China!!!

Why - (Olympic convention) 2008 International Convention on Science, Education and Medicine in Sport.
Where - Guangzhou, China.
Duration of trip - July 29 - August 8.
How did I get there? I was invited to the convention as a part of my post graduate studies in Sports Nutrition through the International Olympic Committee.

Day 1 & Day 2 (July 29-30)
Travel day... mom was visiting me for a few days before I left for China, and our flights worked out well because she left less than a couple of hours after I did. A non eventful flight... long, but it wasn't too bad. I read a book (yes, a whole book), watched a couple of movies and got about an hour of sleep. Total flight time = 14.5 hours. Transition time = 7.5. Total travel time = 22 hours. Sleeping time = 1 hour. Ouch.

I got to the Guangzhou airport at around 11:30pm, and met another person who was headed to the convention centre. Arthur is a world renowned anthropomestrist and also happened to give a lecture in the area of Anthropometry for my first sports nutrition course module earlier this year. We figured that by sharing a cab to the convention centre we will minimize the risk of getting ripped off, but we were wrong... we payed 500 yuan, instead of about 100-120. We didn't really know what it should cost and we were too tired to argue... it was a bit of a crazy drive too. Apparently, the organizing committee surrounded the convention centre with fences and placed guards 24/7 all around it within about 500m. Our cab driver was not aware of that, and we stopped, in the middle of the road, for at least an hour while the cab driver tried to figure out how to get us to the actual entrance... by the time we got to the entrance it was after 1pm, but it was still a while before we got to check out our rooms!

We had to go through security procedures that were as strict as airport security before we were led to the accreditation centre for another 2 hours of waiting, and the accreditation was not even completed at that time. I got to my room at 3:30am and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I will post days 2 and 3 tomorrow...:)