To pick up from the last update I was at the Coburg samba festival, and only a few days later I flew over to Istanbul from Nuremberg where I stayed in a Rotarians home for 4 days, I made a short presentation to the Rotary club of Istanbul Ataköy (Asian side) over Australia and myself and exchanged the ceremonial flags, the following 4 days the Rotarian took time off work and took me all through Istanbul which was an amazing experience, he was so generous as to pay for everything and never let me spend a cent, and I felt extremely lucky to be shown the great city by a local, I visited so many special places and food shops that only the locals know about ;).
The 4 days came to an end of the 16th of July and I made my way from Istanbul down to Adana where I joined a Rotary summer camp with people from all over the world attending we had Home stays and also stays in a Hotel, the camp was themed "Summer, Fun and Historical visits" and was completely funded by 3 contributing Rotary clubs (Adana, Mersin and Antakya) we did all kinds of activities such as wind surfing, swimming, horse riding and so on in Adana, we then made our way to Arsus, a little beach Village for those wealthy enough to afford Summer houses, these people usually work in the Winter in Antakya and live in Summer at Arsus.
We spent 4 days in Arsus/Antakya and my Home stay parents actually were working through the winter in Antakya but came to Arsus so that I could stay with them, they were a Doctor and a dentist and had an absolutely beautiful home on some of the nicest waters I've seen, on one occasion we were swimming and a bunch of Turtles migrating were swimming less then 20 meters away! Whilst in Antakya we participated in the Antakya independence day ceremony and visited a Mosaic museum with the second or third biggest collection in the World of mosaics, we also visited the Cave church of saint Peter which is believed to be the oldest "Church" in the world.
After our Arsus/Antakya stay we headed over to Mersin a popular summer house area for those working in Adana and also for those from the Netherlands, Unfortunately though I had to return to Adana that night because the following morning my flight back to Germany was leaving. I left the Turkish summer camp early because my German Europa tour with Rotex district 1820 began 2 days later after I returned to Germany.
The Europa tour began on the 29th of July In Frankfurt, went for 26 days through 7 countries with 4 Rotex leaders and a Senior Rotarian accompanying them, but not actually in charge. On this Tour were 43 exchange students from all different districts in Germany, but the majority of exchange students were from Brasil and Australia due to the timing of the tour and arrival times of us Australians and people from South America.
The countries we visited and the dates:
| DAY | CITY | COUNTRY |
| 29th JULY | Frankfurt | Germany |
| 30th | Brussels | Belgium |
| 31st | Paris | France |
| 1st | Paris | France |
| 2nd | Strasbourg | France |
| 3rd | Basle | Switzerland |
| 4th | Milan – Monaco | Monaco |
| 5th | Monaco | Monaco |
| 6th | Pisa | Italy |
| 7th | A day on the beach | Italy |
| 8th | Rome | Italy |
| 9th | Rome | Italy |
| 10th | Rome | Italy |
| 11th | Florence | Italy |
| 12th | Florence | Italy |
| 13th | Venice | Italy |
| 14th | Salzburg | Austria |
| 15th | Salzburg | Austria |
| 16th | Abtenau – Dachstein | Austria |
| 17th | Vienna | Austria |
| 18th | Vienna | Austria |
| 19th | Budapest | Hungary |
| 20th | Prague | Czech Republic |
| 21st | Prague | Czech Republic |
| 22ndAUGUST | Frankfurt | Germany |
It was a great experience but definetly more diversity in the participating exchange students countries would have been appreciated and a more responsible leadership, because the last few days became very hostile between everybody and resulted with 3 exchange students being sent back to their countries.
My favorite cities from the tour were Basil in Switzerland, Salzburg in Austria (Were a new friend i met in Turkey lives) Brussels in Belgium, Prague and Budapest.
In Rome we visited the Vatican city were we waited for 2 and a half hours but finally got to see the Pope give his Sunday service, and by sheer luck we were in Budapest in Hungary on the National day so fireworks and other celebrations in Parks were held. I definetly accumulated some experiences in those 26 days!
Returning to Germany was sad, but also a relief. On one hand everybody was sick of each other and sick of talking, Dirty youth hostels, eating McDonald's everyday and getting up early to keep moving to new cities. But then on the other hand we had formed some new friendships and experienced things with these new friends that we can never repeat, during the tour I formed a close relationship with a New Zealander from Auckland, a Western Australian and hilarious guy from Chile.
Heading back to my town I had only 2 more weeks with my first host family, I packed a 20kg box and sent it back to Australia with some presents for family and friends. the two weeks went by quickly and I changed family's to the President of my Rotary club who asked me to say "Greetings" to the Bomaderry President.
This new family are really amazing and are of historical importance to the town which makes it feel even more special to be with them, the Father is the Grandson of Rudolf Dassler the founder of "Puma" who is the Brother of Adolf Dassler the founder of "Adidas" they have 2 sons one 16 the other 13 and I get along really well with them. With the new family change the new school year began and I changed grades from the 12th to the 11th as in the 12th class I was not able to go to many classes only German, Geography and English, with the 11th grade I now have a 38 hour week.
Last weekend I had my first "Orientation camp" which is really for the exchange students that just arrived from south america and the U.S.A so it was a little pointless but at least a met the new inbounds. The Orientation camp was held in Rothenburg the Beautiful old German city, I was hoping it would be a great time for some photography but it ended up Raining the whole weekend :( the old inbounds (Me) had to write our German test and were required to score above 30 points which thankfully we all did!!
This Friday the assistant district Governor and the Co-coordinator of all Australian and New Zealand inbounds/outbounds and also a Rotarian in my club "Michael Fischer" is heading to Hobart for a Youth exchange committee where Rohan Gleeson the youth chairmen from our District will be so they will get to have a nice chat about me and the other girl from our district thats in Germany.
My current host family have arranged a new family for me as my last family as there are really lovely compared to the other family I was going to and more appropriate with a son the same age as me, I think I will be changing to them after Christmas, and from the 28th of December till the 8th they are taking me skiing in Austria which is going to be a feat if I can manage to stay up considering I've only really skied once in my life.
Just before Christmas however there is a Camp in Erfurt with Rotex just for the weekend as there are some lovely Christmas markets in Erfurt.
Right now I need to go, but think I've pretty much covered everything. I will try to post some of the 1000's of photos I collected during the summer holidays within the next few days.
I'd love to hear back from the club and here how everything is going, and if possible could anyone send some photos to me of our clubs meeting place, attendance (eg our Rotarians) and maybe some community work photos? as I did take photos before hand but they have been lost.
Also an Update from my Rotary club over here, they just donated 7,500 euros to the efforts in Pakistan.
Regards,
Ryan
Peace☮
