“Tired, fatigued, wearing, exhausted”--these were the only words that passed thorough my thoughts when I was helping pack gift bags during my first day volunteering. However, when I got back home and was sitting on the couch recalling what I had done on Day One, “incredible, excited, fantastic, and even "très bien" appeared into my eyes.

I got up really early today (May 14, 2008) to attend Women’s Forum Asia as a volunteer, since I wanted to give the staff a good first impression as I represented SILC, Shanghai University. I was a little bit nervous on my way to the Shangri La Hotel, since I couldn’t stop thinking about those outstanding and well-known people I was going to meet and communicate with. My heart beat even faster as soon as I entered the hotel. Nevertheless, I felt smooth when I saw Bruno Vinay, Managing Director, who was in charge. He was really a nice guy, as he kept smiling all the time and treated us as indeed friends. These things really helped us reduce the pressure and devote ourselves to the tasks as soon as possible.

After a short meeting with Bruno and Yaël Smadja, whose company is producing the event. we were told to help pack “Toll Bags”. There was a lot of stuff, like the Women’s Forum Asia White Book, The Women’s Forum Asia 2008 Yearbook, Program and Practical Information, etc., included that would help us bloggers and participants a lot in the next few days. I could tell that everyone was sweating in a small room filled with various kinds of things to be packaged, and I heard the applause outside of the room when they were done. But unfortunate news came that there was one more thing to package when we finished our lunch. Marin, Pegasus and I, who do the blog, went back and redid the bags. As Susan, our teacher, said, “everything is changing every second, and sometimes, we can just play it by ear.” Fortunately, we could always make things happen and work it out. As Bruno said, “We are a small company, but do huge things.”

Thinking about how huge the hotel is, you can tell how huge such a forum is and how hard it is to get everything organized. Therefore, we have to do everything well and perfect every tiny detail. Bruno emphasized what we did today was not intellectual, but I did think it essential and indispensable. I call it “Our Road to Tomorrow”, similar to SILC's slogan of “Your Road To the Future”. We were paving the way to greet participants the next day. Aude Zieseniss De Thuin made things happen, we are making things happen and the participants, especially women, will make things happen!

I missed the Inaugural evening of the Women’s Forum Asia thanks to my hosting a closing ceremony on my campus, but I have to say that Day One left me so many good memories and I am now expecting my challenge after the sun’s rising tomorrow.