US Trip part II - Day 6 to 10

Day 6 – Second & Third session HNMUN 2012

I must get up early in the morning around 7am because I had appointment with other Africa country on 8am meanwhile my room mates still slept. I was a bit late came down and my friends from other countries had already discussed about the working paper. I thought they would be late but No! 1 thing I learned from western people, when they has appointment with others, they will not come late – compare with Indonesian people who always come late include me. We discussed about what would we talk about during the second session until around 10 or 11 am. The delegate of South Africa controlled the Africa bloc because he had great preparation and idea, plus with other delegates from Argentina, China, and Japan. They were the main core authors in our bloc. For the second and the third session, I couldn’t do more again because I didn’t know well about the topic but still caught up the main idea of the discussion.

At night, there was party night but I skipped it because I was too tired to join it meanwhile some of my friends from UNPAR still joined the party. I slept around 11 pm and my room mate came back around 2 am. Oh No! Save energy on the next commitee session.

Day 7 – Fourth & Fifth session HNMUN 2012

Still the same thing, there was nothing special on this day. I just followed the flow of the debate where the developing & less developing countries vs developed countries. They talked about FTT where I didn’t really understand about FTT. Still my english need improvement, I could hear what they were talking about, but I had problems for my daily english conversation so bad. For the fifth session was a bit long because of the amendments. There were many amendments for the draft resolution 1.5 & 1.6.

On the night, I joined the delegate dance night. I quite very nice party, where most of delegates came to the main hall to have a dance. We danced together in the floor under the DJ’s music until 1 pm and we still went outside to China Town to have late dinner, but I didn’t. I just walked around the China Town with my friend, Marvin then backed to hotel first to sleep. Really tiring day.

Day 8 – The last session of HNMUN 2012 & Closing Ceremonies.

The last session was a bit relax, not so serious because of the last night party. Some of the delegates came late and hang over. The session began with short debate of draft resolution 1.5 vs 1.6 until the voting session. For the voting session, usually need 2/3 of the total delegates who come to the session; but for UNCTD both of the draft resolution didn’t pass 2/3 so the commitee decided to have simply majority where each delegates were called to make decision on each draft resolution (Yes/No/Abstains) and the result was draft resolution 1.5 which the developing & less developing countries as the signatories. The last session was until 11 am and I went back to my room to pack my luggage because we must check out on 12 am. There were many people waiting for the lift because most of delegates were checked out also. We were late for the closing ceremony because there was something happened. For UNCTD, the best delegate fell into South Africa as the main author of the winning draft resolution, outstanding delegates fell into China & France, and honourable mention fell into Brazil & German. From Indonesia, ITB was the only one got the honourable mention on Legal committee.

After the closing ceremony, we still had enough time to walk around Boston (it was the last day in Boston) because our bus was around 11 pm to Washington D.C. I and some of my friends went back to Harvard The Coop to buy other things again, then went to Quinsy Market. Quinsy Market was very quite nice place in Boston. I had my great dinner there for $16 dollar Salmon Fish. The most expensive foods I ate in US. There were also many shops around Quinsy Market, then we must back to Boston Park Plaza Hotel and went to the bus station.

Conculsion for trip in Boston.

Boston is very nice city to continue your education and live (For comparision, Boston is like Bandung and New York is like Jakarta). There is Harvard and MIT as the best university in the world. The people are also very friendly (compare to Washington DC and NYC). The transportation is very simple and flexible, easy to use.

At 11 pm, we departed from the bus station to Washington DC. It took around 8-9 hours trip. When in the bus, I and my friend, Vinsensius got the seat near the door. (We used Mega Bus, double decker Bus; From NYC-Boston we seated on the second floor of the bus). It was very quite damn cold because the wind still came in from the door especially when the door opened when reached each stops. I directly moved to the second floor to find space and I seated with other people during the bus trip.

Day 9 – Washington DC.

We arrived at the Washington DC Bus Station around 10 am then we deposit our luggages on the deposit center. We went around the Smithsonia complex, it was very large complex with many kinds of museum in there. From Air Space until the natural museum where the Night of the Museum II took place, but I didn’t really like the museum compare to the NYC. (I think it is because of the limited time and just look around for a while).

Around 6 pm we gathered again in the Bus Station to get taxi to Rumah Dinas “Atdiknas” in Betheda, 20-30 minutes from the Bus Station. As we arrived at Rumah Dinas “Atdiknas”, we were welcomed by Indonesian Government who work in US. We stayed there for 2 nights 3 days, because we were too many people (17), all the men were moved into other Rumah Dinas “bagian pertahanan”. First, I heard about it, it quite scare because of bagian pertahanan; it would be very strict people who lived there, but when we were arrived at Rumah Dinas “bagian pertahanan”, the householder (tuan rumah) were very nice, kind, and warm. It was very nice night because of the 8/9 hours bus trip!

Day 10 – Washington DC

In the morning, we ‘the boys’ were planning to go to the girls’ place to go out together. When we finished take a shower, we were going to wait for the bus; but the householder told us to have breakfast in his house. For the first time, we had our breakfast – usually we skip our breakfast and only had brunch.:P We had great cereals with meals. Luckily, when we are going to the girls’ place, the householder told us that they provided car for us to use. It was really very big car called “Sprinta’ which could uphold around 15 people. After that, we picked the girls then we went to white house and around. I met one of my friend, Ryan. Actually I just met him at DC; I just knew him at glance only when in UNPAR because he was my senior in accounting major, we were same in the accounting student association, and close friend of my friend : Ikha. Then, we went to georgetown; it was the best shopping center in DC. I went to the DC Cupcakes; I didn’t know it exactly but most of my friends who came with me said it is very famous on television show since in my dorm I don’t have television.:P I bought two kinds of cupcakes, they were really delicious.

After that, we went to Hotdog restaurant where US president (Mr. Barack Obama) ever ate there with Ryan, Marvin, Tazia, and Tisa. We also met Ryan’s friend; called Putri (if I don’t wrong remember). Suddenly, Marvin and Tazia had idea to visit Wal-Mart, the biggest supply store (It likes Carrefour in Indonesia, but it is bigger, much more bigger and complete). Thanks for Ryan who gave us ride (car) to Wal-Mart to walk around and buy something. I just bought small box of chocolate to eat. We went back to our houses around 11 pm then had a nice slept.:)

US Trip

HNMUN 2012
Hi, I would to tell my HNMUN 2012 story. It was very interesting, awesome, and special moment for me.
11 February 2012
For the beginning, there was something bad happened. I with my friends : Marvin, Lona, and Trissa would take travel to Jakarta Airport from Bandung meanwhile my other friends were dropped by their parents in the Airport. We should take taxi on 2 pm because we took the travel on 3 pm and the bad news was the taxi that I had booked wasn’t going and they said there weren’t any taxi available. Sh*t, I had booked the taxi on 10 am before and on 1:50 pm the operator called me and said there were any taxi. Short story, we used public car aka ‘angkot’ to go to the pool and the time was shown 2:40 pm and we were late and the travel had departed. Fortunely we could reserve for one car directly to go Jakarta Airport.
We arrived at the airport around 6:30 pm and our flight is 23:50 pm local time. We looked for our friend – Vinsensius who had been arrived at airport very early,3 pm. He was afraid that the travel was late arrived at the airport since the last week there was labour demo and Bdg-Jkt highway was closed. We had our dinner first until waited for the others.
At 10:30 pm, we checked-in. We were using Qatar airways : JKT-Doha-JFK. At 23:50 pm the plane departed and it took around 4-5 hours to arrive at Doha. People said that today Qatar airways is one of the best highest class airlines in the world; for me Qatar is very nice, with quite comfortable seat, with many kinds of entertainments (movie, music, television, and many more), but I had problems with the food. The food wasn’t so delicious, maybe they provided it for foreign-western people who has the flight back to Doha or US.
After arrived at Doha, We moved to other airport waiting room for transit. I passed the road when transit into other waiting room. I just saw small part of Doha, but I though it was very nice country with oil as their core business. I also saw the small desert beside the road. We just stopped around 2 hours to wait for the next flight Doha-JFK.
Doha-JFK took around 8-9 hours flight. The longest flight I ever had; in total around 14-15 hours flight from Indonesia. I still did the same things in the flight : sleep, eat, watch movie, sleep again, wake up, eat, and watch movie until it arrived at JFK. Before arrived at JFK, I still worried a bit about my plan in US. I worried that the immigration would ask difficult and weird questions because I was the only one who had the longest trip until 15th April. When we arrived at JFK airport; in immigration – all were gone on well and smooth. Really thanks God, we didn’t face anything and I could spent my holiday and trip with free. We arrived around at 4 pm local time.
After finished getting our lagguages, we were waiting for the bus which would drop US into the NYC because we would continue our trip directly by Mega Bus to Boston that took around 4-5 hours trips again. We looked for dinner first, for my first dinner in US, I had “Taco Bell’ – Mexico Food, not really very delicious for me. FYI, the foods in US are really expensive; we can spent at least 5 dollar for our lunch or dinner – usually is 8 dollar. (In Indonesia, I usually spent around Rp 8.000-Rp 15.000 ($1-2) for usuall lunch or dinner; for $5-8 foods – it is very fine-dining restaurant in Indonesia).
1 more interesting story for the first day when we arrived at US was when we are waiting for the mega bus. We were waiting around 1 hour until 8 pm to depart to Boston. The weather was really very cold for me for the first time. D*am freeking freezing. Hahaha. We arrived at Boston around 1 or 2 pm, we lived at Double Tree Bay Side Hotel by Hilton. It was very nice hotels, I did really love it. The room was very large enough for 3 people, and it was near beach. I do love beach but a bit far away for the center of town. We stayed 3 days 2 nights there before moved to Boston Park Plaza Hotel for HNMUN 2012 conference.
Day 2
In the morning, I didn’t do anything because I stayed in the hotel until noon to accompany my friend, the head del – Della. Here was a problem about the hotel where we stayed, actually it was not a big problem, just about the payment/credit card. In the noon, we went to MIT. We had already appointment with the MIT student to take campus tour in MIT. MIT is very nice university, especially for its technic major. The building is also very nice, very big and comfort – very integrated university, with many facilities to support its students. You donot need to go anywhere outside MIT complex to find for daily needs because everything are provided around the campus. We had the tour until mid noon and after that we had free time. We also crossed the harvard bridge, it was very very long bridge and we walked across it!
For your information, the transportation is very easy to use. Boston has subway, it is similiar MRT in Singapore. Then we went to Newsbury & Bollyston street, there are many shops there and in here, I just bought my new gadget. Hahaha.... Then there was prudential building – mall near there. We spent our time until night at there then we went back to the hotel.
Day 3
It was one of the great moment, going to Harvard!!!! HARVARD! The best or second one (Harvard/Cambridge?) university in the world! I couldn’t stand to visit Harvard but unfortunely We didn’t get the guidance, so we just walked by ourselves. It is really really very nice university; still wondering that could i get my master degree in Harvard? HOPE SO!!! But at least I can continue my master degree in aussie/europe/us by scholarship! Wish me luck.:)
We also visited the Coop, the official story that sell Harvard & MIT apparells, stationery, and etc; but they were very very expensive because of the name, especially for Harvards’. The cheapest hoddie are around $30 and up to $60. I never buy anything (apparell : shirts, collar shirts, or jeans more than $25) but in the Coop I bought $60 dollar hoddiee.... T.T So expensive but once in life time.
Day 4
It was the most bad day for me, it was the first time i was very mad because I had already prepared, ready to go at 9:20 am and must wait the others until 11:20 am. Really wasting time. It was the last day we stayed in Double Tree Hotel by Hilton before we moved to Boston Park Plaza Hotel where the conference held. Around 3 pm we moved to the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. When we arrived, there were many other delegates from other countries had arrived in the hotel. The atmosfer was really scary, meet with other delegates that came from different universities, and most of them were from west country; with really adequate english conversation I and my friends tried to start small conversation; introduction from where we were, what committee we were in. As a start it was not so bad as I think. Everything were under control for the starting.:)
Day 5 – First 1 HNMUN 2012
Eeng Ing Engg,,, and it was the first day of the conference & competition – Harvard National Model United Nations 2012 after 3 months training. We did get up really to have preparation. We wanted to perform perfectly and the best. We all dressed in blue collar shirt and pants or skirts. Around 10 am, we started to downstair to begin lobbying each others, because the official opening ceremony was at 3pm.
For the opening ceremony, it was really very great and awesome. Around 3000 people and more were gathered in the main hall. Every delegates bring their own attributes what ever it was (flag, pins, or anythings related to the country their represents), they also yelled each others. The conference opened with short introduction video from the committee and short lecture from Harvard Prof until around at 5 pm. The first session of HNMUN 2012 began at 7 pm at that night.

The first session.
I arrived at the hall – Baecon hills; I remembered it well around 6:40 pm to meet the other delegates to have alliance. In the first session, I still optimist that I could handle the committee. I raised my plank card several times and speak twice in front of other delegates. For the first session, we set the motion first, other delegate introduced topic A first in the floor. I did really prefer topic B because I learned it more than the first topic A. The topic B is about the international trade related to climate change and the topic A is about financial crisis. I had persued the others to choose the topic B and for the first voting session the topic A wasn’t pass but other delegate repurposed to vote again topic A and the topic A was pass with 2/3 majority. Shitt!!!! I couldn’t control the committee anymore because I didn’t very familiar the the topic A and I didn’t do any depth research about topic A and they talked about FTT during the session. Really big big no!!!