Motion to Write a New Post.

I don't usually feel inclined to simply narrate the goings-on of my life, but I thought I'd do well to spend the next post relating my experiences at the American Model United Nations Conference (affectionately referred to as, "AMUN"). Augustana represented South Africa this year. The conference was at the Hilton on Michigan Avenue. Oooh... Ahhh... Fancy, right? There were more chandeliers than I could count. I took a sip or two from a drinking fountain that was gold-plated and marble (well, I inferred, anyway). And then there was... well, let me start from the beginning before I get too side-tracked.

Friday: Was a normal day of school, then off in the car with Lindsay and Stephanie to Stephanie's house, where we could spend the night and not have to wake up at 5:00 a.m. (the others from our school weren't so fortunate as to have this luxury). I had the most delicious chocolate cake in the entire world and tofu nachos.

Saturday: Had the best cookies-and-cream cupcake in the entire world for breakfast. I didn't even know those existed, but, all the same, I don't believe I could have found a better. Bad breakfast-choice, though. We rode on a train, walked to the Hilton, had Panera for lunch, met the delegation from Sudan, and got ready for the first committee meeting, which was... frightening, actually. I made myself useful by taking notes on what other people were talking about, and then relaying said notes to other countries. Finished out the night with some pizza.

Sunday: Started to figure out how the system works. I resolved to make a motion, or point of inquiry, or something, but I still remained cautiously silent during formal meeting. Was convinced by Czech Republic to sign onto a resolution that South Africa wouldn't really be fond of. My bad. Walked to, and was almost late for, mass during the disappointingly short lunch break. One of the delegates from Iraq used the word, "dilatory." My respect for Iraq rose substantially from that point on. Dinner at some Asian restaurant topped the day off rather nicely (although we still had three hours of committee-time afterwards. I sorta zoned those out.).

Monday: This is when exciting things started happening. I finally talked in front of the committee! I made a point of information, which really doesn't mean much of anything, but at least I didn't do anything incredibly stupid. I can't say the same for some of our fellow delegations. Namibia, who worked closely with us, came in hung-over; Brazil started to get irritated (and irritating); Chad wouldn't get off the microphone; Myanmar made some ridiculous motion or other that got everybody stirred up; Liberia and Guinea-Bissau kept pestering me to sign their resolution (which was terrible, by the way); Uganda continued to remind everyone to be courteous; it was a little crazy. At least Estonia had stopped incessantly arguing at the microphone. I quickly became friends with Thailand and Morocco, despite the hectic environment. Good pizza on lunch break. Final meeting was even more crazy than the morning meeting. My partner got an amendment passed on a resolution which passed 7 minutes after we were supposed to adjourn the meeting. That was a close shave.

Dance: Yes, there was a delegate dance, which took place in the wee hours between Monday and Tuesday. It gets its own section. I wasn't planning on looking schnazzy, but Steph and Lindsay insisted on lending me a Hodge-podge of items to wear. I was cautious at first, and told them I wasn't going to break the two-finger rule (that is, two finger-widths below the collar bone). Stephanie didn't know such a rule existed, and Lindsay told me that my fingers were too skinny for that, anyway. They finally pulled stuff together that worked, and off we went, to observe the shenanigans at the delegate dance!
Of the dance I could go into many interesting details, but I'll settle with these: India threw up in the bathroom; France was running around the dance hall like an inebriated maniac; Afghanistan reminded us that we can act crazy because we won't see any of these people again, anyway; Israel from my committee asked me to dance, but I didn't remember seeing him the entire conference; we talked with Libya, North Korea, and Cuba (all very nice people), and some girl from an unknown delegation puked on a table.

Tuesday: Final day. General assembly assembled. The one major point from Tuesday was the Head Delegate from Namibia made a remarkably un-diplomatically courteous remark to Venezuela, but she deserved it, so I felt an urge to applaud. We left a little early, during the lunch break, and then made our ways back to school.

And thus endeth the American Model United Nations Conference. It was a little difficult adjusting back to a normal school setting, but I had it re-figured out by the time my second class came around. By the way, our planned country for next year is: Senegal. Happy Thanksgiving!