"Your honor, Costa Rica moves that the meating be suspended for one hour for the pourpose of cacusing"

One of the many things i got to do on my trip to the model United nations in NYC.

For those who don't know what this is here's the breakdown:
Schools from around the world are assigned countries (in our case Costa Rica), these schools assign delegates to represent that country in a number of commities (Security council, General assumbly, Inter Developement Bank, Disaster Relief etc). They are given a set of topics to argue and discuss and discuss and come up with possiable answers to the topic at hand. Delegates come up with "working papers" assgin "sponsers" and "signatories" put it to a "draft resolution" in which the rest of the committee can suggest "unfriendly" and "friendly amendments." When everything is settled the entire committe sets back and votes weather that these proposals become resolutions.

Now that the technical jargon is gone, let me explain why this trip was awesome.

We flew in on a red eye got to the hotel by late morning and didn't get the room till late afternoon, and then imidetly had to leave for the UN building. When that was done we came back to the hotel and met in commite and set the agenda of topics we would discuss. (there were three possiable topics we had to decide what order to do those topics in). After that i met with my friends from school and we talked about our committe and everything, drank, were merry, and didn't go to sleep till 4 am. In all i think i was up for a total of 42 hours before i finally crashed.

On committe Brizal (from Cal State Fulerton) was the best prepared and most enthusiastic. Along with Ecuador, the Bahamas, myself, Tinidad and Tobago, and St. Kits and Nives. We soon realized as a whole we were the most powerful and most convincing group of individuals.

I realize this is pretty boring to everyone else, but i promise this stuff is almsot over hehe.

Anyway, we started on the working papers, untied that we would vote for each others as a block so that they could pass. My job within my own block: Salesman. I went around to every other small group in the whole committe asking what they were working on, what they were planning and smaller groups writing similir things i'd send over to the larger block where they would get assimilated into our works making them stronger.

How i did this was from everything from complimenting girls on their shoes to explaining to them the importance of transparancy in drug trafficing. I got into a debate about funding with Thiland and financing for the latin american comunity so swing 4 or 5 votes, and took a strong member of the African Union on a date to garner the support of another 50 or so countries. =).

The confrence itself was an amazing experience. Our group came up with 3 working papers, and then worked with South East Asia on another one. All 4 of those papers passed.

Now... the good stuff..

The New York city night life was amazing. We'd get our of working at about 11, sit around sa bit and then hit a couple of resturaunts and bars knock back some drinks and have an absolute blast. My classmates and I wandered the streets, laughing and telling jokes, and getting to know each other a lot better.

By the end of the tip, it was kinda sad to see everyone go because we had been together and learned alot together in such a short time. It was really an amazing thing. These were great people, and it was sad to see everyone go.

We went to a bar at the top of the hotel that rotated and let us see things like an illuminated chrysler building and empire state building, we drank some strong and wonderufll drinks, went to another bar, drank some more, took pictures had a great time.

A few of us went to a Mets game, that was in a rain delay and cought only 3 innings, but it was enough, and then headed back for more drinks and socializing. We met up with the brilizian delegates and drank together, twas good times. By nights end a few of us sat in a room over looking Times square told some stories, and watched the sun come up.

I joked but on the day we left i saw the sun rise on times square, set behind the golden gate, and by midnight saw LA's city lights as i came home.

What i got out of this trip was so much more than I expected. I learned i had talanets that impressed people beyond measure. The "smart delegates" were so pompus and unyielding, they didn't get anything done at all. But we worked together, and compromised and listend to what others though, and come up with some of the better papers.

As i sat in the airport and reflected, the anger i felt was gone without me knowing. Those last bits of attraction for the girl so long ago were completley gone. I had met and flirted and such with girls who were not just attractive, but amazingly friendly and intelegient. Girls who had ideas and passions about things that were a little deeper than movies. People who felt strong about delf determination, genocide, and ways to combat poverty, who walked around with confidince and power (By the way.. power is sexy as hell). I sat next to a couple friends and joked about it and realized its just the way things go life time, and... being around these types of people gave me confindince and made me realize i could do about 500x better than before.

The conference, the people, the city. Was an amazing expiereicne that showed me so much. I haven't had that much fun in a very long time, and I'm glad i got to go and enjoy it all.

Now I'm back in so cali nursing strep throte, but the worst is far over, and I'm ready to get out a bit hehe. Adios everyone, see you all soon!

-Marteney