START OF WEEK THREE

We have now been on exchange for just over two weeks with just under two weeks to go.

Following our last post we spent an incredible five days and four nights with the Burkburnett Rotary Club.

After arriving way up north on Wednesday night, some of us had our first home cooked meal of the trip with our new host families.
On Thursday morning we visited the Wichita Falls museum where we learned about the history of the region including the oil boom.  This was followed by a Wichita Rotary Club noon meeting.  The afternoon was spent exploring the Wichita Courthouse where we "visited with" the County judge, District judge, Commissioners and four County mayors.  We completed our tour with a no holds barred visit to the Wichita prison which houses over 500 inmates some of whom we were "lucky enough" to see up close and personal.  They were relatively well behaved with only a couple of inappropriate comments like "hey ladies, you know where to find us, we'll be here all year".  Needless to say we haven't yet taken them up on the offer.  On Thursday night we dined at a Mexican buffet restaurant with the Burkburnett Rotary Club members.
Friday was actually Good Friday, but due to Texas having so much bad weather over winter which resulted in school and business closure, it was a normal school day for the students of Burkburnett High School with whom we spent the day after attending a Wichita morning Rotary meeting.  We surprised a number of classes with impromptu visits where we observed their lessons and asked questions.  We even joined a special needs PE class on the basketball court.  All members of the team also enjoyed our first ever school cafeteria lunch which was surprisingly really good.  After lunch we visited the school's sports facilities - they have two gym's, a softball field, baseball field, tennis courts, athletics track, and football stadium.  We also stocked up on Burk High Bulldogs tshirts and can now consider ourselves official fans - go the dogs!!  After the school visit we toured a Muscle Car Museum and Len even got to go for a ride in one of the classic cars.  We had a fantastic team dinner party with the Burkburnett Rotary Club at Deana and Robert's house who were also Sarah and Sarah's host family.  The mayor proclaimed us honorary citizens of Burkburnett which apparently provides us with one get out of trouble with the police pass each.  On Saturday we did some "out of district touring" but since what happens in Oaklahoma stays in Oaklahoma we can't elaborate any further than to say the Wichita mountains have the best burgers we have ever tasted.  We wrapped up the day with dinner out at a local Burk Itallian restaurant.
On Easter Sunday we all attended various local church services with our host families which was followed by a Easter lunch again at Deana and Robert's.  After lunch we packed up our ever-expanding suitcases and headed back south towards the metroplex in a limo.  The three hour drive provided plenty of time for team planning and new song practice in preparation for the District 5790 Conference.
So that's where we are up to.
We will spend the next six days with the Fort Worth Rotary Clubs and then head to Arlington on Sunday where we will stay until District Conference starts on Friday the 6th.
Flying Kiwis over and out!

PHOTOS

Two weeks down...

Well it's hard to believe we have already been in the US for two whole weeks.
We are having an amazing time and getting to see, do and meet lots of people.
Today we finished our wonderful six days with the Lewisville morning, Lewisville noon, Flowermound and Highland Village Clubs and have headed way north to Burkburnett.
We have four families looking after us for our four nights here, Sarah and Sarah are with one family, Mark and Len with another family, and Suz gets two families for two nights each (they were fighting over her).
We have a great four day program ahead of us made a little tricky by throwing Easter in over the middle of it.

Here's a bit of a recap of our trip to date:

Week One - After our three day jaunt in Vegas we headed to the Grapevine, Keller, Metroport and South Lake Club areas and were looked after incredibly well.  We had two vocational days each as well as one day touring the Alliance Texas group assets and investments including their ranch.  We also attended a NBA basketball game and had lots of great meals with various families and the Clubs as well as attending both Keller and Grapevine Club meetings.  We had a bit of spare time with families attending Church and shopping it up at Wallmart!!

Week Two - We then headed to the Lewisville, Flowermound and Highland Village Club areas and had a fantastic six days with them.  We had a bit of spare time where we did things like range shooting, shopping and facials with our respective families.  We visited Denton and learned the history of the district from some of the Denton ancestors, we also toured one of the flash new hospitals in the area.  On Saturday morning we volunteered at the Lewisville Bunny Pancake morning where we cooked pancakes, served drinks and entertained the kids.  The group experienced some of the local wild life on a short bush "tramp" to finish the weekend.  Civic day was next our the agenda and we visited the Christian Community Action group and saw their building, medical centre, grocery store and second hand store.  This was followed by a police visit where we saw videos of US police in action and discussed the various differences between NZ and US policing.  We also visited the jail with real life criminals and listened in on 911 calls in the communication centre.  It was then on to the local performing arts theatre for a tour before we crossed the road to attend a Lewisville City Hall meeting where we were given a proclamation and performed our haka for Mayor Dean and other local council members.  The day ended with Mexican dinner and drinks.  Our last day with these clubs was spent touring the local school district looking at nutritrion and meals in school cafeterias where Len of course had fun with the school kids.  The afternoon was spent with our vocational counterparts.  We have now finished our time with these Clubs after visiting the Lewisville senior citizens club and having lunch with the Lewisville noon club.

So that's where we are at.
We have had an amazing two weeks, have learnt and experienced a lot, met incredible people, and had lots of laughs.
GSE is a fantastic program and we look forward to the next two and a half weeks!!

A busy time in Forth Worth

Been here a week now and its full on. Everything sure is bigger in Texas. Cars(Trucks), houses, roads, restaurants, you name it. Been doing some amazing things and meeting great people. Rotarians all very friendly, helpful and generous. Been to an NBA game, Dallas Mavericks v Newrleans Hornets, visited the Alliance Center, a 9000 ha development based around a massive airport, Ross Perot's Circle T Ranch and his personal ranch house, seen buffalo, texan longhorns, been to Mexican resturants and massive steakhouses, attended church, played Texas hold em poker and blackjack, shot at the local SWAT range, swimming in lovely pools, the weather is great, pretty warm, also experienced hail storm and lightening sorms at night. lots of late nights but having a ball. Len is the team joker and the girls give him heaps, but he laps it up. Lots of great photos around facebook etc. Yesterday morning we helped at a Rotary Club fundraiser, a easter bunny pancake breakfast. We were cooking pancakes full on for three hours and had a ball. len was the easter bunny in full suit and entertained the kids and was nearly arrested by a local cop who thought he was nuts! Lucky he is staying with the chief of police.
A marvelous experince so far. Lets hope we have the stamina for a whole month. Bring it on.
Cheers folks ya'all have fun ya hear.

Welcome to Texas

Finally arrived in Texas.
Had orientation meeting and a pot luck welcome dinner hosted at a hosts residence. Did a brief intro of ourselves and sang and did haka.... well received by the 50 odd in attendance
Hosts very friendly and we are being sploit in lovely homes.
Some went to Church this morning. Mark and Suz at White Chapel Methodist, Southgate,seating for 2500!
Hot 30 odd today but nice after cold in vegas.
Tomorrow we all have a vocational day at our respective vocations, should be real interesting.
Cheers for now

WE HAVE ARRIVED

Well we arrived in the US on Wednesday afternoon and headed to Las Vegas from Los Angeles.  We had a slight hiccup to the start of our trip with some "issues" relating to Mark's Visa Waiver which meant he was held back and only joined us with minutes to spare before boarding.  Our three days in Vegas were great fun as we explored "Sin City" including the shops, casino's and bars.  On Friday we did a bus tour to the Grand Canyon.  It was an incredible but freezing cold day with snow throughout the day.  We hadn't really packed for weather conditions like that so were a little unprepared.

We are now at Las Vegas airport and board our flight to Dallas in about five minutes.  This is where our GSE experience really begins and our first batch of host families will be meeting us at the airport.  We have managed to get hold of them to let them know our flight has been delayed by an hour and half.

We will keep you updated as week one of our exchange program continues!

From 2 weeks to 2 days 2 go

Everyone is in packing mode or at least sorting out which bags to take. Reports of a few sore heads in the team after the weekends social events and last contacts with NZers before we go.
Latest event added to our schedule is an NBA game on 13/4 Dallas Mavericks vs The New Orleans Hornets. Last home game for the season so were lucky to get tickets.
But before there we have a few quiet days in Vegas.......