At this point, all I can say is “Wow!” Very long day. Just finished a little after 10 p.m. local time, or 1 a.m. back home. And given that I woke at 4 a.m. to get to the airport, I’m a little tired. (So you’ll have to forgive any misspellings.)

The first day was absolutely great. Most of it was spent with the entire group, which turns out to be over 1,000 people representing more than fifty countries. Today’s sessions had a lot of practical background information as well as some useful tips. We learned all about the history of the Climate Reality Project. We also had sessions that taught us how to more effectively use social media, and how to interact in discussions with people, especially those who disagree with the perspective of global warming.

One real treat was seeing Kathy Mattea. This two-time Grammy winner was among the first ever trained by Al Gore to give talks on global warming and climate change, and she’s been an activist for many years. She uses her talent for music as an additional tool to get her message across, and treated us to two songs. It turns out she’ll also be entertaining us at tomorrow night’s reception.

After the dinner break, the Climate Reality Project Canada team had its own session so we could meet all of the mentors and learn about some things that are unique for our group. It all ended with a group photo.

Tomorrow is the heart of the event: we get to spend the day with Al Gore himself. I came here expecting that we’d have him for an hour, maybe a bit more, and the rest of the time would be with his staff. But as it turns out, we get him for the whole day. He’ll take us through his slide show in great detail so that we can provide it back home. We’ll see anywhere from 400-600 slides, and we’re told that we’ll get right inside his head as he explains his perspective. We’re also told that he’ll be joined by the Divine Miss M, Bette Midler herself at one point.

It promises to be an amazing day.