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| Outbounds 2011-2012 District 6250 |
This last weekend I went to a pretty awesome Rotary Conference. There were over 1000 people present and over 500 exchange students from countries across the globe. The entire experience can not be described by words. The rebounds that were there had just came back from their year abroad. The inbounds all had their last weekend together in America before going home. The outbounds (me) were there to prepare for our upcoming year and also to mingle with the inbounds and rebounds and just gather as much information as we could. The weekend started with a long bus ride to Grand Rapids MI on thursday. The rest of the weekend included attending some very entertaining general sessions, eating with a different person from a different country every meal, dances until after midnight, getting less than 10 hours of sleep all weekend, and all together just a great weekend hanging out with great people. I don't leave until August 31. So I still have a long time to wait and go, but nonetheless this weekend made me even more excited to go, as does every Exchange Conference. Most of the meetings were repeating and the information was basically reworded. I didn't learn anything that really impacted me or changed my expectations or thoughts of my upcoming year. I did learn just a few simple things about Germany that could be helpful. This was my last weekend of Rotary in America. The next will be in Germany! It was sad to say goodbye to some of the inbounds that I got to know well, and even more sad to say goodbye to my fellow outbounds who I won't likely see until next year. We are all departing in the next few weeks. Right now I am going to enjoy as much of America as I can for the rest of summer until my flight comes. I do not have much obligations to take care of now and hopefully it will go by fast because I really just want to get this journey started. This part has been the hardest for me so far, but I know there will be harder moments. There has been months and months of preparation and many meetings and conferences. I know everything I can possibly know about exchange and procedures and what it is suppose to be like, the only thing left to do is leave. Which i still have to wait 52 days for. The excitement has been building up for months and I probably think about exchange at least 10 times a day if not more. I want to actually DO the things that all the inbounds and rebounds talk about. They all say "you will have fun in Germany" and then I proceed to listen to them tell of their amazing memories and experiences. With the outbounds, I talk to them about what our goals are and what we think its going to be like. I want to go out and actually do this instead of just talking about it. I'm extremely excited and if I could get on a plane in 10 minutes I would go in a heartbeat. Well heres to a good last 52 days in America. I will probably update maybe once or twice more before I leave.
Auf Weidersehen.
