Washington - Conference Opening
Trip Start
Nov 09, 2006
1
5
8
Trip End
Nov 18, 2006
Washington,
District of Columbia,
United States
Monday, November 13, 2006
I went for breakfast first - getting a bit of a taste for their very buttery croissants - before heading down to check the stand was still looking good. I had remembered not to put the gimmicks out until I was there this time - I know what other vendors are like (no offence to other vendors reading this, but you know you are all guilty of gimmick-nabbing)! Stand was looking good so I headed back out - the exhibition didn't start until 5pm so I had the rest of the day to kill.
I had to grovel to the front desk to loan me an umbrella otherwise I would have drowned. Fortunately they had one left, which was one of those almighty great golf umbrellas that could have covered about 6 people. So I took up the whole street on my way to the Metro - conveniently no one else was stupid enough to be out in the downpour so I didn't have to poke anyone in the eye with it. I got on my metro and headed back down to Pentagon City. Where else in the rain than back to the shops? Actually, to be fair, I needed to return something so I wasn't just there to shop more. And I didn't buy much more. I was also interested to find that I left Washington DC and ended up in the state of Virginia for this shopping centre. I might try and head in another direction and go to Maryland on Wednesday to say I have been in 3 states whilst here....
After I left Pentagon City I headed up to the Metro Centre (this is a station, not a large shopping centre in the north of England). There was a very large branch of Macy's here, housed in Heschs - the original department store in Washington. I popped in - well, it would have been rude not to - and made a small purchase. Not much else around here was open with it being a Sunday and all so I thought I would head back to the hotel - after all, I had to get ready.
I stopped to get some lunch on they way back and also something for my feet. I have really never had such sore feet so thought I would get some insoles - you have really never seen such a choice, I counted no less than 37 different types of insoles. It took me almost half an hour to choose the most suitable!! And then I had to get sweeties for work - Chloe, a large selection of Hershey's chocolates are coming your way!
So I got back to the hotel at about 3:30, which left me an hour to sort out my stuff and get dressed. Not that I wasn't already dressed (obviously), rather I meant into something more worklike than jeans and a jumper. Suit on, I headed down to my stand, conveniently located right next to the food! The doors opened at 5pm and the hoards piled in - straight to the food. Fortunately being next to it meant everyone had to see the stand, and a few stopped to talk and pick up leaflets. Mainly, however, they wanted to take the gimmicks. Tsk tsk.
People came to the stall by word of mouth. 'Ooh, X said you had cute post-it notes', 'my friend said you had nice pens', 'can I have one of those coasters people are talking about'. Some people even took some journals. Which was okay, because I only let them have a journal if they gave me their details. Oh, and lots of people entered the competition.
The most common things from our American friends was 'Oh, your'e English, how cuuuute', 'say something, I love the way you talk', and from some Nigerians 'wow, a real English woman, we love the English, you talk so nice and we admire you'. AARRGGHH. If one more American calls me cute I might have to slap them (and this is more often than not from the women!). And don't get me started on Troy, a PhD student from Las Vegas, who thought that because he went to London once we had lots in common and he could talk to me for ages. I wish I could be impolite sometimes!! He left in the end, only to be replaced by some chap from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in London, who wanted to take me to dinner. For goodness sake, do I have a face that says 'I like being chatted up by nutters, please do approach me'????? I was saved in the end by 3 Australian guys who noticed I was looking stressed and came to talk about journals so the nutter left. They then said they didn't want journals but were just saying that to save me - which was nice, so I did agree to go for a drink with them afterwards when I had packed up.
The two hours I was manning the stand for this evening went very quickly (rather like my supply of pens and post-its). I packed up the remaining gimmicks and hid them away ready for tomorrow. I then went around, in true vendor-style, taking everyone elses gimmicks - a rather nifty paper slicer, some pens and post-it notes were all mine!!
I took my stuff back up to my room and went to meet the Aussies in McClellans bar (a nice sports bar in my hotel). We talked travel, Oxford, medicine and why Americans are so strange for a couple of hours before I made my excuses and left. They were actually quite good company, must be that antipodean charm, but it was a Sunday night and I just wasn't up for a long night chatting and drinking (non-alcoholic of course - no more champers for me).
So now I am back in my Lounge, writing this and thinking about the longer day tomorrow. What sort of conference runs until 7pm with sessions until 10pm??? Ergh. At least I am not missing good weather whilst in here!
Hope you are all missing me!!!
