Great to hear from Ana. She gave an interesting and lively presentation giving us all a very clear picture of much of Brazil, its geography, customs and the food. We may well take Ana up on her offer to provide some goodies one day for breakfast! We attempted to record the presentation but I think something went wrong in the middle so I only have 14 minutes. Once downloaded I’ll give it to everyone.
Remember there is no Friday meeting but we do have the trivia night on Saturday. And good news. - I have secured a fabulous MC!! As well as a night of good fun we hope to raise money to support primarily our youth programme, which if we include support for schools and the DLC scholarship takes around $7,000 of our budget. As of Monday we have 53 people registered but it would be good to have a few more so see what you can do.
Prizes are mounting up so there will be goodies for all. If you have extra items bring them on the night. 6:30 pm for 7:00 pm at Clive Austin Conference Centre, Royal Ryde Rehab. Best entrance is off Charles Street. Turn right down Schardt Circuit and then follow to the left and you’ll see the Conference Centre on the left. You can also park in the Morrison Road parking area and walk through the front doors of the hospital and through the back entrance. Walk straight ahead and you’ll see the Conference Centre on the right.
The thank you breakfast for our Christmas Carol Sponsors is on Friday 24 March. Thirteen people indicated they would attend. David will confirm that number as we have to book with DLC and of course pay for any no shows. Cost for the hot breakfast is $20.00.
Final call for the Combined Services Dinner on Wednesday 29 March at7:00 pm Ryde Eastwood Leagues Club. $40 per head; drinks at own cost. Please let me now if you are interested in attending so we can arrange the booking.
If you still have raffle tickets please bring them to the trivia nigh as the raffle will be drawn then.
Members of the 2017-18 Board will find the District Assembly on 23 April a very interesting and useful day. Registrations are open now, just click on this link: assembly.rotarydistrict9685.org.au Registrations close on 16 April 2017. Please let me know once you are registered.
You should have the March edition of RDU. Some great information about the fight to end polio. In 1985 when Rotary initiated the worldwide effort to eradicate polio. In that year there were 350,00 individuals who were paralysed by polio. In 2016 there were 40 cases of paralysis. It is important to note that not all polio cases result in paralysis so total cases may be higher but nevertheless what a drop.
In 1988 Rotary was joined by WHO, UNICEF and the US Center for Disease Control. More recently the Bill and Melinda Gates joined the Global Polio eradication Initiative. Today the polio virus survives in a few areas in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. Obviously these countries are subject to some volatile activities but the workers, volunteers and paid, are showing incredible bravery to continue the work. Read the article. Lots of good information you can use to talk to others.
On Tuesday, it will officially be a month since I arrived in Sweden! Time really does fly!
I have spent the month exploring my local city and surrounding areas, meeting lots of new people, trying delicious Swedish food, attending my new school and of course, trying my best to learn Swedish.
Shortly after my arrival in Sweden was Australia Day! I was very excited to share with my new Swedish family and friends a taste of what Australia is proud of. The day began at school where I shared Tim Tams (a big hit!), Vegemite (not so much of a hit) and classic Australian music with my friends. Another part of my plan for the day was to make ANZAC biscuits for my host family however, my first problem was thrown at me as soon as I looked down at the recipe. "1 cup of flour". That doesn't sound like a problem does it? Oh let me tell you, in Sweden you do not measure by cups, you only measure by grams. Ah I can fix that I thought, I'll just convert it to grams! I used my trusty friend Google to double check how many grams were in a cup and yep, it said 340 grams. No problem I thought, 340 grams of flour, check! After the flour and sugar went in and I was about to add a 'cup' of coconut I thought to myself, gosh this is an awful amount of ingredients I'm putting in, I'm sure at home I never use this much!
I then decided to check with Goggle and sure enough, Google proved not to be so trustworthy as 1 cup only equals 340 grams if you're talking about liquids- it's only 128 grams for flour! Ahhhhhh what have I done! It also didn't help that we were on the verge of running out of coconut and oats, I ended up only adding about 60 grams of both of them and then to add to all of that it turns out that golden syrup doesn't exist in Sweden! It was turning into a recipe for disaster! After realising my big measuring mistakes, I was very confused to how much butter, water and baking soda I should be adding considering how crazy and out of balance my other measurements were, so I ended up taking a random guess and just hoping for the best. At that point just imagine white, porridge like blobs that had texture of glue. How was I going to serve this mess to everyone saying that it was an Aussie favourite? Luckily after them being in the oven for almost an hour (I know an HOUR), they turned a slightly less ghost white and kind of tasted a little less like rubbery porridge so onto the serving plate they went. "Mmmmmm yum" my host family said. "What's in these? I'll have to get the recipe off you!" Ahhh well, to get a biscuit tasting as special as these ones do, all you have to do is not follow the recipe! It's foolproof!
Aside from planning on how to improve my ANZAC biscuit making, I have also been fortunate enough to spend my time trying real ice skating with my classmates, walking on frozen lakes, eating delicious Swedish food (homemade Swedish meatballs, cinnamon buns and Swedish chocolate are soooo good) and having lots of fun at dinner parties with family and friends.
To top it all off, I was lucky enough to spend a week at an introduction to Swedish language and culture camp with the other exchange students that had also come to Sweden in January. I had the best time at this camp, I met some amazing people and made some friendships that I know will last a lifetime. At the camp we were fortunate enough have daily Swedish lessons, a visit to a spa and sauna overlooking a frozen lake, a trip to a Swedish rubbish and recycling plant, a trip out to the movies and countless treks to the local supermarket, ICA, to stock up on Swedish chocolate. I'm so grateful for Rotary to make experiences like this possible, I had such an amazing time and made lifelong friendships.
So, as you can see my first month in Sweden has been jam-packed and I've loved every second of it. I've learnt so much, experienced some amazing things and made friendships that will last forever.
I think it's safe to say that in the space of a week I have felt almost every emotion known to man. Happiness, sadness, wonder; in this one week I have felt them all. Some might be wondering, why? Well, on Friday the 20th of January 2017 I left Sydney for a one year Rotary Youth Exchange in Sweden, a place that seemed so completely different it could have been on another planet.
I'm not going to sugar coat it, saying goodbye was hard. However, I think what pushed me through those departure gates was knowing that there was going to be a loving Swedish family on the other side awaiting me with open arms. After counting down from 150 days and spending countless hours on the internet googling my Swedish town, it was amazing to think that my dreams were going to become a reality very soon.
If I take you through those 30 hours getting from Sydney to Sweden it went a bit like this: crying, unimaginable excitement, constant talking with the 30 other exchange students on the plane, being as tired as you could ever possibly imagine, eating, some more eating, being in complete awe as we flew over the lights of Russia, sleeping, a quick dash to a connecting flight (which I almost missed), absolute wonder flying through a sunrise in Copenhagen and finally a quick squeal when I saw Swedish snow!
I can't begin to explain the emotions of relief and excitement when at the airport, I saw my host family for the first time. After months and months of messaging and saying "I'm so excited to meet you" it was an amazing feeling seeing all those messages come into reality.
Some people say that love at first sight doesn't exist. Well I can't say that I have much of an experienced love life however love at first sight certainly does exist. I can't think of any other words to describe my short time in Sweden but jag älskar Sverige! While walking through my Swedish town and talking to my host family and friends, gratitude, wonder, awe and sheer love have flooded through me. Gratitude for both my families and my Rotary district for trusting and giving me the opportunity to experience such beauty and awe in how beautiful (and cold!) our world and the people in it are.
For those who say love at first sight doesn't exist, I've fallen in love with Sweden.
Next time I feel silly about sharing an opinion or ideas, I am going to remember there was once a meeting at which someone said let's make a movie about a tornado full of sharks!
.JPG)
