We made our way to our gate and boarded smoothly, but it soon became clear that we weren't taking off on time. Security personnel came onto the flight and explained that there had been a woman who had checked luggage on the plane, but now didn't want to board, though we do not know why she did not want to board. It is probable she was simply a nervous flyer. Security needed to make sure all the luggage on board matched the passengers - a routine safety procedure that, of course, we are glad that they take. They were taking it VERY seriously on this day, and that may also have been due to the PM being in town. They left, but soon returned and did a more thorough inspection to ensure that each bag had an owner. They left again, but before long they returned a third time, and asked everyone to take all their belongings and disembark the plane, which we did. This time they inspected the entire plane, and then we boarded again.
Unfortunately, this meant that we had missed our turn on the runway, so we had to wait for another opening. After sitting on the tarmac for a bit longer, we finally took off at 19:10 (our original take off had been 16:50). However, the students were all very patient and took this in stride, and the flight was pretty short and uneventful. Upon arriving in Singapore, we were met by our bus and taken to our hotel, the YWCA Canning Fort Lodge. We dropped off our luggage, and dashed to a nearby mall for some dinner. It was quite late, and most places were closing, so we made do with some Burger King for our first night. Finally, we got back to our rooms, and everyone showered and relaxed before bed.
On Friday morning, we enjoyed our one opportunity to sleep in a bit, as we did not have to be at the conference until around 13:00. Students had the full morning to work on some homework and practice their opening speeches, and all of them were pretty diligent about this, heading down to the lobby so they could work together on some sofas and use the stronger internet connection. Mr Godfrey and Ms J picked up some lunch for everyone, and then we waited for our bus to the conference. There was a slight misunderstanding with bus timings, so we were picked up a bit late, but soon arrived at the Overseas Family School. Our students were all very smartly-dressed and headed off to their committee workshops looking like old pros, despite this being the first conference for 4 of our 7 delegates.
Everyone had a good day in their workshops, learning some of the finer points of committee etiquette and debate procedure. Many of them thought the skill-building workshops had been very helpful, felt more prepared, less nervous, and ready to jump in the following day. Everyone was pretty tired, so we went back to the hotel and changed clothes so we could head out to dinner. Following dinner, students went to their rooms to prepare for the early start the next morning.
This morning, Saturday, students all arrived downstairs and ready for the bus, looking refreshed, dapper, and ready for action. They headed off to their committees ready to give their opening speeches. Mr Godfrey and Ms J will be heading around to various committees throughout today to try to catch them in action.
Just some reminders, you can find any contact information for us on our MY-MUNOFS itinerary.
More to come!
~Ms J & Mr Godfrey
Thank you chaperones for making this event so successful. Your hard work, year long training and great care for the children enabled them to break out of their shells to maximise the experience!
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