On Thursday April 11th, a group of sixteen avid delegates departed for the Evanston Hilton Garden Inn, accompanied by the responsible and incomparable chaperone duo of Mr. Greer and Ms. Hennessy (who were later switched out for Mr. Tempone and Ms. Kelley). After changing into our “Western business attire” and donning our credentials (the fancy Model UN term for a plastic nametag), we set out for the Norris University Center to indulge ourselves in some pre-committee Frontera Fresco. Following our brief dinner, we each set out to our respective committee rooms in order for our hectic weekend and the 10th anniversary of Northwestern University Model United Nations (NUMUN) to commence.

We covered a variety of roles, from the mighty USA in the UN Security Council to the murderous Pavel Grachev, Defense Minister of the Yeltsin Cabinet. Needless to say, we were kept quite busy throughout the whole weekend. We debated global issues, wrote working papers, and passed comprehensive (a word everyone in my committee used at least 7 times each) resolutions. Each committee even had their own Twitters, which were kept up-to-date by the Northwestern students who chaired the committees. Selections from the appropriately dorky, yet somewhat topical, tweets included:

@ChicagoNUMUNX: Nukes launched and headed towards Russia…GET AT US

@YeltsinCabinet: Someone just ran up to our Vice-Chair and gave him her number #BestDais #NUMUNX

@EuNUMUNX: Moving on to the accession of new member states… #AccessionOrDie

@WHO_NUMUNX: #WHOruntheworld the dais. #duh

@unep_numunx: I got 99 problems and they’re all amendments #UNEP #RidingThatStruggleBus

Okay, so maybe the tweets are slightly pitiful. But, in any case, we all worked hard and enjoyed ourselves, even at 1:00 a.m. when about half of the people in our group were violently roused from their slumbers to solve crises in their respective committees. The group also faced a few crises of our own when we got word of Domino’s Pizza’s refusal to deliver in Evanston, a ludicrous policy because Domino’s is extremely vital to the functioning of us Latin delegates. However, we settled for Papa John’s, whose Cinnapies unfortunately just do not measure up to the glorious flavor of Domino’s renowned Cinna Stix.

Although we may not have returned home with any awards or Best Delegate titles, NUMUN X concluded what has been an extremely successful year for Latin’s largest club. Shout out to Mr. Gilden, our three co-heads: Rachel, Mehr, and Hedy, any teacher who chaperoned a conference, and every member of the club for making this year such as great one. Even though it’s only my second year, this year’s group of club members seems to be the funniest, smartest, and most tightly knit of any.

Whether we are assigned to the USA or the tiny island nation of Palau, we all manage to work hard to write our position papers and pack binders full of research (even if we start the night before the conference), while also having an awesome time celebrating fake birthdays at restaurants, eating late-night Domino’s, dressing up with a theme at the delegate dances, and bonding over “Stuff Model UN Delegates Say” jokes as well as sad Youtube video attempts at parodying PSY with “Model UN Style” (see below for links, view at your own discretion). Finally, much like any well-written and “comprehensive” resolution, we Model UN-ers are multi-faceted. We are each the perfect balance between bookish and exuberant, which is a quality that the Latin community as a whole seems to embody.

Stuff Model UN Delegates Say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXwgToOYn2g

Model UN Styles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZHqtqpaSzY