For many years, when I've discussed my travels, fellow travelers from around the world have asked if I, too, have been to NYC. I have felt like a fraud. For all the countries and cities around the world that I have explored, I hadn't yet managed the two hour flight to the capital of the world.
So it had moved up in precedence on my travel bucket list, and when Andrea complained that she hadn't managed to really have a summer, I suggested we take advantage of her newly free weekends and we planned the whole trip in about two days. We suffered financially for our spontaneity, but #YOLO. (Also, I never pass up an opportunity to spend time with this kid. She's the coolest.) The trip lined up almost exactly with our impulsive 2015 summer trip to Newfoundland, so I nicknamed it #TessAndreaTrip2016. She wasn't into it, though.
My dad teased me (and Andrea) by saying I shouldn't plan only intellectual/cultural activities for our time there, so that Andrea wouldn't have a terribly boring time. But the truth is that those things only bore my dad. To my immense pleasure, Andrea has developed more interests in common with me as we've gotten older than I would have expected, so I was thrilled when she expressed excitement about the possibility of visiting the UN.
We deplaned, collected our one shared suitcase, and opted for the expense of a Yellow Cab ride over hauling our luggage through the subway. All of Manhattan had the appearance of being on a sound stage, evenly lit by the sun, and the view of the buildings from the vantage point of our cab racing through Brooklyn seemed to be of a model city rather than a real one. It seemed impossible that it could be teeming with life, the way the buildings rose up out of the island itself, and the peace that seemed to emanate from it.
Our hostel, Jazz on the Park (which I would not recommend, but that's another story), was a minute walk from Central Park on the Upper West Side. We took advice about getting to the UN Headquarters for our tour at 4pm which involved taking the B line down to Broadway-Lafayette - which turned out to be nowhere near our intended destination. We had given ourselves plenty of time and not yet realizing that we were over 40 blocks from where we needed to be, we started seeking out a lunch spot. Andrea is charmingly hypoglycemic; "hangry" is not just a trendy term to describe her mood when she does not eat often enough. We came upon the Lafayette Grand Café & Bakery and after glancing at the menu made the pricey but fortuitous choice to eat there. We learned later that Lafayette is the playground of millionaires in the city. But what are you gonna do?
They had fixed menus in the French style, and it was fine dining so the service was exceptional. I ordered a cream corn risotto that is possibly the best meal I have ever eaten. The chef clearly had a thing for corn because the dessert, listed as a "push pop", was corn-flavoured ice cream. It reminded me of esquites (Mexican street corn salad) which is so surprising and delicious, but before that I had never considered the combination of corn with dairy. It was inspired. Andrea was fully jealous even though her meal, compared to anything else on the planet, was exquisite. (Does anyone else hear that word in their head the way Alan Rickman says it? Just me?)
Hauling ourselves out of our seats, we took a minute to determine that the receptionist at the hostel had given us bad directions and set off to find the UN building. It was sweltering, but our spirits were high and our bellies were full so we weren't too sad about it.
One of the highlights for both of us was the memorial for the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. In both of our courses of study, this has been featured and of great interest to us as intersectional feminists. I happened to be reading The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (who lives in Hamilton, Ontario) and had only just finished the section dedicated to describing Aminata's passage on the slave ships. The connection to the memorial was eerie. Inside, we explored some of the displays while we waited for our tour time, and we were further inspired by the initiatives being undertaken by the UN in terms of their Millennial Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals. My school board's gifted program engages directly with the Millennial Goals as a lens for exploring curriculum content with gifted students. It was interesting to see the engagement of youth with these goals worldwide.
Having been a geek in high school, I had the opportunity to participate in model UN gatherings, so I had a general idea about the workings of the organization, but for Andrea the tour represented a better understanding of global politics (and it was a good refresher for me, too). Both of us were struck by the rules governing permanent members of the UN Security Council - you know, the ones that have veto power.
At the end of WW2, the "winners" of the war were responsible for re-establishing the peace. Those five "winners" - USA, Russia, China, UK, and France - are permanent residents on the UN Security Council which is responsible for maintaining peace. The rest of the members are elected (Canada is vying to regain our spot, but the recent scandal involving the sale of armored vehicles by a Canadian company that were used against civilians in South Sudan in violation of UN sanctions doesn't bode well, because it is shameful). If any of these five countries wish to veto something put on the table, they can. Of all the countries in the world that should not have veto power, these are the ones. Of all the countries least committed to peace, these are also the ones (remember the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade? UK and France were some of the worst perpetrators. They also had a war among themselves that was called the "100 Years War". Reallllll committed to peace there, fellas.)
Apparently, attempts to ban nuclear weapons testing failed because the
legislation could not get the 8 signatures it needed. The US has tested
over 2000 nuclear weapons since the end of the second world war. Let's
not pretend that North Korea is the only nation that doesn't want peace. The world spends over 13 trillion dollars a year on military expenditures (to see a daily tracker, similar to the one shown here at around 16:30, click here). Canada, our "peacekeeping" nation, is the second largest arms manufacturer in the world. Not cool, eh?
We learned about the role of the two other branches of the UN and some of the projects that they have been involved in. These did not make us angry, thankfully. And we left feeling mostly inspired.
We picked up groceries on our way back to the hostel, only to discover that there was no stove and that we wouldn't be able to make use of the pasta we had packed. Our avacado sandwiches made for a nice light dinner.
We plotted some of our next steps based on Google's weather predictions for the weekend, and had the pleasure of meeting a young man from France who really only wanted to sell us his 7-day metro pass which still had 5 days on it, but ended up having a nice chat with us anyway. Somehow, we were nearly roped into a pub crawl even though Andrea is still a minor in the US, but we escaped narrowly by saying we had to go back to our room to get ready. Instead, we fell asleep nearly instantly.
Crossing the border at 6am did not make for two party animals - unless
the party was a pajama party in which case we were the life of it?
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