The past ten days have isolated all of the delegates, groups and journalists at the summit from the rest of the world and forced all of us into a very strange life pattern. The following are some highlights of things that I will miss:

Firstly, I will miss being greeted by name by people I have never met before. No, summiteers are not psychics, but wearing a large color-coded badge around your neck with your name printed on it is a dead giveaway.

I will miss being able to see what is inside my handbag several times per day without ever having to open it. I have grown accustomed to, and maybe even fond of, walking though metal detectors each time I enter or exit a building at the Sandton Convention Center. There is something unusually exciting about being able to locate the keys or sunglasses--that you can usually only find after minutes of fumbling inside your bag--on an x-ray screen.

Press conferences, for the most part, are rarely a thrill, but there are games you can play in them that can make time fly by until the Q&A section begins. One of my favorite press conference pastimes includes counting the number of times the words 'sustainable', 'development', 'partnership' and 'biodiversity' are mentioned by each panelist. To add another dimension to this game, I have occasionally switched channels on my translation headset to hear those same words in French, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish and Russian.

Though I may have grumbled about the lack of free computers in the WSSD media center from time to time, I will actually miss having to squeeze myself clumsily through very narrow rows of computers. Typing furiously away at one of the media center's highly sought-after computers amid a flurry of summit frenzy can take a toll on your mental and physical health. But the camaraderie between journalists from around the world that reveals itself in the media center will definitely be missed.