The GSE Team

The Group Study Exchange team from District 1040 in Denmark have moved on to Taree on Manning after a wonderful weekend in Forster.

Kurt Danielsen from the Rotary Club of Rebild and his team of Lisbeth Axen, Mads Bak, Klavs Poulsen and Rikke Steffensen were wonderful ambassadors for their country.

The Danish GSE Team
Front - Lisbeth, Row 2 - Klavs, Row 3 Left - Mads, Row 3 Right - Rikke, Back - Kurt

As usual, our Club provided the team with a little light relief after a very demanding schedule for the past few of weeks. They were basically "off duty" after completing their commitments at the District Conference with their very entertaining presentation on Friday night.

Mads found time to give Ross a few golf lessons and compete in a local poker tournament. Kurt, Lisbeth and Rikke did a little snorkling. Klavs checked in to make sure the launch of his wife's new children's wear shop at home had been a success. Lisbeth did some running to make sure her wedding dress will still fit when she returns home (she will marry boyfriend Jacob on May 10). And they all took in a Dolphin Cruise.

They also experienced a little local culture by being amongst the last to leave Club Forster on Saturday night. Lisbeth, Rikke and Klavs caught the last courtesy bus. Mads and Kurt walked - something about Kurt needing the exercise. I might add that Josie admitted to not being able to sleep until they were safely tucked into bed.

Josie, Ross, Ken and I also helped them with a couple of wine and beer tasting sessions. They seemed to quite like the local drop (or any other drop for that matter !!). I think they were probably the happiest team we have entertained to date.

I would like to thank everybody that contributed so much to the success of their stay, in particular those who helped Josie with the food on Sunday night.

The YEP Students

The YEP students on board the Amaroo

After the disaster of Dima, it was great to have our faith in the Youth Exchange Program restored.

Without exception, the 12 young people we entertained over the weekend were what we have come to expect from YEP students.

I have heard nothing but positive reports from Brian, Di, Marilyn, Barry and Robyn who gave the students a bed and organised their entertainment away from the Conference.

A special thank you to Ted and Marion O'Neill from the Rotary Club of Taree on Manning, who helped out by hosting Miki from Thursday through Monday when we had run out of available beds.

The only negative was the appalling lack of communication and organisation at the District level. If we are expected to host the students, I think at the very least we should know how many are coming, when and where they are arriving and how long they are staying. How hard is that?

Jake's Yepper Contribution

Yepper is a District magazine for exchange students. Each student (inbound and outbound) is asked to contribute and it is distributed to all the other students.

The story of an exchange student in Austria.... "summary of the past month"

So much has happened over the past month. I had one day skiing...that was so much fun! I was very sore the next day but it was worth it. It mainly consisted of me going across the slop then falling over while attempting to turn. Then laughing, pulling myself back up facing back the way I came. Then doing all this again till I made it to the bottom of the slope. The most effective way of stopping was to fall over...works all the time!

Now...This lift business. I herd stories of how hard this was to get on, stay on, then get off at the other end. I managed ok...just. All in all it was a fantastic day. Many times I fell over to the amusement of all onlookers. 6 year olds whizzing past me at blistering speeds with their parents in hot pursuit.

The other thing that has happened was starting school. I could have started earlier but the classes had tests and things as it was the end of the school term. They then had holidays...so I did not start school till the 25th of Feb. I changed hot families on the 24th so it was a busy time for me. It is so unbelievably different to school at home. I had to get up at 5:45....that was a killer! It was all dark and cold outside. I have to catch a bus to the bus stop, to get the other bus to the next bus stop, then walk to school....just getting there is an adventure in itself! I met my class and they are the bust bunch of people! They are taking so much care of me. They make sure that I understand everything that is going on. They keep me all up to date and are trying to teach me a little German. My first lesson was a business simulation. It lasted 3 hrs! I just do my own things in class because I have no idea what the teachers are saying. So I learn German and write emails home. I am in an Information Technology class. This means that I have to take my laptop to school each day....Makes for a very heavy bag. They tried to teach me Italian through German...that did not last long. It is a business class so I have all sorts of things such as accounting etc.

My class mates are awesome! They may or may not have taken me out last Friday night. We could have gone to a late night church service or we may have gone to a club called MCM....i can't remember....

I did have to attend a Rotary charity Dinner for my host club. This was a very very very long night! It raised about 10,000 Euro for the clubs project at the moment. This was unbelievable! The dinner lasted from about 7 to 1:30. It went later then that but that is when I left. We had our main course (there were five courses) at about 10:30. I was so hungry by then. Desert we had around 12. I was all dressed up in my Rotary attire but yet only felt like I JUST made the dress standards. Some of the Rotarians sort me out and came over to chat. I ended up sitting with some lovely people that spoke good English. They were interested in Australia, and I was all but too happy to tell them about it. We sat down and I swear that the spoon did a better job at reflecting things then my mirror does! At one stage I counted 16 glasses on the table for 5 people. The meal looked like an island in the centre surrounded by an ocean of white plate. I spent half the night chasing my desert (slippery ice cream) around with my spoon. It didn't help that the plate was a few km wide.

The night was full of speeches! All in German so I had no idea what they were about...I just know that the night went for an eternity! While they were listening to all the speeches I had to sit there and look interested....Arhh the life of an exchange student.

A YEP Student of Our Own

As most of you are aware, when Jake was accepted into the YEP last year, as the sponsor Club we would be asked to host an in bound student in return.

During the Conference we were offered the opportunity to host a 17 year old girl from Belgium, Valerie Couterie.

As with all exchange students, the problem is finding suitable and willing host families. Fortunately, at this early stage we seem to be in a pretty good position.

Jake's parents, Bob and Jan Lee have offered to host a student for up to 6 months in recognition of the Club's support for Jake.

Joe and Sharon previously indicated a desire to host again, although this of course may change.

Peter and Jackie have also indicated that they are ready to host again and Barry and Marilyn have expressed an interest if circumstances permit.

Ken and I are happy to act as counsellors and host Valerie for the first few weeks.

If we can get enough support from the Club to cover for the very real possibility that Joe and Sharon will not be able to host, then I think it is a viable proposition. Robyn has already offered to fill part of the void if necessary.

Breakfast

Unless we let them know beforehand, the motel staff prepare 9 servings for breakfast, for which we have to pay. If more than 9 arrive unannounced for breakfast, it has to be stretched.

To alleviate this problem, we asked that people unable to attend notify Robyn the night before. This worked well for a while, but appears to have fallen off recently.

If you are unable to attend the regular meeting, please let Robyn know so she can notify the motel staff if necessary.

From the Editor

I would like to personally thank Dee for hosting Claire Love, a young Rotarian from Armidale. At 21 she was the youngest Rotarian at the District Conference and would not have been able to attend had it not been for Dee's generosity. I was asked by Jody Shelley (District Director Youth Service) to arrange accommodation for Claire at short notice and once again we were able to oblige.

This has been a big weekend for everyone. Time to take a big breath I think, before we move on.

Happy reading.

Ann Morrison
Editor
ann.morrison@ozemail.com.au