In today’s post I’m going to discuss my trip to St. Petersburg Russia, during which I participated in a Model United Nations conference. I had hoped to do this update sooner, but I unfortunately had a great deal of make up work as the trip required us to miss a week of school. ( Two weeks later, I am pleased to say I am officially caught up with all my work.) It also didn’t help that upon returning a had a rather severe sore throat. I would have loved to have done real time updates in Russia but the internet was rather slow.
A quick warning: This post is particularly lengthy for a I have a great deal to share, I therefore suggest breaking this post down into several smaller reading segments.
Another note: I had planned to take a some photos, however my camera’s battery conveniently decided to stop holding a charge during my travels. Luckily for me a great deal of my friends posted pictures on Facebook.
Model United Nations:
What is MUN? If you are not familiar with MUN he concept is fairly simple. High-school students from around the globe meet up and reenact the United Nations, during which they debate today’s most pressing issues. Basically MUN is the UN but with high school students. MUN has become increasing popular over the years, which goes to show that our future is in good hands. It’s nice to know that the younger generations understand the importance of international affairs. If I’m not mistaken a few resolutions debated at some MUN conferences have actually gone on to be proposed to the actual United Nations. Pretty neat if you ask me.
My school is particularly involved in MUN and participates in three or four conferences each year. One conference our school attends is in Singapore and then a few others locally. This was the first time my school participated in the SPIMUN conference. Around twenty students attended from our school thus requiring three teachers to chaperone.
The trip to Russia was a long one. We first flew to Helsinki Finland in which we had a 5 hour lay over. Then we took an hour flight to St. Petersburg. I really enjoyed bonding with my classmates, especially the one’s in which I rarely talked to in school. During our lay over in Helsinki many shared their religious views. I found this discussion to be particularly enlightening.
MUN requires a great deal of time and loads of research. The way it works is this: A few months prior to the conference, your school is assigned various countries in which it then represents. Because our group was around 20 students we were assigned 5 countries (Denmark, Hati, The Philippines, Uganda, and Lithuania.) I was assigned the Philippines. Since my birth-dad is Filipino I enjoyed getting to know a bit more about my heritage.
My topic in which debated was Human Rights: Protecting journalistic freedom. Some other topics that were debated included HIV stigma, nuclear proliferation, and child soliders. I spent a great deal of time immersing myself in different perspectives pertaining to journalistic freedom. Journalistic freedom is a particularly controversial issue in the Philippines so I found it a rather interesting topic to research. I was disappointed to see that so many journalists around the world are continually intimidated (some even brutally murdered) all because of what they write. Being an aspiring journalist myself, I find the topic of journalistic freedom especially appealing.
Upon completing research one is supposed to write a resolution in which action is taken to solve the problem. Writing resolutions can be rather difficult if it’s your first time. Luckily, many of my fellow delegates had written numerous resolutions before and knew what they were doing. One of the problems I had with writing a solid resolution on journalistic freedom, was that for the most part there is nothing the UN can do. Some nations just don’t care. Nothing the UN does can prevent a country from harming journalists if they choose to. Therefore much of my resolution simply reaffirmed basic journalistic rights. I ended up merging my resolution with other nations and it ended up being passed.
Most MUN conferences have an opening ceremony which is often a time in which countries give a 30 second opening speech introducing the delegates country. I was “chosen“ by my fellow delegates of the Philippines to give the opening speech. Having not participated in Model United Nations public speaking is something I have not practiced much. As luck would have it I was the first country to give an opening speech in front of 650 other delegates! Let’s just say I was a bit nervous. I had my speech prepared so it wasn’t too difficult reading off a note card but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t intimidated. It felt really good afterward and something I am very proud of. Not many people can say they gave an opening speech in a old Russian church!
The Model United Nations conference in my opinion, was pretty solid. It was a bit unorganized at times but well worth attending. The atmosphere was pretty relaxed. It was unfortunate to see that some students came only to party and to view Russia but there were also a great deal of students who came well prepared. I was amazed at how prepared some one them were! I was also amazed at how many of them displayed confidence when speaking in front of a bunch of people. I wish I had known about MUN my freshman year.
A Cultural Experience
Touring Russia was wonderful. The city of St. Petersburg was rich in tradition. The architecture was just unbelievable. While in St. Petersburg we toured numerous palaces and famous art museums, including the well known Hermitage museum. We also walked through the summer and winter palaces of the Russian emperors. We even made time for a snow ball fight at in winter palace’s garden. The size of the palaces were astounding. Talk about roomy! It was said at any given time several hundred guests would be staying at one palace. Some large feasts consisted of up to 300 different meals and lasted days!
One of my favorite places in which we visited was the place in which Rasputin was shot. I found his story incredible. We also visited various churches around St. Petersburg which were beautiful. We even had the opportunity to see a life mass in which the entire mass was done while standing.
I bought a bunch of souvenirs for my family back home and it was fun bargaining with the Russians vendors. It was interesting to see the similarities in bargaining in China and Russia. One seller cut his price in half without me saying a single word.
What I enjoyed most about the trip in Russia was the interaction with people from all over the world. I met a group from Bahrain and they were the nicest people one could ever meet. They just walked up to my friend and I and began chatting. They even took the time to teach me some Arabic! I also met several students from Romania. They were just as friendly. I find it fascinating that within a week I was able to connect with so many people around the world. This phenomenon is becoming increasing common as social media begins to further connect the world.
My voyage to Russia will not soon be forgotten. 
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
It must have been the education experience of a lifetime. Congratulations.
BUD!
Yes, russia was nice, damn i miss it.
Our ability to bond as one people on this planet is directly related to our experiences interacting with different cultures. The people you met on this trip, and the experience of the Model United Nations Conference, are perfect examples of how we can reach out to others and overcome the barriers of nationality.
Wow, Bud, it’s so nice of u that u wrote ’bout my country in a so sincere way! It’s a great pleasure to read such things! U know, I’m quite used to many sightseeings in St.Petersburg, I can see them every day while going to university. But now I’ve looked at them in a different way…. I’m also glad that I met plenty of lovely ppl all around the world and while committee sessions we first talked to each other and after that we were chatting many times! Thank u for these days – u made them brighter!
Wow nice way of putting SPIMUN 09. I found your blog randomly because my feeder showed that someone had been clicking on sites relating to SPIMUN on google.
What a coincidence that you did Human Rights under the same topic as I did. But i represented Qatar. I went against the resolution. HAHA Didn’t get through of course but what a great experience. Btw, nice site!