[Picture are coming soon]
Tuesday was an amazing day as we all were treated to a dinner catered by Wolfgang Puck at the aquarium and desert at the World of Coca Cola. The dinner was amongst whales and sharks in an elegant dining hall, but the best to come was to be found at the World of Coca Cola. After getting my picture taken with the polar bear, I headed for the tasting room where there was about 6 stations each with around 10-15 drinks Coca Cola makes from around the world. Needless to say, I had to try every single one. I did shots by quickly going across each soda fountain and 20 minutes later my stomach was more than full.
While that was a great end to the night, judging was tomorrow morning. It was definitely more laid back than I thought it would be. The judges were extremely interested and nice, asking fair and not mind-numbingly hard questions. Things became intense though in the third session when I had an unscheduled interview with two grand award judges for the last 20 minutes or so. They kept asking questions one after another and knew what they were talking about. In fact, one of them had worked with leeches, my model animal for study, and was meticulously analyzing my work. It became more of an academic discussion though, which proved enjoyable and their questions about my procedure provided me with many ideas on how to improve.
After judging was the student mixer. Food was served on trays and so everyone had to chases the waiters down to eat. It was hilarious because throughout the entire night you would see a big mob of people chasing after a waiter with such delicacies as scrumptious chicken wings or mini hamburgers. After a couple of hours of watching lame dancing in this brightly lit atrium, I and a few others headed to the Hard Rock where we didn't order much, inadvertently angering the waiter who obviously desired a large tip. After eating my apple cobbler, we headed to the Omni and sat around talking until we felt dreariness from the past few long nights overcome us. We concluded that the hotel wouldn't be pleased with a bunch of geeks passed out in their lounge so we called it a night and crashed in our rooms.
Right now I have to head to the exhibition hall as public viewing starts at 10 am. Today will be an interesting day.
Tuesday was an amazing day as we all were treated to a dinner catered by Wolfgang Puck at the aquarium and desert at the World of Coca Cola. The dinner was amongst whales and sharks in an elegant dining hall, but the best to come was to be found at the World of Coca Cola. After getting my picture taken with the polar bear, I headed for the tasting room where there was about 6 stations each with around 10-15 drinks Coca Cola makes from around the world. Needless to say, I had to try every single one. I did shots by quickly going across each soda fountain and 20 minutes later my stomach was more than full.
While that was a great end to the night, judging was tomorrow morning. It was definitely more laid back than I thought it would be. The judges were extremely interested and nice, asking fair and not mind-numbingly hard questions. Things became intense though in the third session when I had an unscheduled interview with two grand award judges for the last 20 minutes or so. They kept asking questions one after another and knew what they were talking about. In fact, one of them had worked with leeches, my model animal for study, and was meticulously analyzing my work. It became more of an academic discussion though, which proved enjoyable and their questions about my procedure provided me with many ideas on how to improve.
After judging was the student mixer. Food was served on trays and so everyone had to chases the waiters down to eat. It was hilarious because throughout the entire night you would see a big mob of people chasing after a waiter with such delicacies as scrumptious chicken wings or mini hamburgers. After a couple of hours of watching lame dancing in this brightly lit atrium, I and a few others headed to the Hard Rock where we didn't order much, inadvertently angering the waiter who obviously desired a large tip. After eating my apple cobbler, we headed to the Omni and sat around talking until we felt dreariness from the past few long nights overcome us. We concluded that the hotel wouldn't be pleased with a bunch of geeks passed out in their lounge so we called it a night and crashed in our rooms.
Right now I have to head to the exhibition hall as public viewing starts at 10 am. Today will be an interesting day.
Paul
May 15, 2008 at 6:31 PM
Anonymous
May 20, 2008 at 10:41 PM