6:30 AM - Felt like a million dollars when I woke up this morning - man those pills worked. I still feel a bit sleepy even, and slept for almost 11 hours!
7:30 AM - Went down and had a very nice breakfast this morning at the buffet. All items were the same as yesterday, but very good. Not big on the pancakes, however - they just taste weird here. Like I mentioned before, they are like English muffin texture, but flat as a pancake.
8:00 AM - After breakfast, came back to work on my blog - so far behind because I've been so tired and so busy with the Congress. It's really not too nice outside - looking very grey again this morning and a bit windy when you open the window.
10:00 AM - Just heading to the Congress centre for the day, and there's something still digging into my left foot in my boot. I hate this outfit and don't want to wear it ever again if I can help it - but a nice trip somewhere I've never been might convince me...haha.
12:30 PM - Another busy day at the Congress, and we barely even had time with the boxed lunch today, which I didn't like nearly as much as yesterday (and I didn't really like that either). I couldn't eat half of it (see picture left, click for larger). Today we had a pita-type sandwich, cut in half and wrapped in plastic, again chicken - but that was actually better today than yesterday. There was a cheese stick thing that was combined with alternating bran muffin - sounds weird, but actually tasted really good. There was another of those cream cheese hoagie things, and I didn't even open it yesterday but tried it today. Yuck. It had some tomato, etc. mixed in with it - I suppose something for the vegetarians, but honestly, I'd switch to meat if that's all I had to eat. There was also for dessert a bunch of what I think is semi-dried apricots (honestly, I have no idea what it was, but I ate only one and spit it out). The big highlight was dessert - today a lemon-cream mousse cupcake with a lemon-mint coin stuck in it. I actually wanted to get a second one but didn't have time.4:30 PM - Ugh, the afternoon is just dragging. Yesterday they put a food table close to our booth to generate more traffic - people were ticked off after Sunday's disastrous attendance at the non-profit booths, where our Transplantation Society booth is located. Today, they didn't put the food table in the same place - and there's hardly anyone coming by the booth now. ESOT is doing a trade for booths with us (they get a free one in Vancouver), but their location was terrible, and if I get my way, they are getting exactly the same dismal location in Vancouver.
Regardless, we still consider it a big success so far. Even though we lost an entire day with the bears sitting in customs, there were 16 boxes were delivered, and we have already given away 11 boxes - that's something like 1,500 bears. I was told that 3,000 bears were sent to us, but the math doesn't make sense - there are only 144 bears in each box, so more like 2,300 came.
There were times again today that people were just a blur of hands in my face. I hate to say this, but the worst offenders were an unnamed Asian delegation. One guy came by three times today asking for some for his "kids", and took several each time, hitting on a different person each time. I noticed every time. Finally, on the 4th time, I half-jokingly (but he could tell I was irritated) asked if he was running an orphanage. Never saw him again. I honestly think some of them are going to be on eBay tonight.
Another doctor from the same area came and grabbed at least 15 pens - perhaps their trip to Paris was so expensive they couldn't afford to buy from Office Depot? Having done four Congresses now, it never ceases to amaze me what some doctors will do when they see free stuff, and there is one particular country that is worse than others. They come in packs of 8-10 people and they all want 2 to 3 bears. I finally started refusing more than one, and then they would take them from our display stand on the way by anyway. Grrrr.
The doctors weren't the only culprits. A French lady from another exhibitor booth (a small little company that only sells products in Europe) took at least 1/2 dozen bears, and then came by several times after to get some for her "colleagues" (apparently, though I noticed some of her colleagues came asking for themselves, and there was only 3 people in her booth). I caught on to the game, and today she wanted another set because she "gave most of them away". I had to ask her, in all seriousness, how many people she had working at her booth, because even Novartis and Roche didn't ask for that many bears, and they are multi-billion dollar companies.
She actually had the guts to practically demand that I open boxes just to give her one to complete her "collection" (for the second time) - and I less-than-politely said no. Poor thing can't be totally blamed, she apparently mistook my friendliness for being a push-over. I think she went into shock - I'm pretty sure that's a word she doesn't hear very often. Since I doubt we'd be seeing her company in Vancouver anyway, so "don't let the door hit your butt on the way out, honey".
I don't get rattled at a Congress booth. I'm wearing a police uniform for Heaven's sake, I have to act the part...haha. Some guys would ask for 3 or 4, I'd hand out 1 or 2 and just move on to the next person. They could stand there 5 minutes, I wasn't going to acknowledge their continued requests. These things are worth almost $4 each!
6:45 PM - got back to my room, changed and tried to connect to Internet. Nothing. Paid for it this morning for 24 hours, and it won't connect. I couldn't even get my laptop to connect to the wireless in the room, which is free. Called the Business Centre and they sent up a technician who smelled bad and didn't seem to understand me, but in the end got it all sorted out anyway somehow. He just called a few people to reset the system. Was able to reconnect - but was charged again for it!
I called Business Services back and explained what happened, and they just didn't get it. They promised a manager would call me back to assist.
7:50 PM - A manager was supposed to call me to talk about this in 10 minutes - it's now been 50. I decided I'd waited long enough, so got my jacket out to go out for supper, and went up to the front desk. I told a very nice young lady about the situation, and she understood right away. She immediately credited me, no questions asked. I'm sorry I don't care what Americans think - customer service in Paris is amazing so far. And you only need barebones French to get buy, with most of the important phrases to be found ... by watching Sesame Street. I admit, it's fun to speak a bit of French and realize it means something to the listener, unlike all those years of French classes in my Alberta high school that never got used.
The logic seemed to escape the technician that you can't possibly have two 24-hour charges on your bill - on the same day. 15€ is pretty pricey for the Internet, though I think it's pretty mandatory - the wireless is horribly slow and you can't even have 2
web pages going at once, whereas the high speed is well - medium high speed compared to home, but in fairness I pay for the fastest possible at home. It's much better than my hospital Internet though! It takes forever to do this blog on the wireless because I have to upload all the pictures one by one after editing them.As I got outside, I decided I wanted to head to an Italian place I saw on Grand Armée yesterday morning, when I discovered the Arc, called Il Naturale. Menu looked decently priced and the place was cute. The rain has stopped (I think it must have gone all day) and as
the sun started to go down, the area just looked so cute, I had to snap a few shots of the restaurants in the area (see picture above, click for larger) just across the street from the main entrance to the Palais des Congres,on a side street that connects to Grand Armée where you see these buildings - the opposite end of my hotel entrance) and the Palais des Congress itself (see picture right, click for larger).
No comments:
Post a Comment