Hi Mel, These are brilliant comments and observations...and I loved the tongue-in-cheek list - many of which I've observed myself. (I've been campaigning for years for bike paths...) I'm glad somebody is paying attention to obesity, and doing something about it. And it seems you were a keen observer during your GSE visit. It will be interesting to hear about your future work in this area.
Mel, reading your comments and feeling the obvious excitement and enthusiasm you have come back home with reminded me of my own GSE experience and the impact that the vocational visits had on me 28 years ago. There is no doubt in my mind that the GSE scheme is one of the best programmes that Rotary provides. It gives young people the opportunity to learn and have experiences and see aspects of another country's life and systems that normal tourists can not see. It is comforting to see that not too much has changed over the years. Reading your blogg has allowed me to relive my own GSE experience.
shocked and dismayed I can't believe what I'm reading, I am appalled. The baa-aarbaric consumption of livestock is an abhorrent fact of life. I implore you, eat salad and leave us...I mean, them, alone.
B. Leater (Greenacres, US)
Love the Lingo Tom and I are hosts from Raytown and looking forward to seeing you next week. I hope you are making a good list of the odd word lingo difference. I think that's really great and funny. My family is from the "South" US and they talk really different! I have a booklet on some of their slang that I'd be glad to share with those of you who are interested when you get here.
South Platte I can vouch for Luke's appetite for steak. We he stayed with Cherie and I we had steak and Luke was like a rabid beaver trying to eat his way through the Mark Twain National Forest!
Not sure? Don't know that you should give Ron McDee quite so much credit as for lookin after us folks... sure he wants to keep us alive - so as we can supersize/cardiac arrest in his drive thru.
John Gooch John, Luke here, ya know I love ya, but get a grip. Biscuits and gravy are to the kitchen - what Saddam was to world peace. Bee and Gee-vee, unless checked, will run riot throughout Western kitchens like red ants through a cornfield. We'll take mad cow disease before we let some clown fry up minced sausage before lunchtime.
What\ Biscuits and gravy are one of God's gift to the gourmet (or at least to the country boy). And after you learn to like them, grits and red-eye gravy are also good. But you probably have to go south to get good grits and red-eye gravy.
Nibbles it is Luke, I'm glad to see north Missouri talks like us folks in KC. Even in TN where I grew up we don't call them nibbles. Snacks maybe! Probably not hor's douvres - too big a word for a farm girl. You can bet every time I hear the word "nibble" from now on, I'll thnk of you guys. Love your writing.
dang tootn hey traveller, when you goin' to git that fungal 'fection fixed up pilgrim. you scarin the raccoons with that git-up. I ain't never seen no dancing shoes like that 'fore.
gorgeous hi, umm...Luke? my name is Paris, Paris Hilton, umm...I was wondering, they look hot, may I ask where you get them? I doubt my legs would do them justice but they are pretty cool.
Haka: It's A Powerful Thing Dear 6040 Team and District 9970 Rotarians and Friends:
I would like to offer an update on the 11-game losing streak of our much- maligned baseball team, the Kansas City Royals.
After the wildly well-received performance of the haka at our District Convention, I commented that perhaps it would help our poor Royals. Thought you would all be interested to know that the Royals have played the Cleveland Indians twice since your guys performed the haka - and have won both games, breaking the 11-game losing streak...
Coincidence? Causal Relationship? You decide...I have my own opinions.
We continue to feel extremely fortunate to have your team with us here in District 6040.
PS: I have never eaten biscuits and gravy myself - or "rehydrated kitty litter" either, for that matter (although a graduate school friend, a New Zealander, intoduced me to the marvels of Marmite on toast years ago, and I have not been the same since!! :)
Cheers from Kansas City,
Elizabeth Usovicz
GSE Chair, District 6040, Missouri USA
Marmite Just for the record, marmite is so 'insthsufferable' it is used to smear on faces and exposed limbs to protect bounty hunters from the fierce weta - which is known to bite adventurouse cavemen and women (unless marmite is generously applied to EXTERNAL body surfaces).
And to avoid any confusion - vegemite is just as effective against the weta!
biscuitsth and gravy nah way geezer, biscuitsth and gravy isth way worsth. I'm an international chef and prize-pain-in-the-backsthside, I know food.
Biscuitsth and gravy isth sthsimply insthsufferable.
sthso there
Complaints about our vittles? This attack on our beloved breakfast would not seem so bad if it hadn't come from the country whose gift to the breakfast world was... Marmite.
Glad to hear the trip is going well so far, and am looking forward to catching up this weekend.
Thank You District 9970
Dear District 9970 Rotarians and GSE Team:
Greetings to District 9970 from District 6040 in Missouri, USA!
We are delighted to have the District 9970 GSE team in District 6040, and to share our ordinary lives with this extraordinary group of people. In the first two days of their stay with us here in Kansas City, Missouri, they have proven themselves, as their blog entries attest, to be gracious, good-natured and admirable ambassadors from 9970.
As their blog tells the story of a month in Missouri, please know how grateful we are to all of you for sending us Arnold, Mary Nik, Melanie and Luke - and for the opportunity to try to reciprocate your hospitality to our recently returned District 6040 team - Gordon, Cindy, Brock, Jesse and Sarah.
Most Sincerely Yours in Rotary Friendship,
Elizabeth Usovicz, Group Study Exchange Chair
Rotary District 6040
Best wishes As a past GSE team member, I fully understand and appeciate all of your feelings, emotions and the numerous stressors you have and will experience over the next few weeks. It is now 28 years since I left for my GSE trip and I can assure you that what you are about to experience will remain with you for many years to come. My best regards to you and all of your team. Tony Hednerson
can you find me Kit Carsons email Was looking thru the travel blogs as I am going to NZ early April and noticed you work at the Greymouth Star. Last time I was thru Grey I ran into Kit an old school mate ..... have attempted to email him but no reply can you get him to email me. rking@usc.edu.au
Greetings form MO GSE Team, Dist.6040 Arnold, Mary, Luke, Nik, Melanie;
Greetings for District 6040 GSE Team. It is good to see you have your travel blog up. We all look forward to meeting you in just a little over one week and antipicate having a agreat time in New Zealand. We are eager to learn about your country and culture.
Gordon
Doug
non-member comment
Hi Mel, These are brilliant comments and observations...and I loved the tongue-in-cheek list - many of which I've observed myself. (I've been campaigning for years for bike paths...) I'm glad somebody is paying attention to obesity, and doing something about it. And it seems you were a keen observer during your GSE visit. It will be interesting to hear about your future work in this area.