A Hello from the past

Way before Kokochi, before I moved to SF to be with Dav, I worked for the International Monetary Fund in Tokyo. It was a small office with about 12 people, half who were hard-core macro-economics folks. I worked there to manage 2 scholarship programs that the I.M.F. ran with funding from the Japanese and Australian governments. The program brought in young government officials from countries transitioning to modern economies, and was established to train these students to help build their countries' economic systems & policies. I have to say, it was the most amazing job. I got my very own office in Tokyo, pretty much ran the program from start to end during the two years I was there, learned a ton about relationships and a little about how governments work, and I got to travel to places like Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Australia, and Niigata (almost did a trip to Cambodia and Myanmar but SARS broke out). I even had a U.N. passport. Most importanly, I got to meet a phenomenal group of hard-working students. Being able to support them and get to know them was inspiring. It was during that time that Dav got me hooked on moblogging. But I never told the students that...and always maintained a professional "IMF-ish" face (as best as I could). I wanted to share more about my personal life with these folks, yet didn't. But yay for blogs and search engines! One of my former students recently found me by chance via Kokochi, and sent me an email. It was a true pleasant surprise from the past, and I'm thrilled. He is currently a Ph.D. student in Prague at the Mathematics and Physics Faculty, Department of Probability and Statistics. Now that makes me proud. From Bobo:

You know today I was looking through web-pages for something (by now I don't remember what was it) and occasionally found out Kokochi. At the first sight I didn't believe that I can see Mie Kennedy. Now I do believe this is you, Ms.Mie.

Thank you , Bobo for reaching out. I look forward to hearing more about your accomplishments. I've been in touch with just a few other former students. I'd love to hear from more...so if any IMF students read this, let me know!