Outbound Orientation March 9-10

This past weekend all of the Outbound students from our district met in Victoria for our Outbound Orientation! It was so cool to be able to see everyone again, I haven't seen all the Outbounds since our interviews in December. We all met each other again and we finally new where each of us was going! It was really neat to be with so many like minded youth who are so interested in other cultures. I found that our group of Outbounds are really easy to talk to!

My dad and I arrived in Victoria the morning of the 9th. My mom was in a conference in Hawaii (Sad for her ;) so she could not make the orientation. We had a lot of fun though. Apart from all the info that they gave us on insurance, healthcare blah blah I found the most informative part of the whole weekend was what the Rebound students had to say and what their parents said (Rebound= gone on exchange and come back). There were a bunch of breaks throughout the weekend and every time there were breaks Outbounds and Rebounds would all dash over to each other to ask questions, tell stories etc. I got to know many Outbounds really well the night of the 9th because we had kind of an "ice-breakers" night that turned out to be really fun! Many of the Rotarians afterwards came over to me and said with sarcastic voices that I am "very introvert and I should practice speaking in public more" hahaha! We all laughed and had a really enjoyable day.

Our sleeps were not as enjoyable as our previous day however. When you add up the time change, how late we went the night before and how early our call time in the morning was, I slept maybe 5 hours. Oh well! Today we learned more info on traveling and our host families and what we should bring as presents. Also about our navy blue RYE blazers we all get to wear! The outbounds have a competition where you try and buy the cheapest blazer! One of them was bought for 50 cents at a thrift store! The blazers (on the rebounds) are filled with pins, cards you name it! One girl who went to Eastern Europe had overalls attached to the back of her blazer. She said that on the second day of arriving in her host country she went to a bachelor party for her host sisters friend who was getting married. She danced with the groom and "took" the suspenders hahaha!

At the end of the sessions we were all given our white RYE t-shirts and some patches and pins for our blazers. We all took pictures with our Country Officers and we all said goodbye during the next half hour.

Its weird because when we were saying goodbye we said "Have a great exchange" and "See you in 18 months". We won't see each other for 18 months expect for a few who live near the others. We wished each other luck on our exchanges and parted ways. That night I received about 30 facebook friend requests..... :)

I would like to thank all the Rotarians and Volunteers who spent their entire weekend making this orientation a huge success! They work so hard to prepare us and maximize the enjoyment and impact of our exchanges. A special thank you to Jayne my Counrty Officer who is so dedicate to the Western Europe students and to Joanie for giving me a musical and energetic car ride back home with Turkish delight and Baklava!

Ryan

Hello!

Hello!

I'm Ryan, I'm from British Columbia, Canada and I have made this blog to keep everyone I know and love up to date with what I am doing next year when I leave for my year long Rotary Youth Exchange to Switzerland.

So it all began about 5 months ago when I was on the internet looking into exchanges, and the my Rotary Distric (5020) was one of the first hits. After I told them of my interest I sent them my preliminary application and a few weeks later I had my first interview, I was the last person to be interviewed. After the interview they told me right then and there that they would like to send me on the exchange! I was extremly excited but I took a few days to really make up my mind and I said Yes! In December all of the Outbound Students met in Victoria for a second set of interviews. These interviews were to decide a.) if we were going and b.) where we were going. Us outbounds did not really talk to each other a lot because we were all a little apprehensive about our interviews (and there was a few sentiments of competition) but that went away when we met up in March.

My Rotary District is on the west coast of British Columbia and Washington. There are  30 of us "Outbound" students who are going to every corner of the world! We all leave sometime in August. This exchange is to provide us with the opportunity to immerse ourselves in a completely different culture and language. We will also be ambassadors for our Country our Rotary District and our Families. I am very very   excited about going to Switzerland as it was my number 1 country of choice!! Out of 25 countries! I am the only student in my District going to Switzerland but there are many other students going to neighbouring countries, i.e. France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Italy etc. Throughout the year I will be staying with 2-3 host families (who I do not know yet) to really immerse myself in the Swiss culture.

 I really looking forward to seeing the famous Swiss mountains(and skiing on them!!!!) and the beautiful cities like Geneva, Lausanne, Zurich! Also experiencing Swiss traditions like the Swiss national holiday, cheese racing down mountains, yodelling and much more! I will definitly be experiencing the languages there because they have 4! Four official languages (even though only 3 are really used). There speak French, German, Italian and a Latin based language called Romansh. I already speak French (thank goodness!) and my hosting Rotary District is trying to find a city for me that is between the French and German regional boarder! Last but  not least of what I am looking forward to is..........Fondue! Bread dipped in hot cheese! Who wouldn't be excited for that! And the chocolate fondue mmmmmmmm.

I feel very blessed being chosen to be able to go on this year long exchange to Switzerland, I will miss my family of course and my friends. But the things I will learn while I am away, I will use for the rest of my life!

Ryan