D9690 GSE Team 2010

Final Destination - St Johns (by Suz)

2010-06-10T19:58:00.000-07:00

The City of St John’s

Our final (*sob*!) destination in Newfoundland was at the biggest city on the island – St John’s. We arrived in the early afternoon at the home of Tom and Shirley McCaughey who were hosting David. All our hosts were there, and the welcome was warm and friendly. We all hit it off straight away with our hosts and sat in the rare warm sunshine on the back deck eating, drinking and getting to know our new friends.

David with his hosts, Tom & Shirley McCaughey:

Colin with his host, Craig Ennis:

We were ominously and excitedly anticipating our first night in St John’s! Having met the St John’s “party crew” delegates at the District Conference, we knew that a big night had been planned for us out on the town on the famous George Street downtown, which is famous for it’s nightlife.

Before hitting up the party scene, we attended with our Rotarians the “Annual Auction and Lobster Dinner of the Rotary Clubs of Avalon and St John’s East”.

There, it was announced from the podium in front of a large crowd that I was looking for a Newfoundland husband, and that he must be rich and have all his own teeth (how embarrassing!). so throughout the night a string of gentleman aged 60 and above came forth to display their own teeth and tell me about the helicopters they owned etc etc. Immensly humourous – however my new host Dave Fowler was kind enough to screen the eligible bachelors on my behalf, and none of them made the grade! Hahaha!

My host, Dave:

After the auction and dinner, we were ready to tackle George Street head on!

I will not go in to detail here about the night’s activities.

I will post a selection of random photos, and the rest will be saved for another conversation at a later date!

The night ended somewhere after 4am. My host Dave Fowler (bless him, on the eve of his 65th birthday!) and myself caught a cab home for 5am.

The next morning Dave and I made it out of bed in time for lunch, where his wife Anne Marie cooked us bacon and eggs.

Dave & Anne Marie:

They then took me on a driving tour of St John’s. We drove to several high points along the city to see the view of the city and the harbour from different angles, including the top of the historic land mark “Signal Hill”.

Signal Hill:

St John’s is known for it’s colourful houses:

That evening the team went to the Quidi Vidi Brewery for raspberry beer tasting, our formal presentation, and quess what?! Another Screech In!!!

This time, the Cod fish was reeeaaallllyyy nasty!!! Big and slimey! I found it really hard to kiss the fish this time!

The next morning (Monday 7th June) the team were taken to 3 significant locations:

City Hall:

Government House (where we had tea with the Lieutenant Governor and his wife!):

Confederation Building:

After lunch, we each went our separate ways for various vocational visits.
In the evening, David’s hosts Tom & Shirley hosted us for a BBQ at their house.

The next morning (our final day together in Canada!) was spent at vocational visits. I was very pleased to be ble to meet with the Artistic Director for the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra at his home for a lengthy chat about all things musical (can you believe they were auditioning that day for a French horn player?!?! Wish I'd brought my horn!).

Lunch was spent with the Rotary Club of St John's Northwest, where we delivered our final presentations.

Team with incoming president Andrea Stack:

That afternoon was more vocational visits (ask Cate about hers - something about meeting a woman who climbed Mt Everest. Cate has a signed book and an enormous smile. Cate wont let us touch the book - we need to ask permission to rest our gaze upon the book - and whenever we ask her about meeting this person, she jumps up and down and claps. I think it was a good vocational visit!!!!!)

We met together again in the evening for one final night out together as a team.

We crammed into the back of a car (we're good at that now!), and headed down town for dinner.

We had a dinner together that was both happy and a bit forlorn. We de-briefed aboout the entire trip, and played tribute quizzes together such as: "Most memorable experience", and "what was your funniest moment?" and "who was the most inspirational person you met?" etc. It brought back some wonderful memories from our time together, and I both laughed and cried.

I can't believe it's over!!! I dont want to come home!!!

Our flights were early the next morning. Colin was out of the country somewhere around 6am. David came to the airport to see myself, Cate and Shannon off. (Really - he just wanted to ensure we were admitted through customs and were definitely out of the country!

From here, we all go separate ways:

Colin - to San Fransisco to visit a friend
David - back through parts of eastern Canada and across to Montreal for the Rotary International Conference.
Shannon, Cate and Suz to New York for a few days. then Cate's going to the Geographical wonderland that is Iceland, Shannon's heading home, and Suz is embarking on a road trip to Las Vegas (look out!), Phoenix, San Diego and Los Angeles.

What a wonderful experience this has been. Personally, I can't even begin to describe what it has done for me, and the things I have gained on a personal and vocational level. I love the team dearly, and have been continually surprised and humbled by the generosity of our hosts and the Rotarians we have met along the way.

I have learned SO much, and I believe that my growth through this experience has only just begun.

I will leave you with one final photo, taken at a random village outside of St Johns. this road sign was so important, that we stopped two car loads of people on the side of the highway to capture it on camera. We discovered this town many months ago back at a team meeting in Parramatta whilst investigating a road map of Newfoundland.

It really sums up a lot about our team:

Thankyou to everyone.

- Suz

Gander and Clarenville (By Suz)

2010-06-10T19:20:00.000-07:00

I’ve combined the next two stops, Gander and Clarenville, in to one blog, because although both own were awesome, we had such short stays in each. Just one night in Gander and one night in Clarenville before moving on.

We drove half-way from Grand Falls – Windsor to Gander, and met our new Rotarian guides Paddy & Bob. We knew Paddy from the District Conference in Cape Breton.

We took a long drive and saw some amazing sights (more beautiful scenery, Newfoundland never fails to provide stunning views).

We arrived at 6pm in Gander. Met our hosts for all of 2 seconds and then ran straight to a gathering of the Rotary Club of Gander, where we gave a presentation and had some dinner.

We went home to bed, woke up in the morning and left Gander.
Thanks Gander for a short and sweet visit!

Our next stop was Clarenville, and like Gander, it was a super-short stay.

We were picked up by gander Rotarians in the morning, driven half-way to Clarenville to meet the Clarenville Rotarians, and wer taken out to a VERY nice lunch at a local restaurant where Colin tried Caribou steak for the first time.

We spent the afternoon having some down time with our hosts, and then went to dinner with the Rotary Club of Clarenville where we did our presentation.

Presentation and exchange of banners:

Thanks Clarenville!! Now we move forward to the big smoke, the city of St John’s!

Grand Falls - Windsor (by Shannon)

2010-06-10T19:03:00.000-07:00

Grand Falls – Windsor

We arrived at Grand Falls-Windsor around 5pm and were immediately spoilt with a pot luck 'Newfie Night' dinner.

[Suz would like everyone to know that her hosts Mike & Shelia were UNREAL and that she got to ride to the dinner on Mike’s uber-cool bike. (“Dont worry” says Mike, “I’m president of the Motorcycle Safety Association”. “No wukkas” says Suz, “Let ‘em eat our dust!” ...And they did! BROOOOM!!)]

We sampled Moose Stew (oh so yummy), Cod Au Gratin, Toutons, Scallops in white sauce and so many other Newfoundland dishes, both traditional and imported favorites.

And guess what...another “Screech In” ceremony!

This time we were forced to stand in a bucket of ice cold water to take our oath of allegiance, presided over by Suz’s host, Mike. Colin promptly emptied a bag of ice into the bucket just as I (Shannon) stepped in, to make sure it was extra specially cold! Lucky the shot of rum warmed our cold toes. This time there was no biting heads off fish, but we did have to kiss one.

Oath of Allegiance:
Mike: “Is you a Newfoundlander?”
Inductee: “Indeed I is me ole cock, and long may your big jib draw!”
(Aforementioned Newfoundland dictionary required!)

On Wednesday we all went off to vocational days.

I was at the Advertiser, a community newspaper in Grand Falls-Windsor. The editor and I had a great chat about newspapers in general (he gushed over the colour in our papers- they have very few colour pages in newspapers in Atlantic Canada) and in general was impressed with the quality of our product.

I then went out most of the day to a fire department training event, where I hung out with Vince the fire chief and the reporter Krysta, taking photos and generally causing mischief where it was deserved.

The firefighters (volunteer, like our RFS) were very pleased to have attracted an Australian journalist for the day, but managed to remain concentrating on their work, despite my 'distinct' accent interrupting their conversations half the time.

That night we went to the home of Paul and Vanessa Howard (who were hosting Colin and David) for a BBQ. A very fun-filled night was had, and although I’m not telling tales, one of our team managed to find a bottle or two of wine that he liked quite a lot!

David with Paul (host) and Lisa (President):

Team with club president, Lisa Orlando-Frisby:

All the team have voted the Grand Falls – Windsor experience to be entirely memorable and a great deal of fun! We made some great and lasting friends in that town.

Unfortunately, we had to move on from GF – W, but were excited to head to our next stop.... Gander.

Corner Brook (by Suz)

2010-06-09T22:18:00.000-07:00

Corner Brook!

Sunday 30th May in Corner Brook, we met Canadian GSE inbound team member Adam Anderson and his partner Natalie and Uncle Verbon for a mini road-trip to the “Blow Me Down National Park” (locally abbreviated to “Blomidon” in Newfoundish). There, we hiked up an ever-inclining staircase to the top of a mountain where there were spectacular 360 degree views.

There were just SO many spectacular photos (and silly photos!) taken that day, that I’m going to bore you with a whole bunch right now:

Blomidon Park had a rugged rocky beach where we stopped and sat, and enjoyed staring out to the Atlantic Ocean. For some of us, that was enjoyable enough, for others (Cate and Colin!!) a little dip in the freezing Arctic temperatures seemed necessary.

I apologise for sharing the below pictures of Colin with you, but we had to suffer it, so you should have to also!

We drove for most of the day, and on the way home we finally... SAW A MOOSE!!!!!!!!!!!!

We’ve been keeping our eyes peeled the entire time, as all the locals assured us that Moose were a daily occurrence along the highways (660 car vs moose collisions last year!), but we were starting to become sceptical. When we finally spotted one (a lonely fellow standing by the side of the road minding his own business), we nearly caused a freeway pile-up by doing a screaming U-turn across 4 lanes of traffic and hollering “MOOSE!! MOOSE!!” while hanging out of the windows with cameras!

Picture (as evidence!)

Dinner than night was at Rotarian Ron Dolomount’s cabin in the woods. We’d met Ron at the District Conference, and his Rotary club sportingly hosted us that night for a hot lobster supper!! (Mmmmmm so good!!!)

That night goes down historically as the night we became “Honorary Newfoundlanders”!
Newfoundland has a tradition for newcomers to the province, an initiation ceremony if you will, called a “Screech In” – named after their local rum – ‘Screech’ rum.
Our Screech In was presided over by Sean, the club president. It involves a 4-step process:

1. Eat a piece of boloney
2. Bite the head off a Capelin fish (and chew and swallow! Aaaaaargh!)
3. Drink a shot of super-strength Screech rum
4. Recite a traditional Newfoundland saying (bearing in mind Newfoundland is the only province which has a full sized dictionary, just to be able to understand it’s particular brand of English!” – “How’s she-goin me ole cock?”)

Then Sean knighted us with a fisherman’s oar and proclaimed us: “NEWFOUNDLANDERS”!!!!

We have photos and a certificate to prove it!

The night progressed with lots of fun! Adam Anderson played some traditional Atlantic music on his guitar and sang for us, we danced, Colin and I fought each other with a spray-can of whipped cream (that wasn’t part of the traditional night, and had nothing to do with being Newfoundlanders!). Colin decided to take another dip in the freezing ocean, much to the local’s horror and concern!

The next morning (Monday May 31st) was a vocational day.

I spent the day with Major Larry Goudie from the Salvaion Army, touring various Salvo facilities in the area of Corner Brook and Pasadena.

At lunch, Major Larry took me to a meeting of the “Social Services Community Council” where I was surprised to learn I was the key note speaker! Haha ... whoops! Lucky I am able to talk randomly on any topic, and occupied a 30 minute time-slot, even facilitating a question & answer session at the end! (Lucky I passed the impromptu speech part of the GSE selection process, eh? It turned out to be a required skill!).

Dinner that night was a combined meeting for the Rotary Club of Humber and the Rotary Club of Corner Brook. Once again, I was kindly supplied with a French Horn, where I was invited to lead the meeting in a rendition of “Oh Canada”!

And that, my friends, was our final night in Corner Brook.

Sensible team photo:

- Suz

Stephenville, Newfoundland (by Cate!)

2010-06-08T12:30:00.000-07:00

Stephenville

After a great time was had in Charlottetown it was time to move onto Newfoundland!
With a flight in a teeny tiny plane to Halifax it was a swap to a slightly bigger plane for the journey to Deer Lake.

Flying into Deer Lake the scenery was amazing! So green and lush, must rain here!

We landed and found our Rotarians, Dave and Robyn pretty quickly, they were on the lookout for us and then proceeded to wedge our small(ish) amount of luggage into their large(ish) trucks. Now for the Moose hunt! With eyes peeled for the drive we were unable to find a moose anywhere not the happiest but hey, it happens, we have time people!

From the airport we went straight to a meeting with the Mayor Tom O’Brien who was able to tell us about the goings on in the town of Stephenville. The building that we met him in was amazing, an ex-U.S airforce building that had the thickest walls I have ever seen! Oh, and the coolest desk that I have ever sat at! With the Mayor bidding us farewell we were off to the fun that is the host parents for the night.

Dave kindly dropped Shannon, Suz and myself off at our hosts, Debbie and Dave’s house which will now be referred to as the party house!

Robert kindly let us in and showed us around the house and as he finished Debbie arrived home to say hello and get ready for the evening!

As the girls slept and got ready for the evenings festivities I found a documentary on the Iceland volcano that has been causing a few troubles and (for a change) got really excited and settled in to watch that, you can’t sleep when there is a good documentary to be seen!

Before to long Rotarians were arriving and I had to get ready to, pity it took me a little help to figure out how to work the shower, thankyou Debbie for the help, I will get this before I go home?!

The pot luck was amazing, they MUST be taken home with us! Lobster Lasagna, Moose Pie do I need to continue? It was super supper.

Moose Pie and Lobster Lasagne:
(mmmmmmmm!!!!!)

There was much frivolity for the team and the Stephenville Rotarians we all sung many a tune, some dancing was to be had and Colin, after talking up how tough our sportspeople are, had to show his manbrand and face the might of teenagers slapping pucks at him (he was fully kitted out in goalie gear I might add.

After being shirted by 10 year old Julia it was apparent that Colin needed to harden up!

The late night kicked on into the wee small hours of the morning and before we knew it, we were out the door for the day again!

After all meeting at the College we were off for a day of touring the Port Au Port Peninsula with June and Joanne. It was first stop, pretty amazing church, so amazing was the fact that it was built by ship builders, fisherman and farmers! Not a single builder of dwellings between them, it was a very cool building and when Suz played the piano it sounded amazing!

Forgive Colin, Father (Suz?!), for he has sinned:

We continued onto the fun that was the Alpaca farm! The alpaca’s make a very strange noise when they are concerned its like a whine and a note all jumbled together, their home, high above the ocean on a cliff edge was pretty precarious but they seemed to love it, the wind by now was up and blowing a gale but it was still ice cream weather so we indulged and it was good!

Some awesome chowder met us for lunch at the Inn at the Cape B&B. They had the biggest set of lobster claws I have ever seen hanging above one of the doorways inside the house, HUGE. The view from this house was spectacular. Lunch lulled us into a happy place as we set off for the boot which gave some pretty good views of the cliffs that we were on, the team did their usual of taking many many photos and I did my usual worrying that one of them would fall off the cliffs! But they are all good on their feet and made me less worried when we were all safe and sound back in the bus!

We headed back into town and Suz and Shannon headed to the Bay Expo, an expo which promoted the towns businesses, education opportunities and attractions. David, Colin and myself went looking at the new environmental sewage treatment works which I really feel we need in Australia. So easy and simple, yet so effective! Wetland reeds can really clean things up people!

After this it was home to pack and ready ourselves for a presentation. A lovely dinner was had by all and our presentation was well (?) received! From here it was bye bye Stephenville and Hello Corner Brook as we left Stephenville with super memories and happiness, a top place to say hi to! Many thanks to all in Stephenville for your hospitality we had a blast!

- Cate

Prince Edward Island (Suz's highlights!)

2010-06-04T12:19:00.000-07:00

Hi, it’s Suz again.

I know Colin and Shannon have already blogged here about our time on PEI, but I have so many funny photos and stories from PEI that I wanted to share a couple of things they didn’t mention, and a few of my favourite pics.

Firstly, the Kendricks' B&B (Briarcliffe Inn) was stunning. There are a mountain of photos, but they’re all on David’s camera and he’s refusing to share. So instead, here’s the view from the front porch. Wow:

It was great to spend 3 days staying altogether in Summerside. Believe it or not, I’ve become quite attached to my team. *Insert warm fuzzy feeling here*. OK – enough of that!

Randomly along the way to PEI, we stopped at the “beach”. Dont expect Aussie’s to get excited about any beach where you have to wear 6 layers and get drenched in rain:

That's not a beach!

Where I stayed in Charlottetown, it was cool to wake up in the morning and see a fox sitting each morning outside my window. Also, there was a den of baby foxes outside. Awwwww!!

PLUS – They totally forgot to mention the awesome excursion the team had to the Red Shores Racetrack!! The Rotarians of Charlottetown took us for dinner and a flutter at the racetrack. I’ve never gambled on horses in my life (with the exception of $10 bet on Melbourne Cup Day!), but earlier in the afternoon, when Shannon and I were meeting the dressage horse breeders, we met someone quite high up in the racing world (our sources shall remain nameless!), who provided us with their “picks” for that evening’s races!

What a jolly night ensued! That guy assisted us to pick the winner in nearly every single race, and Shannon and I had our own personal bookie called Wally! Onya Wally!!

Colin got interviewed on the big screen about our exchange:

Shannon kept the race guide safe from others who were curious as to our “luck” (wink wink!):

Shannon even got a special ride in the starter-truck-thingy on the racetrack, and scored herself a media interview!

Of course there’s much more awesomeness in PEI, but I’ll only add here that Colin’s spent too much time at the Potato Board. Methinks he’s starting to resemble a farmer:

Next stop: the land I’ve been waiting for.....NEWFOUNDLAND!!!!!

- Suz

Charlottetown, PEI (By Shannon)

2010-06-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

Wow, Charlottetown is a beatiful city/ country town. It has a great historic feel to it with some amazing old buildings that have been beautifully kept. It reminded me a lot of those small Southern Highlands towns that have been preserved and attract plenty of tourists.

On our way there we got ice cream at Cows, and awesome store that has put a bovine spin on everything. 'Mootube', 'Guitar Heifer', 'Mooey Griffin' and 'Edward Cowllen'-they had t-shirts, hats, pens, posters- you name it they had it, a very cool store.

No trip to PEI would be complete without a Green Gables visit.
Unfortunately it was raining some of the time, but that didn't worry Suz, who practically danced around the farm house.

Green Gables:

Shannon of Green Gables:

That evening we got to our host families- my host family, the Tedfords, held a dinner for us.

Vocational tour the next day- I went to The Guardian newspaper. I spent the day with Wayne, the paper's chief political reporter. I met the Premier! Totally weird but cool. In Australia there's no way you'd get anywhere near a Premier, let alone a minister most of the time, but we pretty much just walked into his office, he had a free moment between meetings and before I knew it we were shaking hands and discussing Australian movies.

Newspapers in Atlantic Canada are quite different to our ones back home. The biggest thing I've seen is major lack of colour- all but the first page and the back page are black and white. Every editor and journalist I've shown our papers to just gush about the colour on our pages.

The other thing is that they don't use many images/photos. Our Australian papers focus a lot of visual items to draw the readers in- big pictures, images, re-creations, sketches etc, but in Canada they are more focused on the editorial. It's been interesting to speak with editors and journalists and swap ideas.

The next day we fought a bitterly cold wind (there are photos of us all rugged up to the hilt) for a walking tour of Charlottetown. We saw some of the beautiful buildings, including Confederation House, where the fathers of confederation (head honchos of each individual state that is now Canada) met in 1864 and mooted the idea of forming one nation. Today it is still at the forefront of PEI government, housing the Legislative Assembly. It's also a museum.

We had a free afternoon then- Suz and I went to see a horse breeding farm. It was totally awesome for me and I think Suz enjoyed it, but it was specifically dressage horses, so I was in my element.

The next morning we flew to Halifax, then onto Deer Lake, Newfoundland. We've been warned about Newfies, they're the Australians of the Northern Hemisphere..........

- Shannon

Summerside, PEI (By Shannon)

2010-06-04T11:35:00.000-07:00

Our second day in Summerside saw the five of us loaded into kayaks for a leisurely paddle around the bay.

Suz teamed up with David, Cate and Colin took a boat and poor Bill was left to cope with me.

We paddled out to a sand bar in the middle of the bay, where we stopped for a snack and to have a go at digging for clams.

The others reached the bar way ahead of Bill and I, (not being much of a water person, being in ocean more than two feet deep was a little scary for me, but despite our slow pace, set by me, Bill and I eventually got out there).

It seems I have a penchant for clamming though. We used large pitchfork-style prongs to dig the clams out of the sand and managed to find a fair few.

Crikey!! That’s a HUGE one!

I told Paul our guide I'd be happy to help him on any given day, provided he supply a speed boat for me to get out there:

Our lobster feast that night was a definite highlight. Bill and Mary cooked up a fabulous dose of fresh lobster, serving it to us in the traditional PEI way- cold. We were taught how to crack the lobster and get all the meat out.

We all had vocational morning visits the next day before a mayoral reception in Summerside for lunch. I went to the Journal Pioneer newspaper and spent the morning sitting in court listening to a guy spend two hours arguing an $89 speeding fine!

Next stop.... Charlottetown.

Prince Edward Island (by Colin)

2010-06-04T11:15:00.000-07:00

Prince Edward Island (PEI)

Hello from Anne of Green Gables Territory. We arrived at the island as it is known here 5 days ago and it has been an amazing time with Vocational, Cultural and Fellowship.

We arrived to the Island (as it is called locally) via the Confederation Bridge the world longest bridge over ice covered water a spectacular site to behold.

We were greeted by an old friend. Bill Kendrick (GSE outbound team to 9690) and Vance Bridges (Local Rotarian we meet at District conference).

Bill & Mary with David

Vance with Suz and Shannon:

Yes we need 2 cars now, one for us and the other for the luggage. It has been expanding with every stop, Cate with her hoodies, Suz and Shannon with the stuffed toys (Beaver, Moose etc).

The exchangees had their first taste of Lobster at Bill & Mary Kendrick’s BnB, Briarcliffe Inn (note David has had more than his fill with this being his 4th dinner of Lobster).

It is a fabulous converted farm house with the old world charm and warmth of yester year. The Lobster was out of this world and has added to the 5kg of extra body mass I have already gained since arriving in Atlantic Canada, which attests to the great seafood they have here.

The Vocational Days have been inspirational with so much information I have picked up and opportunities that Rotarians have been able to make available to me. Here are some of the highlights.

University of Prince Edward Island, which is renowned for their Veterinary program.

Innovation PEI a government initiative to assist development of Export’s business, Agriculture, Bio Science, Aerospace, renewable energy and other Intellectual Property based business. The service is available to all living in PEI with no cost’s involved.

PEI Potato Board. They are responsible for developing and marketing the PEI Potato industries and products within Canada and the global market.

We have also done some of the local favourites. Sea Kayaking and Clamming (Shannon is quite a talented clammer) to name a couple.

Once again the hospitality from all has been amazing and in return we have been told we are supply much laughter and fun at our enthusiasm and zest for fun.

- Colin (Tad) Wilkes

Truro, Nova Scotia

2010-06-02T13:09:00.000-07:00

Colin writes...

Well after some fab days in the Valley we headed up to Truro, which was once the hub of activity in Atlantic Canada with Rail lines converging, but the heyday of the Steam engine has long since passed and the town is now reinventing. The town could be described as being much like Lithgow in many ways. We meet our host family for the 3 days we would be spending in Truro for lunch before we separated and headed for our new host parents homes. Garth and Trinki would be my host parents, a delightful retired couple who I could converse with at length about Australia. They had spent some time travelling in Australia a few years back and I helped provide some details for places they had been.

Garth and Trinki

The local Rotarian clubs where a relaxed bunch with presentations over a beer and plate of good tucker at the Pot Luck dinner. This was followed by Shannon’s host Mum and friends busting out a few old favourites in a Kitchen Party or "Ceilidhs". Part of the town reinvention has included the building of Nova Scotia Agricultural College, this college helps provide education that integrates hands Smart and book Smarts to the many young people who are moving from the city back into farming. Like Australia the agriculture sector is struggling to get skilled labour coming into the work force. Many of the students here are not from farming families or are new arrival’s to Canada.

Nova Scotia Agricultural College

Mark and Kristine graciously put on a cook out, where we experience Smoked Maple Salmon (yes it task as good as it sounds) and few other activities that Mark will do with the international students that are studying at the agricultural College where he teaches. These activities are Smores and Spider Dogs (I will let the photo’s explain) which need a good fire pit some marsh mellow, chocolate cookies and Hot dogs.

I also had the opportunity also to meet the Royal Mounted Police, no no don’t worry I didn’t get arrested. As part of my vocational exchange I meet and spoke with Rick Mosher a Mountie who has worked in the dog squad for over 19 years. It was good timing for my visit as the police had just received the results of a Nutritional study into the best diet for their dogs and was lucky enough to get a copy of the findings. I was also surprised by my trip to Canadian Tire where I was expecting to see lots of black round donut’s, but instead found a Franchised department store that would be like Big W or Kmart back home in size of store, sales and the range of stock. The franchise model was intriguing and as Bart the local franchise owner explained that he is only allowed to own 1 site at any one time.

We also got to experience the local Rotarian projects in town, with Rotary house. This is a collection of business that have been set up to provide opportunities to person that my have not been afforded them otherwise. The business included a Work shop (converting old shipping pallets to kindling), Cafe, Second hand cloth’s shop, Workshop which manufactures Show ribbons and Cardboard shipping packs for windows. The Show ribbons business now supplies ribbons all over the world including Australia.

We also went to the zoo, and saw a moose!!!!!

Moose:

Groundhog:

So that was Truro, the end of our Nova Scotia experience. With Nova Scotia behind us, our next stop is Prince Edward Island.

- Colin

The Annapolis Valley, Part 2

2010-05-22T11:34:00.000-07:00

Hello, it's Suz (as if you might have been expecting someone else?).

Continuing along on the adventures in Annapolis Valley, on Tuesday May 18th we had a day of vocational visits. Bill Travis, my host, is the Executive Director of a company called Peopleworx, a non-profit employment organisation doing very similar work to what I do back home.

The day was amazing. I took nearly a whole notebook full of notes, as I attended meetings, interviewed Employment Counsellors and other staff and training members, and toured multiple facilities.

Everything I learned that day will have to go into a separate report, or I'd have to post pages of informtion here. Suffice to say, the whole day was brilliant and extremely educational and informative.

Here's a general run-down of my itinerary for the day:

• 8:30am - Attended staff meeting at Peopleworx and learned a lot about a pilot program they are initiating regarding employers in the community and regulating their HR strategies.
• 10am - Visited the local Salvation Army Kentville Corps where I was able to interview Major Ross Grandy for over an hour about poverty in the area and their work running a food bank in Kentville. I was also taken on a tour of the facilities.
• 11:30am - Visited the "Career Resource Centre" of Kings County, where I was taken on a tour by the manager, Mr Phil Long.
• 12pm - Attended a meeting with the Eastern Kings Chamber of Commerce, and heard a presentation by their guest speaker Brian Rose, Vice President of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce, titled "The Management Challenge of a Shrinking and Aging Labour Market" (very interesting!!)
• Also met with Mr Darren Sequueira who is the Development Officer at the Community Business Development Corporation (A similar program to Australia's NEIS - New Enterprise Incentive Scheme).
• 2pm - Returned to the Community Development Centre where I was able to sit-in on a training class for unemployed people and observe how it compared to the trining programs my company runs back home.
• 3:30pm - Met with Employment and Career Counsellor, Mr Patrick Brush, and "picked his brains" about everything and anything. I learned a great deal from him, and he ven took me on a tour of several near-by specialist employment facilities such as the Canadian Mental Health Association, Community Inc (employment services for persons with disabilities) and the Employment Support Transition Centre (for redundant workers en masse as a result of recent plant closures). At each of these places I had the opportunity to interview the staff there.
• 5:30pm - Toured the Annapolis Valley Work Centre with the Manager, Vickie Petrie, where I learned about practical training available to unemployed persons and what facilities were available to them at this site.

OH MY GOODNESS!! Can you see why my brain was full?! That was only one day, and the amount of information I packed into that one day was phenomenal. It was like my "ultimate" vocational visit, the whole purpose of why we're here in the first place! May it continue!!

That evening we were hosted by Rotarian Don Wells at his spectacular home over-looking the valley. Don had in the foyer of his home a tall carved Canadian Mounty, which we all took turns posing with for kicks:

The next morning on Wednesday May 19th, we started the morning early with a 7am breakfast meeting at the New Minas Sunrise Club. Here, somebody provided me with the loan of a french horn, and I was able to lead the club in the hearty rendition of "Oh Canada" and "Advance Australia Fair"!

The team with New Minas Sunrise President, Mr Adam Smith:

For the rest of the day, we were divided in our activities. Cate, Colin and David embarked on an ambitious hike to 'Cape Split' where they saw lots of wildlife and were treated to an amazing view at their destination.

Shannon and I opted for a less-exertive day, so we visited the very beautiful Acadian historical site at Grand Pre, had a cafe lunch and a bit of an afternoon snooze!

Grand Pre:

Shannon and I also came across some old railway tracks and Grand Pre, and had a bit of photography fun!

That evening we went to a "Pot Luck" dinner at the incredible mansion of Rotarians Joe and Susan Ueffing. We gave a really fun presentation that night, which was attended by members of several clubs including Kentville, Wolfville, and some old frinds from Halifax!

The Ueffing's home:

We were royally farewelled from the clubs that night, after a fantastic couple of days in the Valley. We were presented with fine gifts including pins, banners, flags and Nova Scotian wine. The president of Kentville Club, Rev. Dr. Randy Croszman, even inducted us into an old Nova Scotian fellowship tradition: The Nova Scotia Order of Good Cheer!! We shook on it, and have certificates to prove it, so it's official!

Me with Randy, the president of Kentville Club. The patient man who drove us round in a mini-van for 3 days, tolerated our behaviour, acted as official photographer, entertained with amusing anecdotes and made our trip to Annapolis Valley all the more memorable!

Goodbye Annapolis Valley! Next stop...Truro!

Suz

Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia!

2010-05-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

It's Suz AGAIN!! (I'm pretty sure Im not the designated blogger, but somehow I seem to have nominated myself...).

Sunday 16th of May, we drove 6 hours from Sydney, Cape Breton, to the Annapolis Valley. I drove with Brian and Donna from the Valley, and we stopped on the way (at my request) for a McLobster!! No joke!

The Annapolis Valley is very beautiful. My hosts in Kentville were Bill and Annette Travis - wonderful people with terrific senses of humour and a lovely house who welcomed me in to their home and whom I am sorry to leave!

Bill and Annette Travis:

On Monday morning we met as a group and went to the Kentville Welcome Centre where we met the Warden of Kings County, Mr Fred Whalen and the Mayor of the town of Kentville, Mr David Corkum.

We then travelled on to one of my ighlights so far in this trip, the Oaklawn Park Zoo! We patted a black panther who purred at us like a kitten, lions, cougars, a black bear who ate jelly beans and subway mints out of our hands and a tiny baby monkey in baby's clothes!

After the zoo, we had lunch with the Middleton Rotary Club, and then drove with our long-suffering driver, Randy, down the coast to Port Royal at Annapolis Royal. called "The Habitation" it is a reconstruction of a small French compound built in 1605. Our guides were in traditional french costumes, and the history was fantastic!

After Port Royal, we drove to another historical site, Fort Anne, the site of early European colonisation in the 1600's and 1700's.

The team at Fort Anne:

The oldest building maintained by Parks Canada. Circa 1708. Gunpowder store room:

Shannon on a canon:

Colin down a well:

That evening, Shannon and I had the absolute privilege of being taken for a two hour horse ride in the Gaspereau Valley. We rode through amazing Canadian woodlands (saw bear footprints!!), rode to the top of a mountain and surveyed the incredible view from a meadow at the top. We returned home at dusk and I am SO glad we got to do that! There are pictures, but I dont have them yet. I'll post them when I do!

There are several more days in Annapolis Valley to tell you about, but it's 1am and I need to go to bed.

To be continued.....!

Suz

Sydney - Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

2010-05-21T12:35:00.000-07:00

Hi it's Suz again! just a quick blog on Sydney, because Cate covered it below. Only to say that I had a thoroughly enjoyable 3 days there, including the District 7820 Conference.

We arrived on the evening of May 13th, after a 6-7 hour drive North/East-ish from Halifax.

I stayed with Julianna and Bill Parsons in North Sydney, about 25 minutes drive from Sydney itself in their very cute little cottage. Julianna has a pet chinchilla - so cool!

Julianna & Bill:

The next morning we spent some time at the Conference, and then went on a tour to Louisbourg - an amazing historical site from the early 1700's. There was so much to see and photograph! I have many more photographs, but here are a few!

It was a relaxed and casual afternoon, spent checking out such Canadian joys as "WalMart" and other such tourist attractions!! One of our hosts, Clarke Paynter was nice enough to drive me around the bay to see the "Giant Fiddle", which I thought was pretty cool! The fiddle is practically a National instrument here, and Ive really really enjoyed hearing the local music! Its like Scottish traditional folk dancing music, really fast and "bouncy" and great to dance a jig to!

That night at the Conference dinner, we were entertained by Cape Breton's "Three Men in a Tub" - a local musical comedy group who had us in fits of laughter! Colin, david and I learned to play the Spoons (Newfoundland-style!!) and Colin and I showed the Canadians how to dance "Ocker" (dont ask!!)

On May 15th Cate and I took a bus ride to the spectacularly beautiful Baddeck (while the others had a sleep-in!). Baddeck is the home of Alexander Graham Bell, so we visited the AGB museum and enjoyed some quaint shopping and icecream!

That night was the BEST night for me! It started with the District Governor's Banquet at the Conference venue, followed by a performance by "Men of the Deeps" a men's choir made up of ex-coal miners.

After that, we returned to the hotel where most Rotarians were staying, where a traditional band had been organised to play for us. Much dancing and hilarity was had! I even got invited up by the band to play a song or two on bass guitar with them - so much fun!!!!!!

After that (sometime after midnight), we were hijacked by a combination of members of the band, and members of St Johns and Gander Rotary Clubs (Newfoundlanders!!), and forced to partake in the late night party scene in Sydney. Thats all Im saying, and Im posting no photos. Well, maybe one or two...!

Thats all. Other than to say that we presented bright-eyed and bushy-tailed the next morning to meet our Rotarian drivers and drive 6 hours to the Annapolis Valley.

The story continues......

Sydney

2010-05-20T03:55:00.000-07:00

Well we have all arrived safe and sound in Sydney- Sydney, Nova Scotia, that is.

We arrived in Sydney after 2 great days in Halifax, ready for the 7820 District Conference. It is being held at the Membertou Convention Centre, a facility built on land owned by First Nation people, the Mi’kmaq. The centre is majority government funded and has been built as a way of providing for indigenous communities and their people. The conference kicked off with supper and chances to mingle and chat with Rotarian’s from all over Atlantic Canada, the second largest district in the world, as well as meet some of our host families we’ll stay within the coming weeks.

We gave our presentation on Friday lunch time and you’ll all (or Y’all) be pleased to know it went off without a glitch and we received really positive feedback from everyone at the conference. We’re expecting to get some more in depth questions regarding Australia in the club presentations, but so far we’ve answered dozens of questions on politics, Australian aboriginals, kangaroos, sport, culture and general inquiries.
One of the biggest things we’ve noticed that differs from home is the shape of the houses over here- they are all two storey, rectangular and made of wood. There are no fences around yards at all and in outlying areas, such as Sydney, there are few plants or gardens. We’ve been told because of the severe weather and salty air, it’s hard to grow plants here.
Suz, Shannon and Colin paid a visit to a 17th century French fortress called Fort Louisbourg, which was fully reconstructed on top of original foundations. During peak tourist season, the site is much like the former Old Sydney Town in Australia and has actors dressed in period costume and re-enactments of day-to-day events in the 1700s.
Insert photo of town

Rotarians know how to entertain.
On Friday evening we had a formal, sit-down dinner with we Aussies front and centre for the performance of “4 Men in a Tub” a folk music and comedy act. They had us in stitches with their comedy skits and by the end of the night, we were all busting out our best jig. Suz, David, Shannon and Colin learnt to play the spoons.

Governor’s Ball

We’re off to the Governor’s Ball this evening, which will close the conference. We’ve been told it’s also a formal affair, and we’ll be entertained by Men of the Deep, a choral group of retired miners. It will conclude at 9.30pm, but we’ll all come back to our hotel, the Days Inn, for a Governor’s Reception, which will have folk music from the region. Lots of fiddles!

Halifax, Nova Scotia!

2010-05-14T20:04:00.000-07:00

Hi it's Suz again!

We arrived in Halifax on Thusday 11/5/10 and were introduced to our host families. I'm staying with Dick and Maria Hodgson who live on a beautiful home on the waterfront!

Thursday night for me was spent at my first vocational visit, attending the Metro Non-Profit Housing Assiciation AGM, an organisation dealing with homlessness in Halifax. It was completely fascinating, and was enriched by a performance by the "Shining Lights Choir" - a choir made up of homeless people, and people in assisted affordable housing. Their energy and enthusism was fantastic and I really enjoyed their performance!

On Friday morning the tem went on a guided our of "Pier 21" in Halifax, Canada's immigratio museum. 1 million people immigrated to Canada between 1928 and 1971, and 1 in 5 Canadians has a connection to an immigrant from that period. Immigrants included: French, Hungarians, Jewish, Estonians, Ukranians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Swedish and English war children.

Our tour guide was an immigrant himself and was able to share personal stories and show us his original paperwork and passport.

Of particular note was an immigrant vessel called “The Walnut” from 1948. The Walnut was built to carry 40 passengers, yet it carried 347 people into Canada on a 4 week voyage with only 2 toilets and 2 wash basins.

This picture demonstrates the size of The Walnut compared to typical immigration vessels.

After the tour of Pier 21, we visited Halifax Citadel, located in the middle of the city, high up on a hill. It as used by the British Army in the 1700's and 1800's.

We went inside the actual barracks and learned abbout a solidier's way of life during that time, and the significance of their uniforms. I even go to try one on!

Shannon with soldier:

Cate (very enthusiastic!!) with soldier:

Colin with soldier:

After touring the Citadel, we went on to do our first presentation at Halifax Northwest Club, and then spen the afternoon individually on vocational visits. Mine were FANTASTIC (thankyou Dick Hodgson!). I interviewed Claudia Jahn for over an hour, she's the Program Director of Halifax's "Community Action on Homelessness". I learned all about the challenges in Halifax regarding accommodation, employment and other community services. I learned about Canada's welfare system - who is eligible and what sort of income assistance is available.

I also interviewed Carol Charlebois from MNPHA - Metro Non Profit Housing Association, and toured a new affordable housing unit complex:

Suz

NEW YORK! NEW YORK!!!

2010-05-12T23:41:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK!!!!!!!!

We had 3 amazing days in New York! I know New York's not the focal point of this trip, but it would be shameful not to acknowledge that the stop-over we enjoyed was sensational!! I mean, have a look at this city!!!

We've spent a great deal of time in Times Square, there's just so much to see and do!! We've been there during the day, and during the night, and it was buzzing at all times! Shannon and I were excited to get our photo taken with some NYPD! We tried to convince them that they should just save time by arresting Colin now...

At midnight on Sunday 9th May we escalated to the top of the Empire State Building for a birds-eye night time view of the city! It was nothing shot of spectacular! (And FREEZING nd so windy we nearly blew right off the edge!)

We went to the site of 9/11 - "Ground Zero". Whereas the site wasnt much to look at (still just a construction site), we visited the memorial and museum there, and it was very humbling to be standing in the same place that it all happened.

We took a long stroll through Central Park, which is really very beautiful, and ended up at the Museum of Natural History, where personally I really enjoyed seeing all the real dinosaur skeletons! Amazing!!

Central Park:

Museum of Natural History:

We took a bus tour thrugh the CBD in a double-decker open-topped bus. We visited Macy's Department Store and had all-American coffee in Starbucks! We've walked for many kilometres throughout the city, been to the "drug store" and eaten bagels with cream cheese for breakfast! Below are some random happy-snaps of good times!

On the tour bus:

Cate is overly-enthusiastic about everthing at all times!

Cate, David and myself in Times Square at night:

Colin and myself at Newark airport:

David and myself enjoying everything!

Oh, and to quote David: "This is everything that is wrong with American food"!! yes we actually ate this, and yes it is every bit as yellow (or even yellower!) than it looks!!

One of the highlights for me was visiting the Hard Rock Cafe!!! It's my new favorite place on Earth! Ive ben to Hard Rock before, but this one in New York is huge, and had SO MUCH AAZING STUFF!! I think I stopped breathing a couple of times...

So there's heaps more, but it's 4:20am right now (not doing so well with the body clock!) so I should try to get some sleep!!

The next blog will be from CANADA!!!!!!!!

- Suz

NYC So little time so much to do!

2010-05-10T21:42:00.001-07:00

Writing this it is now 12:42pm and we are up in around 3:45hrs I am looking forward to the fun of Canada!
New York has been amazing! On day one we only just made it out to dinner before coming home and crashing out, it was an extremely long plane flight times two. Sunday saw us head downtown to Times Square on foot and then onwards by bus to see some of the sights. It was amazing, we were surrounded by super tall buildings, it was a little over whelming for me. too much urban consolidation.
We managed to get to ground zero and into the monument display centre (or center here) listening to eye witness accounta and survivors accounts of the events were a little emotional for me to deal with. The site really is huge to look at, but I do like the design they have gone with and I think it will suit the city and get the message across.
We jumped on the subway from here and headed up to the Guggenheim (please check my spelling Shannon!) Museum which was awesome, great little audio recordings throughout the venue helped my ability to understand what each painter was trying to convey!
After this we went to my favourite site to date, the Museum of Natural History, chock full of Geographic fun for me to delve into, and fun it was, I will be back for sure to take in the place in full!
After a little rest we headed out for din dins and a visit to the Empire State Building, I highly recommend visiting this site at 11:35pm as there are no lines to wait in and very few people up the top looking out, and boy do you look out on a majestic view! It was breathtaking to say the least. The winds up there were biting and bitterly cold but to see that view it was well worth the numb hands, and there was time inside in the elevator for them to thaw out!
Day one was pretty adventure filled!!

Signing out,

Cate :)

Departure! Up...up...and away!

2010-05-10T00:13:00.000-07:00

We're off!!

10amAEST - Saturday May 8th 2010

As I type this, we're on a big fancy jet plane at 33004ft.

Thanks to all the friends, family and Rotarians who came to see us off at the airpost at the crack of dawn!

David was the last to arrive at the airport, so we were worried that Karalyn might have finally gotten her hands on him, but he arrived safe and sound with no "suspicious accidents"!

Can you BELIEVE that after all my panic about packing, my 2 bags came in at 14kg and 7kg! Thats 11kg's under the allowed luggage limit! Dodgy bathroom scales I tell you, however it gives me great joy to thinks that perhaps I myself weigh 11kg's less than I think I do...!

Unfortunately the team are seated scattered all over the plane, so thus far it's a pretty subdued trip. At least we're all on our best behaviour!

I'm wedged between a large American man and a large Asian man. They're wearing matching outfits but they dont know each other. Hmmmmm.... and my in-flight TV doesnt work, so I've got 13 hours to make my own amusement. I tried to make friends with the American and the Asian, but they're just not very talkative. :-(

Next stop...Los Angeles!!

1:30pmAEST Saturday 8/5/2010

I just looked at the in-flight map, and we're currently passing above Samoa.

I tried again to make converstaion with the American man to my left, but he's cranky because he just spilled his beer on his pants, and now has to sit here for 8 more hours in wet pants! I tried not to giggle, I swear, but c'mon that's pretty funny! What's even funnier is that the plane has run out of Heineken, so he can't ven replace his beer!

9:55pmAEST Saturday 8/5/2010

We're 45mins out of Los Angeles now. I cant wait. Having been unable to make friends with my American and Asian travel-buddies I have sat still and silently for nearly 13 hours!!!

1:02amAEST - Sunday 9/5/2010

It's 8am local time, and we've just boarded out connecting flight from LA to NYC. It was a sooth change over in LA, althoughvthey went right through David's luggage so he obviously looked dodgy!

6:17amAEST Sunday 9/5/2010
It's something like 4:30pm local time (Ive lost track!!) and we've just landed in NEW YORK!!!!! Im exhausted, I havent seen a bed in 26 hours, and am not likely to get any sleep soon!

More posts shortly when the New York Adventure actually begins!!

Suz