Travel Blog: New York City for Model United Nations

by Meghan Agostinelli, staff reporter

Meredith Sullivan, sophomore, at the United Nations on March 10. Photo taken by Meghan Agostinelli.

MUN 2012 was an experience I will definitely never forget and has made wish that March 2013 wasn't such a long time from now! After a day-along bus ride from the Cape to New York City, I arrived in New York City excited to partake in the conference and to meet a lot of new people. 


That night, the Disarmament & National Security Committee for  Israel (Meredith Sullivan, Devin Low & myself) along with the DISEC delegates representing more than 200 other countries entered the room ready to simulate the actions of United Nations delegates. DISEC's first  task was to choose a topic to debate: either the security implications of nuclear weapons in the DPRK or state-sponsored terrorism. Israel hoped to debate state-sponsored terrorism, and fortunately, since many other countries such as Costa Rica also hoped to debate this issue, state-sponsored terrorism became the topic of discussion for the following days. 


The next day, countries joined together to draft 'working papers' which are basically documents which outline these countries' plans to combat the issue of state-sponsored terrorism. We decided to sponsor Working Paper 1.1 since we felt that the paper sufficiently addressed methods to help Israel in her struggle against state-sponsored terrorist groups such as those in Iran. Other countries chose to support Working Paper 1.2, 1.3, and/or 1.4 as they felt these papers better addressed their countries' needs. After writing these papers, supporters of Working Papers 1.1 and 1.2 realized the papers were very similar and thus chose to merge together. Supporters of Working Papers 1.3 and 1.4 also merged. With the merge of Working Papers 1.1 and 1.2, this paper became known as Resolution 1.1, and the merger of Working Papers 1.3 and 1.4 became known as Resolution 1.2. Since resolutions had already been created, countries drafted amendments for their papers in hopes that these amendments would help their resolutions to pass. 


On the third day of the conference, DISEC voted on both resolutions and each amendment. Both resolutions passed, and the majority of the amendments passed also. The final day, when we went to the United Nations, each country voted each of the five GA (General Assembly)'s Resolutions, and for DISEC, Resolution 1.1 passed but Resolution 1.2 did not. I was excited that the resolution Israel supported passed, and I loved the experience as a whole.

There was also a significant social aspect to the conference. Meredith & I became friends with a girl named Lindsey from outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who was a co-representative for Colombia. Through our conversations, I learned that she loves languages like I do and that she taught herself Arabic. 


I also met a girl who represented Hungary at the conference but was from Venezuela, whose culture is obviously very different from ours: I learned that her family owns a bulletproof car as shootings are common there and that people will just come up to you somewhere like the supermarket and force you to give him something (her mom was forced to give a man her watch), or he will kill you. She also mentioned that several of her friends have been kidnapped through the "Kidnap Express", a process in which someone stalks you (finding out what time you leave your house in the morning, what time you arrive home in the afternoon, etc.) and then kidnaps you for an hour before letting you go. This made me appreciate the American way of life so much more.


I also met an Italian named Carlo, and I learned about Italian culture and his personal experiences (such as traveling to India!). From him, I learned about how Italian teens often take advantage of their cross proximity to other countries in Western Europe and travel to nearby countries such as Holland. Another interesting fact I learn was that Italian schooling is different from American schooling; Italians go to high school for five years while we only attend for four years. 


Through MUN I learned so much more about Venezuelan culture, Italian culture, and how someone lives in another part of America. What a great experience & I cannot wait until next year! 

Head of the Dragon: Part II

by Cooper Heilmann, staff writer

Link to Part I: http://sturgisstormwatch.blogspot.com/2012/03/head-of-dragon-part-i.html 

The frozen grass crunched under the feet of a young boy.  The early morning sun cast its waking gaze over the twinkling grass.  The boy plodded up the hill, enjoying the warmth of the sun from the east.  When he reached the top of the hill, he was standing on the edge of a sea cliff.  To his right was the fjord that led to the docks of his village.  To the left, the untamed coast stretched south for miles.
Eric always loved to come here.  He was fifteen years old, and he stood tall and proud.  He was rather muscular for his age.  He had matted blond hair and piercing blue eyes, like the half-melted ice in the later spring months.  His thick eyebrows rested on his low forehead.  Some people said that he didn’t look at all like his father.
Eric tried not to think about his father, Hrothgar.  He had been lost at sea when Eric was only eight years old.  Other ships had returned from his father’s expedition, but every time Eric asked them what had happened, they said his ship had been caught on an iceberg.  They seemed to shun the question whenever it was asked.  When they did talk about Hrothgar, they did so in hushed voices.  Ever since the day he had awaited Hrothgar’s return on the docks, Eric had come up to this point.  Every morning, he watched the sea, as if his father’s ship would appear.
Deep inside, Eric didn’t believe that his father had hit an iceburg.  Hrothgar was the finest warrior for miles around.  He had wrestled a bear naked, driven out an enemy Viking village, and swam from the pier to the docks in the middle of winter.  He was also an excellent sailor.  Hrothgar was appointed the leader of a raid on some villages far up the north coast.  He never returned.  Eric sighed and walked back to his village.  On the way there, he met his uncle Bjorn.
“Oh hello, Eric,” he said.  “Up early again, eh?”  Eric nodded.  “I see.  By the way, the blacksmith wants you there early today, so I suggest you get going,” Bjorn said.  
“Okay, goodbye uncle,” Eric said.  He headed down the slope.
Eric’s village was at the mouth of a fjord leading into the North Sea.  On land, it was surrounded on three sides by a dense forest that the villagers called “Wolfwood”.  To the south, the faint ghost of a road wound down a cliff and disappeared into the hills.  No one ever left Eric’s village except to hunt or cut wood.  They had set up a permanent, though small, residence.
Eric worked as the blacksmith’s assistant.  He enjoyed the job.  It was hard work, but it was worth it.  He pumped the furnace and watched the flames melt and twist the hot iron into weapons and other items.  Then the blacksmith would bend and hammer, bend and hammer until the iron changed shape into tools ranging from horseshoes to swords.
As always, smoke billowed in a thick black cloud from the small building ahead of him.  Eric walked in the door and began his work.  The forge rang with the sound of strong hammers on steel, like the song of the Valkyries when the Aurora Borealis lit up the sky.

Head of the Dragon: Part I

by Cooper Heilmann, staff writer


The little boy stood on the docks, waiting.  Waiting for the head of the dragon.  The waves splashed against the frozen shores and rocked the moored karfi and other boats.  Mist spread out across the fjord, reaching halfway up the steep, rocky cliffs.  Smoke from thatched roof houses rose into the air above one of the cliffs.  This was where young Eric’s village lay.
His mother stood next to him, holding his shoulder.  They waited and waited like all the others on that shore.  The longboats and karfi should have been coming by now.  The sun hung low in the gray sky.  Eric looked up to his mother.  She just stared blankly out into the open ocean, waiting as he was.  Eric’s uncle, Bjorn, walked over and stood next to them.  He towered up about six feet and three inches tall, and he was built like a bear.  He stood there, hand in his thick, blond beard, waiting.
Just then, a shape could be made out approaching the fjord.  It was a ship.  The sails were being rolled up.  People—tall, strong people were running about on the deck.  On the prow of the boat stood the figure of a mermaid.  The ship beached ashore, and the people cheered as the men jumped out of the ship.  Each held treasure of some kind.  It ranged from rice, salt, and meat to gold, jewels, and weapons.  Each man had an axe at his belt and a heavy wooden shield on his back.  They held horned helmets in their arms.  They walked victoriously onto the shore.  One walked right past Eric as if he wasn’t there.  Eric’s uncle ran up to the man.
“Sven!  Sven!  Do you know the tidings of my brother?”  The man shook his head.
“Thought ‘e was ‘ere,” he replied, and walked off.  Ship after ship came into the harbor, but none of them belonged to Eric’s father, Hrothgar. The sun soon set over the ocean, and Bjorn and Eric’s mother turned away and headed back to the village.  Eric stared out at the open ocean, and a small tear ran down his cheek.  He stood there for a while, before trudging through the snow back to the village. Eric was only eight years old.


To be continued...