RUSSIAN TRIP: PART 3

the next day, Monday, all of us were smartly dressed well-ironed formals. i felt like a pretty wannabe-secretary straight out of a Hindi movie, complete with black formal pants and a smart black blazer, straight black hair and an important looking file. but today, I was exceptionally nervous as i had to make my opening speech on behalf of the five of us representing Germany [in different comittees] in front of 300-odd delegates.

all the schools were seated country-wise [according to the countries we were representing in our comittees] in a huge hall in the place called the 'international bussiness center'. my hands were cold and I was shivering with anticipation. Coats and bags were piled on the walk-way and i was scared of tripping and making a spectacle out of myself [i've very accident prone you see]. One of our deputy secretary Generals was screeching in her piercing hawk like voice, "DAALLLLEGITS PLEASE MAANTAIN DECORAAAM, TAKE YOUR CHEERS" [delegates, please maintain decorum and be seated].

Finally, the opening ceremony started [after about ten-fifteen looooong, booooorrrrinnnngggg speeches that acted like sleeping pills for the coup of us]. the Secretary General was picking out chits as to which countries would deliver their opening speeches [in batches of seven]. my country, Germany was picked in the second last batch when I was virtually dying of anxiety. Finally, when it was my turn to speak, my shoes clipped noisily against the wooden floor of the stage and then i realized..... i was speaking to a bunch of half-dead, gum-chewing, ipod-listening people. most of them had curled up around the comfy seats and were peacefully snoring! Nevertheless I delivered my speech about peace and human rights along with quotes by Kofi Annan. i received congratulatory note from another delegation, and appreciation from a few of my classmates, so i was quite content by the outcome. two of my other classmates: a representative of Bangladesh and a representative of U.K. also delivered quite apt speeches [few of the only ones i could actually understand]. then there was this crazy delegate of Iran who made a rap song about his country which was ripped apart by other delegates. the delegate of U.S.A. went a step too far and said, " if you don't agree with us, we'll screw your country." which created quite an uproar.

post lunch, we were asked to go to our respective comittees for an informal lobbying session. one of my classmates and me were in the same committee: the ECOSOC, where we were to discuss the role of transnational businesses, steps to eliminate the negative effects of brain drain and ways to control urbanization. we could choose to sit on any table to discuss the topic we were well versed with and discuss our draft resolutions. on our table, the delegate of China and me were the only active [or rather hyper-active ones], so we merged our resolutions and saw that our merged copy didn't compromise with either of our policies. China, a developing country, and Germany a developed one, so our resolution covered areas to benefit both developing and developed nations. however, the other resolution had more signaturies [very clever] and thus more support.....we were anxious to see the outcome the next day...........

that night we had a delicious four-course Russian meal in a quaint Russian restaurant overlooking the beautiful winter palace. so, the day ended on a rather good note......