by David Tong
Well, that was THIMUN. We collected the delegates from their host families at the Central Station on Saturday morning, and took them to Amsterdam. In Amsterdam we ate lunch at a pub near our hotel then tried to visit Anne Frank’s House, but only a few brave souls were willing to queue up outside in the cold. We gave the others a little free time to shop in an Amsterdam flea market.
Café Van Puffelen served us a great three-course dinner. Over which we slowly came to realize that this is Goodbye for the 2011 Delegation. The Delegates enjoyed either steak or fish, followed by a selection of cakes.
On Sunday morning, some of us said goodbye, as the others left for Schipol airport. I and a few of the delegates are remaining in Europe for a time. We who are staying on made it back to Anne Frank’s House, and beat the queue. It was an extremely moving museum, showing the human side of the Holocaust, even moreso than Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.
The Delegates have already planned a reunion, we three are confidant that they will have formed strong and long-lasting friendships and will return to New Zealand having learned much. We are especially happy to have taken at least one Delegate on his first trip outside of New Zealand.
Those who are returning to New Zealand have now left Narita Airport in Tokyo, where they had a six hour stopover. They are now bound for Auckland, New Zealand – home!
Tomorrow, the delegation will be spread all across New Zealand, and the Delegates will be reunited with their families.
We will be sad to say goodbye, and have been lucky to have such a great group. We will all have fond and funny memories of the past three weeks. We will miss our Delegates, our Australian friends, Eliza, Jackie and Jules and their Delegates, and we will miss working closely with each other. We are sure our Delegates will miss each other and their host families.
Whenever we get on a bus back home we expect to look over our shoulders and try to count to 16. See you in New Zealand!
Katrina, Helen and David.
