We diplomats disarm you with our smiles...and treaties!

Heh heh heh...I thought of that punny little title myself. Seriously, though, while I haven't posted much about it on here, my past several months as a legal adviser/diplomatic intern (for climate change and sustainable development issues) with the Mission of Grenada to the UN have been fascinating. I have gotten to attend all sorts of formal meetings, attend lots of closed negotiation sessions between different member states (countries), and-yes-even voted on nuclear disarmament treaties on behalf of Grenada!

While I hope to do a better job of photographically documenting my experience, here are a couple to give you at least a brief glimpse from within the "diplomats only" portion of the UN.

Here I am, busily working away in First Committee negotiations. Just kidding-it's lunch break. More people show up for meetings than this (after all, this is the UN, not Congress).

Here are a couple photos (sorry for the blurriness) that I snapped in astonishment on one of my first days at the UN. I was instructed to go unlock a conference room, and expected to find, you know, a conference room. Instead I found this behemoth, which my card apparently permits me to unlock at will! It truly has been a surreal couple of months.

And, finally, I just happened to be walking through the UN one day, and look who sauntered past! Is that blurry man next to the police officer in a white uniform Obama?!? Why, yes! That is President Obama.

[Confession-I was actually sent on a 40-minute reconnaissance mission by a fellow delegate to see if we could get a good spot for a photo as Obama walked by our conference room. Minus the blurriness, the plan worked well. And no, I was not the only diplomat eagerly awaiting this 5-second encounter, as you may be able to tell by the throngs of other diplomats the police are keeping at bay.]