The Germans are coming!

Our counterparts will be here on Saturday!


It's happening people...the exchange has begun. I have been thinking about them all week long...what are they packing? are they nervous? are their speeches done?


Our speech practice went VERY WELL! We were all pleased with how it went, some things need to be changed up a bit but that should be pretty easy.


The next meeting will be on Sunday when we meet the German team and then on Monday the 9th we will have another presentation practice. The presentations in Yosemite will be short; about 2-4 minutes per person.


Perfect, in the next week or two, I hope to be able to practice at Toastmasters too!


Will check in again later!


Oh yeah, here are some new photos of me and of the entire team. Don't we look like something right out of the training manual for United Airlines???

Feelin' like a million bucks!

Just as a precaution, we are required to carry supplemental travel/medical insurance policies during the time we are out of the country. I'm feelin' like I am worth a million bucks, so that is what I signed up for!! I guess you never really realize your worth until you consider your demise, huh?? So, I think this is a perfect lesson, for the rest of my life I will remind myself that once upon a time, I considered myself worth a million bucks. If something does happen to me when I am away and it only costs $250K to get me back to the States...be sure get the rest and throw a damn good party in my honor!!!

Speeches!

We had a meeting here at my house this past Monday. I served Bratwurst boiled in dark beer, warm German potato salad, sauerkraut, beets, and roasted brussels sprouts. And of course, the ever popular apple strudel for dessert! The German beer and Gerolsteiner water topped off dinner very nicely!

Our team had a chance to talk about our presentations and we feel much better! We have a pretty good plan and will begin writing our own 5 minute presentations. We will have a trial run on March 19 and see how we all do speaking in front of each other. Roger and Paul will do their speeches in German, but us girls have chosen to do ours in English.

More updates!

Uniforms--done! Team photo next!

Presentations--a really good start is under way. We will have a trial run of what we have done on March 19. I have attended one Toastmasters meeting and I am trying another one and will make a decision next week on which club I will attend. The Toastmasters meeting on Tuesday was very interesting...there is a lot to learn from these meetings!

Gifts--No update on the cable car prints, but Paul's CD's are awesome! Great music choices!

Language Lessons--So far so good! This past weekend I spent NO time studying so I know what I will be doing this coming weekend!! I am on Level 1, Unit 5, Lesson 6. (Level 1 has 8 Units; each with 11-12 Lessons).

Banners/pins--Banners are done! and Roger is looking into some "friendship flag" pins with both American and German flags. We can hand these out to people as we meet them.

Random California trivia--very close to being done! We are going to add in some facts about each of our sponsoring Rotary Clubs.

Badges and business cards--Roger is ordering our name badges and Jeniece is working on a design for our group business cards.

That's all for now...I am getting more and more excited every day!