I have one more month of rigorous training before the World Memory Championships (WMCs). There are still a few uncertainties about the competition (which is quite nerve-wracking). It was moved last minute to Guangzhou a few weeks ago and the people hosting the events are extremely hard to communicate with. Here's a sample of my email back and forth with the guy who's supposed to be in charge of booking hotels for all of the international competitors: ME: Hi there, I'm registered for the 2011 World Memory Championships in Guangzhou. I'll be coming from the USA and need accommodations. Can you help?
THEM: Hi: may i help you ?
ME: Hi yes, I was told to contact you to book a hotel room in Guangzhou for the World Memory Championships. Can you help me with this?
THEM: I will give you the imformation of the hotel to you .
ME: Um okay.....When?
THEM: NO REPLY
Looks promising....Anyways, there are a lot of rumors and concerns that the competition will be scrapped or changed again at the last minute. Oh yeah, and the $92,000 worth of prize money has suddenly vanished too. No prize money is going to be offered, which is totally fine, but not when we were promised a bunch of it before hand. There is even talk about the top memorizers not even going to the competition as a kind of boycott. If that ends up happening, I'm down to join in. We competitors just don't feel very protected.
Whatevs. I'm still training bloody hard. It would be a waste if I didn't go....all this time spent training for nothing? No way. I'm still on for China....I'll probably get my plane ticket this or next week. But it's still a bit scary to know that I might get to China and then get royally screwed.
As for other news....the Alzheimer's walk in Coral Gables last Saturday went swimmingly well. Over 3000 people showed up and I think about $150,000 was raised. AWESOME! Thanks to everyone who remembered all the words I listed during my introductory talk!
There's another Alzheimer's walk this weekend in Hollywood, FL - so if you're interested, come walk! I'll be there! So will an ABC camera crew who's filming a story about me and my yes, you guessed it.....memory.
Cheers!