A dream come true

This past week has the potential to be the best weekend ever! and it has lived up to the expectation, despite the crazy heat and the insane humidity.
The excitement was running high all day Friday since we were scheduled to meet the Secretary General.
The rest of the afternoon seemed to have flown by as I edited few translations making sure everything was good. I could only think of one thing, SATURDAY NIGHT! everything was in place, I had my bus ticket to Philadelphia, Deirdre had the game tickets, we were set!
My friend Raphaelle and I decided to make a quick stop at Forever 21 for few things. It was still incredibly hot, we walked around looking for a place to grab something to eat,  we found this cut burger place, and we sat down and enjoyed the AC for more than an hour.
We ate, changed, and relaxed for a while waiting to meet up with some other friends. We headed over to the apartment building where two of our friends are staying. The boys can't go beyond the first floor so we sat in the garden waiting for it to cool down.  It did not!
I called it a night around 11pm as the rest of the group was just getting ready to go out. I had a big day lined up Saturday.
Surely enough, I didn't go to bed till 2:00am but I had to sneak in couple of hours before I had to take the train. This must have been the HOTTEST night I have experienced in America, it was still around 93 degree when I woke up at 5:00am!
I quickly made my way to the bus stop to catch the 7:00am bus, I might as well have slept another hours because we did not get on the bus till 7:00, I had been sweating like a pig. Actually I take that back, 'cause pigs don't sweat.. I dont know if you knew this. I had been sweating like... Nixon! or Zidane! Now those people can sweat!
Enough about that. So the ride was pleasant as I cough the train from the station in Philly to where Deirdre lives. And sure enough, she was waiting for me with open arms! I just love spending time with her.
We headed straight for the pool as it was just as hot in Philly. I love spending time with my America family, they are just the best!
I could hear my heart beat every time I thought about going to see the boys that night. It had been my dream since I could remember.
Deirdre's friend Sean was coming with us to the game, and we could not have found a better person to go with! He knew how to get to the stadium, the back roads to take, AND he was an experienced tailgater lol.
The game was scheduled to start at 9:00 pm, but we thought we should leave early as the Phillies were player nearby (GO PHILLIES), and there was a Rihanna concert at the Flyers Stadium. Surprisingly, we got there in no time as we didn't hit ANY traffic.
The dream was slowly becoming a reality. I was seeing hundreds then thousands of fans, Madridistas. I had never seen so many in one place before. We sat down and enjoyed the atmosphere for a while, and couple of cold drinks and cold towels :)
The bus had just arrived at the stadium and you could hear everyone screaming already!
The boys were here, I can't believe that they are so close to me.
We made our way inside the stadium 45minutes before the start of the game.
I have been watching Real Madrid for almost 20 years now, and I remember turning on the channel early waiting impatiently for the game to start. Not this time, I did not have to wait for a stupid TV channel. I was there, right there, in the hear and humidity. I was about to see Real Madrid LIVE!
As I was waiting to see the team emerge from the locker room, I saw Pepe, Marcelo, Khedira and the new signing, Shahin walk around the pitch and check out the stadium. I was suddenly stunned! I had just spotted Real Madrid players in real life for the first time! Marcelo's afro was certainly what gave it away.
They just walked around saying hi to people and relaxing before the game. I knew that Khedira and Shahin were not playing because of injury, but I thought Pepe and Marcelo would be getting ready...
They soon left to join the rest of the team inside. 20 minutes till game time!
Suddenly, the starting lineup showed up on the pitch to warm up. I did not know who to focus on! Iker Casillas, Alonso, Benzema, Ozil?? so many! They were all there!

The rest of the game was like being on a cloud, seeing some of my favorite players live in action.
I did not have to wait very long for the firs goal. With only 3 minuted on the clock, the new signing Callejon scored the first goal. Minutes later Ozil put a wonderful goal away.
THIS IS A DREAM COME TRUE.
The second half only brought more stars, Cristiano, Kaka, and ZIDANE.
I could not sit still for more than seconds. The game seemed to have flown by. I was having the time of my life.
It was so sad seeing the game end and the players walk away. Real Madrid is on a schedule, next stop: Madrid for two day before heading to Germany and England for more friendlies before the China tour.

I never wanted to leave the stadium, but I did eventually. it was crazy getting out of the parking lot, but I did not care, I had just seen Real Madrid.
It was STILL very hot outside, and upon getting home, we got in the pool to cool off which helped.
I had to go get some rest, and get ready for Sunday.
Tonight I was going to sleep as the happiest girl in the word!
I spent my childhood watching Real Madrid, I have seen players come and go, I have experience great wins and disappointing losses, But I have always been proud to call myself a Madridista. Tonight I can say that I actually saw them play live!

Thank you Deirdre for making my dream come true :)
Now back to New York City for more United Nations action

-Elmo, 

Heat and Humidity

As I am sure you have heard, the east coast has been experiencing a heat wave. It has been dreadful to say the least. It started Thursday afternoon as I could feel myself sweat as I left the building after work.

You would think that coming from Africa  I would be used to hot weather, right? NO

Maybe I have been living in the Midwest for too long. But I blame it on the humidity, for being only 38 degrees C (96 F), being outside was simply unbearable!

Friday was even worse. I thought I was going to pass out as I was waiting for the subway in the morning.

The only thing that made the day bearable is the simple fact that we were scheduled to take a group picture with Mr. Ban Ki Moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations. J

You would not believe how hard to walk a block to get to the General Assembly hall; the famous room where the assembly takes place). I felt sorry for the guys, because they had to wear suits, or long sleeve shirts!

It took an hour to get the huge group of intern situated on the stage waiting for the SG. Mr. Ban Ki Moon walked in shortly after, took the picture and spoke to us for few minutes. He is such an impressive man with lots of experience  to share.

The one thing that stuck with me  is when he said that he can see some of us coming back to the same podium addressing the General Assembly  someday. I would REALY love to do that! Here is to hoping..

After his speech and before exiting the hall, the SG walked around saying hi and shaking hands. YES, I was one of the lucky ones as I was real close, we shook hands, it was no big deal!

We quickly forgot about the cool experience as soon as we walked out of the building. HOT AND HUMID!

It did not get any better all day. The heat is just persistent!

We waited for it to cool down as we sat in a garden at a place where some of my friends are staying. No luck.  I finally decided to call in a night and go home.   But even at 2:00 am, when I was still trying to sleep, it was still very very hot.

I had a long day ahead of me ;) 

194??

As I mentioned last week, the United Nations welcomed, not too long ago, a new member to the family; South Sudan. The family might be welcoming yet another nation very soon. PALESTINE

Numerous sources from within Palestine have been talking about Mahmoud Abbas going to the General Assembly for a full-fledged membership. Palestine has only served as an observer at the United Nations which means they enjoyed almost all rights of member state except the right to vote.

As a state, it has been bilaterally been recognized by 130 countries worldwide. Most European countries have granted the state de facto recognition.

Observers say that if Palestine wishes to go to the General Assembly with the proposal of full membership, it would certainly succeed in securing majority vote. The Security Council is another deal though. The United States can use its Veto power to strike down such proposal.

However, it is the General Assembly that decides on granting membership.

If it seems so easy for Palestinians to gain membership why haven’t they done so already?

Well, if the state of Palestine is admitted as a member state, it would be admitted under the 1967 borders. Many Palestinians see that that would be giving up the rest of the land, for good, admitting the existence of Israel in their land.

On the positive side, if admitted as a member state into the U.N, Israel would be under more pressure to stop their actions in the West Bank and Gaza. The conflict would be between two equal states on the U.N meaning dealing with Israeli presence in Palestine as occupation (Under the borders of 1967).

All these complications make the Palestinian current situation very critical and certainly at a cross-road.

At the same time, there has been some internal discussion between Fatah and Hamas to come to a national agreement and agree of a course of action.

I personally hope that the Palestinian leaders come together for the sake of their beloved country, put their differences, their biases,  and their history together aside to salvage what is left of their internal stability and present themselves as a united front in front of the world and their people.

We shall see in the next General Assembly session this coming September.

Hoping that peace would reign over our beloved Palestine.

MOMA

Today I was really worried it was gonna be super hot having read that the heatwave is making its way toward this side of the country. It was not all that bad after all, but I'm almost certain it's gonna be HOT tomorrow, forecast says 96! 96!! Let's hope they are wrong. 
Today, and for the first time since I started my internship, I sensed there was life at the office. Usually it is dead quiet. NO JOKE. everyone stares at their screen(s) (YES, each work station has TWO monitors) and types away. You can occasionally hear random phone conversations in random languages. I usually play my favorite game; guess what language is it. I have gotten pretty good at it :)
The life in the office might be because the Under-Secretary-General is in the house this week. It is so cool that he is office is right by mine. The phones never stopped ringing today, it was intense.
Today, as a language intern, I had to attend a briefing by a former English translator and chief editor of the English Department, He was such a nice guy and such an amazing speaker. Even though we did not get to interact with him much, he encouraged us to contact him and I might just take him up on that.
Today, I decided I need to learn Russian! See my work station is right between two of my supervisors. They both speak Russian and communicate often with me in the middle. I say give me another week or two, I will be fluent!
Today, together with a French guy, I decided to go the Museum of Modern Art after work (again), this time to actually see the art. See, As an Intern we get free entrance :). We must have gotten there at 5:40 only to learn that the MoMA closed early today!! at 5:30!!
We waited for our Swiss friend to join us and we went to a little coffee shop instead.
Right now I'm waiting to watch the Real Madrid friendly game online before calling it a night.
Not a a busy day overall, but I have to take the easy days when I can I guess :)

Bonne Nuit
-Elmo 

193

So in case you did not know, or you have been busy in the past couple of weeks, the world welcomed a new country into existence: South Sudan. More relevantly, the United Nations welcomed its 193th Member State.
Why does that mean? Is it just another country emerging in poverty stricken Africa? I would say NO.
This marks the end of the longest civil war in African History.  It finally gives the people of South Sudan some international recognition and dignity. The dignity and respect they have been robbed of for more than 50 years.
The population of South Sudan had been attacked and slaughtered by the Arabs of the north. And since the area has numerous natural resources, it had been exploited, developing the north and marginalizing the south.
On the South Sudan independence day (July 14th) I read what must have been one of the most depressing report. The report gives an elaborate profile of the new country. As you can imagine it is extremely poor as more than 90% of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. Can you imagine?? More than 85% of the population is illiterate. This is a country that has the potential to be the breadbasket of East Africa!!
As depressing as it might be, it is inspiring to now that now they stand separate from the tyranny of the north and they hold their future in their hands. Well for the most part at least! the oil rich region is still under dispute as it is between the two countries.
It certainly feels special to be at the United Nations during such times. As South Sudan was proclaimed a free country, it applied from membership at the United Nations as a separate member state. Once it joined the organization, its flag had to be flown among the United Nations flags out on the UN Plaza. it was scheduled on the day that I had a briefing with the Internship Programme department. So we missed it as we sat through a 3 hour meeting and the Secretary General led the ceremony right outside the Secretariat Building. WE WERE  JUST NEXT DOOR!
Upon leaving the meeting, we stopped upfront and spotted the new flag flying high among all free countries of the world.
The country has mountains to climb in terms of changes and development. Hopefully it does so in a democratic and a PEACEFUL manner that guarantees the safety and the welfare of its people.

Welcome to existence South Sudan (At least internationally recognized existence, because your people have existed and suffered for a long time).
Let's hope development soon blooms in South Sudan as they reach their aspirations of a peaceful country.

I thought about ways to help South Sudan and countries like it. One of the best things I could think of is spreading knowledge about the country and what it is going through. So help me spread the word please.
Also, I only learned about this opportunity last week as I was taking the UN tour, but we can all help end world hunger in s a very simple way!!
visit www.freerice.com and play some trivia. For every answer that you get right, 10grains of rice are donated  to a needing family. So if you need something to do to pass the time, or just procrastinate for few minutes why not get on the website, have fun AND help feed a needing child or family.
I challenge you to donate as much as you can only by playing!
I reached 2000 grains of rice the other day playing geography! Try it

I Think what I love the most about this internship so far is the fact that I am surrounded by people who are invested in being a world citizens. Who know about South Sudan and share my worries but also the happiness of welcoming S.Sudan into the family :)

-Elmo,

New Friends

It is funny how you meet some people once and you never see them again. But it is equally funny how you meet someone randomly and end up clicking with them and creating new friendships.
Well the first day of this internship I randomly met a random group of people, and I thought I will probably never see them again since we all work in different depatments. Well I have come to see these new friends AT LEAST once a day since that first day.
It has been nice meeting people from different parts of the world and sharing similar experiences in a city where we are all strangers. 
I almost can't believe I am in New York city, or the USA for that matter. I have been speaking so much French, Arabic and Spanish it is ridiculous. Having found lots of French people, the occasional Swiss, Belgian, or even Canadian, it has become a challenge to keep a conversation down to one language. 
Therefore, do not be surprised if I have a German, Austrian or even Russian accent in my English, not my fault! I repeat not my fault! 


Tonight, we decided that we were gonna go to Bryant Park after work because they show old movie at sunset. What a great idea, right? it was amazing, I got there around 6:00 pm with Raphaelle (my french friend) after having bought some snacks. We got a great spots and we were relaxing even though it was  bit too hot. Our friends showed up one after another. It was a party, the movie starts around 9:00 so we were enjoying the weather and the company. 2 minutes before the movie starts: RAIN! 
Unbelievable timing to say the least, even with my small umbrella, we could not stay any longer, so we ran around trying to find a place to hide, 4 blocks later we find a little restaurant were we went in to hide. 
I decided it was time to go home about 10ish. But it was wonderful sitting at a table with 8 other people from 7 different countries. 
Now that's what I call experiencing the New York culture, experiencing the melting pot. 


Tomorrow, I want to take the day off (meaning after work), and just come home and relax and chill for a bit. That might be harder said than done. But we shall see


Bonne Nuit :) 

A New York Resident :)

I think it is safe to  say that I am officially a New York City resident, and I shall be for the next 6 weeks :)

Im finally all settled in :) staying in an apartment with 3 girls in the East Harlem. I NEVER see them, so I have all the privacy I want, and I can enjoy it! The neighborhood is definitely different from where I was staying in New Jersey, but I'm slowly getting used to it. It is SO much closer to work, 4 subway stops and couple of blocs walk instead of having to take the bus into the city for 45min and take another bus across town. Now that I cut my travel time by more than half, I can sleep in till 7:30 or 8:00 instead of having to be up at 6:30 every morning.

The first two weeks of work were very interesting to see the least!  

Getting used to the building, the different offices, and certainly exploring the other UN buildings around.

So where am I exactly?? Im working as an Intern in the Department of the General Assembly and Conference Management, with the Training and Outreach Coordination team. One of my assignment is to translate the Department's website into Arabic (well, at least parts of it.. little by little).

The atmosphere around is amazing, different people representing different countries, different languages, different backgrounds. At the UN, the Nations are United under one mission. It might sound cheesy, but everyone seems to be working with the intent to help someone beyond themselves and their countries.
I feel honored to be around such interesting, impressive and inspiring people.

Besides work and settling in, I have been trying to explore the city a bit with some of my fellow interns.

As it is getting late here, I am going to have to go get ready for tomorrow.. a new week at the UN.

Have a good night,
 I will attempt daily updates this week to catch up on what  I have missed

Bonne Nuit 

Under Construction

First of all, I want to apologize for not updating the blog for the past week. It has been quiet a busy week as you can imagine and Internet connection is not always available (that will be fixed by this weekend hopefullyJ ).

So the first week has come and gone, and I am glad to say that I survived it; mission accomplished!

The first day was one long crazy experience. Being soo excited and so nervous, I showed up at Madison Avenue EARLY on Tuesday all ready for work. But work had to wait..for couple of days.

Things were mostly hectic; organization was not all that great. HOWEVER, the people that I met just waiting for the session to start were very impressive, graduate students, PhD candidates from all over the world, specializing in nuclear proliferation, Counter terrorism, development, natural resources and so on. VERY IMPRESSIVE stuff as one would expect.

We quickly learned that the main building of the United Nations is under construction, meaning that none of us would be actually working in those offices. Where else would we work?? All over the place, different offices have re-located into different building around the UN plaza ranging from the Chrysler building to former parks that have been changed to host UN workers. The meeting point (Madison Ave) finally made sense, but it also meant that we need to start walking.

First Mission: Find the Human Resources Building and get our badges along with our clearance and off we went. Finding the building was not an issue, especially since it is right across the street from all the pretty flags. The wait however took all morning!

More to come soon….

I have a feeling...

I have a feeling. Actually I seem to have a bunch of feelings, and they all seem to run together this past week.
Friday the 24th was my last day at work in Kirksville. Over the weekend, I finally got to packing, cleaning, and getting ready.
After a splendid few days with Kristen in Chicago,I flew to Philadelphia last friday only to drive up to Rutherford New Jersey on Saturday.
The lovely Deirdre Strehl was there every step of the way. Friday night was exactly what I needed; seeing the Strehls, enjoying couple of hours by the pool and catching up with Khadija :)
The weekend was well underway, it consisted of more time at the pool, settling in, watching the disappointing Wimbledon final AND a quick run to the city (New York) to make sure I do not get lost on my first day.
Now everything seems to be in place for my first day Tuesday. For the past few weeks, I have been having mixed feelings, lots of nerves, excitement, fear.. Etc.
Right now though, I have a feeling, one feeling, confidence :)

Wish me luck, here I go peeps
Allahumma wafi9,