First Conference Day

We just barely had time to grab lunch and change before the opening ceremonies today.  The resort is pretty sizeable, including the dining room.  They had a huge buffet set up with a large variety of food choices.  They were easily able to feed several hundred people in a very short time.  

dessert bar:  baklava, rice pudding, mousse, cake, tarts...

Salad bar:  They have a real way with food presentation here!

Breakfast pastries

Opening ceremonies were unremarkable.  They put a lot of effort into some video montages with upbeat music.  They thanked every single member of the staff by name, and welcomed the delegates. Then it was time for the first "coffee break" - every day in the schedule has 2 coffee breaks during which time pastries and coffee are put out and all the committees break at the same time.

The first committee session was a little rough.  The rules are quite a bit different from what our delegates are used to and the staff seemed to feel the need to exert a lot of authority early on.  Our delegates took it in stride and remained patient and attentive to the simulation.  The Pakistani delegates were very assertive and loud in their formal speechmaking and reminded my students of some other delegates they had met at the St. Louis conference.  I created a faux pas by passing a note to one of my students to meet the group for dinner.  One of the staff pounced on the note and seized it, then called me out of order and told me not to do that ever again.  I faced him down and he delivered it himself after reading it.  Apparently faculty are strictly observers at the conference and not allowed to interact with their students all.  Since the note was not substantive I guess Mr Rules decided it was ok, but I didn't try to pass any more notes and made myself scarce during committee session after that. 

It rained pretty steadily all afternoon and throughout the night.  Most of our group walked out to the beachfront after the evening committee session to watch the lightening storm over the ocean.  It was pretty spectacular and the surf was really pounding.  We strolled past the pools which were beautifully lit, but were NOT heated.  Any swimming that we do will be indoors (if there are indoor pools, we haven't found them yet).  The weather forcast calls for rain all week.  If it stays like this, I"m going to be very cooped up and bored.