Distict Conference Trebic

I was thinking Trebic was a bit of a random town to hold the district conference (which is the big end of the year meeting for the entire rotary district: Czech and Slovak Republics) but then I found out it wasn't random at all. In district 2240 it's tradition to hold the conference wherever the district governer lives. SO it was in Trebic. It was a very beautiful little town and of course we got a tour, including the jewish quarter and a synagogue which was cool. But the main event (obviously) was the conference itself.

As the inbounds were had to put together another talent showcase for the Rotarians as their lunchtime entertainment. That was interesting as you can imagine becuase organizing a bunch of rambunxious, hormonal, teenagers who have been without parents for ten months is NOT an easy task. But we finally got something together, after hours and hours of screaming, and shouting into the wee hours of the morning. And much to my surprise it turned out to be alright. We all wore our blazers to the performance and I had on my canada toque. And oh did we look good (please note the sarcasm in that statement) but we all looked good together so it was ok. If you want to see the actual perfomance I have the video on my facebook page. And I will try to post the link here.
After our lunchtime performance we all headed back to the absolutely disgusting dorms we were staying in to get ready for the ball that evening. And when I say disgusting I'm not being a stuck up little princess, I'm simply stating the truth. They were grody. Of course the girls got stuck on the boys floor so I had porn on my walls and in the bathroom. the shower had no shower curtain and there was hair coming out of the drain and you could draw pictures in the dirt ground into the carpet. Oh yeah it was wonderful. But it was kind of ironic later that night because we all looked to so good and put together in our suits and dresses. You could have never guessed we made ourselves look that good in that place. Nonetheless we had fun there and I gather rotary saved some money on the accommodation so it was all good.
And what was lacking where we stayed was completely made up for that evening at the ball. The venue was a castle. Yes you read correctly, a castle! It was so cool! The weather was beautiful so it was outside in the garden which was marvelously kept and there was a bqq with fabulous food being cooked and inside in the ball room was a concert. It was stunning. We went on a tour of the castle which was cool because they had all the rooms fully furnished and functioning and people acting out a play as you went through. Unfortunately it was in Czech though so I understood very little of it. At first I thought Czech and Slovak were very similar to each other, like say British and canadian English, but now that I know slovak I see that they are not. they are definitely each their own language and there are several different words for things. The only reason the slovaks and czechs are able to understand eachother is because they were forced to, having lived together for so much time. Even now, since they are seperated, they say a lot of the younger generations have trouble understanding eachother because there is not the same exposure as there once was.

But yeah that was the district conference. And then the whole ten days were almost finished. We had one last night together which was filled with music, crying, singing, and stories, and minimal sleep (two of the guys play guitar) and it was wonderful. wonderful but sad. Although I'll see most of them again next weekend on teh final canoe trip I saw some people for the last time last week. And you'd think we wouldn't be that close because we only saw eachother once every two months all year but we are. We are so SO so close! So the goodbye was really hard. I think exchange is one of the only experiences in which you get so incredibly close to people (because you share such an understanding of what eachother is going through) and then you are forced to say goodbye. And not just good-bye but good-bye for a long time because we all live in different parts of the world. There's no doubt in my mind that I will see some, if not all, of them again at some point in my life but for the time being it is tough. Coming home is going to be tough. There are so many things associated with it, it boggles my mind. I'm beyond excited to see everyone again at home but terribly sad to be leaving all the other inbounds.

This coming weekend is going ot be out final farewell and it should be really great but emotionally loaded. We are camping and I am so psyched! We have to bring tents and we are going canoing from one campsite to the next down the vltava river. OH ITS GOING TO BE SOOOOO COOL!