Club opening

Last night there was a new Rotary club opening not too far from where I live, and therefore I was asked to go.  Good that I did, it was a really nice night, and also a good chance to catch up with Rebecca, not too many chances left!  :/ 

Lazy day today and Sydney tomorrow,

Liisa

Presentation

As I was already telling earlier, last night was the night for my Rotary presentation.  I spoke about my year in Australia; what I expected it to be, what it ended up being, what I've gotten up to, where did I got to go, and how has this year change me.  

I'm not a big fan of public speaking, but I was quite well prepared and therefore not too nervous.  The whole night was a success, and now there shouldn't be anything big coming in Rotary anymore.  Kind of sad though.  

Oh, and everyone liked the little Finnish treats I baked, and for the many of you who were asking for a recipe, you'll find it from here!

Just one photo from the night: my club's past president and I exchanging the Rotary club banners.  So now they have the one from Finland, and I have one to take back to the club that sent me.

Will actually miss going to the meetings,

Liisa

Army base

Today I went to the army camps with a Rotary person from my club.  We got to shoot and go to the new museum which is not even open to public yet. I still haven't made up my mind whether it's a good thing they are doing or not, but today was interesting day for sure. 

Good night,

Liisa

Meetings

I've been telling you that I'm attending Rotary meetings, but I guess I've never really explained what they are.  In this post I'll try to fix that.

So in Singleton there are two Rotary clubs, but I'm part of another one of them.  It is a nice club with lovely older people, but when I have a change I try to get to know the other one as well.  I was giving a presentation for them earlier this week, and I might start going to their meetings sometime soon. 

You might think that it's really boring to be there as everyone is way older than I am, but I actually quite enjoy it.  Everyone is always really nice to me and wants to know about my life here.  So simply it's a change to wear high heels and meet delightful and interesting people; sounds good doesn't it!  :) Though  I have to admit sometimes there are parts which are a bit boring, but mainly I enjoy spending some of my Thursday nights that way.  Older people have the greatest stories and experiences to share.

So in this club the meetings are on Thursday nights at 6.30 pm, but they might as well be 7.00 am in the Sunday mornings; depends on the club and the time they've decided is the most suitable for the members. 

At first there's time to get drinks and chat with people before sitting down for a dinner.  After eating there's some money collected as 'fines' (so people tell about funny things that have happened to themselves or to the other members) and information shared about the upcoming events and projects etc.  After that there's coffee and tea served and possibly a questspeaker has came to tell about something.  Last night's speaker was telling about the work they do with disabled people.  We are meant to finish the meetings  about 8.30, but usually (probably because it's very Australian) we go a bit overtime.  After the official meeting has finished people stay for a while to chat. 

So if you get the impression that it's a social event I've expressed myself well enough.  :D

And one more thing which has nothing to do with Rotary meetings though; I got my student card yesterday!!  Finally...  I was trying to get it before the holidays started, but people from my school office said that it's a government thing and as I don't live here I won't get it.  That was a bit upsetting, because I do live and study here, not permanently but still.  The last school day I was taking a train to Newcastle (first of those million trips) and the lady there said that I should definitely get a student card, every exchange student does.  But during the holidays there was unfortunately no way of getting it, because it must be done via school.  So every time after that the lady said 'Oh, aren't you the exchange student?  The poor one who wasn't given a student card.  I remember you.  Sorry.'   And then I paid almost 10 bucks.  But anyhow,  I definitely don't regret spending a fortune to my Newcastle trips, that was probably the best decision so far; just makes me a bit annoyed that instead of spending over 100 dollars I could have paid the normal 3 dollars a trip.  So it was worth every penny, but good that travelling is a fair bit cheaper for me now.  Looking forward testing my new card when I travel to Sydney next week! :)

Getting exited about all the cool things coming,

Liisa

Tocal weekend

I spent my last weekend in Tocal because we had a Rotary meeting there. The last one was only for inbounds, but this time we met also outbounds. Inbound student is the term for people who are coming to country, and outbound is the word for the people travelling to other countries.  So I am an outbound to Finland, but here I'm an inbound student.

The meeting started in Saturday and ended on Sunday so it was shorter than last time.  There was still a lot to do:

SATURDAY:

6.00 Early wake-up call because of packing  (Maybe I should have done that last night... :D)

7.30 Rotarian from my club picked me up

8.30 Registration in Tocal college

9.00 Introductions and welcome speeches

9.45 Lesson about living in Aussie homes, attending school and travelling = The subject of these lessons is always the same; just talking about rules and regulations

10.30 Morning tea

10.45 Lesson about police matters = One Rotarian is a policeman so he was telling us about Australian laws compared to Rotary rules

11.15 Lesson about illnesses and medical issues = Insurance stuff; surprise, surprise...

11.45 Country group discussion = Scandinavian people talking about our lives here and back home.  These discussions were, in my opinion, clearly the best  parts of our weekend.

12.30 Lunch

13.30 Group photos

Picture above by George Konz

14.00 Guided activities and speech preparation = Chilling out...

15.30 Afternoon tea

15.45 Lesson about personal issues = We were just rating our time here and telling what is good at the moment and if there's problems somewhere

16.30 Physical activities outside = We were trying to throw a ball to a bucket, hard!

17.00 Free time = Inbounds and outbounds got to know each other a bit

18.00 Dinner = The best dinner in a while!!! I met a guy who has been an exchange student in Finland, so we were having our private conversation; half in Finnish, half in English.  It was unbelievably hard for me to speak Finnish so I changed to English quite a few times; maybe it was just because I couldn't be sure how good Finnish speaker he was.  Anyway, the high light of my weekend! :)

19.00 Bush dance = What can I say. Other people didn't maybe had that much fun, but I and my constantly changing dance partner were doing it with a full heart, so at least it was a good workout for my abs because of that never ending laughing :DD

23.00 Lights out = Didn't really affect to us; we just went outside and talked... :D

SUNDAY:

6.30 Rise and shine = Always the same thing.  This time I was so tired that I was laying in by bed 'till seven o'clock though :DD

7.30 Chapel = The reason why we woke up way too early

8.00 Breakfast

9.00 The day's program

9.30 Country group discussions = Same than on Saturday

10.00 Facts about Australia = Nice little quiz and more advice about how to avoid snakes

10.45 Morning tea

11.00 Speech presentations to parents = I failed again.  It should be really easy to talk about yourself for three minutes in other language even without planning, but no.  Actually it wasn't as bad as last time, but people just started clapping so I had to leave.  I can make it sound really bad, can't I? :D

12.00 Capricorn ramble = More information about our safari.  The price is 3400 AUD (ouch), but the route is 10000 kilometers, so I bet you end up having great time and seeing a lot more than you otherwise would!

12.30 Final comments

12.45 Lunch

13.15 Goodbyes = We were in hurry to going skiing, so I left as quickly as I could.  I don't see the reason to take a photo with every single person in the room, because we see each other constantly

Writing about our ski trip tomorrow,

Liisa

Surprise

My Rotary meeting last night was a success! :DD  My presentation went well, and the whole night was really nice. I was nervous earlier the day, but when I walked in front of the people, I was surprisingly calm.  Only thing I was a bit worried was that I thought that my presentation was maybe too short (It lasted over ten minutes, but still less than fifteen), but I was told that nobody expected me to talk as long as I did, and that my presentation was the best exchange student's presentation they've heard!  I was amazed.

I have to give the same one again, because Rotary Club of Singleton has been separated into two different clubs, and the other one would like to get to know me as well.  I don't know when's that, but I'm not stressing at all because I have already done the hardest work.

It's a shame that no one took pictures about my presentation, so I can't share them with you.  But there's still few photos taken last night, about the late birthday cake I got. :D

Pictures above taken by Rotary Club of Singleton

Yesterday I didn't have time to go outside or do other 'free day' -stuff, so now I'll spend the whole day doing nice things. :)

Going to read and sunbathe next to our pool,

Liisa
p.s. EIGHT kangaroos so far! :D

Weekends' program

In this post I'll tell a bit more what we did during the weekend.  The program was:

FRIDAY

18.30  We were dropped off to the place where we stayed

19.00  Chicken burgers for dinner

19.30-  Free time

00.00  Finally bed time!

SATURDAY

6.30  Wake up

7.00  Breakfast

8.00  Transport to Yacht club

9.00-  Sailing in lake Macquarie

12.00  Transport to adventure park, lunch

17.00  Return to the place where we stayed

18.00  BBQ dinner (= meat dinner :D) with our districts rotary people  

19.30  'Reptile man'

20.00  Free time

00.00 Again: FINALLY bed time.  The day was awesome, but after climbing 4½ hours in trees It was nice feeling to go to bed. :D

SUNDAY

6.30  Wake up (this time with lights... I guess we were hard group to wake up, especially in the second morning :DD)

7.00  Breakfast and packing

7.50  Travel to club Macquarie, waiting (read: sharing pins and taking heaps of photos)

9.15 Introduction

9.45  Speech about health, homesickness and personal safety

10.30  Morning tea and maybe best muffins I've ever eaten 

11.00  Presentations and speeches about expectations, insurance (I've heard quite a few speeches about this topic :D) and Capricorn ramble 2012. Capricorn ramble is three-week-long safari around Australia, and our district does it in April.  It would be great to be part of that amazing trip and see Great barrier reaf, Ayers rock etc.  Only bad thing is the price; it costs more than 3000 AUD, so we'll see what happens with it. :/

12.50  Lunch; only meat sandwiches and meat wraps.  (For people who doesn't already know it, I don't eat red meat and that's why I'm telling these kind of stupid things :D)

13.30  Advises how to make a good speech, and preparing a three minute one

14.00  Speeches.  I don't really like public speaking, and when you have only 15 minutes to write your speech without using your own language; Phew!

After this we headed to our homes.  The weekend was great (especially Saturday... :D), and I'm looking forward to meet this group again!

I have few more pictures, so I'll put them below:

Sometimes the obstacles were a bit hard :D

And one picture from our official Sunday...

All pictures above by George Koncz

My blazer after the weekend:

xo from Australia,

Liisa

Orientation weekend

You may thought that I've forgotten you, but that's not true.  I have been really busy with school assessments and things, and I spent my whole weekend with other exchange students.

Saturday was an amazing day.  We woke up early and headed to yacht club.  I have never been sailing, so that was nice experience.

After that we went to tree top adventure park in Minmi.  It' wasn't allowed to take cameras into the park and that's why I don't have any pictures from there.  I'll put the link here, so you can see the place, and get more information about it.  There's also pictures in their website, so you can get a little bit of an idea how it was like:

http://www.treetopadventurepark.com.au/home.php

When we finally got back, a man with reptiles came to the house.

I'm afraid of snakes and high places, so the weekend was quite challenging.  I still liked it, and the best part was to get to know people all around the world, people who are in same situation as I am.

Super tired,

Liisa

So Formal

This is going to be a really short post, because I have only one thing to tell about.  The thing is: I finally got my Rotary blazer!  It's formal, blue and tight fitting, so it has all the features which I don't like.  Therefore I have no idea how it's even possible, but I really like this blazer.  :)

Below you can see some pictures about it, because I guess it's easier that way to you to understand how it looks like.

                                   

That's all this time; I hope I have soon something new to tell you!

Feeling official,

Liisa