally here. Immediately, Day 1 begins with a good news/bad news situation. It is recommended in our paperwork that we get plenty of rest before we go on our trip. When I find out that I'm not flying out of Richmond until Sunday morning, that means only one thing - I am able to go to the Virginia Tech football game on Saturday! To recap, the good news is that I get to go to the game...the bad news is that I will probably be a little tired since my flight LEAVES Richmond at 6:30 a.m. Hey, I can sleep on the plane, right?

So, the Tech game didn't go quite as expected! The Hokies got it handed to them in the first quarter and were not able to recover. At least I don't have to see any of the anti-Virginia Tech people at school for 3 weeks. Perhaps they will have forgotten about this loss by the time I return. On a different note...I have to tell you something about my car trip to VT. My lovely wife let me sleep on the ride there before the game so I could be rested for the drive home. I did get quite a bit of extra sleep but I woke myself up at least 3 times when I SNORTED! I'm not sure when the last time was that I snorted let alone woke myself up because of it. Anyways, I am dedicating this journal to interesting facts that occur and I felt this had to be included...maybe it will have some deeper meaning later on...

I get up at 4:15, hop in the shower, get dressed and I'm ready to head off to the airport by 5:00. I'm nervous and excited - almost like it is my first day of school in 3rd grade. Here a picture before leaving the house.

Looking pretty cool, huh?

I decide to go over a few "international symbols" since my Japanese is so good! Some people may call it charades but I prefer to think that I am reaching out to foreigners in an attempt to communicate. See if you can figure out what I am trying to tell you. I've made these questions multiple choice to help prepare you for the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) Tests. The answer key is at the bottom!

Questions
1	2	3
A) Do you have a wrist? B) What time is it? C) Look at my arm hair! D) I can count to one!	F) Where am I? G) I know what you mean! H) Is it raining? J) I have no idea what is going on!	A) My knees are glued together! B) Check out my new dance! C) Where is the bathroom? D) How about a big kiss?

I'm flying from Richmond to Dulles on a plane that weighs about as much as I do for a 50 minute flight (about 25 minutes in the air). What that really means is that it is entirely too short to get any type of sleep. I did manage to get a short nap on the plane and the good news is that I didn't wake myself or anyone else up by snorting!

Once I got to Washington D.C., I made my way to the gate for the next flight. By the time we boarded the 757, there were about 15 other JFMFers (what we affectionately call the members of this program) at the gate exchanging information. There were a lot of strong personalities in the group with several people proving that they memorized every bit of information in the handbook. Others told everyone about what Japan was going to be like because they heard it from a friend. I just kept my mouth shut except to answer direct questions and create small talk. Besides, it is too early in the morning to really talk a lot...

The flight from Dulles to San Francisco was scheduled to take about 5 hours and 20 minutes. I was a little worried about the length of the flight because I didn't have a lot of room. I did have the pleasure of having a window seat but I had a couple sitting next to me who definitely used up all of their space. Here's some pictures from my seat.

Notice the ample leg room!

Here's the view in front of me!

I did have a great view outside though!

As shown to the right, there were televisions that showed in-flight movies to help pass the time. The first presentation was actually an NBC in-flight show of the updated version of Battlestar Galactica. The nice part was it even included commercials to help prolong the episode. I have to admit, the remake has really made some improvements. For example, the Cylons are no longer metallic robots but really hot women! Nice touch! Nothing like bringing in some pretty women to make a sci-fi program become more realistic. Starbuck and Apollo don't look like they've aged a bit... The first movie...Meryl Streep starring in "A Prarie Home Companion"...Has anyone ever heard of this movie? I can't tell you what happened because I slept through the entire thing. BORING! The second movie was better...X-Men: The Last Stand. I watched it because the flight attendant announced to the entire flight that he was going to start a second movie. Thanks for the wakeup call...I had already seen it but it was enjoyable since I was now awake.

There were in-flight movies. See the televisions? Neither could I...

I did manage to score a blanket and pillow on the flight so at least the metal arm rests were not digging into my thigh. The bad news is that there were not enough blankets to go around on the plane so people complained that they were too cold. That's never a problem for me! The captain felt that he would accommodate the rest of the group and made the plane quite warm...we finally agreed on a happy medium.

There is no such thing as a free meal on the plane any more so I had to make my first purchase of the trip before getting on the flight...$6.70 for a Bacon and Chicken Ranch Wrap and Diet Coke from Subway. I'm thinking of keeping an expense log...we'll see. Oh yeah, I did get a free soda and a great package of 2 Biscoff cookies. The crew even came by later to offer another soda but I didn't consider adding any more fluids in my body for fear of having to lose any valuable seat space. I also had XM Satellite Radio which helped drown out all of the talkers.

We landed, caught a shuttle bus with about 40 JFMFers and arrived at the hotel at 1:30 PST (San Francisco time). Lunch ended at 2:00 so we hurried there and had a nice spread of food - salad, cheeses, deli meats, bread, etc. By 2:00, we had to be in our orientation meetings with the entire group of 200 participants. We were welcomed, cheered, told about the program, and generally got pumped up about the experience we were getting ready to begin. These sessions ended at 6:00 (keep in mind this would be 9:00 our time!) and were released to go upstairs to freshen up, dress professionally, and get back down for a reception and dinner at 7:00. Luckily, I checked into my room during a break in the afternoon. Here's what it looked like...

I do have a roommate for this night from Dumfries, Virginia. Everyone say "Hi" to Mel!

Hi Mel!

I think we are going to be treated VERY well on this trip. Everyone is super friendly and appreciative of education. Apparently, it gets even better once we get to Japan. While I'm not looking forward to the long flight tomorrow, I am ready for the experience. Here are some pictures of the evening....

Thumbs up! International symbol of success!	Getting ready for a toast to Japan.
We sat with our prefecture groups.	Some of the other members in my group.

This journal has turned out to be much longer than anticipated. Don't expect them to be this long...I think our days are going to be much more hectic soon...

Did you figure out the "international symbols"? Hopefully so...If not, I'm in real doggie doo...

Stay tuned for the next installment of "Days of my life".