BERMUN 2019
Note: This article was originally written for the January 2020 Edition of the Beachside Press.
By Jake Farber '22
A couple of months ago, seven of my classmates, our chaperones Ms. Ibarcena and Mr. Abel, and I headed to Berlin for the annual Model United Nations Conference. Model UN is a conference where schools represent different countries and the issues that they face. These conferences are held all around the world, and GFA has been active in participating in them. The conference was hosted at the John F. Kennedy International School in Berlin. It has been going on there since 1992. For most of us, this would be the second conference that we had attended, but to be honest, we didn’t know what to expect. BERMUN is one of the only conferences that is overseas, so it was a unique opportunity to get outside our comfort zone and experience something other than the U.S., while also interacting with people who aren’t from America. The conference turned out to be an excellent experience for all of us. Not only did we get to represent our respective countries, Spain and Mexico, but we also got to know people from all around the world. Something that I will always remember is an experience that my friend who lives in Saudi Arabia had. One day after the session, he went out with his school to see the movie Joker. He later told me that the film is censored entirely in Saudi Arabia. Many of our friends were so similar to us but had such different situations back at home. I thought that this was one of the best aspects of the conference. Aside from the conference, we had multiple opportunities to visit places and sightsee in Berlin. By the end of the trip, we could navigate Berlin pretty well because of all of the places we visited. We went to the Brandenburg Gate, the Bundestag, and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The memorial resonated with a lot of us, including myself. As the conference came to a close, we said our goodbyes and boarded our flight to JFK. This was one of my favorite conferences and made me excited for the future ones. If you are interested in attending a conference, talk to either Ms. Ibarcena or Mr. Abel for more details.
