16th May 2006

Arrived in Zurich at 7am in the morning and did not have proper sleep on the plane. A really long day, nevertheless looking forward to it. I met other Singaporeans on the plane and surprisingly this year, the Singapore's contingent is the largest (25 out of 200 world participants).

( I am gonna make the next few entries short as I am kinda dozing and the next few days at work will be really busy!)

Well, we had a few hours to kill before the conference began. So we headed to Zurich city for a leisurely walk, stopping in a small cafe and enacting what many tourists did best! Photo taking!

Headed back to the airport and met up with other delegates from the other countries. I was pretty zonked out then and was tired of self-introductions. Thus, stuck with the familiar, a singaporean gal called Meera whom became a good conference buddy.

We were given name tags and lunch packs (mainly comprised of chocolates, nuts and cheese). Chartered buses brought us to the Olma conference centre where we were greeted with cocktails. Hah..saw Michael (whom I met 3 years back from the conference and whom I met a couple of times after in Singapore and Melbourne). It's amazing how our friendship still stands after all this while and how we have grown through the years.

We were divided into groups and was seated. We had talks from UBS (recruiting centre)...telling us how exciting and rewarding it was to work in their organization. The next seminar was on corporate governance. This was somehow more interesting to me. After all, I did a lil consulting relating to coporate govenance recently. We were made to introduce ourselves on the table and then later discussed some minute issues on corporate governance.

The lucrative "sales pitch" did not end. We were each given a toiletries bag and was treated to a sumptuous buffet dinner with wines, a magic show and the performance of a live band. Sat with Michael, Meera, Andreas (a Hungarian I met on the same discussion table) and Elidor (Albanian who attended the conference three years back too).

By the end of the whole day.....absolutely exhausted....I was brought to my host's (Bella and Lina) place at the end of the evening. Realised that I had another roommate (delegate too) from China. Yizhen is studying in New York and is from Beijing. Very sweet gal. I plonked my bags and headed out again! Had to meet Michael and Oender (A turkish friend I met 3 years back durin the conference). Fortunately, I lived right smack in the city. St. Gallen did not change much and I can still remember the "ins" and "outs". Met them at Macs and we headed to the local bar for a drink. It was really really nice to see Oender. Has been frigging three years since I last saw him!!! Amazing. He did not change much. Still as warm and is working in Credit Suisse now. You see, like I emphasized earlier, it's interesting to see how everyone changed over the years. From a student to a successful banker; or a student to a full time honours student and a part-time entrepreneur embarking his business in a high risk country...Love to see passion in people!

Oender had to leave early as he had to work the next day and had to catch the train back to Zurich. I chilled out at Michael's host's place for a while (again, the swiss students were very hospitable) and then headed back to my host's and zzzzzzz....