361; SMUN 2008 3-6 june
Friday, June 6, 2008

smun 2008 was an amazing experience.
i'm feeling happy now, though my heart seems to weigh a thousand tonnes.
it's like, everyone got really bonded just as the camp was coming to a close.
there's so many things that make me happy!
the stuffy prince george's park residences,
my dusty room,
the crazy committee sessions, the friends,
the laughter, bitching and gossip sessions.
everyone made it a truly remarkable and enriching experience.

well, i'm going to blog about it so that the memories will be set in stone.
i can't talk about everything cause i'll just die typing, and you'll die of boredom.
so necessary details will suffice!
the sweet and cherished memories of smun 2008 from third to sixth june.

first day

on the very first day, huiqun and i cabbed down in formal attire to NUS prince george's park residences (pgpr).
our lives were at stake cause the driver didnt know where pgpr was and we were running late.
but got there on time and checked in to our rooms.
mine was fcking dusty and there were (gulps) lizard droppings here and there.
i attempted (note the word, attempted) to make the place hospitable.
opening ceremony was interesting, with guests from danish and norwegian embassies.
her excellency janne julsrud was amazing!
though i loved her excellency vibeke rovsing lauritzen.
why, you ask?
cause her name's pretty!

had lunch with huiqun.
i wasn't myself, since i was ultra tired, having slept two hours the previous night.
which naturally meant that i didnt introduce myself and made friends.
however, by the first committee session, the unmoderated caucuses laid the basis for us to get to know each other better.
got to know great people with great names, and great oratorical skills to boot! (:
so i went around, dragging huiqun, introducing myself and getting to know everyone.

on a random note, on the first day, i realised that i was the only one in the whole lecture hall that wore a green shirt.
everyone were in pale green, or conventional colours of black and white.
i'm LUMINOUS. laughs.

at night, the whole smun delegation went for a movie at cineleisure.
narnia, can you believe it?
i was supposed to watch it with jazzywong.
now that i've watched it, i think it's good that i watched during smun.
it was pretty boring.
the only part i enjoyed were the trees fighting and the forest coming alive!
water demon was cool too!

after the movie, we were told to rush back, and huiqun and i have yet to have dinner.
we had to live on doughnuts from some doughnut shop.
though they were nice, i'd much preferred if we could have had something proper.
oh wells. lesson learnt.
turned in at 2 in the morn, woke up at 6.
bad start.

second day

met up with the friends we got to know (wasn't the whole committee yet) for breakfast.
over pratas, sandwiches, noodles and what not, we discussed our stances for the debate.
we were now more adjusted and everyone seemed to ease into debate easily.
during lunch, darren noted that IAEA was special in the sense that we were bonded, but had a clique bloc.
somehow, darli, shubit, arindam and rachel didnt really want to mix with the rest of the committee members except during the meetings.
i admitted that that was pretty sad, but well, at least we got to know them. (:
lunch at FASS saw us behaving like total non-diplomats, cause we were laughing and talking really loudly.
well, it's fun to do so, after getting fried in the conference over the iranian question.

the dance night was cancelled, which led to an uproar.
IAEA came up with a contingency plan (omfg, we totally rock)
where we decided to go down to vivocity for dinner.
initially, we were all rebellious dudes and babes who intended to return after the curfew.
then we got afraid and starting dashing towards the taxi stand and calling cabs.
i was a total idiot.
i didnt realise that we were at harbourfront and instead told the operator for a cab at vivo.
i did it twice.
we got a cab after the third phonecall.
i really hope no drivers were angry. (:

committee interaction, that replaced social night, was interesting.
played some cuckoo games and truth-or-dare was utterly hilarious.
huiqun had to go to a guy and say:
'is your dad a baker, cause you've got really hot buns!'
pick-up line courtesy of shanti.
she's totally amazing srsly; she came up with twenty pickup lines just like that!
*snaps fingers together.
kianggei had to pretend that he was into his second day of menstruation and asked jennifer of GA for a pad.
dare courtesy of amalina.
utterly hilarious.
shanti managed to snuggle up with an aussie and take a picture together.
darren annoyed us really badly though.
laughs. he was given the task of singing 'you're beautiful' to a random guy.
he gave like 436072358763 excuses why he shouldnt have to do it,
when he gave out-of-this-world dares for everyone else.
gee. when he finally screwed up his courage to do so, he shouted at this guy.
man, i pity that dude; he looked freaked out!
i wanted to stay longer, but i left to answer (ahem) nature's calls.

met up with eunkyung, vish, huiqun, weihong, zengjie, kristin (pronounced as chris-tenn; cool right?!), adel (she's a mixed blood exactly like me!) and darren.
supposed to be a talking session, but it became a question and answer instead.
initially it was really interesting, answering questions like:
'what was the sweetest thing a guy/girl ever did to you?'
'what's the three most attractive traits you'll look out for in a partner?'
'what's the three most repulsive traits you'll hate in a partner?'
then things went downhill, oh well, shan't comment further.

turned in at three in the morn, woke up three hours later.
god.

third day

established a contact list. yay! (:
today i realised that darli of russia loves bombing things.
she wants to bomb japan if we do something stupid like in WW2 and ouch,
i'm the delegate of japan.
she wants to bomb london's town of reading, in an easy bid to eliminate toxic waste.
she wants to bomb india for provoking her.
she wants to bomb everything!
the way she says it is totally funny.

i fell asleep once or twice during the conferences cause i was so tired.
furthermore, the topic of disarmament was so dry and monotonous.

social night was slightly better.
there was no drawing of slots like last year and we sat by committees.
IAEA were all dressed so well!
muiz and i were both in topman shirts! <3
we've got good taste!
the girls were like all wearing hot hot dresses and made heads turn.
IAEA for the win, yo!
camwhored randomly with everyone, yay!
the entertainment by the emcees was bad, much more worse than last year's.
furthermore, the food was so substandard!
we had pasta, but who puts bittergourd and celery into pasta?
i thought celery were used in soup-making or something?
everyone were aghast at the taste.
some forced it down, cause they didnt want to seem rude.
but nisha, shanti, praba and i all could not stomach the taste of overdue lemon.
that's what it tasted like.
*pulls a face

we countered the problem by ordering pizzas.
went to an air-conditioned room and sat down and talked and ate.
played this game, 'i've never'.
basically everyone says something that they've never done, then those who have have to drink up.
man! it brought really interesting revelations.
muiz is totally cool! srsly.
like wow, being different is like, wow!

kristin, adel, nisha, praba, shanti and me decided to have our own gossip session.
day two's supposed gossip session was so, structured and it made us feel interrogated.
i felt really awkward, so i dragged shanti's friend along, from UNDP, by the name of wenlong (i do hope i got that name right).
so we talked and everyone wanted to do something fun and impulsive, it being the last night and all.
however, we also agreed that we felt tired and sluggish after all the conferences, resolutions, working papers, caucuses, simulated crisis and debate.
mentally draining, that's smun.
we were all falling asleep, so we decided to walk around NUS.
nus is so old and creepy; there were bats and houses looking like ghost haunts.
urgh, i freaked myself out once at the shadow of a person in a house, but no one believed me.
walked for like an hour or two, before we decided that we really needed some rest.
2 hour sleep today. holy.

forth day

packed.
felt down.

the end of every camp is always hard for me.
especially smun 2008 where i felt so happy, more so than the one in 2007.
went to the closing ceremony, and some words of people really touched me a lot.
weihong said something about me being the bigmouthed person who brought everyone together.
zengjie said i was the prominent one.
omg, recalling everything that they said make me want to cry now.
i think everyone had a part to play in making it an enjoyable experience.
closing ceremony was spent camwhoring.
i was utterly shocked during prize presentation cause we won the best position paper award.
i stoned in my seat for ten seconds before realising that i was being called.
laughs, pretty interesting.

got back, checked out and cabbed home.

- - -

i'm feeling utterly depressed now.
but i feel happy at the same time.
the friendships that i've made will, hopefully, grow and strengthen.
it's just sad that this is the last time i'll participate in SMUN.
and it's the last time i'll get to see everyone in a conference together.
i had hoped that we could all forge friendships with darli's clique, outside of meetings.
it doesnt seem that way now.

called yiyao and nigel and a lot of other people.
talking to them helped, but i still felt down.
i don't mind feeling exhausted and drain to go through the experience again.
but well, it has come to an end, i think now it's time for me to feel happy.
i got a remarkable experience, met great people and learnt a lot.
i hope to stay friends as that's the primary reason for me signing up for it.

in order of delegation.
darren, kristin, haoyi, eunkyung, praba, nisha, olivia, amy, amalina, shanti, vish, weihong, huiqun, mingen, kianggei, muiz, melissa, darli, shubit, arindam, rachel, zengjie, adel, joyce, naomi.

I KNOW THAT WORDS CAN'T PROPERLY CONVEY WHAT I THINK YOU ALREADY KNOW, BUT I WILL SAY IT NOW, I LOVE YOU GUYS.

thanks for making SMUN IAEA 2008 an amazing experience.
thanks for letting me get to know you.
the laughter, the bitching, the gossip, the late nights, the 20 min unmoderated caucuses (i can see everyone's wide smiles, especially darli, laughs)
will always remember them.
i hope that we'll always be friends, going on strong. (:

ps. i'm dead beat. i'll send the contact list tomorrow alrights? OH GOD. i wanna sleep some more.