Soon an idea developed. We all have been looking forward to meet the students from Japan who joined us in representing Argentina. We still wanted to get to know each other despite not being able to spent a week together in New York.

So we decided to meet in a video chat. Considering the time difference between Germany and Japan and also the fact that our sleeping schedules were very messed up when we could not leave the house, this meeting started fairly early. However, almost all of us were there on time and we started to get to know each other.

First we talked a little bit about how the situation in our countries are and how we are all doing at home. Then we played a very fun game. Everyone said three “facts” about themselves, but only one of these was actually true. It was a very cool and fun experience and we even learned new things about our fellow delegates with whom we had already spent a lot of time.

After that we had several online meetings within our own delegation and we kept each other updated on what has been going on during this time. We are very much looking forward to meeting each other again in person for a gettogether to be able to still celebrate the great time we had and all the things that we have learnt.

In addition to this, we also had some other great news!

The NMUN staff did read the position papers and awarded the best papers, even though we could not perform the conference. And for the first time since our university started this project, delegates from our university won an award for a position paper. Tobias and Ruth representing Argentina in the High Level Political Forum won an award for the paper they sent in. Congratulations!!!

We met at 6 am at the train station to go to Weimar, where the 2020 GerMUN conference took place. We were all very tired and happy to spent some time on the bus sleeping, but we were also excited and looking forward to our time in Weimar.

When we finally arrived in Weimar, we just had time to get our rooms ready, get dressed and leave for the opening ceremony. The ceremony as well as the General Assembly sessions took place in an old riding hall. We were all excited for the conference, but also very tired after the long day of traveling.

Our delegate Luis had the honour to become president of the German Model United Nations 2020 conference.

I was going to serve in the Security Council, which is the most exciting but also most challenging committee at any Model UN so when we finally started the sessions, I was very nervous. The work in the Security Council was very challenging, as there not even all Member States were present so we had to give speech after speech. However, it was still a lot of fun and a great exercise to improve our speaking skills.

The work on the resolutions was somehow difficult as we were discussing the difficult topic of how to get the youth involved in the prevention of terror attacks. The Security Council also has the difficult task to consider all the veto powers, that could destroy the work of multiple days with only one vote. As I was representing the UK, which is a veto power, I was approached by the other delegates a lot. It was pretty cool to be in this position and to potentially  be able to prevent anything the others were suggesting.

It was also great to meet some people I knew from last year and to get to know new people and to get to know them.

It’s always overcoming your own fears, when giving an inspiring speach on an Model UN conference.

The other committees also worked really hard, as we wanted to finish the voting process before the delegates dance, which took place on our last evening. The Security Council even managed to discuss the other topics on the agenda and pass a presidential statement on the situation in Myanmar. It was during our time in Weimar that Turkish soldiers were killed in Syria. This was brought to our attention and we tried to bring this into the Security Council as a crisis. It would have been amazing to be able to discuss a real life scenario like that. I brought in the idea to the Secretary General and we were allowed to consider it. However, due to a veto vote, we were not able to discuss the topic and kept working on our original agenda. Later on I found out that an hour after I brought in the motion to change the agenda, the real UK asked for a meeting of the actual Security Council. 

Outside of the sessions we had a great time. We got to get to know the other delegations and we also got to know our own delegation even better.

Sadly, not everyone had such a great time. During our free time in the evening some delegates were subjected to racist behavior of some other delegates. However horrible this was, our delegation stood together against this and we are very glad that all the responsible people in the more important positions, took the necessary steps to make sure that racism and other discrimination has no place at such an intercultural event as a Model UN conference. 

However at the end of these exhausting, yet exciting days, I think we had all learned a lot and had made some really great memories. Even though this turned out to be the end of this Model UN project, we can all be proud of ourselves and of what we have accomplished. Everyone was able to grow as a person and to learn new skills. We are looking forward to when we can all meet again in person and get to have a great end to the Model UN project of 2020.

On the evening of the 17th of February, we arrived in Berlin and checked into the hostel. After the evening for our own disposal, we got up early the next morning and went to the German parliament. It took some waiting but finally we were seated in the big plenary. We heard an interesting talk about the history of the building and the structures of our government in general. After that we had the chance to talk to two employees of the parliament. They had some interesting insights into working in the parliament. In the end, we took the chance to go up to the roof of the building. This time the dome was open, we went to the top and had a wonderful view over Berlin.

After a quick lunch we headed directly to the Argentine Embassy. As we get to represent the Argentine Republic in New York, we were very honoured to get to speak to a real-life Argentine diplomat. The Embassy was a floor of an unassuming building in the middle of Berlin. We got to spend two hours with Martín Suaya, who was very nice and answered all our questions we provided before the trip. He told us with lots of information and gave us a very deep insight into the Argentine way of thinking.

In the evening we enjoyed an Argentine meal together in a small restaurant. It was a great adventure with a rather unusual kind of food for us.

On Wednesday we checked out and went to the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The gentleman talking to us was an expert on Argentine-related topics. He was able to explain certain aspects of the Argentine Republic from an external point of view and even had some advice for our upcoming conference.

Our last station in Berlin was the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. We arrived in the early afternoon and had a very nice talk to the Lady who is responsible for the Latin American countries. She gave us, in addition to the other conversation, some more neutral insights of the Argentine way of live.

After this conversation we started the journey home, after 2 very eventful and instructive days.

It was on the third Christmas weekend, that the students from the Westphalian University and from Trier University came together to have their first training conference at the youth hostel Burg Blankenheim in Blankenheim.

While we were given a short introduction about the upcoming days and rules of the hostel, everybody was more than ready to start.

The first session started on Friday after everyone had arrived and ate dinner. Each student represented a country and was very much in character for the sessions. We had delegations from all over the world, including Denmark, China, France, Armenia etc. In order to give the best possible performance, we prepared ourselves with given background guides about the topics we were going to discuss about. The two topics were “Peacebuilding and Post Conflict Recovery and Development” and “Building a Resilient World Through Disaster Risk Reduction”.

First, our job was to set the agenda in which order we would like to talk about the topics. It took us all night and a lot of informal sessions, where we can talk to other delegations about the agenda setting, until 10pm and even a little bit in the morning the next day to set the agenda. We had fruitful discussions about it.

After breakfast on Saturday, the following step was to continue right where we had stopped the night before. We had a very long day ahead of us. The agenda was finally set before noon, so we were then able to stand our opinion in front of every delegation when we were on the speaker’s list and upfront. The first topic to talk about was “Peacebuilding and Post Conflict Recovery and Development”. The discussions during informal sessions could get very heated and at lunchtime the conference room was filled with students who were hungry for more debates. However, the discussions could be exhausting so that concentration would eventually come back after a good meal and a small break.

Subsequently, we were back in formal sessions, hearing good speeches about for example protecting the youth, empowering women, helping countries in need and financing all of it. In the afternoon, some delegations were going into groups to work on a working paper that later on might be adopted as a draft resolution in the committee.

We were also provided with a couple of snacks, baked goods and coffee during informal sessions, which was very much appreciated.

In the following hours, the only thing you were able to see were students working together, discussing and compromising on their working papers. Until 11pm, we kept developing and acquired what’s most important for our country and fits the needs of other countries as well.

The day was long and everybody was ready to adjourn the meeting to Sunday.

The last day has started, we cleared our rooms and put the luggage in the back of the conference room, and the motivation and determination was at its highest. Every working group finished their working papers and the delegations had the chance to read each one of them. As a result, we had 3 working papers ready to be adopted as draft resolutions. Everything came to an end, we closed the speaker’s list and voted that two of the three resolutions were adopted.

Afterwards, we had some pictures taken and packed our cars for the drive home. It was a long but very productive and educational weekend for all students and we made a lot of new experiences for the upcoming conference in Weimar and especially for our trip to New York.