Diary: 10/18/2012 Thu.

One Young World Summit 2012 Day 1

This is the first day of the summit, but for my mistake, I missed the early morning airplane from JFK to Pittsburgh… I left my room around 5am but failed to change the train at at the station near JFK. That made only 20 minutes delay but resulted in the closed check in.

By the way, there was a pigeon inside the JFK airport. Strange…

I had to take an evening plane and only arrived at Pittsburgh Airport 6:30pm. A service staff picked me and another delegate from Grenada, she also missed her plane and took us to the hotel to stay. She, the delegate of Grenada is the only one delegate from her country, and works as a high school teacher. During the drive to the hotel he explained us about Pittsburgh. Compared to NY, there are not so many train lines and they commonly move by cars. The city seemed very safe and in a quiet mood. Most of the shops has been already closed. Buildings of the town around he river and bridges were beautiful.

After checking in the hotel, I could join the opening party at the large bridge. I talked with 4 or 5 delegates and had a good time. Most of them whom I talked today are designers (one is from France, another one is from Taiwanese, and the other one is a country, I didin’t hear the name well though, in Africa). I talked about my project in Ishinomaki that collaborate with product a designer, and they looked feel interested in, thankfully. I do believe a power of design to solve social problems.

Anyway, the main programs of the summit will start tomorrow. I’m really looking forward.

サミット初日…のはずが、早朝の飛行機を逃してしまった…オープニングセレモニーには間に合わず、夜のパーティーだけ参加という一日に。早朝5時過ぎに家を出たんだが、最後の乗り換えポイントで降り損ねてしまって、そのタイムロスのために、受付締切がわずか20分ほど過ぎての到着となってしまった。夕方4時台の飛行機に変更、それまで空港内で過ごすことに。宿題をひとつ済ませて、あとは昼寝をしたり漱石を読んで過ごした。

6時半にピッツバーグに着き、そこからホテルへ車で送ってもらった。街中にある大きな橋でオープニングパーティー。遅れての到着だが、4,5人のグループで一緒に過ごし、自己紹介等々色々話してそれなりに楽しめた。Mailmanに入学したてのオリエンテーションの頃より、初対面同士での挨拶や会話に、あまり物怖じしなくなっていた。重度の人見知りなんだが、ちょっとは進歩かな。


ホテルの部屋はこんなん。広い。ベッドもアメリカサイズ。枕が6つもあるんだが。まぁいいや、ゆっくり身体を休めよう。