HUHC sponsored a trip this past weekend to see a tour of the United Nations. I was extremely interested in going seeing as I want to work there some day. They did not provide transportation, but luckily I have had enough experience and found my way to Penn Station. From there it was a definite learning experience on how to get to the UN, but fortunately with the help of a friend and a map I made it there only ten minutes late, due to the polish parade I annoyingly got stuck behind.
As we were waiting for the tour to start, we were able to observe the art work of children between the ages of about eight to thirteen. They were from all around the world, and were given the intruction to paint something that reflects global warming. I've posted a couple pictures of them. The winner, I believe (they were all so good it's hard to remember which actually won), was of a person holding an umbrella, and the wind is blowing in the background, and on the umbrella is painted the earth. The sadness was clearly visible from the way the kids expressed themselves. There was one humourous one that sparked my memory. It was of a polar bear dancing on a piece of broken ice floating down a river by some city. Anyway, there are pics of that just to give you a sense.
The tour lasted a really fast hour, it seemed, but it was a great learning experience nonetheless. We stopped into three or four major rooms where a lot of important stuff presumably happens. We learned random facts, like how the seating arrangement is ordered. Someone picks one contry out of the hat, and whoever that is gets to sit in the first seat and the remainder is in alphabetical order, starting back with a after it gets to z. Cool, huh? There were quite a few names of countries many of us didn't recognize, it's a good thing they keep track. We also learned the basics, things like the different councils, some of the UN's missions, etc. One thing that surprised most of us was the amount of money being spent on weapons. The UN made a graph type thing of how the money used could be distributed differently, and essentially we could eliminate world hunger, cure diseases, and solve problems up the wazoo with the money the world uses on military things. There is a picture of it, it's like an upside down pyramid, with the big red part being the amount spent on military things and the rest divided into sections for other purposes we could use it for, and the bottom half adds up to the top half. We saw many gifts that countries have given, like a very complex ivory carving and an intensly detailed model of a Japanese war boat. There was a really pretty mosaic as well. We completed our tour, thanked the tour guide who was really informative, and made our way out.
We were fortunate enough to be provided dinner courtesy of HUHC. We ate at this little italian restaurant called Mimi's, and the host was very gracious on putting tables together to seat a party of 18. The bread was delicious and of course the italian dishes were great as well. There was a piano player providing entertainment, and a couple of us contributed by singing the chorus of "Sweet Caroline". The pianist dedicated a few songs to us.
Then we all made our way back to Penn VERY quickly just in time to make the train with two minutes to spare. There wasn't much time to take in the night life or scenery, but that can wait. It was a learing experience for everyone.
I encourage more people to go to these things, well I guess if they did I would have to make sure I have my ticket reserved, but on this trip it was all freshmen and seniors...where are the...middle classmen? Well, I had fun anyway. Have a good week! Please keep reading!
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