Sweating bullets, nearly puked - Updated

Wow. Yesterday was the Xmas party for the culture group I chair. I just took over the chairman position at the end of October and had to put the party for our 86 Japanese and American members together from scratch, in less than 6 weeks.

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These are the two groups (out of the 5 that make up the YOSC Culture Club) that I lead. Group B has 8 Japanese members and 4 Americans, Group D has 7 JP members and 3 Americans.
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> This was my first experience organizing an event bigger than my daughter's 13th birthday party, so I was a wreck, but I had a lot of great help and the party was a big success! And......I gave a speech in Japanese!!!!!! It was horrible. I probably told my audience that their feet smelled like corn chips and that their mothers were fat, when I thought I was saying "Thank you all for coming, have a Merry Christmas." But, everyone laughed when they were supposed to, and I got an enthusiastic round of applause and cheers of "Great job!". Although with a Japanese audience, that's probably not saying a whole lot, even if I had insulted their moms, they still would have clapped politely! And none of the Americans had any clue what I was saying.

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The party program

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This is Pacific Trends, our entertainment at the party. They are so great, and they're free, compliments of the U.S. Air Force! They're an ensemble from the USAF Band of the Pacific - Asia. Not only did they perform for free, they also gave us 60 copies of one of the CDs they've recorded to give our guests as gifts. So, so awesome.

Anyway, I'm so glad its over. Our next big group party is a New Year's party hosted by the Japanese side. The only thing I have to do for that one is get a count of how many American members will eat sushi!
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