Fridley - Columbia Heights Rotary Club Meeting

I met with my sponsoring rotary club yesterday morning. The members are almost as excited as I am about the upcoming Sweden GSE trip. Their enthusiasm is contagious. As the presenter for the meeting, I told of the multiple team meetings, the Swedish lessons at the American Swedish Institute, the tentative schedule for our team and the trip preparations. One club member asked if I would be staying a with host family. Yes, I responded, more than one. There will be eight families total! I look forward to meeting the families and learning how their lifestyle is both similar and different to mine in Minnesota. I want to know if the families recycle, reuse water, conserve energy, use geothermal heating, walk instead of drive, shop at farmers markets, read books, watch tv, buy used clothing, and eat at restaurants. Mostly, I am curious to learn how sustainability can build a community. Only 5 days to go before our team departs. I'm nervous and excited. - Rachel

sist svensk klassen (the last Swedish class)

I think that's correct. Anyway, last night was our last Swedish class! It's hard to believe that the time has finally arrived for the trip - it seems like just yesterday we learned that we'd been selected to go and that we met as a group for the first time! And now, vi kan talar lite svenska och vi gör till sverige om sex dagar! (we can speak a little Swedish and we're going to Sweden in six days!)

Needless to say, we're getting pretty excited for the trip and just taking care of last minute details. What about alarm clocks? Should we exchange any money? Let's not forget our passports!

Our flight leaves at kvart över tre mondag (3:15pm Monday).

Trevlig resa!

Go forth and multiply!

Sharing a laugh over cheesecake

Last night Jennifer invited all of us to a wonderful dinner at her house! We were joined by District Governor Roy Sjoberg and his wife Lana. Prior Lake's president-to-be Kyle Haugen and his girlfriend Kaitlin also joined us, making it quite a large party! Thankfully Jennifer had plenty of chili (even vegetarian - thank you!) and cheesecake to go around. Kara and Roy entertained us with stories of speeding tickets and Roy also gave us a little insight into what Rotary is expecting us to bring back in terms of sustainability and reminded us that overall this is a cultural experience. I don't know about everyone else, but hearing that especially made me excited for the trip! I travel a lot for my job and am extremely lucky to be doing sustainable endeavors on a daily basis, and I was pretty much focusing on only this part of the trip (learning about Swedish sustainability). It was nice to hear that we're also expected to take in the other parts of Sweden as well, like the food, the music, the culture. I can't wait to meet Christina and our host families, and especially after getting feedback on the presentation from our guests, I am feeling more prepared. The more I learn about each of my fellow travelers, the more certain I am that this is going to be a great trip and that we have a great group. As Roy said, "go forth and multiply!" :)
I'm looking forward to many more dinners with all of you! Thank you Jennifer for inviting us all to dinner and for agreeing to lead us on this adventure!

The excitement builds!

A couple of weeks ago I went to North Carolina to visit my sister and her new baby. I took my Swedish book with me to study, and my older nephew, age 3, was full of questions: "Why you going to Sweden? Where is Sweden? What you do there?" And once I told him how to say "train" (tåg) in Swedish, he was off to the races! "Aunt Kara, how you say "dragon" in Swedish? How you say doorbell? dump truck? cupcake? snowman? clean up?" He made me realize how very little of the language I know!

Being at my sister's house also got me thinking about just how different individual households are even within the U.S. Someone visiting my sister from another country would get one snapshot of daily living the U.S. (suburban, kid-friendly, wide selection of television channels). Someone visiting my house would get a different picture of the U.S. (urban, conservation-oriented, wide selection of bulk dried beans in the pantry.) It makes me really glad that we will be staying with 7 or 8 different host families in Sweden, so that we'll have a more diverse picture of home life in Sweden.