President’s Report 13th July 2010

Thanks to the Carters, Birds and Rebeccas for farewelling Nici on Sunday 4^th July. I am sure Nici will remember her year in Australia for the rest of her life. I think Nici just got back to Germany in time to see Germany defeated by Spain in the semi-final of the FIFA World Cup.

Also thanks again to the Stroot family, the Carters, Birds and Rebeccas for hosting Nici. It is proposed that the Club host another exchange student in 2011-12 possibly sharing the hosting with Sale or Mt Eliza Rotary Clubs.

Nici and her new best friend

The Club will be sponsoring Orlaith McAlinden of Kilbreda College in 2011. Orlaith will depart next January.

There was a great discussion at the last Club Assembly on the strengths of the Club. The discussion will continue at the next meeting this Thursday focussing on the skills and resources available within the Club.

Rotary International has just released its revised strategic plan. The plan outlines the strategic priorities for RI: support and strengthen clubs, focus and increase humanitarian service and enhance public image and awareness. The plan can be viewed at www.rotary.org/strategicplan .

At the first Board Meeting for 2010-11 the Board approved maintaining the club subscriptions as the same level at the previous year, $240. The first six monthly payment of $120 is now due. You can either pay at the club meetings or send a cheque to the Club.

See you this Thursday 15^th July at the Frankston Lifesaving Club. The views over the bay are fantastic (once the sun rises)!

Maddy’s June Report

1-         If Germany wins- I will suffer public humiliation and have jokes thrown at me about how bad Australia plays soccer the next day at school OR

2-         If Australia wins- chased by an angry mob of Germans with an evil, deadly look in their eye.Either way I was going to loose but I still had a plan, run away as fast as I can after the game finishes. As you all probably know Germany won extensively, 4-0, I was a little disappointed but sadly known Australia would loose before but that does not change the amount of fun I had there, the atmosphere of excitement was felt by everyone there and the thrill of it all was mind blowing.  I just returned from Lubeck, where my host sisters grandparents live, we spend 1 week there with just Julia, her 2 cousins, Oma, Opa and I. It was wonderful; the whole week was full of beautiful weather so we were outdoors the whole time, driving to the beach, going to an adventure park and to my delight water skiing! In Australia my family went regularly on the boat- skiing, fishing, travelling so to go water skiing again was amazing! It reminded me so much of home. I’ve also learned during my stay here the Germans love their ice-cream, we ate it in winter when there was snow and -8 degrees so in summer it’s nearly every hot day, if you open an ice-cream shop in Europe I guarantee it will succeed. Earlier in the month I also went with some friends to Hannover for the Plaza Festival, it was the most beautiful, hot day so far in the year- so said the radio and I completely agree. We went and saw Milow, Silbermond, and Xavier Naidoo, it was a great, fun day. This month also included the start of the summer holidays, but also the end of my class, they had been together for 5 years and now they would all be going different classes or schools it was incredibly sad because I love my class they are amazing people and have so far made my exchange the best, I remember it was my 3rd month and they were discussing what was going to be on their class jumpers for the end of the year, I’d only known them for a little while but they made sure my name was included in the jumper with all their names, claiming I was part of the class now. My class and friends have included me in everything, in class activities, and outside school activities, so for it to end like this is sad I’m going to miss them all.

Maddy’s May Report

EuroTour-

I thought writing this month monthly report would be easy considering how I drove around Europe for 2 weeks, but it is so hard to narrow all of my adventures into this one page. On the 29th April 2010 with my HUGE bag in my hand I joined half of my district on the bus for our 2 week adventure. One hour into the trip a boy from America had brought his guitar and was playing songs we all knew so we all sung along, from that moment on I knew I was going to have an awesome time. Our first stop was France and we were all extremely excited to finally reach our destination having been in a bus for 10 hours, it was day break and one image that I will remember was that the hotel went in a square so in the middle was a court yard and all of the exchange students rooms spread out and at some point we were all sticking our heads outside our own windows talking to each other. Strasburg, the city we were staying in was an amazing city and I loved every moment I had there. Our next stop was Switzerland and when we arrived in the little town surrounded by beautiful mountains it was impossible to have not had your breath taken away. We only stayed in Switzerland for one night because the next week we would be staying in ITALY!!! Italy has to be one of my favourite places I’ve been to, it is so beautiful and unique and mind blowing and I already plan to go back there and explore what I couldn’t. Portofino in Italy is a VERY beautiful city, we all took a ferry across to the island and were all in shock to the beauty of the place, it was a perfect summers day, the sun was out, only a few clouds in the sky, the water a striking aqua blue, it was amazing! On our way to Florence we stopped in Piza and saw the Leaning Tower of Piza, it was one of the places I’d really heard of and dreamt of in Australia due to it’s popularity and for me to be there was a complete shock. It was there that I thought about all my friends in Australia who were in probably in school at that moment learning about Europe while I was climbing The Leaning Tower of Pisa and travelling Europe. I was witnessing and experiencing more that I can explain at the age of 15 years old while some 40 year olds hadn’t travelled outside their city, I was incredibly proud of myself for achieving this. Florence was a city that really surprised me, it wasn’t what I expected at all, and I loved it. I found that the whole town was created around the Big Dome, it was magnificent, we walked exactly 463 steps, my friend and I at the time believed that to be not so much until we got to the half way mark, that was when it got steeper, and when I say steeper I mean we were starting to walk up close to ladders, but when we got to the top I realized that I would walk 1000 more steps just to see the glorious view we saw up there. I don’t know how long we stayed up there, but I know I would have liked to have stayed there forever.  From Florence we drove to a adorable little town called Lido de Jesolo, this was where EVERYONE was starting to get restless because the next day we indeed would be driving then taking a ferry to VENICE!! Not one person in our group had been to Venice before so the excitement between us all could sometime be a little overwhelming. It was 7th May 2010 at 11am when we all arrived in Venice, it was spectacular, to see all the Gondola’s and the old buildings and to be standing in St. Mark’s Square and to see all the birds and old artifacts was an image that will never erase from my memory. Venice was extraordinary. We stayed 4 nights and 2 full days and we were now heading ourselves to Vienna in Austria, I don’t know why but Austria was one of favourite countries, the city Vienna was nice but what I love the most was when we took the tour of the Palace Schonbrunn, I love history, so to take a tour around such a gorgeous palace and learning about the old occupants that lived here and about there lives was a dream come true for me. After we left Vienna we started driving to Prague in Czech Republic and on the stopped in Bratislava in Slovakia, which was interesting and old, but we could only stay there for 3 hours. When we arrived in Prague we did the usual, wait outside for 30 minutes waiting to be assigned our rooms, unpack and then chill for the first night. The next morning was when the fun began, the bus took us into the main city Prague and when we got there we were free to explore wherever we liked as long as we found our way back to the hotel by 7pm, I could never I believe become sick of Prague because it was so beautiful, but I will remember Prague as the city with the most exquisite sky in the whole world, the sky that day was the best I had ever in my whole life seen and I could hardly tear my eyes away for a second. Our last stop was Dresden in Germany, it was the night we all reflected on because it was our last stop being together, and tomorrow we’d be back home. It was a very emotional time for some because in just a month they were flying back to their country and we’d all become such great friends during this time.