MUNUC XX

So I got back to Hyde Park about an hour or two ago from the Palmer House Hilton downtown, where I've been stationed the last four days for MUNUC XX (Model United Nations of the University of Chicago 20).

First off, IT WAS SUCH A FUN WEEKEND!

This is mostly because I LOVE MODEL UN. I know it sounds really nerdy, but I seriously love doing Model UNs. I guess I like staffing them more than actually competing in them, but seriously, I find them so much fun. I told my roommate Mayon that if Model UN could be my job I would be the happiest person ever.

Now that it's over I'm a little bit (ok, a lot a bit) sad. Mayon and I were discussing this over coffee at Dunkin Donuts. Both of us chaired committees this year, which is a lot of work. We wrote extensive background guides on the topics (http://munuc.org/committees/UNHCR), memorized a book full of rules of procedure, coordinated the efforts of our assistant staff members as well as our moderators, and generally became an expert on everything relating to our committees. Now we are sad, because, after endless months of hard work, it is all of a sudden over.

LIKE SERIOUSLY, THERE IS A VOID IN MY BRAIN WHERE MUNUC SHOULD BE.

I began my work as a chair later than most, early June, but I still worked just as hard as they did. So to see eight months of hard work culminate in only four days is a bit of a shocker. This weekend FLEW by. Partly because I was awake for most of it, but also partly because four days compared to eight months is nothing.

I had a lot of fun though. My delegates were awesome, they understood the issues, and they proposed REAL, VIABLE solutions (for the most part). There wasn't a THAT kid in the room, which was refreshing, and more delegates were involved in debate than were involved in note passing at the back of the room!

My staff was great too. They made the committee session fun, and although I am a control freak and wanted to do everything, I felt comfortable giving them jobs to do. It is seriously hard for me to delegate work off to people, but with the staff I had, I didn't have such a hard time doing that!

SO WHAT'S NEXT?!?

Well, there are a few options on the table.

I know FOR SURE that I will be staffing ChoMUN this spring. Thats the college conference, and it is in 4.5 weeks. Yeah. We are going to squash what was essentially 8 months of preperation for MUNUC into 4.5 weeks for ChoMUN. Luckily ChoMUN is a lot of doing it on the fly. Thank GOD!

I've also applied to staff two conferences for UNAUSA. The first is a one day event in Chicago in early May. I should be picked for that no problem. The second is a long weekend conference in New York City in mid-May. I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to get selected to staff that conference. Like A LOT. I think my chances are good. Not great. But good. I don't really know how competitive it is, but I know I've got two years of MUNUC on my application so that helps me a bit (ok, probably a lot, most other conferences SUCK).

For now I'm just going to have to deal with my MUNUC withdrawl. It's going to be a rough few days (mostly because I'm working off of 9 hours of sleep for the last 72 hours with the prospect of 12+ hours of homework looming ahead). I think I can handle it though. It's these first few days that are the roughest. DAMN.