Rotary Weekend

So I'm officially back from the Rotary weekend that took place march 4th to march 6th. It was really such a great weekend, I learned so much and met all these wonderful people involved with Rotary. Some parts of the weekend were slow, but still really informative, and other parts were so much fun! I felt like I made some really strong connections with the rest of the outbounds (students going on the exchange) the inbounds (students from other countries who are on exchange in Canada) and all the Rotexs (the students who've just come back from their exchange).

The first day was really informative, and also quite fun as all the outbounds had to introduce them selves and give a little blurb in the language of their country. I can't tell you how hard the other outbounds found this task, but I can tell you something else. Croatian is NOT an easy language to find. At all. In the end I found a small little croatian/ french dictionary and blessed my lucky stars that I speak and read french. I read the words I was supposed to say over and over and over, until I couldn't even think of anything else! It was worth it, and I was able to recite them without tripping over my own tongue.

Throughout the weekend some of the Rotexs told stories that really touched me. Some of them made me excited for everything, some of them made me scared stiff, but none of them made me regret this experience. I cannot wait until I can go.

Throughout the exchange I made some friends, and found out that two of the boys I met (one an inbound, and one an outbound) will both be in Austria while Im in Croatia, meaning we may be able to see each other. It would be really nice to see people that will know exactly how I feel about the exchange, even if I don't know what that feeling will be yet!

In the end, Im so grateful to Rotary for setting up this weekend. I feel so much more prepared, Ive made friends that i will know forever hopefully, and it put my dads mind at ease. The only complaint I have about the weekend is just that. That it was only a weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the outbounds in may, and until then I guess i'll have to plan for everything else

xoxo
Meghan