Apr 22, 2010

Going.. going... gone?

Well looks like this is it. We still have the all clear for our flights to leave tomorrow. I should be home by noon on saturday. Well, Kelowna by that time anyway. Have had a pretty busy couple of days though, went to the Natural History museum with my roommate from the hostel. He rolled in at about midnight on tuesday. Spent today at the science museum and had a wicked kebab for lunch. Going to get all packed up and ready to go and will have a bit of time to kill tomorrow am as I don't need to be at the airport until noonish. I'm looking forward to getting back home though definitely!! Well that is probably the last update for me from England, bye for now!

Apr 19, 2010

Still in a holding pattern

We're still in England, but it seems like there's light at the end of the tunnel — or a hole in a BIG ash cloud. The government has opened airspace over Scotland, Northern Ireland and Northern England as of 7 a.m. tomorrow (Tuesday). Rumors are the airspace above London and other parts of Europe will open soon after. So yay! But I won't get too excited until I hear for sure. In the meantime, we're heading to London in the morning and will check into a hotel. We've reserved it for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. Hopefully we'll get outta London before too long. On the plus side, I got to visit Jane Austen's grave in Winchester Cathedral today, and I visited the last home she lived at, which is also where she died. A big thank you to Agnes (my host) for taking me there, and for some great shoe shopping on the way there and back. :-)

If I can, I'll update in the next couple of day. In the meantime, pray we get home soon and Carol (Jim's wife) can come here to see him soon. Also pray the District 1250 team gets outta here when they're expecting to. Again, thanks all for being so wonderful to us when we were here. We had a blast and will miss our English friends very much.

Apr 18, 2010

The End Is...Here!

Hello again fellow bloggees and bloggers! Well, it looks like the exchange has now officially come to a close. We had our farewell dinner on Thursday night, and I was most pleased to see a large number of my previous hosts in attendance. Great food, great company, and, of course, our finaly summary speeches were the highlights of the evening (at least I hope our speeches were part of the highlight - ha ha)! It was great to see everyone again and reflect on the amazing adventure we were all involved in! It's hard to believe it's over - seems like we just arrived last week! Having busy (but not hectic) itineraries certainly helped to pass the time and make the experience all the more amazing.

On Friday, I got the opportunity to visit the Surrey Police Headquarters in this area. I spent some time learning more about their dispatch centre, and found that they have an amazing GPS mapping system to track their officers. It's connected with a type of Google Maps template, which means that operators can "zoom in" to any specific area and see what houses are there, as well as view terrain and other geographical characteristics of any given area in the Surrey region! This tool would be GREAT for us in Canada (especially for myself to use when giving directions to lost officers!).

I also got the opportunity to see their K-9 dog training facility. Can you believe they have 26 dogs for the Surrey region alone?! We've only got 3!

We then went to the firearms training centre, and I received a wealth of information from the firearms training centre officer there, who actually turned out to be the son-in-law of the hosts I had in Redhill, Malcolm and Kate Walker! Small world eh?!

We then went for a fabulous lunch at the Lobster Pot (I was being shuttled around all this time by Janet and Victor, Janet is the president of one of the local Rotary Clubs, and is a former County Councilor, while Victor is the former mayor of Farnham, and also a former Rotary Club president - escorted by celebrities - it was pretty cool!). They ended their day with me by giving me a bobby helmet (which fits!) along with a centennial King George Coin, and a book! Very nice indeed - made my day!!

Afterwards, we headed to Janet's son-in-law's house, and he showed me his amazing police memorabelia collection, and we wheeled and dealed to trade RCMP and British memorabelia when I get back too, which is great!

I then got to chat with a local community police officer named Ian, and he drove me around his patrol area, and introduced me to his fellow Farnham officers - I've never felt like more of a celebrity than I have on this trip, let me tell ya!

That night, we went out to a local pub and had a great dinner with Scott and his host family! Yet again, good food, and good company!

Saturday was our last outing of the trip, and we spent it touring London, led by Roger, who was a wealth of information! We saw St. James' Park, the exterior of Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, then went for lunch at a nice little pub nearby. Afterwards, we saw the London Opera House, and toured more area sights, then Scott and I said farewell to the group, and toured the HMS Belfast destroyer docked on the Thames near the Tower Bridge. Very interesting, and very cramped quarters as well!

Scotty and I then went out and painted the town, in this case, we painted it GREEN in honour of the live theatre performance we saw, "Wicked", which is the tale of the wicked witches in the Wizard of Oz (who really wasn't all that wicked, it turns out!). It was fabulous, and both the witches were very well acted, and the singing and stage effects were phenomenal - well worth the money!

This morning, I said farewell to my last hosts, Gord and Bebette, who were great! They had a wonderful home, and were just all-around good, helpful people! I only regret that I didn't get to spend as much time with them as I would have liked, but that's how it goes I guess!

I'm now sitting in an internet cafe awaiting my bus to Munich. Hopefully for the rest of the group's sake, that volcano will stop erupting so that they can all get home, but it sounds like they are in good hands in Farnham with their hosts, so I don't feel TOO sorry for them! They just might get put to work though (so they threatened - ha ha) but they can handle it!

Well, fingers crossed that the transit Gods are smiling upon us all! I have about two weeks left in my journey, as I continue on to travel through Germany and even into Czech Republic - looking forward to it! Hopefully I won't return to London for my trip home May 8th and find the GSE team still waiting!! That would be a bummer!

Next on my agenda, the Moses Lake Conference in Washington May 22nd! It'll be great to meet up with everybody again, and share our trip highlights with the Washingtonian Rotarians! See you all there! Auf Wiedersehen!

Apr 16, 2010

Final Thoughts

As you can see from the other blog entries, it appears everyone has had an outstanding time here in England. The best part has been the friendships we have gained in each area we've stayed. We attended a farewell dinner Thursday night where we met up with some of our host families and others we've met along the way. The team from the district here was also present, so we got to meet them and discuss their trip to our district next month. If the volcano prevents our departure, there will be more blog entries, as we will be forced to spend more time in London (oh darn). Of course, Carol is scheduled to meet me here on Tuesday, so we're praying that the ash will move away long enough for her to get here. We've been apart way too long.

Some other things we have done in the past few days that may not have been mentioned:
Trip to Hever Castle, home of Ann Boleyn, the beheaded wife of Henry VIII
Day in London - The Monument, Tower Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral
Hampton Court, palace home of Henry VIII
More great PUB visits
Castles in Guildford and Farnham
Great food, including black pudding, bangers and mash, steak & kidney pudding, etc.
Visit to Guildford College

Well I'm off to London, and then will try to figure out how to get everyone home.

We're heading home Sunday — if the ash moves on

Hi all. Well, we're coming to the end of our journey — and an amazing one it's been. Last night was our farewell dinner in Guildford. Friends from Horsham, Arundel, Chichester, Worthing, Burgess Hill and Reigate and Redhill were there. It was great to see everyone and to meet the GSE team from England who will be heading our way in about a week. Today were our last vocational visits (though Cam had his last one yesterday). Tomorrow we will again visit London (Westminster Abbey, here we come!) and then providing the volcanic ash has disbursed, we'll head home Sunday morning.

I think I can speak for everyone when I say that it has been busy, tiring and absolutely amazing. We have been overwhelmed by the hospitality and the amazing things everyone has taken us to see. I will be sad to go, but happy to see Corey and Moxie. I will be going home with TONS of pictures, a new love of tea, coffee and clotted cream, and new friends — friends I met here and four friends who traveled with me all the way.

Some highlights I haven't yet discussed: Jane Austen's writing desk. As a writer and English major I can't even begin to describe how much it meant to me to see where she wrote. It's amazing that such a small piece of furniture could have led to some of the best books in the English language.

On Wednesday Scott, Jim, me and hosts Malcolm and Kate went to Windsor Castle and Hampton Court. To stand where Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and William Shakespeare stood was awesome. The queen was in at Windsor (hence the flag flying in the picture at the beginning of this post), but we only saw someone walking one of her dogs.

Also at Windsor, we watched the changing of the royal guards. It was complete with a band, and quite impressive. As any tourist, I had to have my picture taken with one of the guards. It was so weird, because it actually felt like I was posing with a statue. What a weird job. They stand there motionless for a while and then suddenly yell and march for a bit, then march back to their place, and then stand motionless again.

Well, it's time for me to sign off. I'll say goodbye the way most of the Brits seem to: "Right."

Apr 14, 2010

First Post & Nearing the End

Hello faithful bloggers and readers! Well, this is my first blog, and I have to say, the American contingent has put us Canadians to shame! Great job on the blogs you guys! I've been down with a cold recently, and add some internet connection issues, and well, those are my best excuses! In any case, from start to finish, this has been one heck of a journey for me! I've met so many interesting people, and have also made some friends in the process. Sure, it's been pretty busy for us morning, noon and night, but somehow it still feels like we only just got here!

Being the token "Mountie" of the group, I've been privileged to have met with most all types of police officer here, from volunteer special constables in rural detachments such as Horsham, on up to semi-armed response officers in the bustling metropolis of Brighton, and I have to say, I've been impressed by what I've learnt thus far. The multi-levels of officers is a bit confusing, and I'm sorry to say I still don't have it straight, however the common theme that all the officers seem to share is that they all seem to be very "plugged-in" to their communities. Whether in a bustling city like Brighton, or a small rural area like Arundel, these officers seem to know their neighbors, along with the bad guys, and they are out there talking to people on a regular basis. Talking is such a basic concept, but these officers gather a lot of local intel, and seem to enjoy a high level of local cooperation from the general public. What is also interesting is that, although the majority of these officers are lightly armed, they manage to get the job done, and even have the time to liase with the maze of government organizations and officials like magistrates and parole officers, including the offenders themselves, a strategy which, in West Sussex in particular, has resulted in an 18% reduction in the number of offenders who re-offend! This strategy must be working!

There is more that I will post later, however I would just like to add that all of the officers I have spoken with over here have been very forthcoming, and shared most every aspect of their daily routines with me. I've even gotten in to see one of their dispatch and CCTV control centres!

Speaking of CCTV, I'm learning that it is a very valuable strategic tool for officers here. While apparently not very well liked by the general public, it is nonetheless tolerated, while officers use the intel and tracking abilities of these high definition, hard disc driven and highly zoom-capable (if that's a word) cameras to identify suspects in crimes that would otherwise have not been witnessed, assist people in distress, and track criminals fleeing from crime scenes (amongst several other uses). Whether or not these cameras act as a true crime deterrent is really hard to guage, especially when the majority of Britons seem to forget that they are there, but the value to police as a tool is certainly insurmountable! The cost is somewhat prohibitive though, as, at approximately 60,000£ per camera (roughly $115,000 CDN) they aren't cheap, but I still think that they can be used in trouble areas in Vernon and surrounding districts to help fight crime and make these areas safer.

I've talked a lot about my vocational visits, and that's mostly because everyone else has talked quite a bit about the activities that we've done. Let me just say on that note that every host I've had has been most kind and generous, and an absolute pleasure to stay with and get to know. Not to mention my team - it's really going to be weird to be without them after this trip, because I've gotten so used to them being there. From our fearless leader Jim (aka "Wandering Jimbo") with his kind words and gentle manner, to Kevira (aka "Merv") with her inquisitive mind and boundless energy, to Scott with his unfading smile (which is why I call him "Guy Smiley") and great sense of humour (I will get you back for that candid photo of me Scott, oh yes, I will!) to my fellow Canadian and friend Cam (aka "Action Man" and "The Dirt Bike Kid" - just made that one up) for being such a dependable sidekick and partner in crime, all you guys, you helped to make this trip the fun adventure that it was and is continuing to be.

The lights are going off now, so I'd best sign off for now. More later about my vocational visits and new friendships!

Apr 9, 2010

Politics and dressing up

Hello again. While here (in England) I've learned so much about UK politics. For example, did you know that England does not have a written constitution? I didn't until I got here — or if I did learn it in school, I didn't remember it. And voters here didn't know until Tuesday when their general election would be held this year. That's because the Prime Minister gets to decide when to call the election, but he can't rule more than five years since the last election. That gives him the chance to call for an election when his party's poll numbers are good. It's more complicated than that, but that's the gist of it.

So on May 6, 650 MPs (or members or Parliament/members of the House of Commons) will be up for election. There are three main parties: Labour (Prime Minister Gordon Brown's party), Conservative (challenger David Cameron's party) and Liberal Democrat (challenger Nick Clegg's party). United Kingdom voters will elect the MPs and whichever party has the more seats will name the prime minister. There has been talk also of a hung parliament, but I won't go into that right now. :-)

It seems like Prime Minister Gordon Brown might have missed the boat this time and not called the election when his poll numbers were good. Some sources say conservative David Cameron will become prime minister because voters are looking for change — sound familiar? I'll definitely be watching once I return to the U.S.

Now, back to the touristy stuff. When in Rome, do as the Romans do ... or when in Lewes (pronounced Louis), dress as medieval lads and ladies. Here we are at Lewes Castle. Notice that the outfits Jim and Scott are wearing have a bit too many embellishments on them — we think they were meant for women. You might not be able to tell, but I'm making rabbit ears behind Cam and Brad's heads.

Today I went on another vocational visit — to The Argus, a regional paper based in Brighton. They're focusing on local coverage, just as we have for quite a while. More on that when I return.

Rotary in the UK

It has been fun to visit the local Rotary clubs on our trip, and talk with Rotarians about their fundraisers, social events, projects, membership, etc. Clubs here seem to be doing a good job of community service, with quite a few projects that focus on children. They also have many smaller fundraising events where the money collected goes to specific international projects such as disaster relief, shelter boxes, polio eradication, and club favorites like supporting orphanages, helping AIDS victims, etc.

District 1250 has the same number of clubs as our district (around 61), but fewer members (1850 compared to our 3000), so the clubs are generally smaller in size. I would say from my observations so far, that the average age of the members is higher than clubs in our district, and there are much less women members. Several clubs don't have any women, and we've been told that a few don't care to have any.

There is a strong organization here called Inner Wheel, which his made up of spouses (like the old Rotary Anns). There are some very active groups in this area, and they provide a positive outlet for women who want to be involved in fellowship and service, and at the same time be linked with Rotary in a way.

Some of the clubs here have an interesting concept called "friends of Rotary". I'm trying to find out more, but it seems like people can get involved in Rotary projects, and attend occasional meetings without joining the club. This partial involvement give them a chance to see if Rotary might be for them, and it give the clubs more help with projects. Hmmm, something to think about. There are lots of other great ideas I am gleening from our visit.

Overall, the hospitality shown us has been outstanding. We couldn't ask for better hosts throughout our trip. This Rotary fellowship doesn't surprise me, but I think it has been an eye-opener for the non-Rotarian team members. We can't wait to host the District 1250 team when they come to our area at the end of this month.

Burgess Hill

This is an important place for me, as my mom's maiden name is Burgess. I'm sure my early descendants must have come from this area of England. The weather has been lovely the past couple days, and after meeting our new hosts a couple of us were taken to Wakehurst Place. This is an old estate that is now a trust. They have a large seed bank here, as well as beautiful gardens. It was nice to stroll around and sit outside with no coat.


In the evening we gave our presentation to the Burgess Hill Rotary Club, the best club in the district by their account. They meet at a golf club from 6:00-8:00 or so. It was a fun club, and we got to have fish and chips (coincidentally for the third straight time).


This morning I visited with a teacher at a special needs school. This school has over 100 kids from 4 to 16 years old, who have some type of special need (autism, hearing impairment, behavior concerns, learning disabilities, etc.). The school is one of three in the county that services these types of kids. It is fully funded by the county government. The kids are given access to vocational training, and have opportunities to do work experience with local businesses.


Apr 8, 2010



Hello everyone, it smee again.

We just wrapped up our stint in Worthing and had a wonderful time. On our last day we took a day trip down to Brighton and had a fun day. We took a tour around the Royal Pavilion which was a palace that was built by Prince Regent George IV back at the turn of the 19th century. It is an amazing creation in that it was based on the culture and architecture of India and China; it looks very out of place here in England. It is a very extravagant structure, and it’s just fascinating to think what daily life was like back then. Here is the website for the Palace if you want to see more about it:

http://www.brighton-hove-rpml.org.uk/RoyalPavilion/Pages/home.aspx

After the Palace we walked along the waterfront and then attended the Brighton Rotary lunch meeting for fish and chips. Later that night we had fish and chips again for dinner with the Worthing Rotary club and finished off the night with bowling. As an aside, team North America convincingly beat team British thanks to a few timely strikes and spares by our fearless leader Hutch (we think he’s been bowling more than he says he has as evident by his elegant form and follow through).

Today we said goodbye to our wonderful hosts in Worthing and were introduced to our new hosts for the next leg of our GSE adventure in Burgess Hill. We all gathered and had a cup of tea and refreshments before departing with our appointed hosts.

The weather here has been “brilliant”, very similar to what we would expect back home in the Spring.

Recently I’ve been working on my Cockney accent and trying to learn the lingo (I think I've pretty much mastered my Canadian accent as our Officer Rod Farva can attest to). Cockney apparently refers to the very distinct accent and vocabulary that someone born and raised in London would have acquired. My previous host was one such Cockney, and I had a fascinating time trying to understand what he was saying. True it was English (I think), but the vocabulary and speed at which he talks made for very interesting conversation. They have rhymes and abbreviations for many words and phrases, and originally this slang was developed so two people could carry on a conversation of a somewhat “dodgy” nature in a pub and not have to worry about any wandering ears from the police overhearing their conversations. For example, my last host asked me if I had my “daisies” with me. He could tell by my blank expression that I wasn’t following him so he clarified his previous question. Do I have my daisy roots on me? Still, no idea what he was talking about. Finally giving up he blatantly explained, “Daises... daisy roots... BOOTS!”. It’s a fascinating slang language and I wrote a bunch of it down to confuse the locals back home, I’ll give it to you all when we get back.

Cheers!
-Scott

Apr 5, 2010

We've landed in Worthing

Hello all. We just completed our away weekend in Portsmouth. It was a chance to see the sites and bond more as a group. We saw a bunch of sites, went to a comedy club (the comedians were OK, but the conversation between the group was good), wandered the streets and took buses just to see the sites.

Here's me getting cozy with Henry VIII outside the museum for his favorite ship, the Mary Rose. I figured it would be best to appeal to his taste for the ladies, so he wouldn't have me beheaded. :-) Remember the old rhyme: "divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived"? I wasn't taking any chances.

Anyway, we also saw the first iron-hulled, armour-plated warship — HMS Warrior 1860 — and Lord Horatio Nelson's ship, HMS Victory. Rotarian David Shannon not only gave us an amazing history lesson about the ship and Nelson, but he gave each of us a signed copy of a book he wrote about Nelson. We're so grateful he took time out of Easter Sunday to spend time with three Americans and two Canadians.

Anyway, here's a shot of Victory in all its restored glory. On board we saw the approximate place where Nelson was shot during the Battle of Trafalgar, and the place where he died below deck. After many viewings of "That Hamilton Woman" over the years, it was all very exciting to me.

At the Battle of Trafalgar, the British Navy, under the command of Nelson, defeated the French and Spanish in 1805, during the Napoleonic Wars. The ship has been restored to how it was at the time of the battle.

This morning we left Portsmouth and Southsea and headed to Worthing. We met Ian, David and Barbara there and then went to Parham House in Storrington.

Speaking earlier of Henry VIII, Parham was built in Henry's daughter Elizabeth I's reign, in 1577. The house has amazing gardens, and the day was perfect to view them. The inside of the house is filled with amazing needlework and antiques, and lots of paintings of British royalty and those who have owned the house and their relatives. It was absolutely breathtaking, so of course I had to buy a guidebook. Ask the guys — I ALWAYS buy a guidebook. :-)

Tomorrow and Wednesday will be busy with vocational visits, a meeting with a local mayor, some Rotary club meetings, and even some bowling, so we probably won't be able to update the blog much. But as soon as we can, we will.

Apr 4, 2010

Easter Sunday

I had a great time meeting people at King's Church, where I attended Easter Sunday. It was an Assembly of God affiliation that was alive and joyful today. About 100 people were at the service, which was held in a school gym. They have many college kids, but since they were on spring Easter break, there were fewer of them. Lots of other younger kids. The pastor's wife is from Portland, and one of the members I met has a sister in Seattle. A great way to start the day.

Our group then met up at the HMS Victory, the flagship of Admiral Lord Nelson. He is credited with defeating the combined French and Spanish Navy in 1805, a victory that perhaps allowed England to then expand its empire and rule the seas for many years to come. The ship was awesome. Local Rotarian David Shannon (pictured with the team) gave us a history of the ship and Admiral Nelson. He also gave us signed copies of the book he wrote, "Nelson Remembered".
We then took a bus ride around the larger town, and ended the day with a Mediterranean dinner. Weather was sunny and warmer today. It's starting to look like spring here after their harsh winter. Tomorrow we are picked up and taken to Worthing for the next half of our adventure.

Apr 3, 2010

Weekend of Rest???


Well, we finished our time in the Chichester area and were taken to a B&B in Portsmouth for a weekend away. This is a time where we can catch our breath, relax, and get caught up on things like our journals, laundry, and sleep. I'll have to say it has not been too taxing yet, and we probably won't get much rest this weekend because there is so much to see and do here in Portsmouth.

After attending a Good Friday service in Chichester Cathedral (Anglican), one of England's finest (begun in the 11th century), we all had a farewell lunch at my host's home and then were driven to Portsmouth. That afternoon we walked a short distance to the ocean, checked out the area there, and walked into town. After dinner, we went to a comedy club. First time we had seen many younger people on our trip.

Today we took a cab to the newest part of town where we took a harbor tour, went up to the top of the Spiniker Tower, and visited the Mary Rose Museum (one of Henry VIII's prize ships that sunk in 1556), and the first ironclad ship, the HMS Warrior (1860). They also have a HUGE factory outlet there, so we spent some time checking that out. Being Easter weekend, it is a pretty busy place.

I'll try to find a church nearby to attend tomorrow, and then it's off the the aquarium, the D-Day museum, the submarine museum, and a personal tour (local Rotarian) of the HMS Victory, Lord Nelson's flagship in the battle of Trafalger.

Apr 1, 2010

Arundel Castle


Today we had great weather and a wonderful visit to a Castle that had it's roots back to about 1066. It is still the home of the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk (the 18th Duke) and their 5 children. We were going to meet them but they were off skiing in Europe. We were given a tour by John Penny, the District 1250 Foundation chairman and member of Arundel Rotary Club. There is a member of the Rotary club that resides on the grounds. 3 of us were hosted by James who runs one of the farms owned by the Duke, the Duke's butler lived next door.

That afternoon we toured Cathedral Works Organization, a stone masonry company that renovates historic buildings. They did the Monument in London, and are currently working on parts of Buckingham Palace. It's quite an art, and we saw small pieces that have taken over 90 hours to do by hand.

We gave our presentation to about 90 people from several area Rotary clubs that evening. It's great to visit with so many Rotarians, and see the great things they are doing in their communities and around the world. As usual, dinner was lovely.