Day -4

We're now just a few days away from the start of International Congress - delegates are beginning to arrive for pre-stay, and the team delivering the conference arrived two days ago to begin working with us.

The feeling of excitement and urgency has been becoming gradually more intense over the past couple of weeks, and we're now at a point whereby even though there's lots of work to do, and final preparations to put in place, everyone is just willing the conference to start in earnest. Over the past couple of weeks everyone has been working hard, playing hard and trying to relax and prepare mentally for the next two weeks!

The ER team took a trip into Sao Paulo last weekend, ostensibly to view the venue of the conference (which is incredible - very comfortable), but also to let off some steam and enjoy Sao Paulo a little! After surviving a traffic jam which turned a 50 minute journey into a 5hr crawl along the motorway together, we finally arrived at a friend from the CC's flat, and got ready to go out for the evening. I went to my first churrascaria, a Brazilian favourite where you pay a fixed price (usually around £8) for unlimited barbeque, before going to a huge club to meet up with more friends and enjoy the atmosphere.

Now we're working on making the most of our time, and enjoying the conference - it's surreal to think about how quickly the time's gone past since we arrived, and to know that in just two weeks from now it will all be over...

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

check it out for an awesome video on where our stuff comes from - about 20 mins long.

And....something my mum sent me today! Some amazing photos of our Olympian athletes here;

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Naked-Ambition-British-Olympic-medal-hopes-Phillips-Idowu-Gregor-Tait-and-Rebecca-Romero/Media-Gallery/200808115065813?lpos=Home_2&lid=GALLERY_15065813_Naked%2BAmbition%253A%2BBritish%2BOlympic%2Bmedal%2Bhopes%2BPhillips%2BIdowu%252C%2BGregor%2BTait%2Band%2BRebecca%2BRomero

The photographer also has some really cool stuff on his website, have a look here;

http://www.nadavkander.com/

The end of an era...

So, today was the last day in the office for the MC 07-08. Feels very strange not to be there to share it with them - oddly enough it feels even stranger now than it did when I left 4 weeks ago, which felt very surreal. It feels absolutely bizzare to think that if I were to phone the office tomorrow I'd hear a different voice to one of the 9 that I've had for the past year. At the same time as being sad now it also feels complete - full circle. I know that I'll always have this feeling of nostalgia for the year 07-08 I have now, simply because of everything I learned, and more than that the people I got to share it with who in some way every day managed to make the experience for me. I feel incredibly privileged to have had the opportunity to work with so many talented, passionate people, and I'm really looking forward to being able to sit with them in the years coming down the line, and see what we all achieve and where our experiences take us.

Back in Brazil, we spent the whole day today meeting with every single other team to make sure we're all on the same page regarding what we're doing, and how things are going to work. It's been intense and everyone feels quite spaced out now, but it was incredibly useful - it felt as if it came at just the right time, and everyone is now so much more switched on and clued in on what they're doing, just from taking the time to have a structured chat. Everything's gradually stepping up a notch, but it's cool to see that most of the team is stepping up with it - the guys I'm working with are hugely motivated - very good at what they do, very switched on and most importantly nobody takes themselves too seriously and we all have good fun with each other. We noticed today in the meetings that the majority of the time we can now tell what the others are thinking, because we've discussed everything in so much detail that all it takes is a look to know we're thinking exactly the same thing at the same time - I guess it's because the experience and work is so intense, but being so connected makes it worth it 100%.

I'm still trying to upload pictures, but it really slows down the internet here, and stops people working so may have to leave it until my trips into SP next week.