We’ve noticed in recent days that there are many more teens running around Dupont Circle than you’d normally expect. Local eateries have been extra crowded, pretty much every Starbucks is a no-go zone and the usual resident-enforced rules of Metro are violated at will. What gives?

The North American Invitational Model United Nations conference kicked off yesterday at the Washington Hilton, putting District residents at the mercy of 3,000 high school students with hotel rooms, raging hormones and no parents. I’ve received several complaints from Dupont Circle-area workers, one of whom frantically chatted me after not being able to get lunch without waiting in foolishly long lines. “I am snippy ’cause i’m hungry…the little bastards are taking over,” she relayed. A former DCist colleague cleverly noted, “Someone should introduce a resolution telling them to share the sidewalk.” If you’re hoping for a quiet weekend, don’t — they’ll be around until Sunday.

I did Model UN in high school and college. (Mock me. But I represented Lesotho once and showed everyone that you don’t f**k with tiny African kingdoms, even if their only real export is water to South Africa.) We traveled to many a city for conferences. If this is how we acted, I owe many millions of people a long overdue apology. I’m sorry.