A TRAVEL LOG
day 1, thursday: melbourne-singapore-london-paris
flight got delayed in melb for 3 hours and so we missed our connecting flight in sgp to paris. that meant being shoved onto a british airways flight to london. at heathrow, i went through ridiculous security checks, got sent to wrong terminals but finally boarded my flight to paris. the plane was rather small and so i felt every bit of the turbulence. but 24 hours of delays, transit and plane rides later, i finally found myself at charles de gaulle.
day 2, friday: pompidou and louvre
it was raining and awfully cold in paris, especially since i was coming from 30 degree weather in melbourne. i was absolutely tired but managed to muster enough energy to get myself to centre popmpidou. it took forever to find pompidou and i ended up getting lost all along rue du rivoli by taking the wrong turns but it was exactly what i had hoped to do, to find myself wandering and be suprised at the turn of every street corner.
centre pompidou
the louvre was massive. i took the metro and as soon as i emerged and made my way towards it, the inverted glass pyramids at the end of the hall awaited me and it was nothing short of an awe inspiring sight. there were people clamouring all over it for photos and i remember standing in the middle of it all and just looking up with such amazement at the architecture and grandeur.
louvre, aerial shot
louvre, from the inside
the sculptures were amazing and i really enjoyed the fact that the setting of the art was just as majestic as the piece itself. the overarching ceilings and grand pillars were as much of a view as were the sculptures. i went through some other exhibits and lastly made my way to the mona lisa. the crowd of people standing around it spoiled it a little for me and it didn't help that it was pretty noisy in the gallery but all that certainly did not take the awe away from da vinci's most famous portrait
day 3, saturday: paris- le tour de eiffel, arc de triomphe, musee d'orsay
it started out with a nice sunny morning with frambiose and chocolate tarts with alexandra. it's great that her place was just 5 mins away from the eiffel tower. the eiffel tower was pretty awesome and it takes a while, standing there for a couple of moments, just to take it all in.
on a very cold morning
when i was done snapping away with the camera, i hopped on the metro at trocadèro towards chatalet and went on up to the arc de triomphe where the view of paris was just absolutely amazing. you could see the entire city radiating out from where you were standing to as far as the eye could see.
the arc de triomphe from different angles
children looking on at the eternal flame/ view of paris/ inscription at the arc de triomphe
and so i walked down the champs elysèes towards jardin des tuileries. it started raining along the way and so bought a wool hat at my futile attempt to keep warm. but the gardens seemed igonorant of the grey skies and cold winds. the flowers were showing signs of spring and the architecture that surrounded it seemed to only make it ever more splendid.
jardin des tuileries
across the seine on my way to the musee d'orsay
soon enough, i made my way across la seine on my way to the musèe d'orsay. i definitely prefered it over the louvre. it was so nice to revisit many of the impressionists that i had seen in melbourne at the ngv like sisley and monet. at the same time, it was such a thrill to see the featured works by degas, van gogh, manet and so many more for the first time. i didn't have time to get over to the cathèdrale notre dame because i was running out of time and so i headed back to alexandra's place to pack up and make my way to the airport. geneva, here i come...
day 4, sunday: geneva, switzerland
i had arrived the night before, met anya (roomate) and fell straight into bed. got brunch with the rest of the delegation in the morning and then we decided to spend the rest of the day along lake geneva. it was absolutely breathtaking with amazing views and i had so much fun with the girls!
Cathedral Notre Dame in Geneva, just across the street from our balcony
the view of the swiss alps from our hotel
lake geneva 
some of the girls :)
cradling along on a tree
day 5, monday: opening ceremony and global village
opening ceremony at the ICCG was really good. With 1700 delegates, it was very reassuring to know that there were so many people that had the same passion for resolving political and legal issues in today's world. The harvard team introduced themselves, as did the swiss host team, and we got treated to some yodelling and the playing of the swiss alphorn
opening ceremony at the CICG with (l-r)
ben, dana, iresha, carolina, heather, min
global village was such a gas. the venezuelans were keen to pull you out of your way and spin you around for a little dance while the swiss enticed you with their chocolates. it was such fun meeting everyone from all over the world and understanding the other perfectly despite all the hand gesturing and attempts at speaking each other's language. and as the night wore on, the number of people you met just kept on growing and growing. the aussie delegation itself was a mixture of nationalities with a greek, chiliean, sri lankan, serbian and singaporeans. it was quite strange to be a full-fledged australian for a night but hey, i guess it's all part of the experience.
day 6, tuesday: comittee session and boat night
committee session began terribly because my committee, the IMF, decided to vote on the zimbabwe issue instead of anti-money laundering and terrorist financing. but as the moderated caucuses went on and we eagerly raised our placards to begin speaking, we easily engaged ourselves in forming a loan package for zimbabwe. i (russian federation) quickly allied with china, malaysia and brazil to strengthen our position even though we were on equal (as opposed to weighted) voting.
boat night with the aussie delegation
boat night was alright. it was nice to get on what is apparently the fanciest boat cruise in geneva (with 3 different levels of music to each dancefloor no less) but it was far too long. the boat didn't dock till one in the morning and so by 12, carolina, mardi, iresha and me were waiting with feet aching after 4 hours of dancing. but the views were aamzing and more or less made up for the unbearable wait to get back on terra firma.
carolina/ on the deck/ oscar!/ view of geneva
day 7, wednesday: lausanne and cabaret night
we went to lausanne today to get a tour of epfl. it was such a shame we didn't get to see more of th city but epfl was just huge. we went through their achitecture and engineering schools and were throughly impressed with the work they were doing. from improving aerodynamics in sailing boats at the prestigious america world cup to developing new equipment for nasa, these students seemed to enter into corporate and government partnerships very easily. but the coolest part was where we sat in a simulation of the major eathquakes of the last century.
earthquake simulation at EPFL
and that afternoon over lunch, i didn't think i had laughed that hard in so long. i struggled and gasped for air while others had tears rolling down their faces. a combination of chinese whispers and a, uhm, "sea cucumber" moment by ben had us laughing till our stomachs hurt so bad.
views from epfl
then we walked over to the other side of the university and saw a circus tent (!) erected for cabaret night which to say the least was heaps better than beijing last year. the acrobats and modern dance was very enjoyable while the universities and delegations that performed had the crowd on its feet rousing with applause. harvard did a dance performance which was really cool because the directors and sec-gen which we were usually so serious were now letting loose. oxford put up musical which was well, commendable... i'm just not too fond of someone doing a take on here comes the sun and butchering it.
cabaret night
day 8, thursday: intense committee sessions
malaysia turned on us and went over with the us and japan and so we lost a vote for our cause. we churned out 5 working papers and even got a draft resolution in the works. the moderated and unmoderated caucuses were extremely intense and left us totally drained. a few of us even worked through lunch to get our working papers out. and to add to that, i was still recuperating from the late nights and the horrid 30 hours that it took me to get to geneva and so later that night, i skipped the pub crawl and slept in, for 12 blissful hours.
writing up the draft resolution
day 9, friday: closing ceremony, un general assembly hall, farewell night
it was awfully sad that the conference was drawing to a close. i had just gotten to know my committee members so much better, esp cristoph and judith and before we knew it, the 4 days whizzed by. dhruv (our managing director) got a guest speaker, the IMF representative to the WTO, and it was an absolute thrill to hear him speak on diplomacy, the realities of conditionalities and loan packages and the sticking point of our resolution, human rights and the IMF. We did eventually pass a resolution with plenty of compromise and the applause we gave each other was heart felt. i've never been in a room of such enganging thinkers with the same intense passion. everyone pulled their weight, prepared and brought their agenda to the table- elequoenty and comprehensively. we made our statement to the press and then went trigger happy.
the IMF committee!
in a moderated caucus
we then made our way to the UN european headquarters for the closing ceremony. it was such a privilege for the UN to have allowed us in the general assembly hall and as we each took our seats, the thought that some dignatory or state official had been in my seat debating world issues just blew me away. the eminent speakers from diplomats, ambassadors and deans left us throughly inspired. after which, the closing remarks from the harvard team and us delgates recounting our experience really made me ever more certain of where I want to head towards in my legal career.
the European HQ of the UN
the Aussie delegation
the UN General Assembly Hall
and as we exited the general assembly hall and out of the UN, we felt this immense sense of privilege and knowledge that we could make a difference in the world. and as we averted our gazes towards the glass windows of the UN building, we realised that it had started snowing! in a span of 5 minutes, it fell from 13 degrees to zero. it was simply extremely unusual for it to have snowed at this time of the year. and yet it was so surrreal, to feel so empowered from being at the UN to suddenly having wisps of snow falling swiftly across geneva. it was one of those moments that you knew and recognised with absolutely certainty that it meant so much more than it could ever appear.
all of us were tongue-tied when we realised it started snowing
freezing cold
and farewell night came. decked out in dresses and braving the freezing cold, we hopped on the tram to sis- mondi like we always had every morning. i had one of the best nights ever and you absolutely didn't want it to end. i started the evening off with the aussie delgation where we had plenty of cake and chocolate, laughing and reminiscing over the past week. but as we went about our own way, mardi and me kept bumping into people from our committee. soon enough half of the IMF committee were just grooving the night away. it was such a blast. i'm not usually one for late nights out dancing till 4 in the morning bu it was so good to get to know everyone outside of moderated caucuses and political agendas and i was extremely surprised at how we all got along.
day 10, saturday: red cross museum
dana had the left the night before and this morning ben and carolina were off to paris. sophie left too, for italy, while mardi and iresha went on the post conference trip to bern. And so suddenly, the australian delegation whittled down to just about 5 of us. i had a happy hangover, feeling absolutely empty from having too much fun the night before and wished we all had a little more time together.
but heather, julie-ann and me decided to spend the afternoon at the red cross museum and it was amazing to see the effects of war on the soldiers, women and children so well documented. the artefacts on exhibit was nothing short of heart wrenching.
day 11, sunday: musèe ariana, palais des nations, old town
started the morning off with a tour at the un with heather, stef, julie-ann, anya and susan. we were early at the UN and soheaded for the parks next door to the musèe Ariana, a museum of glorious pieces of ceramics and china. It was later at the UN that i learned that the grounds which the European HQ of the UN was on was donated by a man who named the museum next door after his mother, Ariana. And the collection of ceramics were actually those that he had collected through his travels.
Our morning at the Ariana Ceramic Museum
the UN was nothing short of amazing. the history was very important to me and learning about "the hall of lost footsteps" with the marble and pilars coming from italy, belgium, geneva etc meant that I saw and understood things differently. There was "the spanish room" that held so much in its guilded walls of gold or even the placards from each country that still remained from the meeting just the day before. Perhaps, the general assembly hall where the Ottowa treaty had been signed was the most overwhelming room to be in. It gave a new perspective to having sat in it the day before for world mun.
the "spanish room" where diplomats had just met a day earlier
ceiling of "the spanish room"
somehow, we managed to have time to get to the other side of the lake to get heather's pic of the equestrian statue. heather and stef then left after because they had to catch their flight to the czech republic and so julie-ann, susan and me walked on. the architecture on this side of town reminded me a lot of paris but yet there was that sense of tranquility. we walked around the gardens, had lunch at the square and took forever walking down the cobble stoned streets as we stopped at every great building, admiring the general splendour.
after lunch, on our way back, i heard the lingering tune of blue moon. we walked towards it and was pleasantly surprised to see a carousel with little children and blue moon playing. to say it was charming is an understatement but geneva has a way of making you fall in love with it time and time again. whether it's the views of the swiss alps and the lakes that take you by surprise as you happen to turn a street corner or the general way of life of the people here, it's a place i've very much grown attached too.
Me at Pont de Saint- Leger
"there's so much I need to say to you,
so many reasons why.."
-against all odds, phil collings
