THE WELCOMING PARTY

*OUTLINE: Met Irina, Olga Sh., Olga Zh, Girls from Belarus, Vlad, Anton, Khanim, Nigar, Vafa, Narmina, Guliar, Wileyda, Alexey, Oxana, Ning Er, Yua Yang, Guan Le....
*DIARY:

The first day of iEARN 2002 Conference had arrived. I now can hardly rememberthat morning, where did we go, what did we see. However, there is something Iwould not forget: the atmosphere. The lobby was filled with excitement. Peopleappeared with iEARN badge made the usually-busy lobby even busier. Unlike theother days, Cosmos Hotel today was obviously preparing for something.

A tallish Russian boy passed by Grace and me. Grace could hardly take hereyes off him. She then hope eagerly to meet the delegates of iEARN whole daylong. Right above the counter in lobby hang a big poster says "Welcome iEARNfamily". I could not understand why the word "family" were used, but then Iunderstand it in the following days.

Somehow, a Latin-American-look girl recognize us as iEARN delegates, walkedup to us and greet. She introduced herself to us, and told us the schedule ofthe day. Wileyda, the girl, is from USA, and is the coordinator of YouthSummit. She is staying in another hotel Turist, about 20 minutes walk fromCosmos. She is indeed a out-going girl. I look forward to see her again.

We went on a tour after meeting Wileyda. Around 4:00 PM we were back to HotelCosmos, ready for iEARN registration. For unknown reason, the registrationwas delayed. We were told to sit there and wait. While waiting, a crowd of fivedark-haired girls entered the room. They were told to wait, too. They saw us,and had a short discussion, as if hesitate whether should come up and say helloor not. Finally, the most beautiful girl, looks like their leader, walked to meand Sylvia, said "Nice to meet you. We are from Azerbaijan." We started talkingand knew they all are 15 years old, and just arrived Moscow an hour ago. Duringthe registration, I got to know another Azerbaijan girl named Khanim. Her namewas very special since the "Kh" must be a throat sound. It took me a while tolearn to pronounce it correctly.

Few hours after registration was the welcoming party. It began with theRussian Folk group "Russia Bell" and a short introduce of SEED project. Sittingin front of us were a Russian guy with long blonde hair. Later on, peoplestarted to get to know each others. I met the Azerbaijan girls again. Khanimwas more than pleased to see me. She dragged me to meet other delegates. Wefirst met a few kids from Belarus, and then a group of people from Moscow. Thatwas how I met Irina Arhipova and Olga Shelkunova.

Olga Shelkunova, also known as Olya, said she love sport. She jogs 10 km aday. Irina Arhipova, Ira in short, prefers swimming on the other hand. Olyalove watching gymnastics, so do I. We had a little chat and then someone tookphoto of us. The blonde guy with long hair were sitting nearly by, told us heis Alexey Saveliev. Then a big group of girls in suits came. One of them, lookslike leader, was Oxana Anohina. The other girl, who kept smiling all the time,was Olga Zharova. They were from Moscow, too. But their school was different toOlya and Ira. Then I met Anton and Vladislav Kunkin, also from Ira's school.

I bumped into Tracy and Grace near the entrance. They were talking with twoBelorussian girls. One named Grunya, the other name Natalia. They were justabout to dinner. We too talked a little bit, then headed for dinner.

After dinner, the welcoming party was ended. Alexey were still hanging aroundin the lobby. Again, had a short conversation, and he left. The first nightcame to a close. I went back to my room and had a rest.