Final Recap - Ready to go home.
Listening to: Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony (in German)
I've only been slightly following the opening ceremonies. When I saw the People's Republic of China come out to wave at the crowd, I thought, "That's a crap ton of people... wait a second. Those aren't all competitors! Some of those people are 1,000 years old! Did all the Chinese ask their relatives to come and walk down the aisle?" Then I noticed many other countries doing the same. When your country is small and doesn't have a lot of people attending/competing in the Olympics, it feels like being one of the unpopular kids during high school graduation. They say your name and no one is there to clap.
I just saw Sweden come out and they're wearing Ikea colors. The hilarity knows no bounds.
I've packed my bags and I'm pretty much ready to go back to California. I hate this feeling of being unable to sleep for more than a few hours at a time. I'm still sick. I have a cough. I bit my inner cheek, it's swollen, and now I can't stop biting it (on accident), making eating a horrible experience. I have a canker sore too. Salted meats (which is about 92% of what I've eaten here) don't help. One of my colleague's flight was delayed 12+ hours to get into Hamburg as well. The other colleague of mine had a massive headache the first night in. Overall, it's been quite an undertaking. It's definitely felt like work, with a side order of punishment thrown in for good measure.
There's three people from Taiwan walking down the aisle. They have less people than Tajikstan. I have no idea where... oh, good. They did a 3D global view of where Tajikstan is.
We had our presentation today as well. Having a cough during the presentation was definitely something that interfered with my talking. That and my unholy fear of public speaking and performance. I learned that at a conference like this, getting anyone to actually loosen up is near impossible and any attempts at jokes is the equivalent of rolling around in your own waste--a bad idea. Overall I think I did average, nervous and all, but it was my first talk in front of business type people and I feel I can only move up from here. That's the hope anyway.
What are all these blue ponchos people are wearing? Are they fleece blankets with holes in them? It reminds me of the Roots hats they had at the previous winter Olympics. No one will ever wear them again. Hey, Canada just came out. Talk about playing the crowd. Nelly Furtado is Canadian? She looks so weird/lost without Timbaland floating around her, looking around and scratching his chin.
We had our Mochi developer drinks+dinner meet-up tonight. It was great to hang out with some of the guys that I only know by e-mail and forum posts. We ended up at a restaurant that only had a German menu. I seriously had no idea what any of it said and I was given the shock value and feeling of what it would be like to be illiterate. That is a lesson that is priceless.
THEY'RE SINKING INTO THE SNOW! SOMEONE HELP THEM. NOBODY'S DOING ANYTHING!
See you soon, California!
PS: Dude, a giant polar bear ghost just appeared out of the ground. He's missing a bottle of Coke.
Friday, February 12, 2010 at 6:58PM 
Reader Comments (2)
Most polar bears i know carry Bundaberg rum. Maybe they stole the coke so they could mix it.
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