Entertainment
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Kansan
Lawrence has its share of spooky, paranormal and strange phenomena.
SEE PAGE 1B
Apollo 11
the moon landing, arguably the greatest achievement of the United States space program, happened 30 years ago this week.
Wednesday
July 21, 1999
Weekly Edition
Section:
A
Vol. 109 • No.155
SEE PAGE 3A
Online Academy
Ed Meyen, professor of special education, and some assistants are preparing online courses for educators.
SEE PAGE 4A
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Students awarded scholarships for study in Japan
(USPS 650-640)
Exchange program commemorates end of World War II
By Stephanie McCarty Kansan staff writer
Japanese soap operas and other cultural exposures piped Spring Day's, Grain Valley, Mo., junior, desire to travel to the country across the Pacific Ocean.
"My best friend's grandma was Japanese, so everything in her
house from the decorations to the clothing to the TV shows were so unique to me." Day said. "I fell in love with the Japanese culture right away."
The Association of International Education in Japan awarded three KU students
Day: will study at Obirin University near Tokyo.
including Day, $9,000 scholarships to study abroad in Tokyo and Okayama during the 1999 academic year.
Day and Amy Jones, Topeka junior, will use their scholarships to attend Obirin University, located in Machida, a Tokyo suburb. The scholarship covers tuition, room and board, and orientations.
The Office of Study Abroad at KU makes exchange agreements with four universities in Japan to keep the students' costs low and to allow KU and Japanese students to exchange universities for the year.
Cara Snyder, O'Fallon, Mo. junior, will attend one of the country's largest universities, Okayama University.
"I'm so happy I received the scholarship because I wanted to become fluent in Japanese," Jones said. "The language has a totally different system of sounds and writing techniques than what Americans are used to."
Day said that the scholarship was a God-send.
"I wasn't expecting to receive it, because it was so much money," she said. "It is just too good to be true."
The Short-term Student Exchange Promotion Program is part of the "Peace, Friendship and Exchange Initiative" introduced by the Japanese government to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.
The program requires that the scholarship recipients submit a report on their activities for promoting peace and friendship at the end of their study.
Renee Bergene, KU Study Abroad coordinator for the Pacific
Rim Programs, worked closely with each of the recipients during the application process.
"It's my job to advise the students about what classes to take in Japan so that their credits will transfer back to KU," said Bergen.
Jones: will study at Obirun University near Tokyo.
them with their applications, I also help them apply for their housing."
Both Jones and Day will stay with Japanese families.
Snyder will live in a university residence hall.
Day will use the trip to visit friends.
"I'm so excited that I will get to see my friends in Malaysia and Korea when I'm in Japan," Day said. "It is actually cheaper to travel outside of Japan than to travel to places inside of it."
Snyder: will study at Okayama University.
And Day will learn more about the culture that has intrigued her since she met her friend's Japanese grandmother.
"My best friend's grandma was so intriguing," Day said. "I can't wait to be totally surrounded by it all."
"Check with the possibilities," Bergene said. "If you're not interested in Japan, keep in mind that studying anywhere in the world is possible. Students need to realize they can use financial aid to go to study abroad experiences, and there are scholarships available to them."
Bergene said that the Office of Study Abroad offered limited scholarships for different direct exchange programs.
For more information about studying in a foreign country, call the Office of Study Abroad at 864-7801.
An application also can be download from the Web site at www.ukans.edu/~osa.
— Edited by Anjum Aziz
Sunflower kickoff
Gunner Harmon, goalie for the Za Zoo Kipper Bandits, kicks the ball. The Za Zoo Kipper Bandits were among the athletes competing in teamand individual sports this weekend at the Sunflower Games. Additional competitions will occur this weekend in Lawrence and Baldwin. Photo by Jamie Roper/KANSAN
Fishing course hooks many students
Kansan editor
By Matthew Friedrichs
This fish story ain't no lie
And if you don't believe me, ask Lisa John, 'Kansan managing editor, or Phil Huntsinger, associate professor of health, sport and exercise sciences. They were both there.
No, it's not Darby O'Gill and the Little People. It's Ted Decker, Grantville, and another area fisherman (in the background) trying their luck Monday morning at the Bowersock Corm. The only fish biting were buffalo cark, many of whose fins could be seen cutting through the water about 30 feet from the dam. Photo by Lisa John / KANSAN
Ted Decker, a fisherman from Grantville, hooked and landed a University of Kansas class this big (imagine I've got my arms spread wide, and you can see fans in all the seats on the west side of Memorial Stadium between my hands).
OK, OK, so maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but at least 100 students hung on Decker's words and laughed for the duration of his hour-long presentation despite the sharp pain of taking a class on a Saturday morning.
Decker fishes for the big ones. He catches flathead catfish in the Kansas and Missouri rivers.
"That's Walter," Decker said, holding a mounted head and circulating a picture of a 76-pound flathead he pulled from the river. "That's the biggest one I've ever caught."
Decker was the first in a line of fishermen Huntsinger brought to teach Fish Kansas. Huntsinger has taught the class since 1985. Every summer he tries to entertain, teach and maybe catch a few new fans for the sport.
Ted Decker certainly caught our attention.
During his best day fishing in
recent memory, he caught a 70-pound flathead, a 30-pound flathead, a 10-pound carp and two black snakes in his front yard when he got home with the fish.
The self-described river rat's stories writie with life, twisting and turning like the rivers that he practically lives on.
He's paddled his kayak on the Missouri River from Omaha to Kansas City once and from Kansas City to St. Louis three times — by himself.
It's something that nobody else does
"You don't have to stand in line to
do it." Decker said.
dolt, Decker shan.
He makes notes on his Missouri River navigation map, marking agood fishing spots, indicating good camping areas and writing about his conversations with other colorful characters like "Flathead" in Waverley, Mo., and "Hambone" in White Cloud.
He averages 25 to 30 miles a day for the seven to 11 days he's on the river, and his only companions during the last two trips to St. Louis have been cats he picked up for free after reading the classified ads in The Topeka Capital Journal.
"Once you feed a cat, it always
comes back." Decker said.
When he's not kayaking across Missouri, Decker feeds his hunger for fishing by tending lines hanging from branches within a few feet of the bank along the Kansas River.
He baits his large hooks — they're not designed for earthworms because the hooks are almost as big as a worm — by hooking them through the tail of a perch, small carp, bullhead or larger goldfish. Then he drops the hooks in the water before dusk.
He checks them early in the morning to see if he's landed anything worth eating.
Last Saturday, the class struck at Decker's lure like the flatheads and went home with a taste of his fishing style.
When he finished answering questions, Decker pulled out a cooke filled with deep-fried catfish and offered samples of his handiwork.
He began to pack his hooks and lines. Walter, the large fathead mounted on an elm base, would return to its proud place on Decker's bedroom wall.
as we munched on the catfish, Decker swallowed Huntsinger's bait — two slabs of ribs to show gratitude to Decker for giving up a Saturday morning of fishing to talk to a bunch of ants, hung-over college students.
"My wife said, 'Oh good, we can eat ribs tonight. We don't have to eat fish," Decker said.
Edited by Chad Bettes
On the street: the John F. Kennedy, Jr. accident for more JFK Jr. news, see page 6A
"My first reaction was 'oh no, that poor family.' They have had so much tragedy already. There is no comparison to his father's assassination. That was an appalling international tragedy; this is just the loss of a person like you or I."
Mexandra Mason
oited faculty member
I was surprised because that family seems to have a lot of misfortune, especially of that kind."
"I saw it on TV yesterday."
Deron Lee
Tulsa, Oka, graduate student
"I was kind of shocked. Tragedy does seem to surround that family. It is the loss of another national image. It's like coming close to the end of a dynasty."
Seth
Weisblatt
Dallas senior
"I thought maybe he staged it or something to get away from the press. It's just a suspicion that I have."
"It was horrible. It was the loss of the only good Kennedy."
Waneka
McoCoy
Kansas City, Mo., seniof
Ann Tront Leaverworth doctoral student
4