Today was another day full of action as a young journalist at the 4th World Youth Congress in Quebec City. Contrary to the past several days, I was able to mix a little work and play, though. The day began as horrifically early as the rest, me rolling out of bed around 6 :30 a.m. in order to way my way through the motions before the eight a.m. meeting.

We all set to work in the newsroom right away, several of us on tight deadlines in order to participate in the two p.m. tour of le Soleil offices, the largest newspaper in Quebec City. I set to work on multiple pieces, my favourite being an interview with Algerian rapper Solo, who has actually had an attempt made on his life after speaking out on political oppression in his country. If there is anything the congress has done so far, it has definitely made the world smaller and begun the vital process of removing the veils so many of us are wearing.

With today’s theme on women and human rights we are focusing on a paper covering personal stories and human rights issues from cover to cover. One of the young journalists is from Afghanistan and he has written a piece about how the Afghan culture is sadly misrepresented in the media. Socializing with the entire Afghan delegation and seeing them dressed in Western clothes, it’s hard to believe that they are from the very same "war-torn" country that we see portrayed on the news however many days a week.

I also got up the courage to actually spend some time hosting on the radio, and mediated several conversations on "controversial" topics and one on the day’s theme of womens’ rights. It was quite the rush at first and I would have liked to have spent the whole day there had it not been for needing to go to Le Soleil, which was and experience in and of itself. I mean, I work in a newsroom most days but the reality is that a six person operation doesn’t really compare. Other than its sheer size, the visit to the paper was nothing special.

After that it was a mad dash to make the bus, which took us to a waiting boat on the Saint Lawrence river. Smartly dressed people, entertainment and hors d’œuvres complimented the upper deck’s suave party scene although the entire event fell somewhat short of expectations. It was quite fun at one point though, when the bow became a dance party that included, of all things, the Macarena. Later, I was just talking about how it would be fun to get some line dancing going when Cotton Eyed Joe came on. Lets just say there weren’t any Albertans in the crowd.

Watching the sun go from aboard the boat was also quite majestic, the event also allowing for a significant amount of networking.