7/29/08

And The Stories Continue

So today, we are heading back to the States. Which means more trains and planes.

What have we been doing the past 2 days? We sat in the longest and most boring general session speaker ever. Really...I dont want to hear about Timbuktoo right now. We are here about the meetings industry and I dont want to get a history lesson about African villages from centuries ago. But we did learn where Dakur is....that is a very important piece of information to bring home with us from Vancouver Canada to the DC area.

And then we were supposed to update the exam blueprint for our industry's credentialing test. Well, the proctor treated us like we were in Grace's preschool class and could not possibly understand how to confirm if a task is still relevant to our daily jobs. She read us instructions 4 times every 10 minutes just to be sure we were clear on the duty. Oh, wait...then she yelled at us into the microphone to be quiet when we were simply following her instructions and talking amongst our tables. Yes, she had a mic for a room with 30 people in it. Awesome.

At 10AM, a snack was brought into the room. If I were to be in charge, brie and goat cheese (while very yummy) are not really appropriate mid-MORNING snacks. Some fruit maybe would have been nice. All you lactose intolerant people...sorry, you had to starve until lunch. Which sucked as well - our spoonful of fried rice was not yummy. My favorite part about the snack experience was when the banquet staff returned to take the leftovers away. A participant was slicing herself a large piece of baked brie that was under a warmer light. While she sliced, the banquet captain unplugged the light and took the silerware away. Right from under this poor starving lactose-intolerant attendee. Very polite.

We skipped a class on international protocol. We saw it action already that day (see note above about cheese). The best session was about laughing through life.....really, it was good.

Last night, we went out to dinner in Vancouver. We "adopted" a first timer and the three of us found a local Italian place that was awesome. I must say the fashion choices by some Vancouver-ites is quite interesting. They even walk around hand in hand singing songs in some unknown language. Fun to walk behind them.

This morning we took a mock exam to qualify new questions for future exam takers. It sucked. Either the test questions are getting simpler and dumber or we are getting really smart. Let's go with the first option. Annoying.

But now, we are sitting in the hotel room once again. Packing our suitcases for more travel across the country and catching up on the news.

And know what? There was an 5.4 magnitude earthquake today at LAX. And guess what? We are going to LAX tomorrow morning. The runway radar is apparently out of service right now. So excited. Great travel ahead.

1 comment:

Bri said...

Seriously? No radar? Remember what I said about someday taking a trip together? How bout I go two days before you?