HMUN CHRONICLETIMUN MMXVIII 17th of December

Our trip to TIMUN

Wednesday December 5th

Our morning started early with a breakfast in our hostel, hereafter we left for the Aya Sofia, a building, that was built as a church, but transformed into a mosque and made Julianne think of “king couscous”. The in-fluence of both religions is still clearly vi-sible. The next place we visited was the Grand Bazaar, where “everything was so shiny” according to Merle. You could buy things from fake Gucci to Turkish silk, but every-thing for a bottom price. For lunch we went to a bridge, wherein there were a lot of res-taurants all desperatelytrying to make Mrs Visser a deal. Some stayed friendly, while others got quite frustrated to say the least. After lunch we went to the Galata tower, however it was extremely misty so there was no view, and to taksim square, where all Turkish protests are held. After a long walk back to the hostel we all had diner separa-tely. We, of course, had to celebrate Sinter-klaas, so we all got someone, for whom we had to buy a gift and write a poem. Some poems were nice, some were more roasting, and some were written in form of a rap. Overall, they were the highlight of the day.

Thursday December 6th

Today was already the third day of this trip that was passing way too fast. We left at 8 AM from the hotel to a spot where we would have breakfast. After having eaten Turkish Food for a couple of days, we were pleasant-ly surprised with a delicious Western bowl of yogurt and a tasty caramel latte. Then the Basilica Cistern, an underground water sup-ply where (FunFact) the final scene of Infer-no by Dan Brown takes place. Then with the ferry to the Asian part of the city, where the school of the actual purpose of this journey is: TIMUN. Here we started with icebreakers and at 18:00 we went home with our host families.Please continue reading on page 3!

Raphael Ridder & Joris von Harras

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The Blue Mosque at night, photo by Quinten van Hoffe

Head of Press Eva de Regt

Layout editors Silvia van Thor Luna Mountasser

Text editor Luna Mountasser

Reporters Judith Bosman Quinten van Hoffe

Photographers Quinten van Hoffe

COLO

PHO

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Dear reader,

Welcome to the HMUN chronicle about TI-MUN! Last week, our school attended TI-MUN, a conference in Istanbul, hosted by the Uskudar American Academy. This year TIMUN celebrated its 25th year. We visited the conference with a group of 16 students, 8 of which where Student Officers. In this chro-nicle you will find an article about Istanbul/Turkey, our trip to TIMUN and of course a HMUN update!

On behalf of the Press Team, enjoy our chro-nicle!Next issue: HMUN!

Kind regards,

Eva de RegtDeputy Secretary-General of Communication of HMUN 2019 and Head of Press

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Julianne Bouwmeester, Rosa van Hengel & Merle Beerens

Our trip to TIMUN

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Friday December 7th

We woke up after our first night at our host fa-mily. We had to wake up at 6:25, even though the school was fifteen minutes away, because of the busy traffic in Istanbul. The opening ce-remony was the day before, so we could start with lobbying immediately. After lunch we went on with lobbying and then we started de-bating. We passed our first resolution. Then we were picked up by our hosts and went out for dinner with half of our school. We ate some-thing Turkish named ‘Iskender’. We had des-sert and went home.

Saturday December 8th

It was a quarter to eight when I was awake-ned by the calling of a prayer through one of the mosques in the neighborhood. After a deli-cious breakfast, me and my host, Melike, were taken to the conference. After debating debt insurance and cryptocur-rency for a whole day, it is certainly nice to have something to eat somewhere with everyo-ne. So we went along with the entire urban de-legation + hosts. The restaurant where we were going to eat was therefore a kind of 'American Diner', (for the people who look at Riverdale, a kind of Pop's) nicely western, also nice. After a delicious meal together with Melike I went back home and we had a cup of Turkish apple tea and dutch syrup waffles for a while, before we went to bed completely happy again. After a delicious meal together with Melike I went back home and we had a cup of Turkish apple tea and dutch syrup waffles for a while, before we went to bed completely happy again.

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Sunday December 9th

Sunday was already the last day of the confe-rence. We started off half an our later than the day before, which was definitely necessary since everybody was so tired! In the Advisory Panel, we had some time-issues (#classic) so we had to move through the last two issues rather quickly. The debate was however still productive and we managed to finish all our 3 issues in time! After debate we attended the closing ceremo-nies, where all chairs gave a sweet speech. Then, it was time for us to leave Uskudar American Academy: we all said goodbye to our hosts and newly made friends and quickly took some pictures. We were all so tired, so to finish off our trip just right we went to an ha-mam after dinner, which was absolutely won-derful and so relaxed! I think we all can look back on a cheerful and inspiring weekend, with lots of great memories and great people.

Merle (in the middle) and Julianne (right), photo by Quinten van Hoffe

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History The history lovers among us probably al-ready knew, but Istanbul (or Constantinople as it was called back then) is a very interes-ting city! It has a complicated history but it is mostly known as the capital of the By-zantine empire. During the medieval times it was the wealthiest city in Europe and it was one of the most important ones becau-se of it’s high number of intellectuals. But sadly the city was taken by the ottomans who recalled it ‘Istanbul’ and with Constan-tinople the whole Byzantine empire fell. Many of the intellectuals fled to the West and that’s one of the biggest reasons for the Re-naissance in Italy. But what, you’re all thin-king, makes Istanbul such a popular place?Europe. Exactly there, there is Istanbul!

So that’s one of the biggest reasons why it was important to rule the city, certainly in a time when there were no airplanes and other possibilities as we have in modern days.

Istanbul in 2018 Now Istanbul is mostly known for its gorgeous architecture and buildings like the shop Wal-halla bazar and the blue mosque. With over 500 different musea, churches and mosques it is a place where culture and history meet each other. Also the food is delicious and Istanbul is best known for its döner and kebap. The-re are more than enough little dining houses where the quality is very high but you can also just eat something from a food stand. So, for the people who went there; I hope you weren’t debating too long and had also a little spare time to go see the city because it is really worth it!

Judith Bosman

Istanbul: the city almost as old as time

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Geography What makes Istanbul so special? If we look at the location there is a very good explana-tion. It’s located in north-western Turkey on a very strategic point because there is only one very small passing to get from Asia to

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How to train your admin

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Quinten van Hoffe

Sunday morning, quarter to seven. Rather asleep than awake, I am sitting at the break-fast table of my host family's apartment at the nineteenth floor of a building, located at the southeaster, Asian side of Istanbul. We have a brief talk. The past days have been taking their toll, we agree. Although it is the very last day of the conference, there is no time for chilling out. In a hurry we step in the car. “In Istanbul, you never know how long it takes to get to your destination.” says Kaan. Within a short while, he will be functioning as the Junior Head of Admin of the conference.

As soon as we are seated in the car, Kaan tells me about the preparations for the con-ference when it comes to recruiting admins. Prior to the conference, all of the applicant for the role of Admin have to attend a trai-ning, organised by Kaan and his fellow Head of Admin Irmak. “By completing the training, they all know the MUN-procedu-res very well and realise the importance of TIMUN and what it means to our school.” he explains. After the training, the Admins take an exam. As we continue driving at high speed on the Istambuli highway, he elaborates: “The thing is, we have about seventy people that come as newcomers to our MUN-club every year. All of them want to take part in TIMUN. The number of Ad-mins we need is approximately 33. We need to have a method to eliminate some of the candidate-admins. That is why we let them take an exam, that shows us which candi-dates paid the most attention to the training and value the conference the most.” Just be-fore we arrive at the school, I explain that

for our HMUN-conference we always have a hard time recruiting a sufficient number of admins. Why is being an admin is such a popular thing on Üsküdar American Aca-demy? “Being an admin is the start on your MUN-career. It is the first step on the ladder.” Please continue reading on page 6!

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How to train your adminQuinten van Hoffe

Rather intrigued by the concept of an admin exam,I leave the car and commence my day at the conference. Before the debates start, I attend the briefing for Chairmen. As I walk into my committee room afterwards, the admins have prepared the room carefully. Everything is in the right place. The deba-te is ready to start. Thank you, admin. A slight feeling of pride comes over me. The admin training and exam, how unusual it might seem, appear to bear great fruit. As my curiosity for the exam rises, I decide to ask the admin something about it. “It was a hard exam.We had to know all the names of the executive staff and the positions they are fulfilling by heart.” Openly the admin adds that he likes the people at the conference. He will continue doing MUN, he guaran-tees me. “Eventually, I would like to beco-me a Chairman.” Finally, I inform whether he has read something funny on the notes he as admin has to pass through. He snig-gers for a moment. “One of the delegates asked another delegate to meet in Kadıköy after the conference.I laughed. I gave it to the other delegate.”

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Quinten having fun in his committee, photos by unknown

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Quinten van Hoffe

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Appreciating the sights of Istanbul

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Roemer van Stekelenburg

HMUN update

Roemer van Stekelenburg (right)

building excursions. In these team building excursions we mostly do exercises wherewe need to work together with the who-le Executive Staff. Because at the end of the year, we need to get along with each other so we can build an amazing conferen-ce this year.

Hi, I am Roemer and this year I am De-sign Manager of HMUN 2019. I’m not on my own with this task, because Jas-per assists me in this. Together, we arrange everything that needs to be de-signed on HMUN, such as: placards, badges, notepaper etc. The begin-ning of the year was the busiest for us, because that was when we had to de-sign everything. Later in the year we will be printing everything we have de-signed, so we can get all the errors out of it before we print it. Then, at the con-ference itself, nothing much has to be done by us, except for cleaning and buil-ding up committees, if we have not made any mistakes in the designs.

Of course there are also preparati-ons for HMUN. Every week, there is a meeting with the whole Executive Staff, where we keep track of whether everyone is doing their tasks. At the mo-ment, we are designing the research reports for the chairs, where they can fill in what topic they will be discussing in their committee and the information about the topic. We also need to work together with other Staff members with certain tasks, such as making a design for the housing folder. The Head of Hospitality needs to discuss that with us, so we know what to design. Therefore we need good relationships with the whole Executive Staff. To improve relationships bet-ween Staff members, we do team