Only four weeks to go

Sydney celebrated the arrival of Cunard's QE2 and departure of Cunard's Queen Victoria on Sydney Harbour yesterday with a magnificant summer's day. Unfortunately, our GSE Team was not aboard but we'll be in New York before them! Only 28 more sleeps .....

Club visit to Gosford

The team of Michael, Louise, Evan and Sophie performed like seasoned professionals again at our last Sponsoring Club visit in Gosford. After all, we did have our District GSE practise session the night before. It was a busy program featuring the Science and Engineering Challenge with PP Bob Nelson encouraging 8 teams of Rotarians and guests to build a "catapult" and shoot a rubber golf ball throught a hoop as a demonstration of our engineering skills (or lack thereof). Many tried but none succeeded. This was followed by an excellent presentation on the Challenge program by Dr Sue Gould, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Services) from The University of Newcastle. What a wonderful program to generate increased awareness of the sciences in our high school kids. Thank you to President Cliff and the Rotary Club of Gosford.

Only five weeks to go

Sydney's weather cleared over the weekend as the D6310 GSE Team from Michigan arrived in Australia and enjoyed the weekend in Darling Harbour as they overcame 28 hours of jetlag. The team comprises Jeff Leipprandt as Team Leader (Agricultural sales), Yvonne Brantley (State Trooper), Rusty Laurenz (Agricultural fertilizers), Megan McHenry (Marketing)and Craig Windt (School Teacher). D9680 will host and entertain them in Sydney until 14th March and we wish them a wonderful time. You can follow their blog at www.6310gse.blogspot.com

The outbound GSE Team to New Jersey departs Sydney on Easter Monday and therefore, has just five weeks to finalise their planning.

Our Australian Flag

We were most honoured this afternoon to receive an Australian Flag, presented to us by the Leader of the Opposition, The Hon Dr Brendan Nelson MP, Federal Member for Bradfield. Dr Nelson generously met with some of the GSE Team (Evan, Louise and Michael) at his electorate office and formally presented the flag, wishing us well on our GSE journey and telling us how proud he is of Rotary and the work we do.

It was a busy week in Australian polictics with the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd offering a formal apology to the Aboriginal people, seeking to heal the hurt caused by many decades of state-sponsored ill-treatment of all indigenous Australians. Refer link: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/the-nation-apologises/2008/02/12/1202760301358.html

St Ives Rotary visit

On Wednesday the 13th of February the GSE team were invited to speak at St Ives Rotary (Evan’s sponsor club).
At a very lively meeting the Rotarians took great interest in the finer details of our upcoming New Jersey exchange, particularly when speaking about our goals and aspirations, including a little bit of “Joisey” humour at the end.

We were very warmly welcomed and thanked by President Margaret Dean and the GSE team looks forward to seeing them on our return.

Visit to Wahroonga Rotary

After Tuesday's presentation at Northbridge, the New Jersey team backed up for breakfast at Wahroonga (Matthew's sponsoring club) with apologies from Louise & Evan on work committments). We were joined by Ian Faulks - GSE Team Leader to Michigan (http://www.9680gse.blogspot.com/) for a joint presentation.

Wahroonga is the GSE nerve centre for D9680, boasting members such as John Cameron DGN and GSE Chair, Ian Cameron is Host Co-ordinator for the inbound D6310 team from Michigan and Janet Grundy is Host Co-ordinator for the inbound D7500 team from New Jersey.

President Bob Howe welcomed our New Jersey team and our presentation was warmly received. The meeting concluded with John Cameron presenting each GSE team member with the The Rotary Foundation lapel pin for GSE Alumni.

GSE talk at Northbridge Rotary

Well tonight we had our official Rotary talk with Northbridge Rotary, Sophie's sponsoring club.
Our talk was very informative, very humourous and with a faux pas or two thrown in for good measure it was very well received.

President Barry and the members of Northbridge Rotary wished us all the best for the exchange, and for that we give them thanks and will see them on our return.