Today an almost two week block of role play began. We’re supposed to simulate negotiations between the countries surrounding the Baltic sea, with the goal to agree to a convention to save the fish stocks and ecosystems of the sea from total collapse.
This first day was intense. It’s hard to describe. Allow me to paint you a picture:
Outside the conference venue, on a gravel path by a frozen lake, a member of the Russian delegation (aka Ashley) offers a sip of red wine to two members of the Danish and Finnish delegations (aka Hannah and me), respectively. It was meant as a joke, but Denmark jumps at the offer (just to calm the nerves a little bit, like) and there they stand, on the gravel path at three thirty in the afternoon while joggers run past, drinking red wine straight from the bottle. For the imaginative, it could be seen as fraternizing between the delegations, Russia offering the easily duped Nordic delegates a bribe.
A researcher from the SRC walks by and says: “Cheers!”.
True story.
Katja Malmborg 