GSE 1030 Exchange to USA 2010

Conference presentation

2010-09-12T19:26:00.000+01:00

As we're all still recovering from the ball at District Conference last night, it may be a little while before we write about our presentation. But in the meantime here is the video we showed at the end of our presentation... enjoy!

Meeting and eating...

2010-07-18T18:09:00.000+01:00

Just to prove that we not only got on in the USA, but actually still enjoy each others' company, the GSE team recently met up for a social night in Durham.

Unfortunately Helen wasn't able to make it due to work, despite the night being her idea, and we really missed her company. Barbara's husband Mel joined our party to make up the numbers though, and we had a very nice meal at an Asian fusion restaurant called Fat Buddha. We even took a few pictures at the restaurant...

Barbara looks surprised:

Mel and Tom tucking in:

James + food = happy James!

My pineapple fried rice - love the presentation!

After the meal, Mel and Barbara headed off and left us to it. I took the boys to one of the nicer pubs in town, where we had a couple of quiet ones and talked, before heading our separate ways. On the way home I took a night shot of the city looking pretty (as it usually does!)

We have a proper meeting coming up soon, but it was really ace to see the team and catch up - I suspect we'll have another try in the future, with Helen this time!

Reflections

2010-06-24T20:55:00.000+01:00

It's difficult to believe that we've been back in the UK for six weeks... just like in America, I don't know where the time has gone!

Last week, we had our first team meeting since arriving back in the UK. It was great to see each other again and it soon seemed like we'd never been apart. The meeting also had a serious purpose as it we started preparing for our presentation to District Conference in September. Suffice to say, we think it'll be a good one!

One of the objectives of the GSE is the application of the learning from the exchange back in the workplace. Today I did a bit of that, doing a presentation on the US system of local government and some of the conclusions I drew to the management team of the Department I'm based in. Thankfully they all found it interesting (or so they said - I think they were genuine as there were plenty of questions). I'm planning to give the same presentation at one of the Departmental seminars we hold from time to time.

James

The Voyage Home

2010-05-20T23:05:00.002+01:00

We woke on Tuesday morning, sad to be leaving but looking forward to seeing Blighty and our nearest and dearest. After the team arrived at Bountiful Blessings, we loaded up the cars and made the journey to Bingampton, with a small detour via the Spot Diner. The Spot was the first place we visited in the US, so it was fitting to end our trip there. Four weeks had made a massive difference to the team - not only were we less jetlagged, but we easily tackled the meals and massive desserts that were offered to us.

Terry and Joe drove us up to the airport, where DG Sam and Ed from Oneonta Rotary joined us to wish us well (and possibly to make sure that we actually left). After passing through security which hampered our hopes for a dramatic exit (we felt daft waving goodbye and then joining a queue to have our shoes and jackets xrayed), we finally made it into the departure lounge.

I won't go into any great details with the flights or transfers (suffice it to say, the planes flew safely, the food was edible and we were all shattered on arrival at Heathrow), we made the final hop up to Newcastle. After sorting our cases and checking everything had arrived, we were greeted by Tony and Cynthia, Dave Sadler and a motley crew of assorted loved ones. And that was the end of our trip - a few tearful farewells and we all went our separate ways. Just for the moment of course, we'll be meeting in a matter of weeks to begin preparing for our conference presentations, and visiting a few clubs to practise.

Our thanks to everyone who's followed the blog, the clubs who sponsored us, and everyone who made the trip so memorable for us. I'd also ask for a special round of applause for James, who held off jetlag to update the blog on Wednesday.

Back in the UK!

2010-05-12T17:47:00.000+01:00

It may take a few days to get the post on our last day up here, so in the meantime here's a quick note to say we're back in the UK - we touched down in Newcastle at 11am UK time (6am according to our body clocks!).

As well as the post covering our last day, we'll be adding more pictures and vocational information.

Monday 10th May 2010

2010-05-10T23:07:00.007+01:00

Today was our final full day on US soil. We depart tomorrow at 1426 hrs and New York State will be rid of us once and for all.

I know I speak for everyone when I say we have had a great time and the people we have met have been amazing.

Therefore it was no surprise this morning when Terry Donnlick (the wonderful host of Barbara, Tom and I) provided us with an amazingly large breakfast cooked by Olalla. It consisted of fruit salad, cheese omelette, sausage, bagel, home fries etc etc I have warned all of my family that they will see a new, bigger version of me on my return.

We have then headed out with the rest of the group to do a few last minute shopping errands.

The first place we headed to was the Best Buy Shop (of which we saw the warehouse earlier in the tour) and then we had a driving tour round Cornell University.

We saw the gorge along which the university campus runs and saw some absolutely fantastic views. Unfortunately there was an air of sadness, as you can see by the picture, there are large fences up on the bridges due to a number of tragic deaths that have happened recently.

From there we have gone to Wegmans (an absolutely massive grocery store-they have train sets running along the top of the sweet displays and a castle made of crisps).

We have travelled into the centre of Ithaca to explore the many interesting shops and public areas that they have there. We have all purchased a few last minute presents and have then (due to the hunger pangs that some of us were having) attended the Peking Restaurant at Cayuga Mall.

Here we have had a wonderful meal and feeling refreshed and very full (yet again) have then headed to the Six Mile Creek Vineyard.

Whilst at the vineyard we sampled many tasty wines, beautiful views and excellent gifts and we have then all returned to our respective hosts houses. Tonight is a relaxing evening for everyone (or as relaxing as it can be when you journey home is determined by a large cloud of volcanic ash and wind direction) and we will be spending some quality time with our hosts before leaving their kindness and heading to the airport tomorrow.

Sunday 9th May

2010-05-10T14:13:00.026+01:00

The others had a lie-in this morning, but I was up around 7.30am. Looking out of the window, it had snowed overnight! After some strawberries and yoghurt, my host Karen and I stuck on some old clothes and headed out to the barn. (It was COLD. And still snowing.) We fed the horses, watered them, and I had way more fun than I should raking the barn. :)

This is not a caption contest...

Following a quick shower and change, I went with Karen and her husband Scott to a Mothers' Day brunch with their family. (Happy Mothers' Day, ladies!) Sadly I did not get any photos there but trust me when I say the food was brilliant. They even had a waffle maker, and on the dessert table, a chocolate fountain! Thanks to Karen and Scott for taking me along, it was really delicious and I had fun meeting some of the rest of the family.

From here came the part I'd been dreading.... DANCING. We all met at the Country Music Hall and watched the couples dancing - some of them were very well practiced!

Indiana James and the Square Dance Hall...

During the band's break there was a 50/50 drawing. Amazingly, my number was picked! I had to walk onto the stage to collect my money (oh how embarrassing) and came away with a spiffy $22. As Eileen had bought the winning ticket, we donated the money to Rotary Foundation (how much have we won so far on our travels? There is a tally somewhere!) The lead singer then called Barbara up onto the stage to talk - she of course called the rest of us up there by name to join her.

After this humiliation, there was dancing. The team (except Barbara, who nominated herself to be our photographer, and Tom, who was hiding) were dragged up to form a square dance. The first one was total chaos, but things improved from there. Tom was also forced to join us at this point.

After this horrific period of exercise, I went home to shower before our farewell reception. The others, however, chose to indulge in some ice cream... more to come on this later!

We then reconvened at the Benn Conger Inn for the reception. It was a really lovely place, with waitresses running around with hue trays of hors d'oeuvres. YUM. It was a great atmosphere, and so lovely to see familiar faces from across our trip. A few heartwarming speeches closed off the festivities, with some guests enjoying a tour of the (very historic) house. Thanks to everyone who organised such a great evening, and all the Rotarians who came to give us a good send-off.

By the time I returned home, Karen was off to see the horses again, and like a good house guest, of course I volunteered to join her. We fed and watered everyone, and doled out flakes of hay. Yaay! I also got a few pictures in the barn, of course..

I can't believe we have so little time left here, it's been a truly amazing month. Very exhausted though, and looking forward to some mega-long sleeping.

Saturday 8th May

2010-05-09T04:27:00.001+01:00

After the warm, sunny weather of the last week, today brought a bit of a change with more cloud and some heavy showers. It felt a lot like an autumnal English day.

For Caroline and I the day started with breakfast at Casper's Diner in Groton with my hosts Joe and Eileen. The food was excellent and it seems like there are plenty of regulars who go back time and time again.

We then met up with everyone else and drove to Seward House at Auburn. The house is named after William Seward, who is most famous for masterminding the purchase of Alaska in 1867 for just $7.2m - 2 cents per acre - when he was Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln. It was Seward's home for most of his life and was passed down his family before being donated to an independent trust in the 1950s who have preserved the house and its contents.

A very knowledgable guide toured us round the house giving us an account of the house, its contents, and William Seward's life. Seward was dead-cert to get the Republican nomination for Presidential candidate before Abraham Lincoln arrived on the scene... Lincoln ended up getting the nomination, winning the Presidency and had to ask Seward to be Secretary of State three times before he accepted. Seward was also nearly killed on the same night as Lincoln as Lincoln's assassination was part of a wider plot targeting senior government officials. All in all it was a very informative few hours on an important part of America's history.

Following the tour we had a late lunch at Curley's in Auburn - we were very impressed by the fish and chips. Helen took advantage of the fact that Curley's is just over the road from the state prison to get a few pictures (it has the distinction of being the first place in the world that an execution by electric chair took place) before we returned to Groton.

We then had a couple of hours for a siesta before spending the evening at the Dryden Hotel. Saturday evening was rib eye steak night and here you can see Tom with half a cow on his plate!

Friday, 7th May

2010-05-08T16:05:00.011+01:00

After a fantastic breakfast of strawberry pancakes (thanks Nina), James and I packed up our belongings and set off on our final vocational day.

We started the morning at George Junior Republic, a residential educational and treatment facility: the easiest way to describe it is as a boarding school which provides additional counselling for at risk children. Pupils can be referred there by the court system or their school, and GJR runs a standard school curriculum for grades 6-12. They even hold graduation ceremonies for pupils who complete their education there. The facility is impressive - aside from the education buildings, pupils are housed in cottages with full time support staff. Class sizes are limited to 6-7 pupils, and both James and myself were surprised by the calm and quiet (much quieter than the school I went to). It was great to speak to a number of staff and get a better idea of the work they're doing, and their place in the legal/education system over here. Our thanks to everyone involved in arranging the visit for us.

After George Junior Republic we moved on to Tompkins County Community College - also known as TC3. James and I met up with the rest of the team, before Rotarian Bob Ross and Mick McDaniel gave us a tour of their recently completed sporting facility. It was stunning and certainly put my university to shame. It was impressive to see the dedication that they have for sport over here and the walls are covered with trophies earned by their basketball, softball, and soccer teams among others (Go Panthers!). We then had a tour of the library and central buildings, with Helen disappearing into the security department for a while (she did look very suspicious).

For lunch we went to Farrell's in Groton, before the team split up again. James and I spent the afternoon with Judge A. D. Dawson, Assistant District Attorney Andrew Bonavia and Liam Murray, a local attorney. They took us to the Groton Town Court before spending the afternoon talking us through criminal trial procedure, from initial arrest through arraignment. It was great to get all three viewpoints on the process, and to compare it with our system back home. I think that we finally understand the bail system (in theory if not in practise), and I hope that we were clear in explaining the differences with the system back home.

After a quick break at Terry Donlick's (my new host, and the team leader for the 7170 GSE team), we headed off to the first annual GSE bowling competition. Aside from us Brits, there were teams from Dryden, Ithaca and Groton Rotary club, as well as Vicky and Amy from the 7170 team. Dryden went on to win, with Team GSE 2 (Caroline, Amy and myself) placing a credible second.

The Winning Team receive their trophy

Dewey and Chris - supportive of my appalling game

It was great to see so many familiar faces from the past few days (and I should probably apologise to Dewey, Dale and Chris after my disastrous second game). Thoroughly tired, we eventually called it a night.

Thursday 6th May 2010

2010-05-07T01:36:00.015+01:00

Today we began with an early start at the Ithaca Sunrise Rotary Club at The Royal Court Restaurant. The Club began at 0715 hrs so there were some sleepy looking members of the team this morning.

We did our presentation without the powerpoint and it went well. The Club were very friendly and there were lots of interesting questions for us. Especially 'who do you think will win in the football between the USA and England?' I predicted a 3-0 victory to England, which was slightly controversial.

After this we headed to Taughannock Falls with Peter Bellochs and Doug Armstrong. This is a very beautiful place with a high waterfall. It is very picturesque but the sound it makes is quite amazing.

We have then travelled to the Watkins Glen State Park and walked down the Gorge Trail. Notice the word 'down.' We decided it would be better for all concerned to walk down the trail as to walk up it would mean hundreds of steps and we could not cope with this kind of exercise after all the food we have consumed on this trip. It is quite a long trail and I have put a couple of pictures up showing the kind of places we walked through. It was very impressive, the layers of rock showed the history of the landscape in a beautiful way and we even got to walk behind a waterfall (although we did get a little bit wet).

Following all this exertion we have headed for lunch at Veraisons Restaurant which is on Lake Seneca. The interior and exterior was fabulous. The views of the lake were second to none and the empty wine bottle tree was a testament to the good wines sold there. The food was also delicious and prepared us for our next test . . . . wine tasting.

We went to the Glenora Cellar which is directly next to Veraisons and here we sampled many

different wines (and yet more food) and James tried his best to take a whole barrel with him!!!

We have then headed back towards Ithaca. On the way we have stopped at 'Life's so Sweet! Chocolates.' This is a fabulous little chocolate shop in Trumansburg and it is run by Darlynne Overbaugh (the daughter of Tom Overbaugh who was kind enough to take us to New York City). She creates all kinds of unusual chocolate based products (including chocolate covered chips (crisps)) and we all ended up spending quite a bit of time and money in there.

We have then popped into the centre of Ithaca where Tom has finally opened his wallet for the first time on this exchange (we had to duck out the way of the cloud of moths).

From there we have headed to Groton Rotary Club to give our final presentation of the trip.
It was a great evening and we were very warmly received. The club members were fun and again we were asked many interesting questions. It is slightly sad to have completed the final presentation as it shows we're near the end of the trip but at the same time we were all pleased that the pressure was off. That is until we are back in the UK.

I would like to say a big thank you to Peter and Doug for being our chauffeurs today and looking after us literally from dawn until dusk. It was much appreciated.

Vocational day - Weds 5th May

2010-05-06T23:15:00.004+01:00

Another vocational day, and another day of moving on (sniff). I left my wonderful hosts, Jeanne and Jeff Smith, at a very early hour. We convened with all of our luggage and were picked up by the Ithaca Rotary club, who took us to meet their Mayor at City Hall. We learned about Ithaca and its academic institutions, Cornell University and Ithaca College, and also about the breadth of the Mayor's responsibilities.

Then onto our vocational morning - we split up, and I met with Susan Currie, the director of the Tompkins County Public Library, who gave me the grand tour. The library is easily one of the largest I've seen in my time here, and I had a wonderful morning - we crammed so much into our short time. I even sat in on a "Babies, Books and Bounce" session, much like our own pre-school Storytimes. I had a great morning and it was a shame we couldn't spend longer together, we had so much to share.

The others did their own vocational activities, more to come on this later.

From here, the team met at the Rotary Club of Ithaca for lunch and another presentation. I was dosed up on cough syrup and got through the presentation fine, phew. The food was delicious - dressed chicken, salad and mashed potatoes -and I think we'd all like to thank the club for being such enthusiastic & welcoming hosts. I sat there with Brigid Hubberman, my vocational match for the afternoon, and I knew we'd get on well when she presented me with a fantastic board book called (appropriately!) Book. Brigid is the director of a truly remarkable programme called the Family Reading Partnership, which is a little similar to Bookstart in the UK, and aims to create a culture of reading for all children. They distribute free books to children from birth up to their first day of Kindergarten, display different 'Read to Me!" posters across town, and maintain Big Red Bookshelves in certain community locations (grocery stores, doctors' offices, school lobbies) where any child may take a gently used book - and keep it. I could have talked to Brigid for days and days, we had so much to discuss and I came away feeling so energised and inspired by her, and the work FRP have done so far. On top of all this, she also gave me a huge bag of goodies to take away, including calendars, magnets and STORYBOOKS. I have no doubt we'll be keeping in touch, she's a wonderful lady.

After this, the ladies on the team made a rest stop to Starbucks, via another Rotarian, Birgitte, and her jewellery/art store. (She gave us each 2 Godiva chocolates - of course we then asked her to join us!)

Finally, we spent the evening with another Rotarian for dinner - Jim and his wife Linda. There were other Rotarians present from the Ithaca club and it was a lovely evening, with great food and great company.

Eventually we moved for home, and I changed hosts again - this time with David and Mary Flinn. They live on a beautiful farm with HORSES, a Newfoundland dog named Larkin (who is a she) and various cats and geese. Their house is a treasure trove to me, horsey things to see verywhere. I finally collapsed into a delightfully comfortable bed around 11pm.

Tuesday 4th May

2010-05-06T02:23:00.001+01:00

After the late nights and early mornings of the conference weekend and the hectic vocational day yesterday, we took advantage of the break in the schedule for a lie in this morning. We then gathered at the IBM cafeteria in Endicott (the grandest cafeteria I've ever seen!) for lunch and our presentation to the Endwell Rotary Club. Rotarians from other nearby clubs joined us for the meeting and it was great that they could make it along.

Following the meeting we toured the IBM museum. IBM was founded in Endicott from the amalgamation of several companies who dealt in time recording machines and scales. The tour guides gave a great history of the development of IBM over the years. Although there is still a large IBM site in the town, there are a fraction of the number of employees working at the site compared with it's heyday and many of the buildings stand empty.

A bit of retail therapy followed and in the evening dinner was hosted by Mark and Pat Kriebel. Suffice to say both the quantity and quality of food was excellent!

Monday, May 3rd

2010-05-05T03:47:00.004+01:00

A vocational day today for the team. After breakfast with the Schafers - our present host family - Helen, James and myself were picked up by Jay Wilber. Jay is the Public Defender for Broom County, and while Helen and James disappeared to varying vocational visits, Jay showed me around the office and explained how the PD system works. Essentially the office of the Public Defender is paid by the County to represent defendants in criminal cases. It's the flipside to the Crown Prosecution Service, and something we could do with adopting back home.

Jay in his office.

After discussing law for a while, we picked up Helen and headed to a re-entry meeting at the Council of Churches. The meeting involved a number of organisations attempting to deliver a coherent and worthwhile service to people who've been paroled from prison. It was reassuring to see that we're working towards the same goals on both sides of the pond, although clearly there are no easy answers and it was surprising to see the same problems that I face on a daily basis also occurring over here.

After a quick lunch at Tulley's sports bar, we headed to Broom County Jail. Our thanks to Lt. Guinan who took us around the facility, and answered our endless questions with good humour and patience. We'd also like to thank all of the officers we met during the day. After the tour we had the opportunity to speak to Sheriff David Harder, and compared law and policing policy back home. Despite the differences in our two systems, it's clear that everyone we met was dedicated about their work, and there's a lot of common ground between us.

We finished the night at the Kampai Japanese Steak House. If you're ever in New York State I'd recommend a visit. The chef prepared our meal in front of us on a hibachi grill. We even attempted to catch shrimp that he launched into the air, and with an amazing display of talent I managed to bounce a shrimp squarely off my forehead. The owner of the Kampai, Rotarian Richard Matsushima, then presented us with a photo of the group which he then dedicated in Japanese.

After the meal we popped out with Jay to see the nightlife of Endwell, before heading back home to finish the night watching baseball (have I said that I've become addicted to this? I have).

Our thanks again to Jay Wilber, who was a fantastic guide and kept us entertained throughout the day. Listening to his discussion with Helen about trial procedures and the rule of law was fantastic, and a definite highlight of the trip for me.

District Conference 7170

2010-05-03T01:23:00.007+01:00

Saturday 1st May:

Today began with an excellent speaker, Deepa Willingham from PACE Universal. PACE stands for Promise of Assurance to Children Everywhere and the organisation has two missions;

*to nurture the education, health, nutritional, social and cultural development of girls in impoverished areas of India and other parts of the world.
*To build in Piyal Junction (outside Calcutta) the first prototype PACE learning centre complex to serve as a model of delivery of these services all over the world.

Deepa gave a very detailed and thought provoking presentation about the reasons behind the above missions and the further work that needed to be done to make them a reality. Her heavy involvement and blatant enthusiasm made both Rotarians and others think that they have more to do in helping others. The bar can always be raised when it comes to service above self.

Following this both the District 7170 GSE Team of 2009 and our team gave presentations.

It was interesting to see the perceptions that the American team had of the UK (high petrol prices, terraced housing and wonderful people) and to learn what they had discovered on their trip. Their presentation was excellent, although it was noted that they had sneakily used some similar pictures that we had in our presentation (however I did note that none of these were of Teesside!!). It was great to see them all again and we had a great catch up.

Our presentation went well and once we had got through the pre-presentation butterflies we were fine. We were glad with the reception that we received of our short picture slide show at the end, a lot of time and effort had been put in.

Following this there were four students taking part in the Four Way Test Oratorical Finals. All made excellent points on a variety of subjects and spoke with confidence and enthusiasm. If it were up to me, they would have all won.

They were followed by another excellent speaker, Eleanor Polley, the President of the Cortland High School Interact Club. She illuminated the massive amount of activities they take part in and organisations that they liaise with. Their excellent membership numbers proved that it is organisation that many people deem worth taking part in.

After lunch we had a relaxing afternoon, enjoying the sunshine and the facilities at the hotel.

We have reconvened at six o'clock for the next plenary session and dinner. During this we have had a motivational speech from the Rotary International Representative, Abe Clymer.

This was followed by the Candle Light Ceremony involving the District 7170 Youth Exchange Students. This was a very moving ceremony and gave a magical feel to the end of the evening.

We have then all trooped to the hotel bar to catch up further and for James and Chad to embarrass themselves with some awful dad-dancing. Spot the Oneonta Rotary Club President!!

Sunday 2nd May:

Today began with our last plenary session. We heard further excellent speeches from the District Governor Elect Orville Wright and the RI Represntative Abe Clymer and then the conference was rounded off by District Governor Sam Koury. I can speak for all of our GSE team when I say that we have had a brilliant time this weekend. Speaking with friends made on this trip (both old and new) was great and we definitely intend to keep in touch with those we have met on our trip.

After the conference has finished, we have all packed up and set off to our new homes with our new hosts.

Myself and Barbara are staying with Mark and Pat Kriebel in Endwell, who have already made us feel completely at home. When we got to our new address we sorted out our cases (mine had had a nervous breakdown when packing up at conference-the zip had broken and refused to open. I used my problem solving skills (i.e brute force) to remedy the situation.

Mark and Pat have then taken us on a tour of their local area which was great for us as it familiarises us with the locality and as they were a mine of information, will make me look extremely knowledgeable tomorrow on my vocational day.

We have then returned home for tea-it was absolutely delicious. Mark cooked for us and introduced us to a local cuisine called Speidi's (pronounced Speedy's). They are marinaded meat on a kebab, they are then transferred to a sandwich. I have not done them justice at all in this description, as they were very very tasty but you can see Barbara enjoying one below.

Friday 30th April - Owego and Conference

2010-05-01T21:57:00.013+01:00

Friday was slightly bittersweet as we moved on once again from our host families. I was alone with Linda, one of my hosts, who took me to Owego Elementary School, where we were greeted by their librarian, Denise. I was able to sit in on two literacy classes, both of which were fantastic, and asked the teachers a lot of questions. The literacy work in the school was really great and used a mixture of team and individual learning methods - really supportive and creative atmosphere. Then I went back to the library. Due to renovations at the school, the library is temporarily half its usual size, with a Kindergarten class in the other half of the room. Despire this, Denise and her aide had come up with a super system that still enabled the kids to access the books. I watched the tail end of one library class and most of another - I took back some great ideas, and shared a few with Denise, too.
Following this, Linda took me to her library at a privately-funded Catholic elementary school. It was a lovely small school, the library was so light and roomy, and the children were delightful (one of them asked me if I sailed over on the Mayflower!)

During this time, Helen and Tom went to the probation office, where they met Brian Cane. He gave a very realistic overview of the way his department fits into the criminal justice system. They were surprised to learn that over here, someone on probation may not have any alcohol or weapons in the house, and spot checks are carried out on this. They then went to Tioga County Sherriff's Office and County Jail where they were shown around by Lieutenant David Monell, holding 105 prisoners which is small compared to some of our local jails.

Following a super lunch at Carolyn's house, we all went to see the District Attorney, Gerald Keene. Gerald is responsible for Tioga County and is elected on a 4 year term. This totally contrasts to the UK, where a prosecutor cannot be elected and is appointed on work merit. It was really interesting to learn about a vocation so different from my own, and the others asked some thought-provoking questions.

From here, we had a precious half hour of spare time. Since the weather was so great, we wandered around the shops and sat by the river. Beautiful.

Then back to Carolyn's, and we made 2 trips with luggage to the Owego Treadway inn, the venue for this year's District Conference. We ended up on a corridor with the other GSE team, which was really great. As it was so hot, we had a quick Team Conference on our patio...

Then off to attend the Conference's official opening ceremony, including a flag parade with the Youth Exchange students. Tom very kindly volunteered to carry the Union Jack for us, and the rest of us followed behind. The evening featured some really great speakers, especially David Salai, who cycled from NY state to California for Polio eradication. We had some delicious Lebanese cuisine, (I was thrilled with the Kalamata olives particularly!) and then watched a local bellydancing troupe.

After the proceedings were formally broken up for the night, we socialised with some of the Rotarians from our trip so far, especially Chad Smith and the 7170 GSE team (really super to see them again) as you can see below.

After that we girls crashed out in bed, sometime before midnight... the boys put us to shame by staying up, however. What a busy day!

Thursday 29th April

2010-04-30T03:04:00.000+01:00

Today was a long and busy day. Our first stop was at 7.30am when we attended the breakfast meeting of the Owego Rotary Club. After briefly introducing ourselves we discussed many different topics with those at the meeting.

From there we headed to Corning and to the Rockwell Museum for Western Art. This is housed in the former City Hall and displays items collected by local businessman Bob Rockwell, which he donated to the museum. We were given a tour of the many paintings, photographs and other artefacts.

We had lunch at Old World Cafe in the centre of Corning. As ever the food was delicious and plentiful!

We then visited the Corning Museum of Glass. This is the largest glass museum in the world and we were treated to a whistle-stop tour of the exhibits. Helen and Caroline then took part in sand-blasting to create their own patterns on glass - as you can see sticking the stencils on the glass is dangerous business and safety goggles are needed!

In the evening we each spent time with our host families. Carol, who is hosting me and Tom, invited several friends and neighbours round, including someone from Australia who went on a GSE to America about 25 years ago and subsequently moved to the States. We took advantage of the great weather to have a barbecue - thanks must go to John who was chief barbecuer adn cooked the steaks to everyone's individual preference.

Wednesday, April 28th

2010-04-29T22:27:00.003+01:00

After breakfast with our hosts, the team made the trip over to the Best Buy dispatch centre in Nichols. The centre is responsible for dispatching items to stores across the North East of the US. We were amazed by the size of the building (over 750,000 square feet, with miles of conveyor belts and shelving). We were given a truly fascinating tour and would like to extend our thanks to Susan Pedersen, who gave us a brief history of the warehouse and her role as Loss Prevention Manager, and all of the staff who we met during the morning. Thanks to Arnie Youngblood from Best Buy who forwarded us photos of the trip (they won't upload for the moment, I'm investigating).

For lunch we attended a review of "Three Cups of Tea" and "Stones into Schools" by Greg Mortenson, which took place at the Coburn Library in Owego. The review was carried out by Linda Brisson. Greg was a rock climber who has established the Central Asia Institute. CAI is an organisation promoting education and literacy in outlying areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. We were all impressed, so much so that Barbara's planning a trip to a bookshop to pick them both up.

After the review we separated off - Caroline travelled to Owego Middle School (and I'm going to add more on this later) - while the rest of the team headed to Wagner Lumber. Wagner are the largest manufacturer of hardwood in the North East United States, and the speed with which they transform logs into lumber is incredible. We were all surprised that the drying process can take so long. I was a little nervous at seeing 6ft bandsaws whizzing merrily through gigantic wood, but we were protected (and looked very fetching) in our hardhats and safety goggles. Thanks to everyone for arranging this for us - it was a fascinating tour.

We finished the day with dinner at Carolyn and Orville Wright's home (Barbara's host family for our stay in Owego). We were joined by a number of Owego's most prominent citizens, and had a great time chatting and feasting on wonderful food. All too soon, we'd started to flag and had to say our goodbyes for the night.

Tuesday 27th April

2010-04-28T22:34:00.009+01:00

Today was our last day in Cortland before we transferred to Owego.
Jim our generous host had prepared some vocational trips for us so Barbara, Tom, James and I began our day with the pleasure of the Cortland City Fire and Rescue Department. Caroline had a vocational morning herself so headed off on her own.
The Fire and Rescue Department covers four square miles from where it is based. There are approximately seven people to a shift and they have 30 volunteer reserves who are on call and will attend from home.
Captain Carl Grantham and Fire Officer David Jensen showed us round the station and discussed the issues concerning modern emergency services. They also gave us a ride in the engine to City Hall. I was like a child in a sweet shop so a big thank you to both of them for taking the time out to be with us.
We have then called in to the 911 dispatch centre in Cortland. We were shown round and the intricacies of their job roles was explained to us.
Whilst there I discovered a T-shirt with the insignia to the left on it. I personally think it expresses feelings felt by emergency services both in the US and the UK, we share a common purpose.
The dispatch centres are slightly different to those in the UK. They deal with police, fire and rescue. Our dispatch centres tend to be individual for each emergency service i.e. the police have their own dispatch centre. This allows the UK centres to have access to more information, the police centres have access to police records and information systems and are trained to do so. In the US they can access certain systems but the police are expected to do a lot of the identity checks etc on their own in-car computers. However, the US also have an immediate overview of all the services in their district, which is only obtained in the UK through interlinking between the various centres.
Following this we have then gone to visit the Mayor of Cortland Susan Feiszli. She was very
welcoming (especially after the extensive search we had on entry to the building- I am getting a bit of a reputation for setting off every security alarm we go through at least three times before being allowed to pass) and discussed the difference in the systems in the UK and US systems of local government.

We have then headed straight to Cortland Rotary Club where we gave our presentation and exchanged banners with the club and their President Doug Larison. A very enjoyable lunchtime.

From here we have been whisked away to our next stop, Owego.
We have been welcomed by John Spencer the owner of Riverow Books. He has made Caroline's year by stocking two books which she has been trying to obtain for some time in his highly interesting shop. We have spent the first couple of hours having a well deserved coffee at the most fabulous shop, the Hand of Man and having a browse through the shops (the boys were thrilled at this).

We have then headed to Jo Ellen Rose and her husband Paul's for dinner (my new hosts). This was a fabulous reception, where the food was absolutely superb and the company was even better. Paul is a very talented musician and sung for us with guitar accompaniment (played by him).
An evening enjoyed by everyone. Thank you very much to my wonderful hosts for looking after me so well and providing such a warm welcome.

Niagara Falls!

2010-04-27T02:50:00.012+01:00

We awoke this morning at some horrible time (around 6am) in order to leave for a road trip. We ended up in 2 cars, one driven by one of our hosts, Jim Place, and another by Warren Eddy. I was in the car with Warren, whose background is also in libraries. We traded notes until we stopped for some breakfast, at the very appropriately named Barb's Diner.

After some sensibly-sized portions (I managed to eat everything!) we then met up with President-Elect Bob Ross, who took Barbara, Warren and myself in his large car. We arrived at Niagara around 11am - fab! The river really starts to gain momentum as you approach the viewing areas, it was really exciting and we took some fabulous pics, which I'll share below:

Just arrived!

On the Maid of the Mist...

Over in Canada... we all got another stamp in our passports!

Tom and I make a friend...
After wearing ourselves out walking around, and wearing down our camera batteries, we headed back to the cars and drove home. At Bob's house, Barbara and I decamped back into Warren's car, and he took us to a fab Mexican place for our evening meal. Jim's wife Christine (who did all the amazing cooking yesterday) joined us and there may have been a few margaritas consumed.

Tomorrow we have a vocational morning here in Cortland, before travelling to Owego. A big thank you from all of us to our drivers today, Warren, Jim and Bob, for taking the time to drive so far with us and explain all the sights to us.

Sunday 25th April

2010-04-26T03:33:00.000+01:00

The weather today was typical English weather - murky with lots of rain. Jim and Christine, our hosts, had only returned from Columbia at 2am that morning so after a leisurely start we had a delicious brunch prepared by Jim.

After that there was further work on Project Camel and a brief tour of the Cortland sights (by car, as it was still raining). In the evening, we had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner and were joined by Bob Ross, District Governor Elect, and his wife Shari, and Doug Larison the Cortland Rotary Club President. Here you can see Christine with the dinner before we all tucked in!

Saturday, April 24th

2010-04-25T15:39:00.002+01:00

Yesterday was our final day in Unadilla. After Polly gave us a wonderful breakfast - pancakes and bacon, eggs, muffins, and fruit - we headed into Unadilla. Polly had arranged with a local resident, Bob, to show us his house which overlooked the town. When I say house, I mean mansion. It formally belonged to his grandfather in the 1950's. Bob bought it back a few years ago and has dedicated his time into restoring it to its original condition. The house is beautiful, and the views over the valley were incredible. Thanks to Bob and his wife Nelly for giving us a tour.

We then made the trip from Unadilla over to Cortland. Thanks to Abby and Breianna, who showed us around our new home. The girls have opted to take the room with a Cockatiel and a collection of childrens game, and there's no prize for guessing who made that choice.

After a quick lunch, Steve Franco took us on a tour of the area. We stopped at Skaneateles (pronounced Skinny Atlas apparently), a beautiful town situated on Skaneateles Lake (one of the Finger Lakes). Later we headed on to the Carousel Mall for some retail therapy. We were surprisingly well behaved, which I can only put down to concerns about baggage limits on the return journey.

We finished the day with dinner at Kitty Hoynes, an Irish pub in Syracuse. The original plan had been to visit the Dinosaur BBQ, but we're weak willed and couldn't wait an hour and a half to get a table. Hoynes' was excellent though, good food and a great atmosphere. We'd like to thank Steve for giving up his Saturday to show us the sights and keep us entertained - we all appreciated it.

Friday 23rd April 2010

2010-04-24T13:32:00.008+01:00

Today we had a restful day in Unadilla. The morning began with us all having a lie in and the a gentle stroll out to appreciate the quiet village way of life.
We have had a chance to update our journals, contact family and have a general catch up morning, a rare thing on this trip.
For lunch we have joined the Unadilla Rotary Club at Panni's for some delicious food and an informative meeting where we learned about the survival of businesses in rural towns and the effects of the recession.
Fowllowing this we had a further relax at Polly's before heading to Sidney where we had a very important appointment booked with the Emerald City, or rather us girls did.
For those of you who don't know the Emerald City is a pampering salon for hair, nails and everything else you can think of.
Barbara, Caroline and I spent an enjoyable afternoon getting our nails done by Motoko Mack who managed to make all of our hands look beautiful under serious pressure. We had a time limit as we were meeting for cocktails at the Sylo restaurant at six.
As you can see from the picture below, we now have long beautiful nails. I for one am struggling a bit, the boys are having to do a lot more tasks for us as we can't do it with our long nails (or at least that's the excuse we give). It has taken me all night just to type this blog!!!

In the evening we met Mike Wilcox, Judy and David Derr, and David and Michelle Reynolds for a drink at the Silo restaurant. We all had a wonderfully delicious meal (including parts of Mike's huge ice cream sundae), lots of wine and the views over the countryside were fabulous. Thank you to them all for taking us there.

Bainbridge Rotary club etc.

2010-04-23T01:35:00.010+01:00

We were all pretty exhausted after NYC and slept soundly last night, having a rare lie-in this morning (I did not get up until 8.10AM!) We were served a lovely breakfast, featuring more of our host Polly's fab baking and scrambled eggs with cheese, and homemade bread.

We then prepared to head out to Bainbridge Rotary club. Due to a bit of a mix-up in communications, nobody came for us at 11.45. We called the club shortly after 12 and after some strings being pulled, two of the club's members commandeered an SUV - from a showroom! - and came to the rescue. The club were very welcoming once we finally arrived, and we had a quick bite to eat before our presentation. I was delighted to see kids in the audience (no school for them this week) and managed to get some participation from them in my segment - the Very Hungry Caterpillar is a well travelled creature! We'd all like to thank the club for such a warm welcome and for staying later than usual to allow us to present.

Our vocational afternoon had been rearranged, so we next went to an animal feed production facility, which produced pellet feeds for dairy cattle, horses, birds, goats, poultry and, of course, bunnies. We took a quick tour of the premises and watched the machinery producing pellets, and had a bit of a laugh at Helen's expense as she'd chosen to wear her skirt and heels today!

From here we nipped across the road, to the garden centre/farmers' store, where we chose a plant for Polly, as today's her birthday. I was in my element because it had a goat with kids, hens and roosters, piglets, ducklings, chicks... oh and some bunnies!

We next stopped briefly at a horse farm, which I probably enjoyed the best, before heading to downtown Greene. Our first stop was at the Village Cafe and Bakery, where we ate the 4 remaining tea cakes and had teas and coffees.

Mike then collected us in his wonderful 1927 Pontiac called Betsy, and drove us to an ice cream store, where we all ate enormous ice creams.

Following this we stopped for a brief drink at The Silo, a fabulous bar/restaurant set in gorgeous rolling hills. The bar was full of character with unusual decorations, including a wall of bills (notes) behind the bar. Then we dashed off to the Olive Branch at Jericho for food - once again, I was faced with a massive sandwich. I think I need to be on half rations from now on!

Project Camel...

2010-04-22T16:14:00.002+01:00

...is underway as I type. All will be revealed in due course, keep watching the blog to find out!

New York City

2010-04-22T15:17:00.000+01:00

On Tuesday and Wednesday we visited New York City. Mike Wilcox and Tom Overbaugh picked us up first thing and we then had a four hour drive to the City (although it is the same state, it is a long way!). Rather than write lots I'll let the pictures do the talking - we must thank Mike and Tom for giving their time and expertise to allow us to visit the City.

Our first good view of New York City, on the way in the car.

Times Square - a major intersection in Manhattan but now mostly pedestrianised.

Lunch in Hard Rock Cafe

The entrance to New York Public Library - guarded by two stone lions named "Patience" and "Fortitude". The main part of the building was covered in scaffolding for restoration but Caroline managed to get inside to take a look.

Grand Central Station, the largest railway station in the world by number of platforms (44 in case you were wondering!)

St Patrick's Cathedral - started in 1858 and completed in 1878.

View of Central Park from the Rockefeller Centre. The Rockefeller was built during the Depression in the 30s, with construction finishing in 1939. This building was the setting for the famous picture of workers sitting on a steel beam having their lunch.

In the evening we went to see a Broadway show, Million Dollar Quartet. The musical charts a Tuesday night in December 1956 when Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley gathered at the Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee and had an impromptu jam session. We were all impressed by the musical skills of the cast as well as the fabulous set and lighting effects.

Dinner at the Brooklyn Diner just off Times Square. Tom thought he would have a light meal by opting for a hot dog but as you can see it turned out to be a bit more of a challenge than anticipated!

Empire State building - completed in 1931 and at the time the tallest building in the world. It's now the tallest in New York and as you can see there are fantastic views at night.

The Statue of Liberty commemorates the centennial of the signing of the US Declaration of Independence. It was given to the United States by France in 1886 and is made of pure copper. The pedastal was designed and built by the US.

Ellis Island was the nation's busiest immigration station for many years from 1892 to its closure in 1954. 12 million immigrants were processed during the years it was open.

New York Stock Exchange - located on Wall Street. It's the world's largest Stock Exchange by the value of its listed companies.

Ground Zero - reconstruction is well underway and the tower in this picture will be 1 World Trade Centre which will rise to 1362 feet, the height of the original World Trade Centre South Tower. Its antenna will rise to 1776 feet, referring to the year 1776 (see the Statue of Liberty part if you need a clue as to the significance!).

At the United Nations, which is on international territory in New York.

To finish, a few more unusual photos...

We returned to Unadilla yesterday evening, arriving back at 10.30am. We're all feeling refreshed now and ready for our next presentation at lunchtime. Once again many thanks to Mike and Tom for accompanying us and enabling us to see so much of the City in such a short period of time.

Monday, 19th April

2010-04-20T01:54:00.002+01:00

It seems like only five minutes since we arrived, but today we're moving on from Oneonta to Unadilla. Before we left we spent some time with Opportunities for Otsego, a non-profit organisation based in Oneanto. OFO are a community action agency. They receive funding from a number of sources which is then used to support a number of schemes encouraging social justice. They run everything from Headstart programmes working with families with young children, to services helping the victims of domestic violence. They're doing too much to mention here, but we'd recommend visiting their site for further information. The whole team were fascinated by their work, and we've spent a lot of the day comparing their work with the oftentimes less successful provision back home.

After OFO we made the trip over to Unadilla, and set up camp at the Roswell Wright guesthouse. We met with Jeremy Matviak, a member of the GSE team from District 7170, and had dinner at David and Judy Derr from the Rotary Club of Sidney. We spent the remainder of the afternoon at West Mead Vaco, a major manufacturer of diaries and calendars. Their facility was enormous and we were shattered by the end of the trip.

In the evening we travelled to the Rotary Club of Morris to deliver a presentation. The food was wonderful, the first time that I'd eaten pot roast and hopefully not the last. The presentation went well; it was more of a brief chat and the club were very supportive and friendly. Helen bravely struggled through her presentation despite being struck down by manflu - we've had to explain that concept to everyone we've met. On the way back Royce gave us a lift in his Cadillac, which is another item crossed off the list of things to do while we're here.

Tomorrow we travel to New York City for a whistlestop tour. We'll give a full update of what we've done when we can, but it's bound to be hectic and fun.

Sunday 18th April 2010

2010-04-19T01:04:00.006+01:00

Today we had a nice relaxing sight seeing day. We started with the Oneonta Butterfly Conservatory which is a wonderful place. It has many different types of butterfly in it (obviously) but there are also different species of bird, spider, tortoise, sloth and dragons.
It was amazing to be close enough to touch everything and the staff were very friendly and helpful.
Thank you very much to Emily and Garrett who chauffeured us to the Conservatory and put up with our tourist-like behaviour of taking constant photographs of everything.
We then went to Walmart to partake in a great American tradition. Despite there only being one entrance and exit Caroline still managed to get lost but she did eventually find her way, once Barbara had her name announced over the tannoy.
In the afternoon we went to the West Kortright Centre where we heard Dr Anthony Cicoria speak about his experience of being struck by lightening and how it had given him a talent for music. He also played three pieces of music for us on the piano at the centre and his piano playing was excellent. His talk regarding the brain and the contrasting perspectives on how it works in unusual situations was definitely thought provoking and we all enjoyed it.
Many thanks go to Garrett (again) for taking us to see Dr Cicoria and to Gary and his wife for taking the time out to spend with us.
On the evening we went to Brooks' House of Bar BQ where we were all very impressed by the portion sizes. Unfortunately I am full of cold so couldn't taste things properly but that just gives me an excuse to return there and try again when I'm better.

Another big thank you, this time to Ed and Rosalie who took us there and explained the art of eating ribs to us all. As usual, our resident human dustbin James managed to finish off any food that was left unattended for more than ten seconds.
We are now packing our things up for another move and no doubt more adventures are to come.

Oneonta visits

2010-04-17T22:03:00.007+01:00

Busy day so far, but with a nice slow start. We were collected at 10am and first went to visit a 911 call centre, which provides emergency response across Owego. It was really cool to hear about the type of calls they receive and how the staff deal with these, particularly across boundaries and where there are more than one type of response unit e.g. volunteer fire department vs state fire department. It sounded like they do a really interesting and varied job.

From here we visited the Centre for Self Expression in Oneonta, a really wonderful unit run by the Arc Otsego, which works with people who have intellectual and other disabilities to create artwork and other creative expressions. All of the work is offered for sale in the gallery - I bought 2 bunny-shaped tree decorations, no surprises there...

Spot the difference...?!

From here we stopped briefly for lunch at the Autumn Cafe - I've already been teased for posting about food so I will share with you this photo instead!

After lunch we then drove to Brewery Ommegang, back in Cooperstown for a brief tour and an ale tasting. Helen and I did end up giving most of our ale to Tom, who very admirably agreed to drink it for us.
We also stopped quickly in the little shop, where I was ecstatic to find Neuhaus chocolate, my favourite Belgian stuff.

16th April: Vocational

2010-04-17T12:47:00.005+01:00

Today I had a very busy but extremely interesting day in the City of Oneonta finding out about the local Criminal Justice System.
I spent my morning with the Chief of Police in the City of Oneonta, Joseph Redmond. I cannot thank him enough for the time he spent explaining the various divisions within the State of the police and how these divisions affected his every day working life. I think it took about two hours for it to finally sink in, he has the patience of a saint. Also officer Cortright spent time showing me the area and giving me the female perspective of a police officer. Congratulations to her, she is due to have a baby in October.
I have then gone with Tom to speak with city Judge Lucy Bernier. We managed to establish that she was a City Judge, who had jurisdiction in the County and was employed by the State. All highly complex and it made me appreciate the almost relevant simplicity of our court systems back home.
She also found it interesting that British Police could arrest on suspicion only, American police officers need to have significantly more evidence. A fact that I have not fully appreciated previously and obviously helps us with our investigations.
In the afternoon we went to speak with officers at the SUNY (State University of New York) police department and training academy based at Oneonta college.
This is an alien concept to me, as our universities have campus security if anything and definitely do not have an armed team of staff. The officers take out a hand gun and a long gun (shotgun or rifle). They could not understand how officers like myself were not armed and then may be sent to incidents that have a mention of firearms. This did bring to my attention officer safety, a thing that is paramount in Britain but sometimes the protocols that we have are not always the best for ensuring it.Thank you very much to Tim and John for showing us round.
Following this we attended the sports centre of the Red Dragons on the campus. The facilities here were amazing and there is a definite positive attitude here regarding exercise, fitness and well being. We spoke with director Tracy Ranieri and some students regarding the intertwining of fitness and a successful and progressive career. It was really nice meeting them all, hearing their views and their concerns. I hope I managed to explain how fitness had helped me and explain the British lifestyle without rambling and confusing them too much.
A wonderfully interesting day.

April 16th - First Vocational Day

2010-04-17T04:40:00.003+01:00

As the team's mentioned, today has been a vocational day. We all started off at Oneonta City Hall, before dividing off. James, Barbara, Caroline and myself stayed at City Hall. Helen and I then got to meet Judge Lucy Bernier of Oneonta City Court. In the afternoon we were honoured to visit the University Police Department of Oneonta College. Our thanks to everyone involved - the vocational visits have been incredibly rewarding, not only in helping me to consider the work that I do at present, but in seeing how similar issues are approached over here.
Today's highlights were:

getting a better understanding of the link between national, federal and local government in the U.S, as well as the way that the three relate.
meeting with Judge Lucy Bernier, who patiently answered my questions about the legal system over here, on everything from grand juries to family court proceedings.
the staff of the University Police Department, and especially Tim and John who gave us a tour of their exceptional facility. I have no doubt that Helen will have more to say on this - suffice it to say that they were incredibly welcoming. Although the differences between the daily operation of our police forces seem small (to an outsider at least), we had an entertaining discussion of the differences and the best way to provide a high quality service to the public.

I'd also like to give a belated, but important mention to Charlotte McKane. I met Charlotte at the Oneonta Rotary Club meeting on Thursday. She has established her own charity, Charlotte's Circle, which raises funds for a number of organisations in the Oneanto area, specifically highlighting those areas that have been overlooked by government agencies. Contributors are then presented with breakdowns of how funds raised by the organisation are spent. She's also actively involved in challenging decisions made by her school board (did I mention that she's still in high school? And passionate, opinionated, and able to argue persuasively about the work that she does? As an occasionally cynical person, Charlotte did a lot to restore my faith in humanity. Thank you).

Vocational day - Oneonta

2010-04-17T03:41:00.003+01:00

So after the last essay I wrote, I'll try to keep this brief. Today I visited;

a literacy co-ordinator (former teacher) who helped to draft and work through the literacy programmes for all of the local elementary schools. Very interesting process!
in the same place - an ESL/adult learning facility, which helps adult learners without high school diplomas to increase reading and maths skills, to achieve an equivalent qualification. I met one of the ESL groups and talked with them, which was great as we have very similar groups at work;

one of the librarians at the state University library here in Oneonta, which was really different to my day-to-day job but really cool. They had electronic stacks!

and finally

Huntington public library!! This was the closest to my daily job, so I could really talk details with the librarians who showed me around. The library used to be a house and the building had such a warm, cosy feel, full of nooks and crannies. The main librarian was passionate about YA (teenage) novels, so we talked about those a good deal and then she gave me the main tour. Then she passed me over to the children's librarian, which was really cool as we appear to (broadly) have the same job. The main differences that really interested me were the funding, and the "Friends of the Library" scheme over here, plus the fact that they do all of their own cataloguing and processing - our stock arrives more or less ready to go on the shelves.

I was very envious of their beautiful children's library in particular, of course!

I had a wonderful day all round and am very grateful to everyone who took the time to show me around their workplaces, and especially to Rosalie who was my wonderful host/guide for the day.

US local government

2010-04-17T03:00:00.000+01:00

As I mentioned in the previous post, we'll each be posting about our vocational time. We've actually had two sessions so far, the first in Cooperstown on Wednesday afternoon, and all day today in Oneonta. I've learnt an incredible amount so far about how things run in the US and here are some of the key things:

'Localness' - it seems so much more local than in the UK. Cooperstown (population 2,500) has its own Village 'Board' which looks after the roads, parks and water/sewage plants. Oneonta (population 20,000 of which 10,000 are students) has its own City Council which again provides similar services.
Freedom - the local authorities seem to have much more power to do what they like. For example Oneonta is revising its City Charter and part of that includes looking at the boundaries of wards within the city and whether they should be changed - something that is the role of a central government body in the UK. Likewise in Cooperstown I attended a Planning Board meeting and they were revising some of the planning rules - again most of which are defined centrally in the UK.
Duplication/efficiency - with the 'localness', there does seem to be more duplication. Cooperstown has its own Police Department of 7 officers (in addition to the County service). There is a Schools Board which runs the schools and in Oneonta the City has a vehicle maintenance depot just 100m down the road from the vehicle maintenance depot for the Schools Board! And does every village and town need to have its own water and sewage plants?
Local involvement and accountability - every Village and City has an elected mayor who is well known within the community. In Cooperstown the residents vote annually on the budget for the town (all residents vote on the schools budget), and in Cooperstown the Planning Board is made up of local residents appointed by the Mayor.
Finances - perhaps the most surprising of all, most local authorities don't plan more than a year in advance. Oneonta has a $18m budget, of which $3m comes from the state and $3m from their share of Sales Tax. Despite the fact we've started the new financial year, they don't know how much they will get from the state (and probably won't until mid-June), and they receive their share of Sales Tax every month but two months in arrears.

Friday 16th April - vocational day

2010-04-17T02:43:00.000+01:00

Today has been a long but interesting and productive day. We were all in and around the city of Oneonta on various visits relating to our vocations. Each team member will be writing about what they've done and learnt, and many thanks go to Paul Patterson who organised the many different aspects of the day.

We had a full day of visits, from 9am to 5pm with 45 minutes for lunch in a local restaurant. We then headed straight off into the countryside to a reception with three rural Rotary clubs. We did our presentation (without Powerpoint!) then headed back in the first rain we've had since arriving in the US. We're now relaxing with a well-earned beer back at our host's home on the outskirts of the city.

Moving on...

2010-04-16T12:49:00.003+01:00

So much has happened in the past day or so!

Yesterday morning (which feels like about a week ago!) was our last day in Cooperstown. I think I can uniquely claim that I was served breakfast by Santa Claus - Paul, one of my hosts there, is the town's Santa every year and has the beard to prove it. He is also an excellent cook - I was served duck eggs with an English muffin, some very tasty ham from the local Farmers' Museum where Paul and his wife work during the rest of the year, as well as some Bonne Maman wild berry jam - very impressed that my fave jam has made it this far across the water. ;) Paul and Mary also surprised me by showing me their tea supply, I was amazed with some of the flavo(u)rs they had, and I was served my tea in a really pretty china mug and saucer. (Normally I just drink out of a mug so I felt very spoiled.)

Following breakfast, my teammates joined me and Paul gave us one of his walking tours of the town, complete with replica clothing from around the 1850s and a superbly knobbly stick - very Discworld! - which was made from a rhododendron. We were all really fascinated by the unique history of Cooperstown, and took enough photos to prove it! Paul showed us all the sights and explained about the large fire which destroyed much of the main street's buildings around a hundred years ago, and pointed out the one remaining building - a stone property which is now a gentleman's club. (Wonder what Barbara would say about that!) At the end of the tour Paul gave us each a very limited edition baseball card of Santa Claus, complete with fun facts on the back. It was a really sweet and very appropriate gift, and mine will live in my purse (wallet, not handbag) for a long time.

Following the tour we headed back to be collected, with luggage, and taken on to the next stop. It was really bittersweet to leave Cooperstown, where we have all been treated with such hospitality and warmth from the folks in town. I was especially sad to leave Paul and Mary's house - they truly welcomed me right into their home and their family. I really couldn't have asked for a nicer place to stay (and their kitty was so cute!)

We made the drive to Oneonta in two cars; Barbara and James with Ann, the area co-ordinator, and the rest of us with Bill, who'd previously picked us up from the airport on Monday. We were MUCH more alert this time, and pretty soon we found The Elk club (complete with model elk out at the front!) where the Oneonta club meets on a Thursday lunchtime.

Inside we were welcomed by District Governor Sam Koury and one or two members of the club. We distributed our bookmarks before the majority of members arrived, and lunch was served shortly after - a lovely buffet of cold meats and cheeses, breads, the biggest bowl of salad I've ever seen, plus a hot pasta dish. Dessert was a new one to me - peach cobbler with ice cream - delicious!

We sat down to eat at different tables and mingled with Rotarians, who all seemed really interested in who were were and where we're from. After a speedy meeting, we began to set up for the presentation. The computer was not very cooperative and we began to think we'd be presenting without slides, but at the last minute James and Barbara managed to wrestle the computer into submission and we were set. I actually felt a lot less nervous with the presentation, and I thought that we all seemed much more at ease (possibly the dimmed lights helped!) The Oneonta Rotarians were so gracious and interested in what we had to say, and we received some lovely feedback.

After the meeting it was time for a bus tour. Our driver, Paul, has been driving buses since he was at college, and gave us a super trip all around the sights of town - we saw the railroad tracks, a war memorial that's almost complete, the town's college (university) campuses, the airport and even the sewage works! We also took in the Soccer Hall of Fame, where we had a quick photo opportunity, and then moved on.

Last stop was at the Medical Coaches facility, which was stunning in the size and scale of the coaches made there. Another Rotarian from the lunch club, Chad, gave us a short presentation about the company before giving us a tour of the workshop floor. The coaches were utterly enormous, and made to such high standards. Despite the name the company produces any kind of coach imaginable, including veterinarian facilities, dental coaches, even TV coaches. Our thanks to Chad for the excellent tour and also for the website tip - we'll be using that software for our presentation this September! (He'll know what I mean...)

After such a packed schedule, we finally came home for some rest. We're all staying with a non-Rotarian called John, who has been wonderful and allowed us to basically take over his home (I'm typing from his PC now.) We all changed very quickly into casual gear, shared a quick drink, and hit the road again. After following DG Sam and getting slightly lost twice(!) we visited Wendy's sister's place out in the woods which has a lawn of daffodils, a koi carp filled pond, and deer roaming the woods. (Wendy has looked after our schedule here in Oneonta, and is my heroine for the bottle of water she gave me on Monday!)

From there we went back to Wendy's place, where she and her husband Willis had put on a beautiful dinner for us all - gorgeous beef. There was a great deal of teasing and banter, doled out fairly evenly, and we all had a superb and very relaxed evening. Huge thanks to Wendy and her family for such a wonderful evening.

2010-04-15T02:40:00.004+01:00

Here is an additional photograph from a gentleman called Tom Grace that I met at the Cooperstown Police Station. He was kind enough to take a photograph of us all for me. Many thanks.

This is myself and the Cooperstown Police Department.

Since my last entry I have been for what I have been informed is actually 'dinner' not tea at the Gates' house. We all had a lovely evening, putting the world to rights, the food was fabulous and the company was even better.

The desserts (especially the cookies) were out of this world. My waistline is expanding at a worryingly increasing rate and I haven't even been here a week.

Thankyou to Jim and Vicki for inviting us round. It was much appreciated and very enjoyable.

Wednesday 14th April

2010-04-14T22:24:00.006+01:00

Today I began my day along with James going for a swim at the Sports Centre. Very invigorating and I was definitely impressed by the facilities available there.
Following that we headed for breakfast at the Doubleday Cafe where we all consumed copious amounts of delicious food, especially James who consumed half of Caroline's too!
We then headed with Lyn Edinger to the Fenimore Art Museum and to the Farmers' Museum.
These were absolutely fabulous, the interior of the Art Museum was beyond impressive and would be a wonderful venue for any event. The displays there were also highly interesting, the native art one being a favourite of mine.
After the museum we headed to the Tunnicliff Inn was lunch with ex mayor Carol Waller. She was a wonderful warm person, welcomed us to the town and outlined the inner workings of Cooperstown. The meal was also beautiful (thankyou very much to the staff for looking after us so well)
We have then split up to go for our vocational visits.I have headed to the Cooperstown Police Department where Diana Nicols-Di Lorenzo the Cooperstown Police Chief (and also my wonderful host) has shown me the ropes and introduced me to her team. Everyone was very welcoming and I found it particularly interesting how the police could not be stopped for speeding here. An excellent point that I think I will mention to my colleagues back home.
We are now about to head to Jim and Vicki Gates house for tea. Before I leave I would like to say a big thankyou to Diana and Mark for looking after me. They have a wonderful family and I have felt like a part of it from the start. Thanks again.
Anyway I will leave you all now but be prepared for more updates about this beautiful place.

13th April - Our First Day

2010-04-14T13:28:00.003+01:00

After waking at the White House Inn and being given a fantastic breakfast - we've all developed a love for waffles with bacon and maple syrup - we headed out into beautiful Cooperstown. After a brief exploration we returned to the Inn and were delivered to our first presentation, for the Rotary Club of Cooperstown at the Otesaga Hotel.

The presentation seemed to go well, although there were some inevitable first day nerves. The Rotarian's were incredibly supportive, and congratulated us at the end. All of the team have been presented with miniature baseball bats, and we've been warned that Barbara will use hers to calm down any misbehaving team members.

After the meeting we met our host families and spent the remainder of the day with them - Caroline, Helen and Barbara made a brief diversion to do some shopping first. I'd like to give a special mention to my hosts, Richard and Anne Blabey, who have been incredibly welcoming. Richard has told me about the fascinating history of Cooperstown, and the role played by the Clark Foundation (go read up on it, it's an interesting subject).

As James mentioned, we finished the day with Tim Hayes and his wonderful family. Apart from the team we were joined by Tom Lieber, Jim Atwell and Anne Geddes-Atwell. Caroline had a chance to demonstrate her professional skills by entertaining Tim's children, and we spent the night chatting and joking, with the occasional song thrown in for good measure. By the end we were all flagging a little (jet-lag caught up with us at last), so we headed back to our host families.
We're off now to visit the Farm Museum and the Fenimore Museum, and from there to our first vocational trips. There'll be more on that later.

A very long day

2010-04-13T21:20:00.003+01:00

Yesterday we travelled from home, finishing the day at Cooperstown, our host for the first few days.

It was an early start, meeting at Newcastle Airport at 7am. After checking in our luggage there was time for a quick photo and coffee before saying our goodbyes. The photo below shows us with District Governor Tony Fairley and GSE Coordinator Dave Sadler.

We were then on our way to Heathrow, and after circling a couple of times waiting for a landing slot, arrived more or less on time and caught our connection to Washington Dulles without any problems. Washington is where the stress was! After leaving the flight and following the sign for connections, we had the hurdle of US Immigration. We joined the back of a queue of 500 people, which were being processed by 8 Immigration officials (of the 11 desks for non-US citizens, 3 were closed!). After a wait of more than 2 hours, we managed to catch our connection to Binghamton with minutes to spare - many more in the queue missed their onward connections.

The plane to Binghamton was a bit of contrast to the previous one - it was propellor-driven and had about 35 seats in total! I suppose it just goes to show how spread out the population is, if there are so few customers for an hour-long flight! There were some good views out of the plane on the way and that reinforced how spread out things are - every 2 or 3 fields there was a house and in many places there were developments with each house set back from the road at the end of a very long drive and surrounded by acres of space. All a bit different to the UK where policy means that houses are packed in.

We arrived on time at Binghamton and were greeted by the arriving party. This included the District Governor and also Terry and Amy from the team that visited the North East last autumn. By this point we were all quite hungry so had our first meal on American soil in "The Spot", a local diner. Apparently diners have fallen out of fashion in America and are becoming increasingly rare, but we had a fine meal at The Spot. As a guide to the portion sizes you can see Helen halfway through her salad... none of us had enough room for any of the puddings which looked delicious but were similarly massive.

Feeling a bit fuller, we headed to Cooperstown, a drive of about an hour and a half arriving at about 11pm - which is of course 4am UK time. By that time we were all nearly asleep on our feet and turned straight in for some much needed sleep.

Today has been busy but relaxing... we're heading out for dinner with Tim (another member of the team which was in the North East last year) in an hour or so, but I think that Tom will be updating the blog on what we got up to today.

Packed and ready for the off.

2010-04-11T13:07:00.004+01:00

My first entry onto the blog is as we are all doing the last minute bits and pieces that everyone needs to do when getting ready to leave on a long trip away from home.
As Team Leader I feel very privileged to lead such a great Team of young professionals, I know are going to be a credit to our Rotary District (1030) and wonderful ambassadors for the North East of England.Preparation has been long and thorough, we have done our best to ensure that we give a good representation of the area in which we live and work.
Our thanks go to The Rotary Foundation, District Officers and Members, families and friends for the help and support we have received over the past months whilst preparing for our trip with special thanks to District Governor Tony Fairley and GSE Co-ordinator David Sadler.
I know we are going to experience warmth and hospitality when we arrive in District 7170 and we are especially looking forward to meeting up with members of their GSE team who were with us last year.
Please keep a regular eye on our blog, the team will endeavour to keep the blog up to date but it is only one of the many tasks facing the team when we are away. Barbara Broadbelt Team Leader

Durham Trinity School

2010-03-31T16:00:00.001+01:00

Today Barbara, Caroline and I went to Durham Trinity School to collect some pictures that children at the school had drawn especially for us and our trip to New York.
I for one (and I know that Barbara and Caroline feel the same) will be proud to take them with us, as they are absolutely wonderful. They cover allsorts of Anglo-American icons from London buses to American high rise flats and the Statue of Liberty. There are definitely some budding artists at Trinity!
As well as receiving the pictures, we also got to sit in the assembly and watch the children receive their awards that they had earned with their work during the year - definitely well deserved by the sounds of things.
Unfortunately, we were too late to buy any of the raffle tickets that may have let us win one of those delicious looking Easter eggs.
To give you a bit of background on the school, Durham Trinity is a school that caters for pupils of all abilities between 2 and 19 years old from the Durham region. It is for children who have a range of disabilities.

Ann Southern (Deputy Head Teacher and Rotarian) is a Comenius Ambassador sponsored by the British Council and she generates a lot of international work within Trinity itself. Therefore as a school, it is no stranger to travel or integration of cultures, an invaluable asset as we are about to find out.

There is an Interact Club that is run by Durham Elvet Rotary Club at Trinity and Barbara plays a part in this, hence our group link to the school.

Finally, I would like to thank Ann for inviting us to Trinity to share in their assembly and also a big thank you to the children who created the pictures for us. We will let you know on our return how the trip has gone and who was lucky enough to receive the pictures.

District Council

2010-03-24T23:23:00.000Z

This evening was time to present at District Council - our last practice presentation before we head to the States, and the first time we've done the shorter version of our presentation.

As I gathered during the course of the evening, District Council is a quarterly meeting and Rotarians from all Clubs in the District are able to attend. It's a mix of updates from District officers and committees, but also voting on resolutions - and the debate that goes on before the vote! As a result it was quite a long agenda so we were in no doubt that we would have to stick to our shorter presentation when we got our opportunity in the middle of the meeting.

Fortunately there were no technical glitches this time round and there was no food to interrupt us! We were missing Helen today, who was at work, but Barbara did a sterling job of standing in for her. I think it went pretty well and I hope that those in the audience who've seen our earlier presentations would agree that it's come on leaps and bounds since our very first run, just over a month ago.

There were many faces in the audience that we recognised from previous presentations and it was a chance to catch up and say our farewells before we fly out in two and a half weeks time. Saying those farewells definitely made the exchange feel a lot more real - and it will probably be even more so after our last team meeting next week.

RC of Longbenton with Killingworth

2010-03-09T22:58:00.000Z

This evening, we made the journey up north to visit our District Governor's club, Longbenton with Killingworth. Barbara drove herself and Tom, and picked me up on the way; the traffic was unexpectedly light and we got there nice and early. We met some of the club's Rotarians, and just after we made it to the bar, Helen arrived with Dave Sadler (previous GSE team leader and our GSE coordinator.)

Sadly, this time we had to meet without James, who was busy with the sets and lighting for his amateur dramatics society - in his absence, Barbara delivered his portion of the presentation instead.

The evening proceeded very quickly and without fuss - the club was a really lively and entertaining one, though poor Barbara was on the reciving end of numerous pieces of banter (which I am far too polite to repeat here!) We had a lovely 2-course meal - sorry James, you'd have really enjoyed it! - and after some brief business, including the re-induction of a former member, there was a short break for us to set up our equipment.

The presentation itself is definitely getting easier for us and flowing much more smoothly. I think we all remembered to introduce the next person this time, and we're gradually slowing down our delivery. For me, the speed was something I really focused on this evening, and I feel as though my presentation was clearer because of it.

After the obligatory feedback (which was, as always, extremely helpful) instead of a raffle, the club played a quick game that involved flipping two coins. All the players had to stand up and guess the coins' results, by putting their hands on either their heads, their 'tails' (i.e bums!), or a mixture of the two. The president then flipped the coins and called out the result. The people whose hands were in the same position as the coins (e.g. 2 tails; 2 hands on bums) got to play a second round - the rest of us had to sit down. The lady who won the second round was the overall winner, by being the only person who correctly predicted two heads. She won a fab box of chocolates which she passed around the club. (By the way, this is a super game and I will definitely be stealing the idea to use with my children's reading group!)

All in all it was a really fun evening. We'd all like to say a big thank you to the president, Michael Coulthard, and all the other members of Longbenton with Killingworth for being such good hosts, and for providing us with some more useful feedback.

Rotary Club of Barnard Castle - 2nd March 2010

2010-03-04T22:27:00.002Z

Less than six weeks to go until we arrive in New York State, and Tuesday night saw the fourth run through of our presentation. The other members of the team made the journey over to the Rotary Club of Barnard Castle, despite the snow that had surprised us that morning.

Our thanks go to President Gerald Blake, and all the Rotarians who made us feel so welcome. I'd personally like to thank everyone at the Club as they are sponsoring me on this trip, and it was great to see so many familiar and friendly faces.

The presentation itself went smoothly with no technical problems. James and Barbara are quickly becoming experts at dealing with laptops and projectors, which bodes well. As a team we're growing in confidence each time. A number of people have made the point that we're not coming across as individuals giving separate talks, but as a team delivering one cohesive presentation. It's reassuring to hear that.

Yet again we got a lot of constructive feedback from the club, and more fantastic stories that I'd love to be able to incorporate. Maybe we could do an hour long presentation?

Next week sees us making the journey to the Rotary Club of Longbenton with Killingworth for another practice. Here's hoping it goes as well as the others.

Saltburn Rotary Club-Wednesday 24th February 2010

2010-02-26T17:33:00.003Z

Our third try at our presentation was at my sponsoring Rotary club of Saltburn by the Sea on Wednesday night (24th Feb).

I'm sure we would all like to thank President Bob Storey for inviting us and providing us with such a beautiful meal. Also District Governor Tony Fairley and his wife Cynthia were there to see us and their presence was much appreciated.

The presentation for myself went surprisingly smoothly, I managed to get all of my words out and the computer actually worked which was a nice surprise. I am gradually becoming more confident with speaking in front of everyone and the helpful hints we are given by Rotarians regarding the best way to put ourselves across are invaluable. Unfortunately mine was the only part of the presentation that I saw as I had to rush away to do a night shift but I have been reliably informed that it went well and will no doubt be even better when Tom manages to dig himself out of the snow in Barnard Castle to give his part again.

It was wonderful for me to see the club members again and I would like to thank them for sponsoring me and providing me with this fabulous opportunity which is coming increasingly near. Also a special thanks to Dave Sadler (the birthday boy) who has taken me under his wing and was the person who introduced me to Rotary and GSE.

This practice of our presentations will help us come across as a professional and efficient team when in the United States and I for one am grateful for the clubs who are willing to see us and give us constructive advice so that we can improve and be the best possible.

Trials and Tribulations

2010-02-20T09:41:00.001Z

Following our presentation for family & friends on Tuesday, on Thursday night we were hosted by our first Rotary club, Durham Elvet. Durham club also attended, and after a good deal of meeting and greeting, we all ventured upstairs to begin the night's proceedings.

The presentation was our second one ever... and beset with problems. The laptop kept crashing, which meant that both Helen and Tom had to deliver their presentations largely without any slides. (They both coped admirably, particularly Helen who was first up!) By the time it was my turn, I was so nervous about the IT issues I forgot parts of what I wanted to say, and finally, during the first half of James' presentation the food arrived!

It was definitely a learning curve for us but we ploughed on through, and I think we're happy that it first happened now and not, say, at the District Conference! We had already been planning to come up with a slide-less version anyway - we just weren't expecting to have to come up with it quite so spontaneously.

Thankfully, the Durham clubs were super-supportive of us, which was really great, and also offered us some very useful and constructive feedback. We're definitely going to incorporate their advice into our presentation before we leave.

Personally, I'd also like to say thanks to Jim Greensmith for sending me some much better pictures of Durham cathedral, which I'll be adding into my own portion of the presentation.

Family and friends

2010-02-16T22:30:00.001Z

This evening was special for two reasons. First, it was the opportunity for us to meet the families of the other team members (and of course for our families to meet the team). Second, it was the first time we did our presentation. I think the presentation went well for a first run, though we each came away with things we'd like to improve on. Not long to make changes though - our next presentation is just two days away on Thursday evening.

As well as our families, there were also several Rotarians present, who gave us some useful feedback after the presentation. Thanks go to all for their suggestions and advice, but especially Past District Governor Syd Howarth who also stayed behind at the end to take photographs of us individually and as a team. He also took a photo of everyone present that evening, which you can see below.

Preparations

2010-02-07T12:01:00.002Z

Yesterday we met to fine tune our presentation - getting more urgent since the first trial run is only just over a week away. Although it was the first time we've seen each other's presentations, they all fitted together really well and I think everyone came away feeling pleased and reassured!

The next time we meet will be our first trial run presentation as a team, in front of friends and family. We've then got several other dates scheduled at Rotary Clubs so we can fine tune it before we head out to the States.

District Conference

2009-10-03T17:00:00.003+01:00

Today we attended District Conference at Nidd Hall, near Harrogate. As well as introducing ourselves to Rotarians from across the District, it was also a chance to see the incoming GSE team's presentation and get to know them a bit more over lunch. The picture below shows us with the incoming team and GSE Chair, Dave Sadler.