2003-04-23|12:07 p.m.
The trip to NYC was fun, although shortened by a scheduling mishap. One of the advisors to the team, who was suffering from some medical problem, took some serious medication before sitting down to order the tickets. Instead of our plane leaving at 7 PM on the day after the competition, it was set for 7 AM.
The trip started by A driving me up to the High Desert to meet with a few other team members. Those team members and I drove up to Las Vegas together where we stayed for the night. Not being a fan of gambling and cigarette smoke (or LV for that matter), I spent only a few hours with my teammates drinking and chatting and I departed back to the room that we all reserved for the night.
Slowly they all came back to join me, with exception to Kevin (who is the only returning member to the team) and Brianna who decided she�d keep up with him. This proved to be a very poor choice. She returned with alcohol poisoning. Her face was a bit swollen and she spent the whole night in the restroom. This continued on to the next day, where Kevin had to carry all her and all her luggage through the airport and onto the plane which then brought us to Los Angeles for an hour or so. Then we got on another plane at LAX and flew to the great state of New York.
After all that flying (and puking, in Brianna�s case), we reached our hotel at about 8 PM Monday. There was little time to do anything, so I joined half of my team in a nearby Irish pub to drink and then went to bed.
The next day the conference started. Since the team was all required to go to the workshops on procedure and resolution/report writing, I joined them despite Dino, our advisor, excusing me from it. After the workshops, I slept a bit, and then the whole thing started. Opening ceremonies were followed by rushing to my committee (Commission for Social Development) room where I started out the competition as a peace keeper between two groups. This proved useful later, when the one grateful delegation, from a notoriously good school at NMUN, came to me at the end of the night and asked me to work with her and some others before the start of the next day of competition. It should also be noted that the agenda we picked (meaning the order of the topics that we chose to cover) began with private sector�s social responsibility, then rights of people with disabilities, and lastly, which we didn�t have time to cover, volunteerism.
So, of course I showed up early and worked with her and her partner. They represented the Russian Federation; so, it wasn�t much of a stretch for the Czech Republic, who I represented, to work with the once not so motherly Motherland. We also worked with Turkey, who is a delegation from CSSB, a school with close ties to VVC who I was with. All of VVC�s advisors have come from CSSB; so, in away, VVC is like the kid-sister to CSSB. And we all began diligently writing up a resolution. By the end of that day we had it ready for approval by our director with kudos, but instead of having it accepted as a draft resolution ready to be voted on, we decided to combine our resolution with the African bloc to win support for our own resolution the next day, which it is so lovingly known as �Melt Down Thursday.� The day starts by going to committee and hour before it starts, which for me was at 9 AM, and then you are there all day until 10:30 with only two breaks in between for lunch and dinner. Last year, it broke me. This year, I can thankfully say I enjoyed every bit of it. We combined papers early that day, quickly had it accepted, and then had time to sneak in conversation unrelated to the conference and do a little work debating about the other working papers hopeful for draft resolution status.
By the last day, we passed our resolution by consensus and managed to amend the parts of the other two resolutions to our liking. Then, the ECOSOC director, who is above our director, came in and asked us if in the last four hours of the competition we could produce another paper and vote it in to show that our committee could get through one more topic. I reconvened with the Russia to meet up with France, Austria, and Denmark to frantically start a new resolution. Within two hours we had one. It was amazing. However, it was also nearing the end of the competition. So, the director, also anxious to please the ECOSOC director, asked to change the process a little to get onto voting more quickly so we could enter voting block and go on past the time of the conference to get our paper in. Instead of making copies for everyone, she would make a few and have us read them in groups. However, thinking he�d prolong the process to get his own working paper in, though not realizing that he didn�t have the time or knew what he was doing, the representative of the United States ended the debate on the subject forcing the body to call for the end of the meeting altogether. It passed in his favor by one vote. At that sad moment, the girl getting us those few copies, in vain, rushed to the front of the room not knowing that we�d never get the chance to vote on our hard work. By the time everyone realized what happened, the whole room blew up in emotion. Even the US was asking if he could withdraw his request. The vote for the adjournment of the conference passed by only one vote, because everyone was so upset it was over and the last four hours had been a waste.
But we all picked ourselves up and said our good byes. It was nice.
So, for most of the week I went to bed right after the committee and I had little time to eat. So, by the end of it, I was ready to spend my last nights (the one following our committee�s end and the last ceremonial day) having fun� which meant going to bars. I even danced a little, thanks to Kevin�s coaxing, with some girls that vaguely resembled a Girls Gone Wild movie. Sadly, I managed to stay clear of the breast licking. I know, I�m no fun.
I also met this nice guy who goes to law school at Harvard. But, much more interesting to me than that, is that he spent time in Afghanistan doing humanitarian work shortly after the war (I guess you can say after, though it really hasn�t stopped). He�s good friends with my advisors and I was lucky enough to chat with him a bit. You know me, discussing politics and such is my Achilles� heel.
So, all in all, the trip was short but enjoyable. I didn�t get to sightsee, which disappointed me greatly, but I did manage to make friends and see old ones again. That, in the long run, is much more meaningful.
I promise to get pictures up soon. I just have to find the cord to my digital camera in all this mess�