Wow. Today was THE longest day EVER. We had a regular case in the morning, followed by a lunch that was far too short (and not all that appetizing), only to move quickly into the second case of the afternoon. Yes, 2 cases. All day. To make a quick point here, I have to say anything goes in Montreal as it pertains to the fickle thoughts of our judges - our coaches (and ourselves included) thought we took a shellacking in the first case, only to follow up with a strong second appearance, in which we clearly thought we won. Interestingly enough, we won the first case 6-5 against Asper (Canada). . . ? We lost the second case 7-4 against the team from Pakistan, where apparently, the judges favor offering bribes to obtain the cooperation of the local government. Touche.
I'm getting a little ahead of myself here, but we had a lovely "networking" session in the headquarters of RBC - literally, the top floor of this building was built around the expansive board room. I'll be honest - sitting at the board room table, I threw down the "You're fired," expression (Donald Trump style), and it felt pretty good.
After time spent at RBC, we joined the German team of Patterborn, the Newfoundland team, and my personal arch-nemesis Pat and his team of awkward South Carolinians for dinner at a fondue place somewhere in the bowels of Montreal. We had a very nice evening, followed by a VERY interesting cab ride back to the hotel. I will leave some of the more colorful comments that were exchanged out for this evening, as I don't want to offend.
Also, I would be remiss if I didn't note the incredible contributions by our alternate, Fred - he has been tirelessly scouting out the competition, as well as fueling our caffeine addictions with coffee, Diet Coke, and chocolate covered espresso beans. As a logistics person in general, all of the above are delivered precisely at the right time when our team may be engaging in more "spirited" discussions, and just in time for a much needed break.
The live case takes place tomorrow, so I'll let you know who our featured guest is.
Best wishes for our Mother Mary for a speedy recovery - she wasn't feeling well this evening - and we certainly missed her kind words of wisdom.
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