We welcomed our outbound exchange student for the 2015 year Gracie Reiter accompanied by her Grandmother and Stuart McDonald from RC of Healesville who is on the committee of the Youth Exchange Program. We also welcomed Pam T (partner of Dick) and Mary (partner of Joe V)
Please let Russell know if you want to attend the Giant Monopoly fundraiser being run by Rotaract in the evening of Friday 8th April. All proceeds to ABCD.
Keysborough Golf Day on 14 April 2016
Len B advised he was involved with assisting at a Bunnings Sausage Sizzle for RC Mordialloc recently - he advises they have raised around $12,000 annually from this event - might be something for the club to consider
Hank Gibcus was at the meeting and is having open heart surgery in the week beginning 4th April. We wish you well for your operation Hank and hope you are back with us soon.
Speaker was Gracie talking about her exchange year in Germany:
Gracie was sponsored by the RC of Nunawading for youth exchange to Germany - she left in January 2015 and returned in January 2016. She studies at Kilbreda College.
She was hosted by District 1870 which is in Germanys north in an area called North Rhine Westphalia. She lived in a town called Telgte which is about 15 minutes from Munster - Munster is the bicycle capital of Germany!
She had 4 host families and stayed with them for 3 months each. Each family had one of their own family members on exchange. The district sent 120 students on exchange and accepted 120. The last family lived on a horse farm. The first host family usually presents the exchange student with a soccer scarf for the team they follow - in Gracies case it was "Bayern Munchen" so Gracie is a Bayern supporter!
She travelled a lot - she did a 3 week trip around Europe that covered 6 cities and 13 towns - she did this with 60 exchange students. She also did a tour around Germany. She went to France, Belgium and visited Amsterdam for a week. Her school also took her to England for a week.
Her school day was from 7.50am to 1.00pm then home for a hot lunch.
Gracie enjoyed the celebrations and festivals. Oktoberfest is a big celebration. Germans also celebrate Advent. There is also a celebration for St Nicolas Day on 6 December - in the evening of 5 December shoes are left out and overnight are filled with gifts and goodies!
The food is very different to Australian food - a lot of bread, sausage, potatoes and beer.
Some strange but true facts about Germany - there are over 300 types of bread and there are bread museums!! The Berlin Wall came down too soon - it was not meant to be pulled down for some months. 65% of the autobahns have no speed limits! Beer is a food in some German states and finally there is an Angela Merkel Barbie doll!!
Gracie thanked RC of Nunawading for their support - she said she had an experience she learnt a lot from and will never forget. She has also made friendships with other students from around the world which she maintains. She has taken up German as a Year 12 unit. She talks to Carina frequently.
Gracie particularly thanked Peter S, Judith and Stuart McD for their support.
Some club members, Pres. Bruce and Stuart McD said Gracie was a great ambassador for Australia and for Rotary Exchange.
The club wishes Gracie well and look forward to hearing how her life progresses.
For those of you who may travel to Germany and want to visit a bread museum - there is The European Bread Museum in Lower Saxony and the Museum of Bread Culture in Ulm, Baden Wutternburg
The real Angela Merkel and her Barbie equivalent:
Here are a couple of pictures of Gracie at the meeting wearing the traditional German dress along with her Exchange blazer
Hello peter!
That sounds like a lot of fun, i remember us surfing there, that was a great time.
Sorry i haven't written to you in a long time but everything is so busy. But i finally have holidays now. Some time to relax. I've actually been in your homecountry a few weeks ago! I was in austria mor specific in kaltenbach, where i went snowboarding with my schoolclass. I never did snowboarding before, now i love it, it was so much fun and i can't wait to do it again. And by the way austria really is amazing.
I'll send some pictures
Furthermore i'll get a visitor from Australia next week. My friend trina is in Germany now to stay for a year at her grandparents near Nürnberg, so we need to catch up for a few days, in which i'm planing to show our beautiful seas and city's like hamburg and kiel.
It's nice to hear from you, maybe you could send some pictures, i really do miss Australia.
Greetings to everyone especially aaron, ally and karen!
The Rotaract Club of Whitehorse would like to invite you to our Giant Monopoly Night
on the 8 April 2016 to help raise funds for ABCD (Art Building Children’s Dreams).
Location: Box Hill Town Hall (Lower Room), 1022 Whitehorse Road, Box Hill
The visit has been arranged for 27 July commencing at 6pm and lasting about 60-70 minutes after which we will adjourn to a restaurant for dinner.
The Institute has advised as follows:-
“Please let me know if there is a particular area of research that you would like to hear about during the tour. The areas of research at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute include cancer, including breast, lung, ovarian, prostate, colon and blood cancers; immune disorders such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and celiac disease; and infectious diseases such as malaria, hepatitis B and HIV. As part of the tour you can meet with a scientist that researches in your area of interest, hear about their research and tour through their laboratory. The tours usually run for approximately one hour, and also include an overview of the history and other research areas at the institute.”
The institute is located at 1G Royal Parade, Parkville (behind the Royal Melbourne Private Hospital). There is limited car parking on their forecourt, and more parking available in the Royal Melbourne Hospital car park beside the institute.
In April I will seem the members views on what areas they have an interest in being covered during the visit.
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Greetings from the Big Island.
Photos from Hilton Waikoloa.
Margs conference venue. 62 acre resort with train and boat rides between venues.Volcanic island with dormant larval flows everywhere and active ones on the east coast. Photos of complex from outer headland Marg conferencing from her hammock and 6 pool areas with waterfalls and slides. Lots visiting Americans and Japanese. The golf is good but expensive.
Cheers for now. Marg & Harvey
Please save the motel soaps or similar size for the 'Days for Girls' program which is a program for sending sanitation products in a wash bag for teenage girls overseas. Give them to Judith.
Save used stamps with a good deal of the envelope! They pay by weight! - proceeds go to ROMAC
DISTRICT STAMP FUND
Your DSF is under huge pressure to continue raising valuable funds from Philatelic Garbology.
Why not visit your City Council/Hospital/ School or big business and request their envelopes?
$100k is our aim and with $94,000.00 already achieved we haven't far to go.
Please try -it WON'T COST YOU ONE CENT but WILL DO A LOT FOR THOSE LESS FORTUNATE.
Don't forget to save your foreign coins and notes - there is a jar to put them in at the weekly meetings
A small speckled visitor
Wearing a crimson cape
Brighter than a cherry
Smaller than a grape
A polka-dotted someone
Walking on my wall
A black-hooded lady
In a scarlet shawl.
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