Amys Diary

Tuesday 30th December

Hope Santa has been good to everyone this year.  It has all been non-stop up for all of us this year over the Xmas period, trying to get shopping done, entertaining, going out with family & friends, eating lots (of course, its Annica’s favourite time of the year)

Hope the 2009 is the best year for you all and heres hoping that our paths cross sometime in the future. 

PS – Hayley, Annica & myself are getting together for New Year celebrations tomorrow so keep posted for a few pictures.

Friday 21st November

I am starting to slowly get settled in back at home now, even though it is taking longer than I thought it would.  The week has been a bit manic with trying to get over jet lag, unpack, wash, catch up with family and friends and also to prepare for our welcome home meal tonight.
We have the formal presentation tonight to anyone and everyone from District 1210 including our sponsoring clubs.  Its the chance to let everyone know what we have been up to while we have been away and explain the impact that the trip has had on us.  Rumour has it that there will be about 100 people there – ooh, starting to feel a bit nervous now.  There really won’t be time to do our GSE exchange justice but we’re hoping that there will be enough content just to say thanks, talk about what we have learnt and maybe tell a few embarassing stories!  And I’m sure Malcolm may finish it with a song!
Keep posted for a few photos and a run-down of how the Rotary meeeting goes

Sunday 16th November

Thats it, its all over.  I clicked my heels and 20 hours later I’m back home safe and sound. 
My house has shrunk quite a bit while I have been away, I’m sure. 

I have had the most amazing time in Kansas & Oklahoma panhandle that its quite hard to find the words to sum up the whole experience.  I am a firm believer in “its not where you go its who you go with” yet for this trip it is only partially true.  Annica, Delia, Hayley, Malcolm and Pete have truely made the trip what is it and I am so glad that I was choosen to be part of this amazing team.  So for that I thank Rotary International. 
The exception to my little quote of course comes down to the people I have met along the way.  I would love to name you all, but don’t think that there is enough memory space on our website!  I have loved the time with my host families and day hosts and thank you for the effort you have made is making me feel very welcome in your home and your towns.  I have learnt a lot from my vocational visits and am keen on taking this back to Victim Support.  Thanks to all those who gave up there valuable time to explain the relevent parts of there profession.

Friday is our welcome home party, where we get the chance to meet up with the Rotary groups in the district.  How to sum up our experience in a 30 minute presentation??  Its gonna be hard, especially once Pete has the microphone, but we’ll give it a whirl.  Keep posted for photos and news of us getting back to our lives post GSE.
Love to you all.

Thursday 13th November

Just a quick note to let you all know that we have now offically made it – we are all famous after our prestigous Dr Annica Goddard was interviewed by the local news channel today and the clip actually got to make the local news.

Check out the link below titled “Exchange Program Gives Doctors Different View of Healthcare” to hear Annica talking about the UK health care system and to see a few of the other team members.  (tehe)

http://www.kake.com/kansas/headlines/34425374.html

Wednesday 12th November

Richard, I promise you I am awake!  I am now on the last leg of the journey and things are getting busy.  I have actually gone shopping for the first proper time on this trip as well.  We are now in Wichita for the last vocation & social days.  I am staying with Jill Frasco who was the team leader on the GSE America team to the UK, an amazing and wonderful lady.

We got into Wichita yesterday afternoon after a lovely morning spent with hosts in Winfield.  We took a trip to Arkansas City to visit the Land Rush Museum there.  (For anyone who has seen the film Far & Away, its the bit at the end when the bell rings and the people all run for a piece of land).  Well Arkansas City is on the Kansas & Oklahoma boarder and this was one of the last stop off places for the land rush.  It was all very interesting to learn about, especially as I had heard quite a bit about this piece of history in books & films.  They even have one of the originally flags in the museum.  Thanks to all in Winfield who showed us around in the day and especially to my host family, Judy & Tom Herlocker.  Hayley & I were made to feel very welcome in your home.

Last night was a lovely chilled evening spent with my host Jill.  We had a beautiful Italian meal and chatted away the evening over a few glasses of wine. 
This morning was an early start to day, breakfast meeting at the Chamber of Commerce, learning about the development of businesses in the area.
The highlight of the day though has to be the trip to Cessna Aeroplanes.  We were all lucky enough to get a tour of the factory (sorry no photos as the information in their walls is tip-top secret) and then got to have a look around some of the finished display models.  Needless to say that we have picked out one each and have given the individual specifications to the design teams for our finished plane (yeh right).  The smallest plane is an absolute steal at $8million – spare change to me! 
It was great to have this opporunity and I would like to say thank to John, Sally and Adam for showing us around and thanks to Mark for making it possible.

Vocational day tomorrow and I have a jam packed afternoon which I am really excited about.  More to follow. X

Monday 10th November

Cannot quite believe that we are now on the home straight and only have 5 more nights left here in Kansas.  The past 3 and a half weeks have gone so fast that I’m amazed that I have managed to get the days right when writing my blog.
We are now staying with host families in Winfield.  We moved from the B & B on sunday at lunch after a rather relaxing 24 hours, this of course was helped by the lovely beauty treaments we all had to help us unwind after the busy few weeks. 

Hayley & I myself are staying with Judy & Tom Herlocker and having a lovely time with them, getting to meet 2 of their daughters that live in town as well as being entertained by their bouncing little dog, Missy. 
This morning we have all gone off with our separate days hosts for our vocational trips.  I spent the morning with Mary Jarvis who has really helped me to develop my understanding of the Criminal Justice System here in the state and speak to agencies who support crime victims.  My first stop was the Safer Homes project where I met Pam, Ellen, Britney & Jennifer.  Thank you ladies for showing me around and giving up your time to spend with me this morning.  It was so interesting to find the vast similarities in how the agency works and the issues that we have to deal with.  Hopefully along the way we can continue to share best practice in supporting victims of crime across the pond.
I then got to me Rodger at the Community Corrections Unit, who was a wealth of information on how juveniles are dealt with in the system and Kansas’s approach to detering them from offending again.  Thank you for giving up a part of your morning.
I had a tour of the court house, but just missed the judge and learnt a lot more about how witnesses are supported at court.
Mary who chaperoned with me all day was just fantasitc and the agency that she used to work for (and still volunteers with ), CASA, works on a similar basis to that of Victim Support so I really got chance to pick her brain about the agency, fnding out what works and whats challenging.

We hit the road again tomorrow after lunch for the last time and head back to Wichita.  Time to cram the last few activities in and fill the suitcases with goodies (well, we have to help to support the economy while we are here!)

 

Saturday 8th November

We are all now offically having a well deserved rest for the next 24hours as we have been on for 3 weeks now.  Only 1 week to go until this experience is over (don’t really want it to be as I am having an amazing time).  We are staying at a lovely B & B in a town called Winfield.  It is quite remotely located away from the hussell & bussell of the town, which is ideal and such a gorg place to stay (def recommend it).

I realised I have not shared Election night with everyone back home.  We were in Hutchinson on Tuesday and about 8pm went to the court house where all the counting of the votes takes place and where the votes come in for that county.  In the foyer of the court house there was a TV screen set up with a live feed to the results.  A few people were gathering to see what was happening as the local seats were just as important as the Presidential election.  Again, we were very lucky (we are clearly a group of very lucky people) to get to go down into the basement at the court where it was a hive of activity.  Here the results were coming in.  The memory cards from the voting machines were being loaded into new machines and any paper votes that had been sent out by mail had to be checked backed in and accounted for.  Needless to say we didn’t stay that long as we did not want to distract the counters from their important jobs.  After here we headed to the party of the Republican Senator for the county, Terry Bruce at a local restaurante in town, while he waited for his results.  The Presidential election results were also being displayed.  Terry Bruce was successful in retaining his seat in the county and as you are all aware by now that Barak Obarma was voted in to be the next President of the USA.  It was a real experience to be the US at this time and I would like to thank rotary for this experience as well as my closest friend for putting me forward for the GSE programme and the support of my local club, Blythe Bridge Rotary.

The past 3 days we have spent in a town called Pratt.  Quite a small town with a population of about 6000, what they lacked in size they made up for in spirit.  We have all enjoyed our time in Pratt and everyone there has made us feel so very welcome.  Phil & Joan Farmer were my lovely hosts and I had a blast with them.  They have a beautiful home, including hot tub, which I got to try out a couple of time (when in Rome!!!).  Would like to say a big thank you to Phil and Joan for taking such good care of me and for making me feel very welcome in your home.
The best part for me in Pratt however, was by far, my vocational day.   I spent half the day at Pratt county court with Kathy Harvey, Court Services Officer.  Kathy is involved in mediation in juvenile cases as well as domestic violence.  Along with mediation Kathy oversees elements of the sentencing (a small aspect of the UK probation service) and involving the victim in what punishment they would like to see given out to the offender.   Up until my time with Kathy I was struggling to work out how the process works in the USA for victims of crime.  Kathy has helped me to put together the random jigsaw pieces that were floating about in my little brain.  The fact that the victim is consulted and involved in desiging and setting the punishment is quite revolutionary and wonder where the UK is really ready for something like this?  Truely putting the victim at the heart of the criminal justice system.   I would like to extend my thanks and gratitude to Kathy Harvey, Dale McFarland and everyone else at the county court, I really gained so much from my morning with you.

I could not tell you about our time in Pratt without mentioning our trip to the Z Bar Ranch.  The Ranch is owned by Ted Turner (used to married to Jane Fonda, owns the most land in the USA, 2million acres).  Well, Ted was not at home when we called by, but Keith & Eva were both in and they manage the Ranch for Ted.  They both showed us around the 43′000 acre ranch where they have 3000 head of buffalo.  It was actullly like being on safari.  We got to go to a Praire Dog town (like little guinnea pigs), saw wild tukey and a few white tail deer.  Thank you so much Keith & Eva for showing us around, we really enjoyed it all, including the wind.  Please pass on our thanks to Ted Turner and tell him sorry we missed him, we’ll catch him next time we are in town.

Wednesday 5th November

Another day and another town, yep we have moved again.  We are now in a town called Pratt, population approx 5000.  Hutchinson was an amazing place to stay and visit and I really enjoyed my time there.  My host family, Russ, Nancy & John were brillant and made me feel very welcome in their home.   We have certainly experienced some cool things on this trip and our time in Hutchinson is no exception.  We toured the Cosmosphere (space museum) which was just fasinating.  They have space camp there in the summer for children on break from school.  Children get to be involved in really interesting & exciting programmes such as imitating the launch of a space rocket and working in the control room, needless to say I have put my name down for next summer!  We were incredibly lucky however as Chris, who is a rotarian at Hutchinson and the manager at the museum showed us around and took us down to the archives.  We actually got to touch the door from Apollo 13 (not the film, the one from the real rocket) as well as have a feel of Buzz Alridges space glove, from his mission to the moon. 

As well as seeing the delights of Hutchinson I was lucky enough to get to spend some time with the women from the Sexual Abuse & Domestic Violence agency that is in town.  I would like to send my thanks to Candice, Linda and the team for taking the time out on Tuesday morning.  Learning about how organisations such as these operate and run has been really intersting.  I am not only struck by the differences that are faced by the organisations in the USA and Victim Support, as well as the differeneces in the Criminal Justice System as a whole but also by the similarities that exist between the crimes and the organisations, regardless of culture and community.  There are always room for improvement but what I have learnt (and what is certainly true at home) is that everyone who is working in these organisations is making the most of what they have and pushing the potential.  What I have not found yet though, is an agency that covers everything that Victim Support does at home.  The crimes that happen in the smaller towns & cities are a little different than what happens in Stoke-on-Trent on a weekend night, but I feel that there may be a gap in the market for more global support here in the USA for those that become a victim of crime - anyone fancy sponsoring me to set one up?

Monday 3rd November

Tomorrow is election day here in the USA, as I’m sure you are all aware, how exciting.  We are now in a new town, a rather large town, called Hutchinson and arrangements have been made for us to go to the Senators party tomorrow night and await the results of the election – how exciting, more of that to follow over the next day or two.
More importantly, you should all know that I have now been promoted from cowgirl to Sheriff and I even have the badge to prove it!! Sheriff Shenton kinda have a catchy ring to it, don’t ya think? (Honest, photos to follow shortly).
We have spent the  weekend at the District Conference in Wichita and we had a blast.  Saturday night we took a trip to Cowtown to experience real cowboy music – the Diamond W Wranglers.  Real toe tapping, thigh slapping music and we had a blast.  It was at this dinner that all the GSE team were called up onto the stage along with Shohbit, Rotary Youth Exchange student from India, where we were all presented with our Sheriffs badge, don’t worry, I wont let the power go to my head.  We even had our first opportunity of showing Wichita how the English party and we definatley did it in style (with a little help from Rob, Erica & Cary).  We danced to the Proclaimers and closed down a few bars.  Midnight munchies in Wichita consisted of a visit to IHOP (internation house of pancakes), I definately think this is something that needs to be introduced back home.

The District Conference was really interesting and it was so nice to see some of the familiar faces that we have met along the way.  (Steve J. we did it to you again didn’t we, sorry we did not get chance to say goodbye, we all really enjoyed catching up with you this weekend).  We have heard some really fantastic speakers, from Jerry Traylor who has walked from the west coast of the USA to the east on crutches, Leah Klass a Rotary World Peace Fellowship scholar and it was interesting to hear the experiences of the USA outgoing GSE team to Argentina.  Unfortunately we have missed Chief Piccotto speaking (the highest ranking fire officer to survive the attack on the World Trade Centre but we did manage to squeeze in 5 minutes of talking with him before we left for the weekend.  I am very much looking forward to reading his book. 
On Saturday we had a surprise for the conference and took a little of our culture to them in way of entertainment – a Pub Quiz.  Everyone in the room participated, covering different topics from Geography to Music, all about the UK.  The winners even got a prize! 
We presented to the conference on Sunday afternoon and hopefully it was well received.  It went without any technical hitches as Pete has now become a wizz with tackling anything that arises with our IT.  Malcolm even got to do his skit for the conference.  His skit is a song that he has made up about the group and the experience we are having here in Kansas & Oklahoma – Malcolm has now become a bit of legend in his own right due to this song and there were even requests for him to sing it at the conference, of which he was only too happy to oblige.  Don’t worry, we have it on film and will hopefully be posting it on You tube any day now.  (thanks to Pete and his wizardy with IT again). 

I would just like to say thank you to everyone who is following my journey and reading my blog diary.  It means a lot to me that you are taking the time to read all about the amazing & wonderful time I am having here in the USA (especially those at home, where the weather is probably a bit grim).
I apologise that I have not been able to reply to everyone individually.  I am getting your posts and it means a lot to know that my colleagues, the Rotary clubs at home, host families from my trip, rotarians from my Kansas & Oklahoma, friends and family are keeping up on my antics.  Watch this space though, as I still have 2 weeks left and more to come. X

Saturday 1st November

We are now back in Wichita after a few hectic days in Boise City.  Thank you so much to John & Anita Miller for hosting Hayley and myself.  We both had such a lovely time staying with you.  Terri and Helen took us hunting for dinosaurs, think that was my last installment to you all.  Well alas we did not find any but we did find their foot prints, rather large footprints of a T-Rex.  Pretty cool to find.  Thursday was a really busy day, we covered about 4 states in one day – hoenst, Texas, New Mexico Oklahoma and Colorada, photographic evidence to prove it!
We took a trip to a place called Autograph Rock, this is basically a rock overhang on the edge of the Cimarron River on the Santa Fe trail where the wagon coaches would stop to rests and those passing through would leave their names & dates etched onto the rock, some dates going back to mid 19th century.  We also got to see part of the trail and the tracks that were made by the Wagon trains coming through – really interesting and fastinating to see this amazing history.  Big thank you to Helen and Terri for arranging the day for us all. 
One highlight of the day was the bed & breakfast that we got to stop at for lunch.  Black Mesa B & B is literally in the middle of nowhere, such a beautiful setting and  I think we could have all stayed for a few days.  We got to sample Green Tomato Pie for pudding – interesting, rather nice actually, only thing that I can liken it to is a mix between Apple & Gooseberry Pie.  Could have stayed longer with you Vicky, looking forward to coming back and staying with you one day.

Now we are back in Wichita where we first started.  Cannot believe that we are half way through this experience, 2 weeks left and lots more things still to do and enjoy I’m sure.  We are here for the District Conference this weekend and have already performed our surprise to the conference this morning.  Think the congregation got a bit of a shock this morning when we asked them to participate in our version of The Great British Pub Quiz.  It was lots of fun though and went down well.  We even had prizes to hand out.  Steve Woods (GSE Co-orindator) won a prize & so did Terri, our host from Boises City, to name a few. 
Tomorrow we are performing our presentation and then head out to Hutchinson.  Thats after getting dolled up in our Cowboy/Girl outfits tonight and 2 stepping with the Diamond W Wranglers.  Too say I am excited about this is a bit of an under-statement.  Dont worry y’all at home, I have every intention on purchasing one of the groups CD’s so I’ll show you my moves when I get back home.

Thursday 30th October

Everyone is getting ready for Hallowe’en here and we are all excited to be involved in the festivities, well I am anyway as I’m a big kid.  Just a quick update as we are are getting ready to head out for the day.  I had a rather tasty cinnamon roll for breakfast, which was a real treat, I’ve been craving them since I have been here.

Yesterday was a really interesting day.  We got to spend the morning talking with Judge Kincannon at Boise City Court house.  We sat in the court for a hour in the morning to watch cases that were being dealt with.  This was really fasinating, very different to court in the UK, more informal and relaxed.

We’re off hunting for dinosaurs today, wish us luck.

Tuesday 28th October

It has been another jam packed couple of days and I am not expecting that to change, and dont actually want it to change, I plan to take in as much as possible while I’m here.

We are now in Boise City in Oklahoma. We travelled from Ulysses today after a morning spent touring the various education facilities. I had 3 lovely young ladies, Skylar, Valeria & Alex show me around the elementary school – they were the perfect tour guides and I would like to say a big thank you to the girls. We all promise to get Flat Stanley back to the UK and take some pictures of him staying in our homes.

Monday was such a busy day. Spent the morning round a few of the different businesses in Ulysses, including a grain elevator. To those that live out side the USA, they are really tall tube buildings that store grain & wheat from the farmer. We managed to go to the top – 300ft up, didn’t have to climb the ladder for that thankfully, but did get to ride a rather scarey one man elevator controlled by the person in it! (That was me, then!)
The afternoon was really fasinating to me. I spent it with an organisation called Doves, who support domestic violence victims. I would like to extend my thanks to Penny, Angela, Samantha and Laura for giving up there time to talk with me yesterday. I really got a lot from visiting with them. As well as being fortunate to view the local shelter. I could have spent the whole day there jabbering away and comparing how services differ from that at home. My eyes were really opened to the difference in circumstances faced by women of domestic violence here in this part of the country and the woman at Doves provide such an amazing service above and beyond the call of duty.

We attended the Rotary meeting at Ulysses last night and our presentation was the warm up act for Jerry Traylor, he was born with Cerebral Paulsey and has walked from west coast America to the east coast of America on crutches, such an amazing and inspirational person, we will all be lucky enough to see him again at the District Conference next weekend. Looking forward to it Jerry.

Sunday 26th October

Well today has been a day of firsts. We are now in Ulysses having moved on from Guymon, Oklahoma. We all had such an amazing time in Guymon and Hayley & myself had so much fun staying with the Novak family. A very big thank you to Bonnie, Hunter, Ethan & Griffin for your amazing hospitality. I have to publicly thank Hunter for helping me kill my first Rattlesnake, peeps! (yep, a rattlesnake) Wrestled that bad boy to the floor and then kept the rattle as a momento -alas, I’ve had to leave it behind though, cant bring it home with me to show you.

Guymon was totally amazing and I was very sorry to leave. Yesterday (sat) we took part in the universitys home coming parade (Oklahoma Panhandle State University)and even had our own float to ride along the parade in. Was amazing experience. After the parade we got a horse drawn carriage ride round the town of Goodwell and then onto the Football game to watch from the Presidents box. It was brillant to watch the whole event unfold even though I had no clue what the rules were. We stayed till half time when the crowning of the Home coming king & queen took place, grabbed a picture with some of the ball players and then headed off to ride our horses into the sunset!! OK, so maybe not into the sunset, but we did go and have a go of horse riding. I managed to stay on but wasn’t the best at controlling the animal – I think it would be better if I knew my left from my right, I think I confused that poor horse quiet a bit.

On friday afternoon we spent a couple of hours in our vocation. We actually managed to catch some free time with the Judge in Guymon, Judge Zigler. It was just fasinating to sit down with him and talk about the Criminal Justice system and am sure I speak for Hayley also, to say that we really got a lot out of it – thank you very much Judge Zigler for your precious time. What I also found totally mind blowing was visiting the old jail in Guymon, on the 3rd floor of the court house which was used till about 1997 and then the comparisons between the two when Rod O’hara arranged for us to visit the new local jail. Thanks to Rod for this experience, it was amazing. (and everything else that Rod arranged for us, our time in Guymon will always be remembered as very precious)

So, today had definatley been the day of first in terms of sampling different modes of transport. Got to have a drive around on a 4×4 golf buggy (not very exciting to some, but to me it was brill) around the wetlands & golf course here in Ulysses. This morning however, Hayley, Pete & I got to go up in Larry Rumberg’s private plane to check out the Kansas horizon. Was brillant experience, ever if I did leave my stomach up there when I got back to terra firma!! The landscape is so different to anything that I have seen and i’m sure the pictures will not do it justice. Big thank you for Larry to taking us up in the blue beyond.

We are all off to Margarets house for tea this evening. Margaret was on the in-coming team to the UK from districyt 5690 Kansas/Oklahoma. It will be really nice to see her and find out how she has gone since she has got back for the UK. I wonder if she is missing the oatcakes??

Thursday 23rd October

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone for your lovely messages, I am getting them and I am reading them but I am sorry that I am not able to respond to you individually as I’m busy practising my cowgirl techniques. Kathy, sorry, think am going to be a cowgirl now so no time for calling referrals (tehe). Beth, sorry I didnt catch you before I left, I did pop in but you werent there.

Well today I have offically been to 3 different states. Hayley & I are now staying with a lovely family in Guymon, Oklahoma and took a trip to the Texas boarder sign also.
Our road trip to Guymon took us a few hours but was soooo much fun. We crammed all the luggage into the truck (I wont even begin to tell you about how difficult it was to pack everything in our bags). Steve Johnson drove us from Newton club and was sooo entertaining for the entire journey (thanks steve). We found the yellow brick road today and took a tour of the the Land of Oz museum, which was a lot of fun. Alas none of us had our ruby red slippers with us, but at the moment none of us want to go home so wont be clicking our heels just yet.

Wednesday 22nd October

It was our last full day in Newton today and we planned to make the most of it. Last night was our 2nd presentation to the Newtown Rotary Club. The presentation went well and can honestly say the shaking knees did not appear. Newton Rotary club have been amazing and have made us all feel very welcome that we will be sad to leave in the morning. We have only been in town for a few days but the hospitality we have received has made us feel that we have known the Newton clan long before arriving.
The morning started with breakfast – food here has certainly been second to none. Breakfast at the Stucky household then off to the meet up with the others for a trip to the Eisenhower Museum in Abilene. The tour was really interesting & took in a museum & the house that Dwight Eisenhower grew up in.
We stopped off at an old cowtown on the way back to Newton with an old western saloon & railway station. No cancan girls or 6 gun shooters in town, so we were quite safe, although Old Bill Hancock did used to walk the roads around here.

The afternoon was spent in town with the Econmic Development Council then a tour around the local bank and a chance to chat with The President about the recent econmony.
We have been so fortunate so far along the trip and everyone that we have met has been fantastic & gone out of their way to organise things for us. This afternoon we went to a local house of one of the first settlers into the area, the Mennonites from the Ukraine who came to plant, harvest & manage winter wheat crop.

Kathy & Frank gave us a tour of some of the houses that are up for sale in the area at the golf course and myself, Annica & Hayley are busy trying to work out our finances to arrange putting a desposit down on one!

Yello brick road tomorrow……..

Tuesday 21st October

I am now offically a cowgirl. Cant quite believe the amount of stuff that we have been up to in the last few days. We are really packing it all in and loving every minute. Sunday we took a trip out to the biggest store in the USA selling cowboy gear and we all got kitted out. Saw a few proper cowboy’s in there too. We had a BBQ on sunday night with Steve Woods, the GSE co-orindator here & his wife Kitchel & Marion & daddy Mac, another of our host families. The families that we have been staying with have all just been lovely and its quite sad to leave them behind when we move onto the next leg of our journey.
Monday was our first presentation to Steve Woods’ rotary club – quite a large club with over 400 members, think there was only a few people there monday though – about 300! Despite a few shaking knees and technical issues, we breezed though it and are all pleased we have now done our first presentation.

We are now in a city called Newton and having a ball. Last night we have a “cook out” at a ranch owned by one of the Rotarians, it was our first weener roast and hot cider. Of course, we were all appropriately dressed in our cowboy & cowgirl attire. Then it was off to the bar for a game of American Football & a few beers. As most will know I’m not really a beer drinker so when I asked for the waitress for a glass of wine the puzzled look on her face was second to none, dont think wine is quite common in a sports bar!

Today has been another busy day. We have spent the morning as a group going round the court house in town and learning about other services that exist here in the Newton, even met with a DV advocate (for those at work, I thinks thats an IDVA equivalent). It was all very interesting and have found lots of comparsions as well as big gaps in the UK Criminal Justice System.
There is lots more that I could tell you about but I’m running out of time as we are just off to Newton Club for our second presentation of the tour.

Sunday 19th October

After being awake for about 22 hours we have arrived in Wichita, got some rest and some food in our bellies – although I don’t think we will go short on the food for the entire trip.
Flights went very smoothly but was totally gutted to miss out on Cinnibon at Chicago Airport, the closest I got was a wiff of the gorg smell as we went rushing by to meet our connecting flight.
We were met at Wichita Aiport by 4 wonderful Rotarians from the Downtown Wichita club then proceeded to spend the rest of the evening together chatting, getting to know one another, drinking (of course) and dinning. It was like we had always been friends, despite having met only 2 hours earlier.
As jet lag got the better of us one by one we drifted off to our rooms.

Its only been day one and so far the hospitality and the friendliness of everyone has been second to none. Can’t wait for this afternoon as the designs of what our trip will bring will slowly be unfolded, not sure if this is before or after we have gone shopping for our cowboy/girl outfits. To say I am excited would be a massive understatment.

Thursday 16th October

Technology is clearly advancing faster than I can keep up with it as its taken me about 8 weeks to try and work out how to add things to this blog, but I have clearly mastered it (I hope) and just in the nick of time too. So, from now I plan to bombard you all with my antics on this adventure of a life time.

I finished work yesterday and am slowly winding down from it all. Today has been rather busy buying the last minute essential items and trying to think about the things that I might forget.
As well as packing for my trip I’m busy getting things for redecoration of my house while I’m away.
My pets (that of my chilli plant and my pepper plant) have gone on their own little holiday to my folks while I’m away. I’m sure that my mum will do a fine job looking after them.

Tomorrow is packing day which will be very interesting and like the other girls will be having the debate of how many shoes is too many? As well as attempting to make it all fit!

Friday night we will all be at the Farewell meal in Wolverhampton with the American GSE team. One last chance to catch up with them on UK soil and then home to throw in the bags the last minute things and a cat nap.

Please feel free to leave any responses on my diary page or on my own page.
PS – X-Factor updates would be greatly appreciated.