March 31st, 2012

Team Canada & US gathered in Bemidji, MN, for the weekend to finalize the work on our presentation and take some team photo's in our new team attire. Don't we look sharp! We are all getting excited for our departure date to Tasmania, Australia, on May 18th, 2012.

It's been an amazing experience getting to know each other over the past few months.

Bemidji Polar Bear Plunge Jan 2012

It was -25 C (-13 F) the day of the Bemidji, MN, Polar Bear Plunge when we jumped into Lake Bemidji! Brrr!

Tamoo and his new lady

Team Logo

Below is the logo we came up with for the team. - Ashley

Happy New Year

Hopefully everyone has had a great holiday season. Here is a team photo from our first orientation meeting. Wishing everyone all the best for 2012!

Orientation Weekend

Hello and welcome to our Group Study Exchange travel blog! First off I should mention that I am very excited to be selected for GSE. It is such a great opportunity. We had our first team orientation meeting Dec 16-18, 2011 in Bemidji, MN. where we met many amazing people including local Rotarians as well as past GSE participants.

We arrived Friday evening at the Concordia Language Camps where most of us met for the first time. Our whole team consists 8: Our Team Leader, (Gary Johnson), our Alternate Team Leader (Larry Morrison), Four Team Members (Kathryn Hildebrandt, Ashley Drewes, Angil Wanner, and myself), our Alternate Team Member (Siobhan O’Malley) and Tamoo. Tamoo was absent for orientation… but don’t worry you will be introduced to him soon.   

The weekend was amazing! (minus getting lost several times on the way there… although this added some excitement to the drive). I drove down with Kathryn and Siobhan as they both are also from Thunder Bay. We went out for dinner at the Sparking Waters Restaurant after arriving... they serve the best pickerel! Saturday was spent in orientation where we got to know our team members a little better. We listened to some very enlightening guest speakers which enabled us to learn more about Rotary International as well as GSE. We finished off the day trying Vegemite for the first time then headed out to a local hockey game (Go Bemijdi State Beavers!!).  Sunday we did some team planning and then journeyed home. It was such a fun weekend and we are all looking forward to our next meeting. 

We will be getting together again January 20^th so stay tuned for more posts! To learn more about GSE click on the link below

Click here for more info on Group Study Exchange