It's been too long my readers! (Using plural hoping I'm not being presumptuous that there is more than 1 person reading these...) Between ACT prep and the actual test, youth group, friends, and of course the inescapable school work, these last few weeks have been busy beyond belief, but I am back to bring you up to speed on orientation. Now seeing that there is an unprecedented amount of Bs in there, but I think I like it so they're staying. Now for orientation, which happened back on Saturday, February 16th.
The snow was falling swiftly as we followed the line of cars beneath the St. Clair river to resurface out of the tunnel in Windsor, Canada. A short drive later, we had made it to the building where our meeting was to take place. It was funny noting the differences that that short span of water and one international border created. Automatically, I felt far from home with all the signs in English and French, a different style of street lights, and the smooth roads (had to throw in a Michigan road joke sometime :). I love that I have an international district so we get a touch of that sought after culture mingling before we even leave home.
A lot of the information presented during orientation I had already searched up on my own, but it was still reassuring to hear it spoken by everyone at the meeting. We had a little time to meet the other exchangers in the middle, but over all there wasn't as much of a "get to know you" aspect as I had expected. Here's a quick district 6400 profile:
Our district has 9 outbounds for next year with two Brazil bound girls, two girls and a boy headed for France, one girl for Italy, one to Denmark, another to Turkey, and yours truly for Germany of course. The girl going to Turkey had it numbered somewhere in the thirties (we had about 40 country choices, so this was extremely unlikely to have happened!) The rest of us all had our future host countries listed near the top 10, which is more typical of a rotary assignment. Everyone seems nice, I'm excited to get to know them better over the next few months!
Toward the end, we were fitted for our blazers, given tips on pin making, and promised a copy of The Exchange Student Survival Guide to be delivered at our next meeting in April. We were also each assigned a topic to present on about our home country for the April meeting. Mine is to talk for 5-8 minutes on a famous American and include what they are famous for and how they gained their fame. The topics ranged from silly, like mine, to rather serious ones regarding foreign policy and home country politics. The idea is just to help us become comfortable speaking in front of groups as we will likely need to present in front of our host rotary club, and that will have to be in another language! I'm not worried about my celebrity speech, but presenting to a roomful of German adults, all in German, sounds more than a little intimidating at the moment.
After the meeting, my mom and I had to rush back over the river to get to the Detroit Athletic Club where my dad and my grandpa were entered in a squash tournament. It was the last night of the tournament and there is always a big banquet with a band at the end that I went to as my grandpa's date. I got him out on the dance floor for a few songs, even though the music was a little too new age for him (It was mostly 80s Motown to give you an idea of my grandpa's musical preferences). My parents would have danced until 2 am if they could, but with my 83 year old grandpa along, we ended up heading home by 11 o'clock. Over all a fun way to spend a Saturday!
Bis bald!
Mary
