In Lebanon

I am here in Lebanon now. I am playing on the internet...again. My cousins and I are watching a little tv at my uncle's house then heading back home to go to bed. It is 2am here and of course after being tired all day I am wide awake...probably because it is 4pm my time. My poor body doesn't know where it is! I think my insides are singing "where in the world is Sasha Sleiman"....hmmm

Ok just wanted everyone to know I am safe, had my tea and sandwhich and desert and now I am off to bed. Tomorrow mission one: learn how to make my favorite potatoe/hamburger dish! (I hope it is as easy as it looks....)

Much Love,

Sasha

London! (Where of all things, the keyboard is messed up)

So, typing is very difficult for me here in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland! (Still in Model UN mode). The keyboard is different! It makes shifting very difficult, I hate it. BUT I do love being able to do this: £! HEHEHEEHE Now, I can tell you w/o writing out "pounds" That the internet here in London costs me 1£ for every 10minutes!

If you haven't figured it out yet, I am in London. My plane departs in approximately 2hrs so I am killing some time on facebook and my blog. YAY Technology! I am chatting with my dad and updating my blog at the same time! This is fun!

My plane ride was good, better than coming back from NYC that is for sure. I didn't sleep quite as much as I had wanted but of course I fell fast asleep right after breakfast before landing...convenient. So the stewardiss (i never know how to spell that....) had to wake me up. And I have found that I am typically very startled when people wake me on a plane...i like freak out a little. oops. Grandma-I only watched ONE movie! While I was eating...it was Slumdog millionare!!! SO GOOD!!!

I met a man who graduated from WWU and his wife, they lived in Bham for a very long time and we started talking because I was reading a book about Lebanon, and they were reading an op ed about the upcoming elections...funny! I think that is my favorite part of traveling alone, you meet very random people.

Well...I guess I will go...not much has really happened so I dont have much to say (weird, cus I always have something to say...although I really could keep typing and talk about random facts of life...but I will spare you.)

Just a reminder (because I figured this all out on my cool world clock app on my iPhone) the time difference rule of thumb for lebanon is:
West coast: Subtract 2 hrs and change am/pm (so if its am there its pm in leb)
Mid West: Subtract 4 hrs and same thing
East coast: Subtract 5 hrs and same thing

I will try to remember this too so I don't call/text at obscene hours! :)

Much Love,

Sasha

In a New York Minute

Being in NY really does feel like a minute passed. I was there for an entire week and looking back I can't remember if it was actually real or not! :)

My last day there was very successful! I met with a friend of a friend at the UN who gave me lots of good insight about getting a job there (its going to be a long road) but also took me around the UN building which was very exciting! We had coffee in the Delegates Lounge, which is an area for the ambassadors to go and relax and talk informally about policy (COOL!). Then he took me on the floor of the Security Council, which met at 10am that morning!!! I just had to soak it in, didn't even remember to reach in for my camera! silly. He also took me to the Economic and Social Council Plenary room, which is the committee I was simulating at the conference! Another "COOL"! 

We had a great last day of committee session and got to sit in the Great Hall again! It will be the last year for a long time that NMUN will get to host committee session in the UN since by next year they will have started their renovations. (The UN is finally getting a make over! Well deserved!) I hope they dont mess with the look of the building too much. They are trying to make the building more energy efficient and modern which is great but the building has such an air about it! It is so cool to sit in the delegates lounge which looks very 1950s like the rest of the building and just imagining the historical back door conversations that had to have take place there! As long as they leave some of the 1950s ness in it I'll be happy!

I am leaving to Lebanon tomorrow evening! YAY The time has finally arrived! 

Much love,

Sash

The City that NEVER Sleeps....seriously

Goodmorning everyone!

It is 9am here and I have been officially awake for 2.15 hours already! The average amount of sleep so far on the trip has been about 4 hours, maybe a little more. Last night was 3!! They paid for our airfare and all of our hotel and amenities here (including the hotel's FABULOUS and EXPENSIVE breakfast buffet, which I woke up a half an hour early just to enjoy today! I can't help myself!), but they sure do work us to the bone to get their moneys worth!! Today, our simulation started at 8:30 am and goes until 10pm (with breaks of course). Then I have another smaller meeting at 10pm followed by a little reception/meeting for our at conference hired staff at 10:30 and a full staff meeting at 11:45 (last night it STARTED at 1am). All in all it is crazy how long our days are...but honestly the craziest part is I can do it and I am not really THAT tired. It seems as tho if I just keep this no sleep pace I do well, yesterday I got to "sleep in" totaling my sleep time to 7hrs and I was exhasted when I woke up with HUGE bags under my eyes! funny how that works! :)

The conference is going swimmingly however. Yesterday there was "massive floodings" in the city and our senior staff were really worried about getting 2,500 students from our hotel to the UN (which is about a 30min walk, doable on a bright sunny NYC day, not so doable on a rainy day). The hotel lined up endless taxis for us but us staff still had to fight our way into taxis first so we would beat the delegates to the UN because we were responsible for helping with security. The funniest part was, my roomate who is also from Seattle and I were standing outside the UN and stuck our hands out in the rain and said "really? this is a flood...this is a normal day in Seattle!" it really didn't seem that bad....but...this is a whole different world here! haha Turned out there was nothing to fret! Our delegates were really well behaved at the UN, excited to be there, and turns out didnt mind waiting an hour or more in the rain to get in! The UN security staff actually THANKED us while we were leaving...that never happens!

The General Assembly Great Hall, where we do our opening ceremonies at the UN never gets old. Although it is an old, relatively unkept room, it is really really beautiful! This is my 3rd time in that room and I love it every time! Hopefully one day I will spend much more time in that building, it could be the love of my life! ;) (my cousin Jim is cringing while reading that sentance....if he did! I can here him rolling his eyes now! haha <3 you!)

Well, I suppose I should get back to running my committee...it is my job! :) All in all I am having a GREAT time here, no time for sight seeing though...good thing I've been here 3 times before!!

Much Love!

Sash

AND I'm off!!....To NYC

And so my travels officially begin this morning. I am sitting in Pangborn airport taking advantage of their FREE wireless (are we the only ones who provide such amenities? I think so...wait, so does Budhapest). This trip, thanks to my dad and my great planning (sarcasm) requires me to take the worst flight times in the history of flying direct to NYC from SEA. Not to complain, since I am going to the Big Apple (for free), but 4am and I do not like eachother. And the best part is I get to do it again next friday!!! haha 5am departure from Manhattan (or the "Island" as I like to call it) to Jersey where I catch my 8am flight back home.  Why the early flight? Because I have 1.5 days at home before departing Easter Sunday to LEBANON! YAY

I am really excited for this weeks adventure. It is a Model UN Conference in NYC, the National confernce that WWU's team goes to every year. This year I have had the priviledge of serving as staff. This required a committment since June of last year, a rigorus writing schedule to help produce whats called a Background Guide (a helpful guide for assisiting delegates in their research, gives them a "breif" background of the committee they are on and the topics they will be discussing).  I wrote on the history of the Economic and Social Council and learned quite a bit. Now, at the conference I have to log a lot of time because of my staffing responsibilities. I got my schedule a couple of nights ago and almost cried with the lack of free time they have forgotten to schedule for the week. But, I guess when they are paying for you to be there they want to suck all the energy out of you to get a good performance!! Guess I will be drinking a lot of coffee and vitamin C trying not to get sick (I tend to get sick when I dont sleep...great).  

I have been to NYC twice before for this conference, but as a student and a delegate (participant) not as a staff member. And although I have staffed local conferences before the calibur of this conference will be quite different. I will be with the best and brightest people in my age group, I hope I will make some good connections and I know I'll learn a lot while I am there!

So, those of you from Wenatchee will appreciate this, I just looked up and around ( I am in the Pangborn...Wenatchee's small airport...waiting area getting ready to board the plane) and I thought to myself "weird, I dont know anyone sitting here, that doesn't happen often." And then I remembed that Wenatchee is actually a bigger city than it used to be and I dont know everyone that lives here. Weird. haha I will add that to "Sasha's random revelations" Maybe I'll write a book...

Well thanks for listening to me blabber. A blog is dangerous for me because I tend to just type and type and type. Oh and for those of you who dont often read my writing, anything in (  ) tend to be Sasha's commentary on Sasha's commentary. I am weird! :)

Much Love!

Sasha

Its boarding time! Travel officially begins!!! :) 

WA Phone number for Sasha! YAY

Hello everyone! My dad and I just figured out this cool new thing that plugs into my USB drive into my computer and then plugs into the phone in the wall in Lebanon. It is a WA number which means it is free for any of you to call me! And I can call you from the phone in Lebanon without costing my aunt any money! My number is:

509-273-2075

If you ever want to call me, let me know on the blog or on my facebook/email what time you would want to call so I can have my computer on and be near the phone (so you don't get my aunt who doesn't speak English) :) 

I am really excited about this development because it makes it really easy to call home! The time difference is about 10hrs opposite whatever time it is in the states. So if it is 9am here it is 11pm there. (thats for pacific time though...so you Midwest people have to do the math yourselves) :) 

Anywho! Communication technology is crazy! Even I remember when we couldn't call oversees cheaply let alone on a phone thru a computer!  FUN stuff!

Much Love,

Sasha

Sasha is.....a collge GRAD

That is right! I finished my last final this morning and now I am free! I am waiting for my parents and grandparents to come up now and tomorrow I will walk in the Commencement Ceremony!! YAY I am quite excited!! Now all I need is to get into graduate school so I can know what I am doing in 6 months!! Waiting is annoying, but graduating college is fun! :)