At a conference

Today was a water and sewage conference at a fancy hotel.  One week after starting my job, I was sent to represent the Israeli embassy. It was interesting..not only content-wise.

- I was the only non-Asian in a room of 100 people.
- I was the only under 45 in that same room.
- When it was time to take a group photo, they called to the stage only the "distinguished guests". I was pretty sure I wasn't one, so I stayed seated.
- It quickly turned out I was in fact a distinguished guest. For the coffee break, I was sent into the private VIP room where coffee was served to tables, with a side dish of a shrimp dimsum, a spring roll, and a mini sandwich. Awkward coffee break; awkward conversation, weird selection of food for 9am.
- I discovered really interesting things, like the average household in Yangon only gets 8 hours of running water a day (we get 24), and that only 5% have access to the sewage system (that's us).
- Lunch in the VIP table consisted of a 9-course chinese meal which we inhaled in about 40 minutes.
- I normally consider myself pretty comfortable with chopsticks, but not for these nine courses, and not when I'm sitting with ten older, suited, Japanese people. So I couldn't REALLY eat all the courses.
- They finally provided a fork on the ninth course.
- When I reviewed the menu retroactively to check out all the different animals I just ate, it turned out the thing that was my favorite by far was in fact a marinated jellyfish.

Tomorrow - back to the office!