Where are you from?
By Anna Delmas and Lucie Mellon
Illustrations by Azadeh Changrani-Rastogi
THIMUN’s doors are officially open, inviting delegates worldwide to participate in this year’s conference. From Oceania to South America, six continents are present this week. We asked some delegates to compare what it is like back home, to here, in The Hague. Here’s what they said:
Our first interviewee is a student at the Chisipite Senior School in Harare, Zimbabwe. Paula Chimbodza is the delegate of Haiti for the duration of the conference. She expressed that she is considering living and studying in The Hague and that it is a “very pretty” city. “Everyone seems happy and peaceful”, which she believes adds to the city’s attractiveness. When asked about the biggest difference between her home country and the Netherlands, Paula explained “The weather is the biggest change, because it’s really cold here, it’s winter, whereas in Zimbabwe it’s summer and it’s very hot. My friends and I really underestimated the weather when packing to come here!”
Coming from the other side of the Atlantic, Maximo Ernesti is a student at the ESSARP in Buenos Aires, Argentina, representing Jordan at the conference. According to him, The Hague is “very cold, very rainy, but a very beautiful city”. Coming from Argentina, the biggest culture shock he has experienced in the Netherlands was “the food and the price of it”. Additionally, the “availability of shopping” was a surprise, “We don’t have that many shopping centers, and it’s really fun to go around, seeing all the new stores”.
Jackie Zhu is a student at the Pymble Ladies College in Sydney, Australia, who is a part of the delegation of Germany in the conference. She told us her first impression of The Hague was its chilly weather, as “it’s much colder than Australia, where it is 47C degrees right now”. The biggest change between the two countries is the language used, she noted, as “everyone speaks English and Dutch, and they all have so many different accents”.
Living in St. Louis, Missouri, Rafe Rosario-Blake is a student at the John Burroughs School in the United States. He is a part of the delegation of Cambodia, and finds The Hague to be a “very peaceful city, with a lot of wonderful tourist spots, and a great place to work in”. Compared to the USA, the Netherlands has a much more “laid-back atmosphere, where people are willing to help you take your time with things, whereas in St. Luis, there’s no time, things are always busy and quick. So the pace of life is much nicer here.”
As a student at the American College of Greece, located in Athens, Marios Pasoglou is a Chair for one of THIMUN’s many committees. He found The Hague to be “a beautiful city, it’s, of course, the city of peace and diplomacy, and it’s very nice to visit”. What surprised him upon arriving in the Netherlands was the “organization and structure of society, things are much more organized here, especially in terms of roads and driving, I mean the fact that people stop at crossroads here still amazes me!”
Having traveled from Malaysia, Olivia Fernandez is a student at the Australian International School of Malaysia, located in Kuala Lumpur. She’s a delegate representing Burkina Faso throughout the conference. Olivia views The Hague as“quite nice and welcoming, it feels safe to be here, and I enjoy the accessibility of public transport here”. Compared to Kuala Lumpur, she finds the people in the Netherlands “different in how they act, quite friendly, but mostly the environment is different, it’s very humid and hot in Malaysia whereas it is very dry and cold here”.
To conclude, our verdict for the delegates we have interviewed from the six different continents we’ve selected is a resounding agreement on the differences between the weather from their home country and The Hague as well as the stark differences in social demeanor.
Yet, they all have positive outlooks on this beautiful city, from its architecture, ‘laid-back atmosphere’ and global representation. The Hague is perceived eternally as a city of peace and justice, some of our delegates even expressed their wishes to come back and discover more of this inspiring city.
