6:45 AM - woke up easily to TV alarm, not tired at all. I opened the window in my room (it opens enough to get a little fresh air in) and it's really chilly outside this morning for sure, but they said it was going to be clear and sunny. Lots of pinks in the sky as the sun rose behind the Eiffel Tower, so snapped a picture (see picture right, click for larger). Got a few emails from my Mom and responded back. I wasn't sure if they were able to see my blog or not at the lake, so glad they were able to follow along.
7:15 AM - Went to the first floor Arc en Ciel (Arch in the Sky) restaurant buffet area for my daily breakfast. It's become pretty routine - I walk up to the same girl at a front counter outside the food area, with a security guard standing nearby. She asks for my room number and checks me off a list. I grab a free copy of the Guardian newspaper every morning, and head in.
However, I discover new things every breakfast - today there was a 4th juice besides orange, apple, grapefruit but couldn't quite figure out what it is - apricot maybe? Tried it and still couldn't tell, but really good though. Also, there was a jam table with many kinds, and a cereal table too!
We are waking up to learn that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who seemed so angry about the Libyan bomber going free from Scotland recently, was in fact possibly involved in the release, even if indirectly. He told his Justice Minister he didn't want the mass murderer to "pass away in a Scottish jail" in the first place. People in the UK are furious with him, and we learned later today that in fact, the Scottish government lost a vote related to the release, but it fell just short of a confidence vote (i.e. no election will be called - yet). This seems to be much bigger news here than it was in Canada when I was leaving there.
Also, Russian Prime Minister Putin, who I have always thought is pure evil in disguise, made comments in Poland yesterday comparing Stalin's pact with Hitler to Roosevelt's with Churchill. Considering he made it in Poland, at the 70th anniversary of the German invasion of that country, that took either real guts or he's totally insane. I go for the latter. Russia is trying to repaint Stalin as a good man, and in fact one of his grandchildren is suing newspapers and publishers for printing that Stalin ordered his own people killed (we know, however, that 25 million Russians died at the hands of Stalin's orders). Putin, as I've said to people for years, is one to watch - I think he's the next Hitler.
BBC says it is supposed to be 19C and cloudy today.
8:00 AM - started right at 8:00 at the Congress, and it was really quiet. This is the last morning and many delegates may already have gone back home - Dr. Keown left yesterday. Got the idea to walk around a bit and hand out bears closer to where the coffee breaks are held, as ESOT has once again refused to serve food by our booths.
I gave away 4 boxes of bears - more than 500 - in less than 90 minutes! They were coming to me, I didn't even have to go to them. I think because there were less people, those who didn't notice me before finally did, and I wasn't relegated to the horrible non-profit area that ESOT had created. It was behind an elevator lobby if you can imagine so you couldn't even see it from the main area. The other TTS staff were laughing at me - I was just thronged at times with people all around me. Made the morning go by very quickly. Soon an ESOT rep came up to me and told me to go back to my booth. I told him I'd remember this in Vancouver, and he was shocked to find out I was with the organizing committee. He apologized but it was too late - they have treated the Transplantation Society booth like a third-world country and they will receive very little better in Vancouver if I have any say.
12:00 PM - Crowd died out around 11:30, and the Congress officially closed at noon. The exhibits were supposed to be open until 12:30, but we gave up and closed up shop. We only had to send back 2 boxes of bears (less than 300) out of the 2,300 we had brought, so I considered this a smash success. Helped Frank from TTS carry stuff back to his hotel room, and then that was it!
As we were walking back to the hotel, we walked down a hall and out the window I saw what looked like a modern Canadian skyline in the distance (see picture right, click for larger). I was told by Frank that it's a relatively new financial district being built out of nothing in Paris, called La Defense. 1 million sq. m. of offices and housing facilities are to be expected there, to rival London's City district. I read later that French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to create a 'Grand Paris' to rival New York or London, with a major new transportation system, called 'Arc Express' - 80 miles of new subway linking Paris to the airport, surrounding cities such as Orly, etc., just like Vancouver has done. He expects it done by 2025. The cost? 35 billion euros, or $50 billion US!1:00 PM - got back to the hotel room, changed and packed the Mountie suit for what may be the last time. However, news flash - Dr. Keown mentioned to me yesterday about me going with him to Venice, Italy next month to a pancreas transplant Congress with about 500 delegates (called the IPIXA-ITA Congress). A girl across from me at another booth, Enrica, was the congress organizer for that meeting - she was Italian herself. We got to be friends over the 4 days we worked together as it was 35 hours at the booth, so I got to learn alot about her country and it sounded interesting. When Dr. Keown made his announcement I just about went into shock. Not confirmed, but sounds promising. It's even longer than this one - 5 days (M-F) starting on Thanksgiving Monday. Part of me is sick of traveling and wearing this outfit, and leaving my friends and little kitty back home. Part of me is looking forward to new adventures and curious about Venice, though I admit that's not really been a place I've been dying to go to. Rome, absolutely, but it's hours away.
Going to all these romantic spots alone is a real downer...haha.
1:30 PM - grabbed a quick sandwich at a local restaurant, which was a bit stale, and brought back to the hotel to eat it and plan the day. As I did, I walked down a street called Boulevard Gouvion St-Cyr, which is where the McDonald's that I've been to a few times. Lots of little delis and stores along this street (picture right, click for larger), which is a really dense residential area with lots of condo buildings that all look the same.
Paris streets are just a nightmare to figure out - almost nothing goes in a straight line for very long, and you might have an intersection that goes 7 directions! Even the architecture adapts to these strange roads (see picture below, click for larger). When you look at a map of the city, it looks like a bunch of spiders spun webs everywhere that eventually just interconnected.2:30 PM - After making some travel plans and writing down station names, etc. I started off for my daily adventure. I have an ambitious plan, but we'll see if I can make it happen, as it's already 1/2 through the afternoon.
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