Blog entries from Spanish students participating in the Model UN in New York City

Model UN

May 4 – May 14th

Uxia & Laura
Palau: CSPD – Asia

Today all the regional committees joined together to create global resolutions in which sports would be able to play an important role in the citizens’ lives.

Then, Begoña & Uxue (Palau) won the “Best Position Paper” award from the General Assembly 3rd Committee. We all congratulated them.

At night we went to a boat party where we had a lot of fun. We danced and met people from other countries.

It was great!


Uxue & Begoña
Palau: GA 3rd Committee

Today was the last day of our conference. We finished our resolution and we started with the voting procedure. Unfortunately, our resolution did not pass, but we were proud of ourselves because of our hard work. When they started giving the awards we thought we would not get any of them, but –surprisingly- we received the “Best Position Paper” award.

Afterwards, we went to the UN HQ for the closing ceremony where we had to stand up so that we could be recognized.

Finally we went to a party and we had a lot of fun. We met many different delegates and danced with them.


Natalia & Patricia
Algeria: WHO                              

Today we continued the debates about Maternal Health and only two resolutions passed. We were signataries of one of them.

After lunch we went to the UN HQ for the closing ceremony, which included the award-giving ceremony as well.


Gareth & Jaime A.
Nauru: GA 1st

We started debating our resolutions. It was really difficult to make other delegates understand our position! We finally got the support of one of the delegations in our group.

Later on we went to the UN HQ for the closing ceremony.

At night we travelled on a boat around Manhattan. All the delegates were dancing and shouting; if I had to define that night with one word, I would say it was “CRAZY”.


Ruben & Jaime Fdez.
Nauru: CSPD – Asia

After waking up at the usual time and having breakfast all the regional committees in the CSPD joined together to elaborate global resolutions. Our purpose was to merge all the resolutions into one or two. We were so many delegates and there were so many motions that, even though the speakers list was open, no one got to speak in it.

After a pause for lunch (a hamburger), we voted the resolution and it passed. We did not obtain any awards.

Later on we joined our mates to go to the UN HQ, when Begoña and Uxue told us they had got the “Best Position Paper” award. We were very happy.

The Global Classrooms Conference had ended!

At night we went to the Boat Dance Party, so we had to have dinner on our way there. We had hot dogs and pizza.

On the boat all the delegates danced while the boat sailed around Manhattan: a beautiful sight at night!

Day 3 – May 13th

Jaime Fdez. & Rubén
Nauru- UNCSPD: Asia

We got up at 6.45 a.m. After dressing up and having breakfast, we went to our committee hall.

It was quite good. We built up a bloc with Palau, Japan and Samoa so as to write a resolution together.

On the other hand, our rivals were definitely China and the Solomon Islands, who were as active as we were during caucuses, and who were able to express their ideas sooner than we did, since they were before in the speakers list.

After having lunch in ‘Hello Pasta’, we got back to our committee. We sponsored a resolution which had 19 signatories. Although it didn’t pass, we enjoyed the session and made friends. We are sure we’ll remember this all our life long.


Begoña & Uxue
Palau – GA 3rd

We attended the conference today. We were in the General Assemby third Committee, the one debating on “Strengthening a coordinated emergency response to humanitarian and natural disasters”. Despite our disappointment because our Chair did not recognize our delegation, we had a lot of fun, especially during the unmoderated caucuses. We had a chance to meet people from different countries and to share our culture. We had lunch at a restaurant called “Hello Pasta”. Then we returned to our committees, where we finished our resolutions. Afterwards, we went out for some shopping and we had dinner all together.


Uxia & Laura
Palau – CSPD: Asia

Today we’ve had a wonderful day, although it was rather tiring. We had to debate with delegates from other countries, so it was an amazing challenge for us. We have met people from other countries and enjoyed ourselves a lot!


Gareth & Jaime A.
Nauru – GA 1st

Today was the first day for debating the different issues discussed in the Global Classrooms Conference. The committees were huge, so it was very difficult to stand out. It was really difficult to talk and our chair was very passive with us. But it was a great day.
 

Day 2 – May 12th

Jaime Abengozar & Gareth Lynn
Nauru – GA 1st

Today has been a very intense day.

In the morning we participated in the training sessions and we could see that the delegates were very well qualified and that we were the youngest students in the room; we felt “small”…

We ate pizza with our fellow delegates from Eleanor Roosevelt High School. Before lunch we had visited the school and stayed in their classrooms. It was really interesting to see them in Spanish class; they kept asking us questions. For instance, we didn’t see ourselves as the clumsy chaps trying to speak in another language… We also attended some lessons which were very complex.

Later on we went to the UN HQ. We were far over an hour waiting for anything to happen. Then, different personalities from the UN like Ban Ki Moon or the US representatives in the UN gave us some speeches. Afterwards, we all left for the hotel.


Begoña & Uxue
Palau – GA 3rd

We had our very first American breakfast in New York City a couple of blocks from our hotel. Once we finished our brekkies, we headed back to the hotel because the training sessions for the conference were about to start. We had a chance to remember all the rules and procedures, points and motions which were probably not very fresh in our memories since our rehearsals for the Madrid conference. Our fellow delegates are mostly much older than us, but that’s not a valid excuse to stop us from doing our best at the New York conference and to keep us from finding solutions to the issues the world is facing today.

After the training sessions we met our fellow delegates from Eleanor Roosevelt High School. Each one of us was assigned an American student which took us to their last three periods. It was a warm welcome, and we felt both comfortable and confident.

After some pizza we all left for the UN HQ. We were actually sitting on the same seats the where the real diplomats debate and discuss the different affairs! Ban Ki Moon, the Secretary General of the UN, was addressing us a speech in which we were encouraged to keep an interest in world affairs and looking beyond the borders of our countries.


Uxia & Laura
Palau – CSPD: Asia

Today we’ve had a kind of Global Classrooms simulation and we had a lot of fun. We had to represent some animals and choose which one was superior, whether from land, sea or wind.

Afterwards, we went to our buddy school, where an American fellow delegate showed me around and told me about their customs. We had some pizza there and met some more students from Santander (Spain) and New York.

Best of all, we visited the UN headquarters. Ban Ki Moon gave us a speech and all the other speakers thanked us for being there!


Patricia & Natalia
Algeria – WHO

After some typical American coffee for breakfast, we started the training sessions for the conference. Then we visited our buddy school, Eleanor Roosevelt High School, and we participated in some classes with our American fellow delegates. In the afternoon we attended the the Model UN Global Classrooms Opening Ceremony!

Day 1 – May 11th

Jaime Fdez. & Rubén
Nauru – CSPD: Asia

After a long and incredible flight we arrived in New York City and we just couldn’t believe our eyes. All the buildings and everything we could see were like a movie! When we finally got to the Grand Hyatt Hotel we felt important and comfortable.


Begoña & Uxue
Palau – GA 3rd

We didn’t mind waking up early to be at the airport at 7 in the morning because we were really excited. We had a chance to get to know each other better during the flight since it was 8 hours long! When we got to New York we just couldn’t believe that we were seeing the amazing skyscrapers through the windows of the plane. We even hugged each other!

We took a yellow cab to the Grand Hyatt and we had a little time to organize our stuff and relax a bit. By half-past three we met in front of the Chrysler Building just opposite the hotel! We also visited Bryant Park, a very relaxing place where you can read a book while you’re having a drink and enjoy the wonderful view.

New York’s Public Library was quite impressive.

We also visited Times Square and we took thousands of photos. Finally, we had dinner at the Hard Rock Café. We were very tired, so as soon as we arrived at the Hotel we went to sleep!


Uxia & Laura
Palau – CSPD: Asia

The inside of the plane was awesome! We were entertained all the flight; we also talked to the other delegates a lot.

When we arrived in NYC, we took the typical yellow cab to go to the Grand Hyatt. Later we walked to the Chrysler Building, the Public Library, Times square… It was a really exhausting day, but we realized we really were in the Big Apple!


Patricia & Natalia
Algeria – WHO

Today we woke up very early because we had to take the much expected plane trip to New York. After 8 hours flying we arrived at the JFK airport and we took a taxi to the Grand Hyatt Hotel. During the afternoon we visited Times Square, the Chrysler Building and we finally had dinner at the Hard Rock Café.