Mr. Smith went to Washington, But Miss Klemm went to Space

Well, I didn’t literally go to space, but I was as close as I have ever been. And I definitely was in a whole different world.
I’ve been considering for quite awhile now working for the UN when I grow up and, through a series of lucky circumstances, I found myself doing just that (not the growing up part, I’m still working on that, but the “working for the UN” part). I showed up on Wednesday morning at the UN headquarters here in Vienna, as I had been invited to take a tour and sit in on a conference . . . or at least I thought that was what I had been invited to do. Instead, I found myself alongside of a bunch of space law students getting registered as a member of “The Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.” There was a badge and everything. Next thing I know, I’m being briefed on Austria’s opinion on all sorts of issues and I’m told to come back the next day and be prepared to sit in for Austria at the conference and report back on what goes down. What?!?
So yeah, the next afternoon I found myself in the front row of the conference behind the name plate for Austria, frantically trying to follow along as diplomats from all over the world talked in monotone voices about how to share rights to Outer Space. It was only made more confusing when I had someone translating the Arabic into my headset. It might have been the scariest/coolest/most surreal experience of my life to this point. It was the strangest combination of completely fascinating and horribly boring imaginable. Luckily, a REAL “distinguished delegate” from Austria showed up as well and they still haven’t asked for my report (good thing too, cause from my PAGES of very non-specific notes, I would have no idea what to include, and I probably missed all of the important stuff). I was also much comforted when my bishop (who is the Australian diplomat) showed up and sat right next to me (convenient that Austria and Australia are so close alphabetically). He handed me a fat rubber band and told me would give me 50 Euro to shoot it at the Chairman. I passed.
Afterwards, I found myself holding a champagne glass (filled with orange juice, thank you) in the reception hall networking with a bunch of space leaders and former astronauts while the Italians told us how awesome they were in the Outer Space department. I’m still not entirely sure how this all happened, considering I’m here studying “How to be a better tourist”, but it was AWESOME.


The Logo for CoPUOS

I kept being reminded of this scene in "The Rescuers" (Of course it always comes back to Disney for me somehow). I've had the theme song stuck in my head all week.

The UN headquarters in Vienna. I didn't take this picture, but it's much better than the one I tried to descretely take while leaving.