Day 4

I'm reading the previous entries on this blog, and the work of my group members just drives home the fact that I am terrible at keeping up with all this policy. Filsan is open, assertive, and consistently in the right place at the right time. Collin is brave enough to try and speak German to Germans. Morgan's always ready to summarize the attitudes of the policymakers and actually understands what's going on at most of the plenary meetings. Who knows what Robbie will do when he has the chance to get into the Blue Zone? The best I can do is talk about the experience.

The conference is held on a giant plot of asphalt, and the building is beautifully designed, if a little obviously temporary--Collin joked that we were attending a fiberboard convention. There are thick wires with covers duct-taped to the ground snaking over the floors, and a couple of sections have tastefully draped plastic sheeting instead of roofs.

The grounds are divided into 4 main halls and one building with meeting rooms. The meeting rooms have carpeted floors, slightly dimmed lighting, and framed photos of landscapes--that area hosts all the plenary sessions. Each meeting room has rows of tables with microphones and a box of place cards. The place cards are printed with the names of the participating countries in big, block letters. Observers are allowed, but conditionally; usually, someone leading the session will ask the Party members if observers should be permitted to watch. It's much quieter in those rooms than any other place in the convention. Whenever I'm in that building (which requires a separate security check) I feel like I'm about to be kicked out.

The other halls are much more bright, large, and loud. Each Party has a designated pavilion. The Parties can boast their accomplishments with flashy displays, hold their own side events, and give out free stuff. (I got a really nice water bottle from South Korea.) There's a thrum of background noise and you're constantly dodging private security, cameramen, or people running late for something.

I've been learning so much so rapidly that it wouldn't be fair to condense everything into one post. I've had to cut out a lot, even from my second personal blog, and I'd rather take the time to let it stew than serve you the information raw. If you have specific questions, please comment, and I'd be happy to answer them.

I hope this is okay, Mr. Johnson--right now, I'm exhausted. Maybe I can add more later, but I wanted to get this out of the way. See you all when it's my turn again.