We have arrived!

After a very stress couple of days in the UK awaiting news on the Ash Cloud we finally caught our flight out of London Heathrow on Wednesday Lunchtime.

We were welcomed buy a lovely group at Boston Airport which was just the boost that we all needed after a 7 hour flight and 4 day delay!

After dinner we were whisked off to our first host families; we are sorry that we were unable to spend more time with you in Derry. After a busy morning of vocation visits and Derry Rotary Lunch Meeting we were taken to the Concorde Art Museum which was a relaxing and enjoyable experience.

We have tonight (Thursday 22nd May) arrived with our hosts for four nights at Bow and Concorde; a relaxing evening with our hosts has give us the opportunity to recharge our jet lagged batteries and take in the fact that we have actually arrived!!

GSE Group Grounded!

The team is awaiting news on when we will be able flying out to District 7870 following the volcanic ash from Iceland which has brought England to a standstill.

All flights from the UK are currently grounded until at least 1am Sunday morning; BBC news are reporting this morning things look like they could get worse over the weekend due to the wind!

Ruth is currently at Heathrow Airport awaiting news and trying to arrange alternative flights for us all. Due to the backlog of passengers our departure date is unknown and there is the possibility we maybe traveling our separately.

We want to send our best wishes to District 7870 that were all prepared for our arrival. They are saying that an occurrence happens like this once every 200 years and that England has not seen so much disruption in the country since World War II.

We will keep you all updated!

Good Luck - Email!!

Hi Team!

It was great to meet you all last Friday, and am very envious of your planned visit to district 7870.

Having been a GSE Team member myself, I KNOW what a fantastic and life-changing experience you are about to have!

Enjoy it, and I and the rest of The Rotary Club of Canterbury Sunrise look forward to reading updates from you over the next 4 weeks.

Steve Charman
Vice President - RC Canterbury Sunrise

PS: Please team make sure Charlotte does NOT read any work emails whilst with you!!!

STAY IN TOUCH!

We have our own email address; if you have any comments about the team or the blog then please email us! We will be post all your messages on to our blog!

The address is gse11202010@hotmail.co.uk

Farewell Dinner - Friday 9th April

A huge thank you to Rochester Rotary Club for hosting the most wonderful farewell dinner for the team. The farewell cake was a lovely gesture and unexpected; thank you!

It was our first time running through the presentation as a group and it went really well. The feedback that we received will give us the opportunity to develop the presentation for our host district. Although we must stress that the Morris Dancing is really NOT going to happen; although Abi did have an attempt!

We are all very excited and left the farewell dinner with the excitement of the forth coming adventure and the knowledge that the next time we will be boarding our flight and ready to embrace every opportunity waiting for us!

The team would also like to take the opportunity to thank our sponsoring clubs:-
Richard – Bexhill - www.rotary-ribi.org/clubs/homepage.asp?ClubID=696
Abi – Canterbury - http://www.rotarycanterbury.org.uk/
Charlotte – Canterbury Sunrise - http://www.rotarycanterburysunrise.org/
Hayley – Medway - http://www.medwayrotary.org.uk/

We would also like to thank Euan Eddie (District Governor) and Ray Dixon (GSE Chairman) for their hard work on the lead up to the exchange and for choosing each of us for this exciting opportunity. Ray you were missed at the Farewell Dinner but thank you for your kind message.

Official Group Photo's

Fourth Meeting - Saturday 13th March

Working through the final details and all getting very excited. Abi has kindly offered the use of her home, the tea, Minstrels and Jelly Babies are flowing.....excellent brain food!!

Ruth has brought with her our name badges, which are very smart. Ruth has even considered the high possiblilty of one of us misplacing them, another Blue Peter moment from Ruth and we also have handmade additional badges as a backup!

We have all brought our suits, scarvs and ties ready for our official smart photos!! We have also got our Polo Shirts and Fleeces ready for the weather in New Hampshire and Vermont!

With more information about the stay and our hosts it is all coming together nicely....

Thank you to all of our hosts that have emailed us, it is lovely to hear you are excited as we all are.

We went through the leaflets and business cards as Ruth had started to pull all of our information together.

Richard was busy in the corner eating....oh yeah and working on the presentation. We all worked on our sections of the presentation and brought them along to the meeting; Richard then performed his magic and pulled them all into a flowing presentation.

5 weeks to go!!!!