"If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity." John F. Kennedy

International Day of Yoga

Today was another day at work. One of my projects is put on hold for now so I've been kind of just reading about the UN, different career paths and other stuff ... not too much to do actually. 

We had a short working group meeting today - super short, which meant that my time wasn't too taken up and then a coworker and I went outside to check out the stuff that the Permanent Mission of India was doing to set up for International Day of Yoga! They had set up this huge platform for people to perform and teach yoga on and on the lawn right outside the UN were hundreds of yoga mats. 

I passed by the tables and the Mission staff gave me a t-shirt, hat and a yoga mat, telling me to come back and enjoy some yoga outside with them during the lunch break! It was super cool of them. The idea was to promote Yoga as a way to achieve peace and sustainability. 

From the Mission of India :D

I went back up to my cubicle to work on a little bit more stuff before lunch time rolled around and headed back downstairs, My coworker and I dropped by the yoga session for a bit, but they were not ready yet so we dropped by the Delegate's Lounge (who was pretty stoked to say "she's with me" [since I can't get in there with my intern badge]) because the Italian Mission was giving out free gelato AGAIN! It was great. I don't think I've ever been happier.

Line up for Gelato

The line up was insane but it was totally worth it. 

I got two portions since she didn't want hers.

I'm going to get fat. (x_x)

We went back downstairs and watched them exercise as I guiltily enjoyed my gelato (and felt the weight drag itself onto me, I mean a moment on the lips, a lifetime on my hips, right?).

All these flavours

We went back out as they were finishing up and they ended up giving everyone these delicious vegetarian lunches with rice, polenta, pretty much a little bit of everything! It was so delicious.

I really do have to commend the Permanent Mission to India. They put so much
thought, effort and invested so much money into the very successful event. I think everyone was very happy about it. I was impressed. They had actually started setting up for the event the day today and I knew take down was going to take just as long.

Sitting in the ECOSOC

I went back to work for a little bit longer and then headed down to an event I was very excited for and had RSVP'd for over a week ago: It was the first Commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict. I mean I wasn't excited for the day or that the day even existed, but I was so pumped to go listen to what the UN was doing and the Human Rights advocates there.

When I got into the ECOSOC chamber, I tried to sit as far in front as possible without sitting on a seat that was reserved. I got a pretty good seat I'd say.

The agenda and the
cool hashtag

The report on the Elimination of sexual violence in conflict was provided to everyone (along with these neat pins that said "Stop Rape in War") so I flipped through it for a bit. 

As I was sitting there listening to the speakers, I felt such a great swell and sense of pride from the bottom of my stomach for the UN and all the work that it is so desperately trying to do. People always blame the UN for this and that and call it inefficient, but without the UN, where would we be now? Where would the status of our human rights be? 

And to say that the UN is useless is to undermine the hard, diligent work of
thousands of people here-and that's not cool. There are a lot of people here who are very hardworking and motivated - To say that they aren't working hard enough is to say that the work that they are doing, the experience, education and everything else they've amassed is not good enough. 

The actress from
the Walking Dead!

That's insulting.

I really enjoyed the event and I got to hear Ms. Danai Gurira, the actress from Walking Dead (as Michonne) and screen writer of "Eclipse" speak! God it was amazing. She opened up with a piece from her play, in character with the drama and everything and it was so silent in there, you could have probably heard a pin drop. 

When the meeting was done, I waited in line and got a photo with her and left.

Panel for the movie, Life, Animated

I went back to my cubicle to eat something I had left in the fridge and then headed back down to the exact same ECOSOC chamber (which was filled up) to watch the pre-screening of "Life, Animated," a beautiful film about a boy living with Autism and how he expresses himself through his passion of Disney.

It was one of the most touching and beautifully done films I've ever seen. I highly, highly recommend watching it when it comes out because it is just such a great way to take a look into the mind of a boy who lives with autism and a family that accepts and loves him for it.

Owen Suskin :D

It was great. Just 10/10 and it made me cry at some points (no spoilers here).

I actually got to meet Owen Suskin, the star of the show, along with his parents! He's quite a nice guy, very willing to do photos and is just so friendly and warm. It was great to see him.

Afterwards, headed home and enjoyed!

"I love exploring New York and I think that's what is so exciting about it. You find places that you've never heard of or seen before all the time." - Tory Burch

We woke up nice and early (I usually do because of my stupid internal clock, and he usually wakes up at 6 for work) and headed on our way out. We walked downtown so that we could see the Empire

Starting the day off
right with a street festival!

State building and some of the parks. It was quite a nice walk since it was so warm out and headed all the way down 6th avenue to Union Square Park. There we ran into a street food festival (we were starving, had barely anything for breakfast to prepare us for a nice meal in the park) and gosh was the food ... delicious smelling. There was grilled sausage, pork, chicken leg, pretty much everything there that could torture a person did torture a person (me). We kept walking around, ended up grabbing some free sunglasses and then headed over to Union Square Park.

Street festival on Bedford! 

At Union Square Park, there were a bunch of tents with fresh foods, baked goods, veggies, pretty much everything you can think of! We walked by and to try to sedate our hunger, we got to try some samples, like lamb sausage, duck confit, beer, juice and more! It was nice trying a little bit of everything.

So many people... 

Afterwards, we got into the subway and hopped on a train over to Brooklyn to try Smorgasbord! Chris had never been so I had to bring him. We started off by walking around a bit and ran into this really cool festival that they were hosting on Bedford Avenue. There was real grass that was rolled out on the streets so that people could hang out there as well as sit down and enjoy the weather. I found out that it was a part of some music festival where bands would be playing on the street all weekend! Pretty cool.

SO MUCH FOOD

But first, I was meeting up with some friends to walk over to Smorgasbord. We first headed over to the Artists and Fleas market where there were many handmade goods and other things for us to see! Unfortunately, for a "flea" market the prices were very steep. It was all hand made jewellery and artisianal stuff so it was quite cool to look around and check it out. When we headed out there was a musician playing a very interesting instrument with over 20 strings outside. It was interesting to see.

Swag of the day

We headed over to Smorgasbord where we were, of course, surrounded by an insane and immense amount of hipsters, people and overpriced food. It was pretty overwhelming - especially because there were so many people everywhere and the line ups were long. I decided to settle down with some fish and chips (they actually gave me a very generous amount for what I paid in comparison to the other places) while Chris grabbed some duck confit.

We sat by the beach for a little while at a picnic table before we got up and left to check out the street festival at Bedford Avenue.

At the street festival, there were many bands performing free concerts outside and as we were walking down, we ended up grabbing a bunch of free samples (yeah I know this keeps happening please don't hate me) of this new drink by Pepsi, somelemonade and a bunch of jerky. It was a pretty cool experience.

Giving out samples the classy way

Afterwards, Chris and I jumped on the metro to head down to SoHo, Little Italy and Chinatown. We grabbed some gelato (after walking around to find the perfect gelato place) from Ferraras and then headed over to the park to grab a seat to eat. 

People, people, people. 

We sat down in the middle of Columbus Park (also known as five point park) and enjoyed the view of people gambling, singing Chinese opera and playing musical instruments. It was quite enjoyable. I called my mom to talk to her a little bit and then just sat around for a bit with Chris.

Gelato! 

Afterwards, Chris and I walked towards city hall and I tried to give him a quick history lesson and some fun facts about the building but turns out my memory melts a bit in the sun. we walked around for a little while longer and headed down past the church (which was left completely unscathed during the 9/11 attack) with the beautiful old cemetery.

We were walking down so that we could see the memorial of One Trade Center (didn't go into the museum, but for anyone interested, they are free on Tuesdays).

Imposing.

It is truly a heartbreaking memorial when you go and see how gigantic the holes in the ground are and how deep both the holes and the scars in peoples' lives run. 

After the memorial, Chris and I rode the metro back home so that we could change and head over to the (Free!) Off-Broadway show, Trip of Love. We tried to head over to a rooftop bar beforehand (I wanted him to see the Empire State in all it's glory), unfortunately, when we went there, we were told it was closed for a "private event." Very sad that we couldn't get in so we went to the nearby Bryant park and sat down for a bit and relaxed... relaxed that is until I looked at my phone and realized I completely screwed up and instead of picking up tickets half an hour at 8, it was pick up tickets half an hour before 8.

The memorial, there are two gigantic
holes where the twin towers used to be...
but now instead have memorial fountains

Whoops.

We ran over to the theatre as fast as we could on 42nd (and you know how bad 42nd is for walking right?! Right by Times Square?!) and went through what I would call the quicksand of people. It was the worst thing I had ever gone through when I was in a rush. And even though we were already past 5th and needed to get down to 9th... It was not something easy to do. You'd think just a few blocks would be easy - it's not. By the time we got into the theatre we were sweating quite a lot.

The venue itself was quite nice, with escalators and high ceilings to enjoy the view of the entire theatre and a window to look out onto 

42nd. I was very impressed with how nice the seats were and how well done the decor was. With the

Free tickets :3

high ceilings, it made the place feel very large and very fancy. I really enjoyed the venue. And it helped that our seats were just two rows from the stage!

They had decorated the sides of the walls to reflect the Broadway play that was playing. 

The ushers there were quite nice and very polite, willing to answer any and all questions we had and at the end, when the Broadway show was finishing up, I looked back and all I could see was the ushers dancing and just jamming to the show. What a cool group of people working there.

In the theatre! 

Unfortunately, the play was not as great as I'd hoped it would be...in fact I didn't even like it until about 3 songs in because I had no idea what was happening. It seemed like they were just singing songs... but once I accepted that they were just singing songs, I started to enjoy it a lot more as just entertainment rather than a play with any plot whatsoever.

After the play, I was particularity hungry so I demanded that Chris walk with me for about 20 minutes and grab some Shake Shack with me. I had never been before so I just wanted and had to try it out!

We both grabbed burgers, fries and he grabbed a milk shake. We took it to go, walked home and sat there, watching Bo Burnham (who is extremely offensive, don't google him if you don't want to be offended or anything) and enjoying our fries.

Crispy fries and yummy burgers

Oh my god. Those were the BEST burgers I have ever had from a fast food establishment, I am honestly still so blown away by how amazing and delicious they were. I enjoyed them so so so much. The fries were particularity good and the bacon cheese burger I had was just bursting with flavour. I can still remember how delicious it was and it's making my stomach rumble a bit.

After the much-needed food and humorous entertainment, we headed to sleep.

"Happiness is a matter of one's most ordinary and everyday mode of consciousness being busy and lively and unconcerned with self." - Iris Murdoch

Event for India's endangered tigers!

Today I woke up and went to work (what a great start to this post). And what a day it was. I got to go to a screening with delicious Asian food, I got to try gelato and I got to celebrate world Ocean's day. 

Lunch!

It wasn't a very busy day but it was a nice day to sit and do some menial work for the day.I had a few moments though when I tried to go to lunch and people kept telling me, "Wendy I need you for a minute" so I would go for a minute and even though I had signed up for an event that I needed to go to, because I was needed (which to be honest is great, I would always 100% chose being needed to going to an event) and was almost an hour late.

Guest of the lovely
Greek Mission!

When I got to the event, it was a really cool documentary on the Indian tiger and how it is almost extinct and afterwards, a meeting where we got to talk to the photographer there. My friends were all sitting in the middle rows while I got to sit in the back. From the only part I saw, it seemed like a really cool and very informative documentary where there was a lot going on in the jungle and otherwise! 

There were a lot of interns there as well, as I noticed and they were all hanging out in clumps. I grabbed some food to eat (yes they had food) and ended up getting some really good thai/chinese/korean food to eat. I grabbed some snacks, headed back to my table, sat down and then spent some time with a friend, talking. We walked down and around the building a little bit more, headed down to the basement where I grabbed some salad (to balance out the heavier food I had earlier) and then headed back upstairs to do some more work. 

Delicious menu.

At about 2, I messaged one of my friends who was heading over to the Delegate's Lounge, I had found out a few weeks earlier that there would be a free gelato event hosted by the Italian Mission to the UN (Who coincidentally, is going to be running for SC seat). I went downstairs and was so lucky because I had a friend to get me in, but I saw a bunch of people standing outside of the elevator waiting for a Mission delegate to let them in. I just walked right in without waiting and was called a "mission guest." 

I've never felt so important...

Grabbed some delicious gelato and then headed over to the area where all the flags are before you reach the GA and FOUND THE FLAG WITH CANADA!! It was wondering to stand there proudly with it.

Home and Native land

It's actually really interesting how countries will do all these things to get a seat on the UN Security council.. rather than giving a solid platform, it seems as though they are really just doing big events to try to win people over.

I guess high school never really ends and it really is just kind of a popularity contest. 

When I got back to work, I ended up staying a bit later to help out with a report (I'm really just moral support, nothing serious). 

Woo!

When I left it was around 6pm and there was a huge reception downstairs hosted by a few organizations, including the one my friends are interning at, OHRLLS for World Ocean's Day! I found out from my friends that it was happening and went to stop by. At first, she wouldn't let me and told me to "come back in half an hour," but after letting a few more people in, she just kind of let me go in. 

Some of the performers

I finally found my friends who were helping out with the event and hung out with them for a bit. It was open bar (again, seriously what is this) and I grabbed a nice glass of white. I listened to some of the opening statements and then headed over with my friend to the snack and food table where my friends and I grabbed some seriously good food to eat. Cheese, spanikopita, pretty much everything you could want and need! Afterwards, we went back to listen to the music, watch some of the dancers and then we saw JACK JOHNSON play (not that I know who this is, honestly).

Friends :D

Afterwards, I headed home to help my room mate build a new bookshelf. It was actually super fun, I personally love building stuff so when I got a chance to build something nice like this, I took it and built hard. It took us a few hours and a few tries, but we did it and damn, does it look good!