Global Studies

This was the day I got to actually enjoy the beds of the Marriot. I awoke late Saturday morning, and everyone had gone ahead with their plans. The Security Council was with ECOSOC and others. The Security Council had to deal with a simulated crisis involving Chad, Nigeria and Sudan. However, one half of NATO was resting comfortable in bed.

I ended up meeting a fellow delegate, Maria where we ran into one of the delegates from Lynchburg College. We went to a great Mexican restaurant near the hotel, did some touristy shopping, and stopped by Washington Square Park where an open market was set up nearby. We also watched a man juggle torches, and then we headed back.

The roomies and I went out to dinner, went out to the village, did not find anything worthy there, came back to the hotel and hung out with the delegates from Lynchburg.

At seven p.m., a friend and I decided to walk to Central Park and a secret was revealed: New York actually does sleep. Times Square was EMPTY. It was very much like the beginning scene of Vanilla Sky.

Central Park however was full of squirrels, morning joggers, and cyclists.

After coming back to the hotel and sleeping for an hour, four girls rushed around the hotel, attempting to pack and meet the bus downstairs at 9:45.

It was a bus full of zombies, with everyone’s excited chatter dying down within the first hour as they fell asleep. The ride back was as uneventful as the ride to NYC. We were all tired, but satisfied.

Friday was the last day of sessions for most committees, and NATO was among those lucky ones. We finished our first topic and passed all resolutions on that topic.

We moved onto our next topic. By then, everyone started lagging, and everyone was so excited about the end finally being near that it made it hard to concentrate.

After lunch, we came in slightly refreshed and ready to listen.

Well almost.

Every committee had a keynote speaker that came in to talk to us. Our keynote speaker was about the private sector rebuilding other countries. I have to admit it wasn’t the most interesting of topics, but I managed to keep awake…with some help from my committee partner.

The day ended at 5:30 p.m. and because I am definitely being smited, it ended with rain. Actually it was raining before, but it started pouring as soon as we got out of sessions.

We decided in lieu of going out to order Chinese food.

When four girls finished getting ready, it was pretty late, and no one knew where to go, so the night consisted of walking around Times Square in different directions every time someone changed their mind.

At the end of the night we ended up hanging out in the hall with some Canadians who cursed French-Canada and actually did say words like “aboot” and “soory.”

This day is nicknamed Meltdown Thursday. We were in session from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. and we were allowed two breaks during the day, lunch and dinner. People were desperately trying to type up their resolutions and get them passed.

Tensions were running high during the conference.

In one committee, Brazil was being attacked from all sides by notes. He stood up and said, “Can I make a motion to get people to stop passing me notes saying my policies are B—–!!” According to Kelly and Natasha, he was quite angry and shaking.

In the General Assembly, one delegate from Greece remarked that Albania was attempting to rule the European Union. I offered to show Albania a lesson, but by that time I had to return to session.

There was a constant surge of people in Starbucks, because apparently overpriced coffee is needed to get you through Meltdown Thursday.

At 11 p.m., Meltdown Thursday was officially over, but we had to trudge up to the 18th floor for a delegate meeting. That is when the elevators conveniently decided to stop working, so Catriona and I had to take the escalators to the eighth floor and go up 10 flights of stairs that were hot and smelled like thousands of delegates who had been in session all day.

It did not smell good.

When we finally reached the 18th floor, we collapsed in our head delegate’s room. Even 10 flights of stairs did not mar our plans. And the stairs could not keep us from going out. We were determined to head back to our room and get ready for the night.

Wednesday we were forced to get up early to go to the Greek Permanent Mission where we met one of the assistants to the ambassador. The session was surprisingly engaging and informative, and I did not find myself zoning out at all.

I have to admit our go-to man was quite attractive, save for the unibrow. In my thoughts about inter and intra state conflict, I also started thinking about how easy it would be to get a wax and a strip and….

After the mission briefing, we headed back to Times Square as sessions were due to start in about two hours. Maria and I ended up walking away from Times Square and ended up grabbing a huge slice of pizza at a local pizzeria.

We then had to go into sessions.

Caitriona and I did not have much of a problem with our committee, but our delegation in the Security Council, Ashley and Morgan, ran into some trouble with their committee. Their committee was populated by mostly cocky, unfriendly delegates. However, they did some strategizing, and there was talk of taking down a delegate from China. I heard the end result worked out well. I guess we really did win the Cold War.

This day we actually did work. We started drafting resolutions, and the horror of caucusing actually started to sneak in. Caucusing is quite possibly the worst thing in the world. Some people decide to actually get down to work and save the world, while the other half would rather talk as much as they can to seem smart.

While you can come up with creative solutions, some delegates would rather just write bloated resolutions. As a member of Florentina’s committee said “It’s all diplomacy.”

Opening ceremonies did not start until 5 p.m., so delegates were free to explore New York City until then.

We decided to head over to Canal Street and do some shopping. We indulged in some tacky tourist shopping, and we were pelted with calls of “I will give you good discount!”

After Canal Street we stopped off at a Mexican restaurant near the subway station. The Mexican restaurant was great.

After some more exploring, we headed over to the UN and partook in a common New York pastime: waiting in lines. Upon entering the UN we were seated in the general assembly, and there was not a seat untaken.

When the opening ceremonies ended, and we were released, we headed over to Little Italy for dinner. A group of women in business suits walking down Little Italy was not unnoticeable. Restaurateurs called out to us and one even started singing. We eventually settled on one restaurant where the food was amazing.

We then hopped on the subway back to the hotel for committee sessions and to meet those who sat on our committees. For a five-star hotel, the Marriot represented the definition of hell. On each floor there were twenty-five elevators and you would key the floor you wanted to go to and find out which elevator you would take. However, this proved to be a nightmare, because every few seconds the elevator you had to take would change. Now imagine hundreds of delegates attempting to go the three floors the sessions were held, and you can see what kind of horror we were dealt.

It was a hodgepodge mix of colleges; people from Italy representing France, Switzerland representing Slovenia, and if anything, it was interesting. The delegate from Canada was particularly interesting, we had actually thought his name was Louise rather than Louis, however I believe Louise would have fit him just as well.

The session was spent agreeing on speaker’s time and the order of the agenda topics. Strangely it took about three hours to agree on for how long someone would speak as well as the order of the topics.

After sessions ended, we were too exhausted to go out.

The delegation from Greece woke up early Monday morning to catch the bus. We were sharing a bus with Lynchburg College who represented Sierra Leone.

Everyone trudged onto the bus and found their seats, many falling asleep within the first hour. Near the afternoon someone decided to take a step into ultimate cheesiness.

One of the delegates from Lynchburg College whipped out his acoustic guitar and started a sing along with some R-MWC delegates. I felt like they were going to bust into Kumbaya at any minute.

A failed attempt to get the DVD player on the bus to work, and couple of hours later, we arrived in New York City around 6 p.m.

After waiting forever for the elevators, waiting to be checked in, and waiting for Morgan to come out of the bathroom, we were finally able to go to what would be our home for the next week.

After a meeting in our head delegate’s room, we all split up for dinner. A good portion of us went to an Indian restaurant, Taj Mahal, while some went out for European food and such.

I ended up going back to the hotel early since I had a cold, which is proof that I am being smited. Getting sick in New York is not the way to go.

R-MWC students attended the 2006 National Model United Nations Conference (www.nmun.org) in New York City, April 10-15, 2006. Delegate Amenah Alsrogy ‘09, kept a journal of the group’s experiences.