Ambassador of Goodwill, at your service...

I have completed 5 of my required 25 Rotary presentations so far! The first was to my host Rotary Club upon my arrival, the next 3 were at St. Paul's School in Bald Hills, and the 5th was at Brisbane Boys' College. Each presentation seems to go more and more smoothly, as anyone would expect. If nothing else, I am definitely learning quite a bit from giving these presentations and interacting with some candid locals, even if they don't end up learning to much from my 25 minute-long presentations about me, me, me!


Traversing to each of these gigs has been quite the chore on my Tuesdays. Picture me, more or less looking like a Mormon missionary (I don't know why I've been wearing a white collared short sleeved shirt and black slacks to a lot of my Rotary presentations and meetings, but I do... I even come with a plain black backpack strapped on my back) minus the helmet and the bike... sweating like a pig in the heat and humidity. From the front, both of these private schools (St. Paul's and Brisbane Boys' College) are amazing--St. Paul's is modern and state-of-the-art, with wrap around ceiling to floor glass walls, while BBC looks like a nicely refurbished old ranch-style mansion. Neither one resembled the graffiti-ridden, gated-in to the extent of resembling a prison more than a place for enlightenment, type of public schools that I went to in my hometown...


and then I catch sight of my first St. Paul's student!! It is Maddie, who happens to be the bubbly Interact Club President, who has been assigned as my escort for the day. She is dressed from head to toe in her school uniform, which... I can't even begin to describe how absurd the school uniforms in Australia seem to me.Compared to the relatively modern school uniforms in the US, they appear very old-fashioned looking and conservative, yet with a mixture of the funkiest color schemes and made of the most arbitrary combinations of plaid/striped/woolen/sheer cotton materials. They have so many pieces and specifics to them... ties and pins and collars and hats and the big black shoes! Girls have to have their hair 100% pulled back in a bun or ponytail day in and day out if it's longer than your chin. Even how you roll your socks and button your shirt are part of the dress code! However, despite all of my less than positive comments, I kind of wish I had worn a uniform in high school so I hadn't wasted so many mornings over what to wear, even if they looked like the old-fashioned Aussie ones.


Maddie and I had about 30 minutes to kill just talking to each other, and this ended up being my favorite part of the day. It was so great just getting to know her and hear about Australia and Australian culture from the mind of a 17 year old cute, bubbly girl instead of just from the mindset of a 65 year old male Rotarian (but nothing against the Rotarians!! It's just fun to hear about pop culture and teen fads, too!) I couldn't help but question about the details of her uniform. At one point, she proudly explained to me how the student body rebelled 2 years ago and really caused an uproar by getting the rules changed from having to roll down their socks in thirds to just getting to leave their socks rolled once... She demonstrated what the old rules of rolling the sock into thirds looked like and said "See, doesn't that look SOO dumb?"... All I could do was smile to myself and think, "Um, have you seen the rest of your ENTIRE outfit?!" But instead I emphatically agreed and said "Oh ya, the socks totally make a difference." I really started to feel like I was on another planet by this point... or at least on the other side of the planet. Oh wait... I am.


However, it didn't take much more than the back of the bathroom stall door for me to realize that it was just like high school back home-- inappropriate drawings and cuss words scribbled and attempted to be painted over. Now that was something I could recognize!

Here I am with Maddie and 2 other Interact girls after my presentation. Maddie is holding the Visalia Sunset Rotary Club banner!

Unbeknownst to me, I had been scheduled to present my Interact presentation to 2 classes at St. Paul's school after the Interact meeting--a year 11 Econ class and a year 12 International Econ class. The PowerPoint about me and where I'm from had become part of an international economics curriculum! My data about Tulare county and its influence in international food exports was more relevant that I ever would have imagined. I also addressed my international travels and the impact of my money for the in flows and out flows of the tourism service sector. Phew... it was a long day (total time of formal presenting totaled to over 80 minutes...), but I got 3 presentations done for the price of one afternoon spent out in the suburbs and I got to interact some really, really great kids :)