I came back Monday afternoon and has been sleeping erratically since then. I have also developed a weird craving for meat which I don't understand since I've been eating sausage with poppy seeds every morning at the hotel as part of our buffet breakfast. It's buffet but it's the same food over and over again. Like mushrooms and tomatoes and croissant, etc. I found myself eating a Quarterpounder meal at 2.30am last Tuesday.

From a staff perspective, the WA this year is more organised compared to last year. We were not too stressed out (we had to rapporteur five or more sessions last year), we stayed in a very accessible hotel and we had time to attend plenaries and workshops and even network with guests and participants. There are still glitches but I'd say manageable, it's a lot of work to keep up with hundreds of people from 135 countries. And we had less volunteers this year.

The weather seemed to cooperate too as we didn't experience too much rain, it drizzled a bit but the sun was always up in those 6 days. There were more Filipino delegates and speakers as well and had some time to chat a bit with a lovely and exuberant May-i from GCAP. We had fun being photographed with the former Foreign Affairs minister of Greece, George Papandreou.


It was also great to see my dear friends/colleagues in CSI and see old and new faces in CIV . We had enough time to catch up on what's happening with our lives, the project, and Johannesburg in general. Not all stories are happy though, there are concerns within the team and within the broader organisation just like in any normal organisation but I hope we'll all learn from those experiences and move forward.

It's difficult to sum up in one blog all the things that happened in Glasgow in seven days. It's another unique experience which is definitely worth keeping and reminiscing. What's great for me is that I've learned that my team really appreciates the work that I do and they're very happy with it. I take pride that this is one of the strengths of Filipino professionals and workers abroad: we work hard and we strive for excellence in what we do even under difficult circumstances sometimes.

Oh and lastly, we were given sufficient per diem this year that we spent in too much shopping. Woohoo! Ciao!