District Conference

District Conference( 22nd and 23rd April)

We are finally through with the much hyped up occasion of the GSE Program, District Conference. We presented on Friday afternoon, the 1st day of the Conference. Not too much crowd because, all the different events of the Conference were held in separate rooms, so the audience was segregated. Looks like we guys did a great job (thats the response from our audience). We had loads of questions but i guess we gave decently fair replies. :)

Later in the evening we were invited for dinner and ball room dancing. That was not much of interest though ;)

On the following day we attended the youth exchange talent show. We met the Indian Youth Exchange Student Aavni Joshi who is from Nasik and she happens to be the youngest amongst all the others (only 15) but quite mature and she also gave a nice Kathak performance there. We would be meeting her soon over dinner on the 3rd of May. Phew....the Conference was up by 2:00 pm :)

Guess what! Leif Hagen invited us over for dinner and it was amazing to meet him and his family. We had great food and a fun filled time with his three beautiful girls. (check out Leif's blog for more pictures.)

Journey so far

Internet connection has been a challenge with each one of us so far and hence we were not able to create any new posts. We are now heading towards our mid-tour break and should be able to update blog for the next 3 days.

The journey so far has been like a dream. We have seen suburbs, downtown and the country side of Minnesota. A brief update of our visit is as below:

Richfield: 10th April to 14th April
We spent our time touring different lndmarks of Richfield like Mall of America, Spring flower show, Bartholomew museum, Cathedral, Minnehaha falls, Golden flour mill (Mill city tour), Guthrie theatre, Timberwolves NBA game at the Target centre, celebrated easter at the host family, Richfield elimentary and intermediate school. Also adding to the flavor was the visit to the Hennepin county Government center where we met the former commissioner Randy Johnson at his office and also visited the Law library in the same building.
On the 14th, we made our first presentation at the Minneapolis South Rotary club.


Rogers: 14th April - 18th April
It was more of a country side where we saw huge farms and houses with barns.
Our second presentation was on 15th at the Rogers RC meeting. Our visits were as interesting as those in Richfiled; it included Cabella's Best buy, Hindu Temple visit (where we met the priest from Kolar :) He has invited us for a traditional lunch and not sure if we will have the time for that). 16th April started with a Toastmasters meeting followed by our vocational visits to BOB FM, Prison visit, Printing company which uses machines of 1960's. Evening was colorful with shopping at Target and dinner at Bombay Bistro, Minneapolis.
17th was our third presentation at Robbinsdale - Crystal - New Hope RC, where we met Tim Kudalis. This was followed by visits to Earl Bakken museum and Pavek Radio museum where we all hosted a mock radio show (sans Harsha: He was ill). Our trip at Rogers ended with horse back riding classes and a sore back due to the same.

Glenwood: 18th April - 21st April
Even smaller town with 2500 people. Most houses by the lake side. We were awestruck by the beauty of the town. Splendid place and wonderful people. Most of the dwellers of Glenwood are farmers owning farmland as big as 1500-2000 acres.
The next presenation was as soon as we reached Glenwood. The trip comprised of visit to Alexandria: Coldest day in Minnesota so far for us :( . Visited Douglas machines, Mechatronics department of Alexandria College, Aerowood resort for lunch, Maritime museum and Alexandria community museum. Harsha was on the local Radio channel for an hour on a program called Open line where he was interviewed and was taking calls from his listener fans of Minnesota ;)
Next day was Healthland solutions, Printing company and Courtroom of Pope county. We also went Ballroom dancing at the Lakeside. GK missed the ballroom dance as he was too busy trap shooting.

Sauk Centre: 21st April - 23rd April
Slightly bigger town this one. Wonderful lakes and houses again. Here again, the presentation was as soon as we reached followed by lunch. Sauk Centre Senior high school and Hospital visit were on the agenda for that day. The following day was a visit to Lake Itasca, the starting point of River Mississippi, where we walked through freezing water....Brrrrr.
We are now off to Minneapolis for our mid tour break and the District conference.

Marvelous Minneapolis

It was a wonderful flight of 28 hours with good food and good movies. By the time we reached Chicago, we made friends with atleast 10 people sitting around us :) ...
Adding spice to the journey was:
1) Priti's credit card was stuck in the phone booth. A well built, handsome airport officer helped us remove the card in a jiffy...the entire lounge clapped and "wow"d him.
2) Chicago immigration authorities held back Manasa and Harsha's passport for further inquiry.
3) Because of the above we missed the connecting flight to Minneapolis. Had to skip another flight to manage boarding.
4) On arrival GK's baggage was received at the baggage counter with half the contents of it hanging out of the suitcase. The airport authorities were very sweet to replace the suitcase with a new one.

The BEST part of the journey was when we landed in Minneapolis.
There was a "Namaskara. Chennagideera?" that we heard in chorus by Leif, Tim, Barb and Jean. We checked in to the hotel and now about to hit the sack. Like the saying goes.."All's well that ends well"...goodnight....zzzzz

Phew...Finally!

I don't remember a single day of my school days or college days, when I worked so hard. District 3190 made me do it. 6 months of preparation and now all set to visit District 5950, Minneapolis. And must say, one thing I am yet to do is packing... Before bidding adieu to Bengaluru, I would like to say that all of us eagerly waiting to board the flight. Looking forward to an action packed month ahead....

.......See you in USA...bubyee

Me (Manasa), Priti, Harsha, Manjunath & GK

Send off Party

We thank all the members of South Parade for a wonderful send off party. We sure did have a blast.