prepcom - over!

Is it really over? Yes, it is! The 2nd NPT PrepCom is officially over as of 13h20 today.

I must say, I enjoyed the experience, learned a lot, and met a ton of people, but it was exhausting. Because today was the final day, everyone had to adopt the draft report. Of course, there would be drama flying left and right today. We didn't start the plenary session until 12h instead of 10h. Egypt requested in a note verbale that their walkout be reflected in the report. The League of Arab States and the NAM had their meeting, all contributing to the late start of the plenary.  Yay for procedural issues!

And now, it's time for a break....

We were liberated early today so I came home and slept for 2 hours. It should have been a relaxing nap, except, I had what seems to be a stress dream. In this scenario, I was on the tram for some reason. Then it made a stop, where I thought I had to get something from outside the tram. So I got off the tram for a few seconds intending to get back on. But then, the tram left!! With all my stuff! Panicked, I chased after the tram to get my stuff. And that's when I woke up. Clearly, I need some R&R.

This is why I'm off to Lyon tomorrow morning. Time for a delightful break while dancing under the starry nights of Lyon.

More pictures and adventures will follow soon!

Happy weekend, everyone!

mid-week report

It's half way through the week....and I'm already feeling like I'm about to chug liters of coffee and binge on chocolate. Plenary sessions are over. Because there's just so much to talk about, we had 10 more countries on the speaking list before proceeding to cluster 1 issues. As always, statements have been super long. And everytime Iran speaks, the cameras are shoved literally in their face. Condemnations of DPRK's test are flying wild. Iran's controversial nuclear program and Israel are also the subjects of the statements. (Among many other things)

Iran: STOP DISCRIMINATING US or ISRAEL, ISRAEL, ISRAEL.

For a list of speakers and their statements, look here.

I currently have another office on the 6th floor of the Palais. Voici the view from my window:

C'est beau, non?

By 18h, today will be over and this person plans to go home and maybe go on another run. Yes, you read right, another run. Why is that?

Well, this morning, I was woken up by the upstairs person's alarm. At 5h45. Apparently, this girl wakes up early, goes to work early and comes back early, which would make sense, of course. Except. Her alarm vibrates like no other. To the point where I can hear it because the floor is vibrating and it wakes me up, including her footsteps, which makes me wonder if Bigfoot is living up there. So, as cranky as I was this morning for waking up so early, I decided to go out for a run at dawn. Might as well if I'm going to be up so early. And to relieve stress from today's long day, I should go on another run. At the end of day, I just turn into a tired, cranky, anti-social person who is in dire need of a glass of wine.

Today's been one of those days where I ask myself, WHY AM I NOT DONE WITH MY MASTERS YET?!

Tomorrow will be a lot better. Because it's almost Friday. This means that there's about a week left before I head back to my beloved home, Lyon where I'll be treated like a little princess, resting and getting properly fed.

npt prepcom negotiations

The game is on! NPT Prepcom, here I come! It'll be 2 weeks filled with negotiations, debates, arguments

Follow us at #prepcom as we cook up mischief. 

I no longer sound like I've been chain smoking so it looks like it was just a cold. At least I won't be scaring any delegates. But sitting in a stuffy room is not cool.

Today, to say the least has been really hectic, messy and trying to figure out what in the world is going on.

Funny conversation:

A bunch of us CNS folks were trying to get a trolley to get the massive amount of boxes up to the assembly hall. So we asked the security.

Me: Excusez-moi, Ou est-ce que je peux trouver un chariot?  (Excuse me, where can I find a trolley?)
Security dude:  Un chariot??? Mais, ici, c'est pas une gare, c'est pas un aéroport!!!  (A trolley? This isn't a train station or an airport!!!)

Me and the rest of the guys (the ones who understood French):  ???!!! Well, excusez-moi. 

I suddenly remembered where I could find a trolley and sprinted to the other side of the hall and got one. My colleague actually rolled it down in front of security after our trip to deliver books just to prove our point.

Way to be unhelpful and rude, security folks.

But anyways, follow our journey for the next 2 weeks as we blog, twitter, and bomb our way through the Nonproliferation treaty (in a good way)!