just a very brief note from The Hague. If you’ve followed my blog for quite some time you probably know that I’ve spend lately some time in Milan at the G8 Youth Summit 2009 and now I’m in The Hague at WorldMUN 2009.

The G8 Summit was just awesome It was really really challenging and we did nothing but working all day long and then tried to either get a drink or some sleep… (The later rather rarely… I’ll write a bit more about my experiences in Milan when I’ll have a) more time and b) will be a little bit more awake than I’m right now… Just to summarize, Milan was not only great because of the nice weather, but first and foremost because of the awesome people I had the pleasure to be with (especially my delegation!!!) and the work we’ve done!

Now I’m in The Hague struggling to cope with my huge lack of sleeping time. I’m right now more or less only physically awake and try not to fall asleep during the committee sessions. Still, it’s great to be here as I use this conference basically to have a huge get together with people I know from all over the world In contrast to Milan, here I don’t really care about the work we’re doing but rather go for the social part of the conference…

Ok, I’ll be back in Germany next Saturday but don’t count on me before Monday (I’ll probably sleep the whole Sunday…

Cya, Philip

P.S.: Looks like I’ll be in India from September to Dezember… Gosh I really like my life right now…

some of you might have notized the pics on the upper left side that link to my mobile.me gallery. So here comes the explanation what the pics are about. As you probably know, I’m flying to Milan in a bit more than a week in order to represent the German Minister of Environment @ the G8 Youth Summit. At our workshop in January, our Minister of Foreign Affairs (Brhan) who travels a lot through Africa, gave each delegate a nice wooden figure. Mine was – as you can see – a rhino. As the real Minister is called Sigmar, naming my figure “Siggi the Rhino” was at hand And as I’ve a huge library of photos from Paris, there was no need to take any “normal” pics and thus I decided to do something creative… You can check it out when you click on the pics and then go through the album

Aside from that, Paris was great (oh right, already told you so…) Especially my meeting with my boss @ UNEP turned out to be very cool, as he (or to be precise, his boss) decided that if I change the focus of my last three chapters of my study from “what should UNEP do” to “what should the other stakeholders do”, they will publish it not only as an official UNEP study on their webside as a pdf but actually gonna print it for real!!! Isn’t that awesome? So right now the study is in an international review process and I have no deadline to do the changes except of that it should be done within 2009 (seems doable to me )

In Paris I met up with other friends and really enjoyed my time being there – can’t wait to get back. Right now I’m at my family’s place in Osnabrück and work on my papers for university. Over the weekend I travelled a bit and enjoyed some time with friends in Bremen and Oldenburg. In contrast to what I had posted some weeks ago, I didn’t make it to Belfast as the conference didn’t take place and while my friends over there asked me to come over anyway, I decided not to and rather take the time to work on my papers.

Ok, tommorrow the day is going to start with an appointment at the dentist but it’s getting better later, as I’ll meet up with two of my best friends and moreover Werder is going to play (that’s only good if they gonna win though… )

Hope you’re having a good time,

enjoy your week, Philip

I just thought I should keep my promise and tell you what’s gonna keep me busy over the course of the next two month, so you get an idea, why I won’t be around But first things first: I’m DONE with my study!!!
If you’ve followed me on this blog, twitter, facebook, skype or even had to hear my complaints about way too much to do, you might be able to imagine how happy I am, as most of these complaints where related to my work on the study I can’t publish the study so far as it’s now up to UNEP what they gonna do with it, but if they decide to publish it, I’ll let you know

So, here we go. I sublet my room yesterday for the following two month as I’ll be in:

Paris -> 14.02. – 18.02.
Osnabrück -> 19.02 – 24.02.
Belfast -> 25.02. – 3.2.
Osnabrück -> 4.3. – 11.3.
Milan -> 12.3. – 21.3.
The Hague -> 22.3. – 28.3.
Osnabrück -> 29.3. – 4.4.
Bremen – 5.4. – 4.9

Guess I’ll be traveling a lot So in short, in Paris I gonna see lots of friends and meet my boss @ UNEP to discuss the study, in Belfast I’ll participate in Queens University’s MUN that’s going to be organized by a couple of friends of mine, afterwards I’ll be in Milan to represent the German Minister of Environment at the Model G8 Youth Summit, in The Hague I’ll participate in the WorldMUN representing Tadjikistan and last but not least I’ll enjoy some time in Bremen at the BRIMUN Even though I’ll be in “diplomatic mode” all time, if you’re in town and like to see me, give me a call Yeah, now you might wonder where I got all that time from to do this… Good point. Answer: I don’t I’ve to write 4 papers and a couple of other things to organize, but… I guess I’ll manage somehow

As always its all about time-management and so far it did work out, so it’ll work out this time as well It would be nice to get some more time, the funny things is I do At least in german, cause since 5 weeks I get the best german weekly journal, called ZEIT Time – for free And I’ve no idea why, cause I never ever signed anything and there’s no address-sticker or anything else on the journal, it’s just each week in my mailbox That’s fantastic, cause I really like that journal – even though I don’t really can take advantage of it as I’ve no time to read the articles… Still it’s pretty cool

Ok, besides travel, work & university stuff I still try to have a bit of a social life and had a very nice weekend. Friday night an old friend of mine called me out of the blue and told me that she had missed her flight back to Osnabrück (she had a meeting in the german ministery of economics). Half hour later we went out and had a fantastic dinner at a very nice little restaurant close by. We hadn’t seen us for more than a year so we’d lots to talk about Afterwards we went to some stylish club where Celine talked the doorman into letting us in After a nice brunch next morning at her hotel I showed her a little around (even though I was unable to answer a single “touristic” question regarding buildings etc. ) and then got back to work when she flew back home that was one of the best surprises I’ve had so far in 2009 Later on Saturday I met up with Charlotte and we discovered four local museums during the “Long Night of Museums”. It was awesome and we really enjoyed it So except of Werder’s defeat on Sunday I had an exceptional weekend

Ok, I guess now you’ve got a good update on what I’m doing and what’s coming up Hope you’re doing fine as well and wish you all the best,

take care, Philip

guess what, I just checked all my ToDo items for today and since I haven’t had the chance to do that this early for a couple of weeks now, I’m pretty happy about it Now I got some time to write this entry and tell you guys a bit what’s keeping my life (stressful) interesting…

First off the new year started quite well. I really enjoyed the time back home at my family’s place and found some time to rest. No big party, no big crowd, just me and my family in our little village – perfect to relax! Well, relax is always relative and thus I had to work on a couple of things…

First week back in Berlin became one of the most stressful and challenging weeks of the last couple of month. While the two presentations I had to do @ university went pretty well, they needed to be prepared in advance. Moreover I had to prepare a Position Paper for the ModelG8, as the Preparation Workshop for the real event in March in Milan was scheduled for the weekend and the papers had to be done sometime before. Writing & editing that paper became a more time consuming process as I had thought so I ended up working until early in the morning. Sleeping less the 5 hours per day became the standard and if you know me well, you know that I really really need more sleeping time!

Anyway, I survived and so I can tell you about the awesome weekend I had. Thursday morning started out quite stressful as I had to clean up my apartment and reduce the chaos in my room, as my “Climate Expert” would stay with me for the upcoming days. Thursday’s the only day in the week when I’ve two classes so I spent quite some time at the university (trying not to fall asleep). After class had finished by 6pm, I got back down town to meet my fellow delegates and the organisation team of the ModelG8 Workshop in the “Ständige Vertretung” (a quite famous restaurant around politicians here in Berlin). One of the owners had invited the whole crew (18 people) and thus I did not only get the chance to meet and chat with them but enjoyed meanwhile a delicious meal for free Afterwards we went to some bar close by and then I went back home with Stefan (my CC expert ) in order to get some sleep before the Workshop would start the next day – at 8 o’clock in the morning

Don’t ask me how, but after less than 4 hours of sleep we managed to get up and slip into our suits to get ready for the day. Friday was a tough working day. We had a presentation about the G8 in general and went then over to the ministry of economics in order to meet up with Dr. Köhler, a fantastic guy that told us lots of interesting stuff. Later on we split up in smaller groups to meet some guys in “our” ministry. As I’m the minister of environment, I went together with Stefan to the minstry of environment and we had a quite helpful and informative talk with the guy responsible for international affairs. Later in the “cabinet” we found out that the others didn’t have had that much luck with their conversational partners as they either got no real answers or talked against the wall… After having a short round about the day, we finished up with a nice reception of the association that is organizing everything We had a chance to meet up with some members of the jury that selected us and other interesting people and spent a nice evening.

Saturday was meant to be the “internal working day”. In short: Having lots of topics on the agenda and sometimes quite opposing views on the variety of issues, it turned out to be a quite discussion-intense but as well productive day and we managed to get some sort of a governmental position on each topic. In this regard it is really really interesting to see that working in a cabinet and thus as a minister is quite different to the “normal” MUN experience, where I make up my mind and then go ahead. Here, I first have to argue with my collegues in the cabinet, try to find a common position and then go into the debate on the international scale. That’s really really cool but challenging as well During the day we got rhetorical training that will hopefully help us in Milan After work had been done we went to a nice pizza place and afterwards to a bar where we could play “Kicker” and table tennis. Guess what, as table tennis is the only sport I can do (even though running around the table became a bit strenuous), I managed to win once – job’s done

Sunday, the last day of the workshop, started with a nice brunch where we had some guys from three NGOs at the table that told us a little bit about their thoughts towards the G8 and what they would like to see them doing. While the workshop ended at three, a couple of the delegates and me went to a nice cafe to have a coffee/tea and enjoyed some time together.

Having now met my colleges, I’m even more looking forward to Milan than before. Not only will that gonna be a hell lot of fun but as well successful, as without doubt I can say that we’re not only really really good prepared but are all real experts on our topics!!! Its just amazing to see us working and I really enjoyed discussions on this level!

Ok, what shall I say, starting by Saturday I had slept about 4h each night for eight days straight so I was somehow a sleeping-man-walking on Sunday Now I’m still fucking busy but took myself some time to rest

Ok, next time I’m going to tell you why I won’t be in Germany for a couple of weeks starting in February so stay with me

Have a nice weekend, Philip

just a short hello again. While I was kind of optimistic earlier this week that I would be finished with my study by the end of the week, things turned out differently – as always. While I came across two crucial points I didn’t had included in the study so far, additionally I’m constantly getting more and more other stuff to do… Bearing in mind the time problems I have right now, I scheduled all my presentations at the university for 2009 – too bad I was tricked by one prof that changed the date of one of my turns to next thursday, thus I’ll have to do it now. Meanwhile it turned out that being the “German Minister of Environment” at the G8YouthSummit is not all fun but work… While I never expected it to be easy going, I just didn’t see it coming that fast. Accordingly my time management just collapsed to a certain extent and I’m trying to find a balance between UNEP-work, University-work, G8-work, Physiotherapy and … sleeping time. I’m back again at the point were I’m sleeping 4-5h a day – that ain’t healthy! Just to make sure, I’m not complaining here about the things I have to do, I just have a huge problem to figure out HOW I actually can do them

Ok, that said and being close to fall asleep in front of my desk, I’ll finish with a conversation I had lately with my landlord:

She: Well, does your flatmate has a girlfriend?
Me: No!
She: Do you?
Me, No!
She: Oh – pause – so who’s cleaning your appartement in that case

I ain’t gonna comment on that, but while these occasions are really few, I had to search for words due to my disbelieve of what I’ve just had heard

Have a good night and enjoy your weekend!

Philip

believe it or not, that’s exactly what I gonna do! Where? At the G8 Youth Summit 2009 in Milan! Why? Because I’m part of the German delegation to this summit and will represent the Minister of Environment of Germany! Yeah! Wouldn’t my knee stop me from doing so I would still jump around… March 2009 is gonna be THE month ever when it comes down to international conferences! While I’ll be in Milan from the 12th of March until the 21st, WorldMUN in Den Haag will take place from the 22nd up to the 27th, thus directly afterwards So I’ll be “playing” diplomat for two weeks straight! How great is that? Right, it’s awesome

Ok, back to real world, take care, Philip

just wanted to tell you how happy I’m today. While it’s rather obvious that I am happy due to Bremen’s 5:0 victory over Frankfurt, the way more important reason is my ability to walk without crutches again!!! While I did walk at home without crutches for the last 3-4 days, I didn’t leave the house without them as I didn’t want to risk anything. BUT as Physiotherapy is going very well and I’m not having any trouble with the knee, I decided to “cancel my status as being disabled” and get back to “normal life”. Ok, true, that’ll take some more weeks BUT I’m seeing progress here which is the key Moreover I’m travelling to WorldMUN in March in DenHaag with some friends of mine and I’m really looking forward to it Maybe I’ll be in Milan at the G8 Summit right before WorldMUN, but that’s not sure yet so I’ll tell you once I know more… Yeah, besides that I got nothing big to tell. I’m happy to be able to walk around, attend university classes again and yesterday I went to a very nice party at Charlotte’s place.

Ok, so far news for the week, take care, Philip

Tja, was soll ich sagen, schwere Entscheidung – oder auch nicht. Worum es überhaupt geht? Also, ich wurde heute gefragt, ob ich nicht Lust hätte, kurzfristig einzuspringen und bei der Delegation der Uni Bremen mit nach New York zur NMUN (New York Model United Nations – größte MUN weltweit) zu fliegen Yeah, auf jeden Fall, da bin ich dab… Mist nein, dann doch nicht Gleichzeitig steht nämlich in Paris eine Konferenz von OECD und UNEP an, die nach genauerer Recherche genau “mein” Thema behandeln wird. Die zwischenzeitliche Frage, ob ich also New York und somit die Simulation Paris und der echten UN Konferenz vorziehen sollte, hat sich dadurch erledigt. Schade, schade, aber die Möglichkeit, an der NMUN teilzunehmen werde ich wohl noch ein paar Mal haben, die aktive Teilnahme an einer UN Konferenz dagegen wohl eher nicht… Joa, das dazu.

BRIMUN News: Terroranschlag auf den Security Council

Heute kam es dann zu der schon erwarteten Krisensituation. Nach einem recht frustrierenden, weil wenig produktivem Morgen, stand um 14:30 Uhr ein Vortrag einer Professorin über Mercosur an. Diese echt schwache Präsentation wurde jedoch abrupt nach der Hälfte der Zeit beendet, da Rauchschwaden in den Raum drangen und Sirenen losgingen… Mitul, unser Chair, beorderte den Security Council (SC) sich unter den Tischen in Sicherheit zu bringen, so dass auf einmal 15 Anzugträger unter den Tischen im Raum hockten… Angeführt von China wurde unter tatkräftiger Hilfe andere Staaten kurze Zeit später die Initiative übernommen und der Zugang zum Raum durch Stühle verbarrikadiert – kampfbereit erwarteten wir die Terroristen Nach einer gewissen Wartezeit wurden wir jedoch nicht von den Terroristen beschossen sondern vom UN-Sicherheitspersonal durch’s Fenster nach draußen geschafft, in bereitstehende Lieferwagen verfrachtet und ab ging die Post… Die Transporterfenster (reine Ladefläche) waren verklebt, so dass niemand sehen konnte, wohin es gehen würde. Darüber hinaus war der SC auf mehrere Fahrzeuge aufgeteilt, so dass ich mit unseren beiden Chairs sowie den honorable delegates of Vietnam, Italy und Costa Rica im Laderaum wartete, was geschehen würde… Nach einer Fahrt von min. 25 Minuten (definitiv inkl. Autobahn etc.) kamen wir wieder auf dem Jacobs University Gelände an und wurden dort in die West Hall geleitet, wo die General Assembly tagte. Doch die freudige Ankündigung “der SC kommt” stimmte nicht ganz, denn es waren nur wir vier Die anderen waren verschollen, der SC handlungsunfähig Zudem schockte uns ein Video der FARC, die den Botschafter der USA und von Kroatien als Geisel genommen hatten… Kurze Zeit später wurde die GA wieder aufgelöst und wir vier berieten, was wir nun tun könnten… Indem fuhr ein Taxi vor, aus dem einige der “missing delegates” ausstiegen: Was ich im Scherz gemeint hatte (“It would be really awesome if the police would stop us, open the door looking into the gun of our “Security Guard”) war den anderen wirklich passiert Alles aber gut gegangen, keiner erschossen und es bleibt abzuwarten, wer was an Strafe zu zahlen haben wird… DAS war doch mal ne Krise, mein lieber Scholli. Im weiteren Verlauf wurde der amerikanische Botschafter befreit, tragischer Weise starb der Kroatische Kollege bei dieser Aktion. Dies führte angesichts des bisherigen Verhaltens des Botschafters allerdings eher zur Freude… Welche Gründe das alles hatte, wird sich morgen genauer herausstellen! Ein spannender letzter Tag steht uns, dem SC, der BRIMUN und der Welt bevor So, stay tunes!

Party Time

So, heute abend war dann hier an der Schlachte im “S1″ Party angesagt. Da ich da noch nicht war, hab ich mir das mal bis eben angeschaut. Ganz nett muss ich sagen. Allein der Barkeeper und die gesamte Service-Crew war mal vollkommen überfordert. Ist aber auch wirklich verwunderlich, warum soviel Cocktails wollen, wenn man dafür ne Happy Hour ausruft… Anyway, sonst war’s nett, doof nur, dass ich – weil ich nicht alleine ein Taxi bezahlen wollte – schon so früh gehen musste, um noch den letzten Bus zu kriegen. Da lob ich mir doch Paris, egal zu welcher Tages oder Nachtzeit, man kommt IMMER irgendwie nach Hause! Auch das Wetter schockt mich hier jeden Tag mehr. Bin gerade wieder im SCHNEEREGEN nach Hause gelaufen!!!

Ok, das für heute, morgen mehr.

Und weg, euer Strothi

- Die Heimfahrt im Nachtzug war ok, aber geschlaffen hab ich nicht wirklich…

- Der Kurzaufenthalt bei der Family in Osna war sehr nett – to be continued

- Seit Sonntag spiele ich Diplomat auf der BRIMUN

- Übernachte in MEINEM Zimmer in MEINEM Bett, da meine Zwischenmieterin in den Staaten ist

- Bin im Security Council, Topic bisher: Kosovo und Venezuela (angeblich wollten die USA Chavez umbringen, der hat daraufhin alle US-Bürger ausgewiesen, USA sind mit Truppen eingerückt um Bürger rauszuholen -> Krise )

- Ich sorge kontinuierlich für Lacher: 1. Musste ich schon die Hymne Libyens singen (eher wenig erfolgreich) 2. wurde heute dann durch die “BBC” gemeldet, dass ich wegen der Unfähigkeit die Hymne zu singen, von meinem Posten entfernt worden wäre ( -> immer diese Fehlinformationen, soviel zum Thema Pressefreiheit, da kann einfach jeder schreiben, was er will… ) 3. und entscheidend: My Name sucks: Ich bin der Botschafter der “Great Socialist People’s Lybian Arab Republic” (so, und das jetzt bitte 3 Mal hintereinander flüssig aussprechen – danke )

- Bremer Wetter ist für’n Arsch! Es hat heute die Sonne geschien, geregnet, gehagelt, geschneit – und alles durcheinander

- ansonsten geht’s mir gut

Take care, und weg, euer Strothi 

nach der Freude über mein Praktikum fängt die Arbeit jetzt erst an – und damit mein ich nicht die Afghanistan-Hausabeit, die ich in den nächsten vier Tagen schreiben sollte… Nein, Die Formularflut für das Praktikum selbst meine ich. Da will die UNEP ein 12 Seiten langes Formular von mir ausgefüllt haben, was Makros zum ausfüllen enthält, mit denen kein Mac-Programm umgehen kann… Das muss dann natürlich auch noch von meiner Uni in Bremen unterschrieben werden. Die wiederum wollen ein Formular von der UNEP unterschrieben haben, dass ich das Praktikum auch wirklich mache und BAP (Bremer Ausbildungspartnerschaft) – die für die Vergabe des Erasmus-Praktikums-Stipendiums zuständig sind wollen zwei Formulare die sowohl von der Uni als auch der UNEP unterschrieben sind… Hilfe, Bürokratie ich komme… Naja, jetzt installier ich mir erstmal eben Office unter Windoof und hoffe, dass ich dann wenigstens das UNEP Formular ausfüllen kann… Also ihr merkt, die nächsten Tage werden stressig, morgen werd ich dann mal mit der UNEP die Details beschnacken und vll. komm ich dann über Ostern doch noch kurs nach Deutschland um Diplomat zu spielen und ein wenig auf Family zu machen Abwarten, Tee trinken und an die französische Bürokratie denken, dann sieht das alles schon viel besser aus

In diesem Sinne, und weg, euer Strothi