Sometimes Surprises Come Around

Coming to BIMUN had lots of surprises indeed.

Where should I start? There are way too many.

1. University of Salamanca

I thought I was the only student from a Spanish university, but it was totally false! My roommate at the hostel, Carl, is German student studying in UK but on exchange in Salamanca, Spain. He was with a delegation of 10 people, and you bet I was ecstatic to hear that! Throughout the conference whenever we see each other we would address each other in Spanish. It's kind of weird how I don't use Spanish when I'm not in the environment best for it. We've decided that we'll have to visit each other's cities before heading back to our countries :P

2. Oxford again?

What this means is that I actually met someone who went to Oxford! Judith was the Committee Contact Person (like assistant director) in my committee, and she was a chair for SPECPOL at Oxford last month. When we found out about our attendance at the conference, we were so happy that we just talked and talked about the conference and how much we missed it :P It's always good to know someone who has been to same place as you have.

Another part is meeting Hee Sun, assistant chair from my committee in Oxford. She is a student at University of Bonn, and the first day we met in Oxford we've decided to meet again in Bonn :P We talked a lot about many things, mostly about the goals we have in the future. And Hee Sun has really concrete goals she is determined to achieve! That's what I like about MUN conferences: meeting aspiring and inspiring people who have reasonable dreams and goals that can have an impact on the world and that you can understand, relate, and learn from.

3. TAIWAN (or really, Chinese language :P)

Who would've thought? I actually met people from Taiwan. Fu-nong and Chao-ting were exchange students from 台大 and 淡江大學, respectively. Particularly, Chao-ting had studied in Taichung (東海大學), where I grew up, and we were waaaaaaaaay to happy to see each other. We discussed how much we lovvvvvvvvvvved Taichung. In addition, I also met Hannah who is also an exchange student, but from UW Madison. She's studied Chinese in Taiwan for a year, and it was amazing just to listen and know how much knowledge of the language she'd acquired in a year! Moreover, she spoke very very very good German considering she's only been in Germany for a short time! Wow, so inspiring. I wish I could be like her :P She was screaming and hugging me like crazy when Chao-ting introduced me as the other Taiwanese, LOL.

I also met quite a few Chinese too! Songqiao is from 青島 but goes to Mount Holyoke and currently is an exchange student at Bonn. And she was in my committee too! And there was also Wensi, from 北京大學, who is an exchange student at Salamanca :P And lastly there was En-yi from Singapore, but goes to school in Japan, and is also an exchange student in Bonn

Talk about being international!

But technically Songqiao, Chao-ting and I hung out the most together :P Monday we spontaneously went to Cologne for a short trip. With their student card they were able to bring another person on the train for free :) We saw the major sites which were the Cologne Cathedral and the Christmas market :P

I decided to buy postcards, but it was pretty expensive. And just when we turned the corner, I saw another store selling the SAME postcards but SO MUCH CHEAPER. You bet I was furious!!!!!!!! Really, I wasn't :P

But Songqiao and Chao-ting were comforting me saying like:

"啊你那個比較漂亮"

"那個那個色調不一樣"

"那些有點髒..."

"啊它那個有摺痕......"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. 甚麼爛理由啊.....

But towards the end of this conference, I must admit that since leaving Taiwan, it was the most Chinese I had spoken. And I was happy :)

4. Canada

Well, I was the only Canadian there, LOL. Yea, what a surprise eh?

However, I met Annika and Mia who had been exchange students in Canada when they were in high school! They were in Vancouver for a year, and they loved it! Of course they would. I mean, come on, it's CANADA. It was definitely nice to meet someone who has been in an environment as you have :P And Annika represented Canada in her committee. She actually asked me for clarification on Canadian foreign policy prior to the committee sessions :P