It's already the end of April! Where oh where did the time go? A bit has happened this month with school and Rotary stuff, and there's only about 3 months and three weeks until I leave for Ecuador! I still don't have my city, which is starting to drive me a bit nuts, but I'll hopefully know that within the next few weeks. :)
Hmm...let's see. I suppose I'll talk about the events this month in chronological order, which means that I'll start with the 10th. This month on the 10th, I had a meeting at Applebee's with a Rotarian named Gary Sobatta from the Novi Rotary Club and the president from my sponsor club, Paul. Gary has been to Ecuador quite a few times to work on a major clean water project (Agua Limpia) and my sponsor club representative, Lorrie, set the meeting up for me to learn about Ecuador and the project. I learned a lot during the meeting, and it was interesting to hear first hand facts about Ecuador. :)
Next, on the 17th, I had my National Honor Society induction! This doesn't have anything to do with exchange, but I thought it was worth mentioning since it was an exciting thing that happened this month, too.
Now, here goes the really long portion of my blog post, so bear with me:
Saturday was the district 6380 conference in Rochester, Mi, that I and all of the other inbounds and outbounds attended. It was from 7:30 a.m. to about 5:30 p.m., and the whole day was so much fun! First, when we arrived at 7:30, after a bit of confusion about what we were supposed to do, we all walked to the fire department down the street to eat breakfast. I sat with a few of the other outbounds, and we were served pancakes and sausage by firemen and boyscouts; one of our "servers" was the most adorable 7 or 8 year old boyscout ever, haha. Everyone there was so nice and it was a really good start to the day. Then, we all walked back to the Royal Park Hotel and went to the memorial service to honor all of the Rotarians that have passed away throughout the year. Next, we went into another room and had a really fun and interesting session with Alan Monroe about the Shelter Box Program. There, all of the inbounds and outbounds split up into tables and I was at a table with Albena (outbound to Russia), Charline (inbound from France) and Rina (inbound from Japan). We then learned what Shelter Boxes are (they are basically big bins that contain everything necessary for families to survive if their homes were destroyed by natural disasters, such as tents, water filters, etc.) and learned about how much they help families in need. We also learned that Shelter Boxes are really hard to get through customs, so we participated in a group activity where all of us had to deal with "crabby customs officers" and work together to get all of the Shelter Boxes through customs. After that, we were split back into our groups, and did a exercise that resembled what Shelter Box deliverers do to get to know each other when they are deployed on a mission and don't have a lot of time to get to know one another (which was getting all of your team members through a small rope without touching it). The moral of that exercise was that in order for the Shelter Box delivery mission to be a success, all members need to work together and have a plan. Overall, the Shelter Box portion of the day was a lot of fun and I learned so much about how natural disasters affect families, and how there aren't always enough Shelter Boxes for all of the families in need. For anyone who is reading this and would like more information or to help, please go to http://www.shelterboxusa.org/
After the Shelter Box Program, we had lunch from about 12 to 1. I sat with about 5 or 6 Rotarians, as well as another exchange student. Lunch went really well, and the Rotarians asked a lot of questions about the exchange program because they weren't very familiar with it. After lunch, all of the inbound students gave a two minute speech about how exchange affected them, and it was really cool to hear them talk about their exchange experiences. It was also helpful, since I'll probably have to do something like that in Ecuador. Also, after the exchange students gave their speeches, we ended up raising over $2,000, which was enough for two Shelter Boxes! Woo!
Next, all of us exchange students went outside to a pretty garden area and we met with some interact students, and did an activity with them about how to spread the word about rotary/interact. That lasted for around a half hour, and then all of the inbounds/outbounds put on our red End Polio Now rain ponchos and handed them out to Rotarians as well, and made our way to downtown Rochester to do a flash mob type thing with everyone attending the conference, which turned out really well. Then, we walked back to the hotel and took a big group photo holding up our End Polio hand symbol thing (I'm pretty sure I'm not seen in most of the pictures because a tall guy was standing in front of me, but I made sure to hold my hand up high so I could be in the picture somewhere. :D) If it gets posted on our district website, I'll steal it and put it on here. I don't have a camera at the moment, so I couldn't take any pictures, but I'll get one soon and definitely take a bunch at the next orientation in July. :)
After the Polio Freeze picture, unfortunately it was time for all of us to say our goodbyes and go home. I of course didn't want to see the day end, though, because I had so much fun hanging out with everyone. But, now I'm looking forward to the next orientation, July 12-14, as well as my departure (exact date TBD, but it will be around Aug. 21 according to IYWT).
Well, I think that's all for now folks. I know that this post was quite the eyeful, so props to you if you read all of that! I think next time will be a vlog, so I can get in the habit of doing them; hopefully it will be soon, because that will mean that I'll know my city then. :D Oh, and I added a few little trinkets around the page, like a translator to the right and an email follower thing at the bottom if your interested in making use of those. :)
Until Host Club Time,
Steph
