Wayfarers and Naysayers

Friday morning we got straight to business. I had a morning interlude with a delegate from South Korea working on their tax breaks/foreign direct investment resolution and enjoyed the delegate’s chill and borderline hilarious attitude and modes of speech. He was so West Coast that I wasn’t surprised to find that our roots are only a few hours apart. I’m getting good at picking out where people are from just based on the way they speak; Italians and West Coasters alike. I should have studied linguistics since I seem to find them truly captivating…

After polishing up our working papers to perfection and seeking signatories, we were approved as an official draft resolution (overall, Ghana was a sponsor of 3 draft resolutions). Things were coming full circle. I had gone from overwhelmed to bitter to excited to relieved. Who knew I would actually come to enjoy this thing somewhat?

At last, our final lunch break came. When walking back from eating, I still had time to browse around Times Square, and I stopped to look at a vendor’s wide collection of Ray Ban Wayfarer knock offs in 50 different colors. I noticed she was speaking Spanish…I think you see where this is going. She was a native Columbian and was so happy to speak Spanish with me for a bit that I’m pretty sure she gave me the bright pink specs I picked out for just $5, as opposed to the normal $10 that other vendors charge. I wish I had gotten more colors cause $5 is about as cheap as it gets for glasses. Once again coming in from my Spanish high, I was feeling good. I had one more 3 hour session and then it would all be over. But I was still borderline exhausted from my intense lack of sleep and I needed some music to breathe some life back into me. I queued up some Flux Pavilion on my iPod and dubstepped from my room to the conference room. With my bright pink sunglasses, purple coat, green dress and giant headphones, I walked back into the room like I owned the place. People were definitely riding my waves and I feel like that set the mood for a relaxed and casual final session—a drastic contrast to the first session. In the final three hours, we made last minute fixes to our drafts, rallied support and evaluated the 10 draft resolutions floating around. Finally it came to voting.

Overall, we came up with some pretty decent resolutions. Some of them were more general than others, making them harder to disagree with, while others were specific and well-planned. There was only one resolution that I found to be insufficient—and this was the only resolution to not pass. With the swing of a gavel, the 2011 meeting of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice had concluded. We started hugging, shaking hands, asking for real names (as opposed to just the country you were representing) and talking about real life. It felt like a victory. All of us slowly meandered out of the room and I found my way back out into the streets of New York with Bethany (who had been stuck at the Russian Consulate for several hours earlier in the afternoon…).