Learning Italian, the fast and fun way - Jeff

Mathematics - Elisa

My current mathematical equation (I am still in the process of solving it):
1-50 pound bag + 1 carry-on = 30 Rotary banners, 30 gifts, 1 laptop, pile of clothes for all activities (bicycling to farm tours to formal), 2 blazers, 4 pairs of shoes, 1 camera, and a dozen odds and ends.

Our GSE Team Video

Rotary International GSE Team 2010, D-7330, Southwestern Pennsylvania from Jeff Helsel on Vimeo.

Two Weeks! - Elisa

Two weeks until we are boarding the airplane. Our presentation is a work in progress, but an exciting one. We are making ourselves very flexible - so that at any meeting we can give a ten, twenty, or thirty minute presentation. Similar material (our backgrounds, professions, and Pennsylvania culture), but the shift is all in the delivery. The next biggest challenge will be ensuring we know enough Italian words to go into detail for our longer versions.
An exciting portion of our presentation will be our video. Jeff is utilizing his filming and editing talents to capture all of us in our natural and work settings to compile a video. There are some childhood pictures mixed into the video as well (important to know people's roots), so it will be very entertaining.

Rotary District Conference –Nicole

Our team was invited by our sponsoring Rotary District to spend the weekend at Nemacolin Woodlands for their annual District Conference. For anyone who hasn’t had the opportunity to visit this Luxury Resort, it is rather impressive, and even after being there the entire weekend we still found ourselves having a hard time navigating from point A to point B without getting lost (or at least I found myself having a hard time). The district did set us up with some very nice accommodations and Elisa and I definitely enjoyed having the two bedroom, two and a half bath, condo all to ourselves. However I think the highlight for us all was having the opportunity to spend more time getting to know each other as well as finally being able to meet the GSE team from Italy. It was great getting to practice our Italian with actual Italians plus learning first hand what we should expect in just a few short weeks when we arrive in their district. They were definitely an impressive group of young professionals and I think we all wished that we would have had more time together but the weekend went fast and we were kept busy. The only other glitch was the fact that due to time restraints our presentation was cut short. So short that poor Andrew and I didn’t even get a chance to speak. A bit disappointing considering how much time we put in to preparing but things happen and I’m sure we’ll have our fair share of time to talk about ourselves in Italy. The only difference is then we’ll have to be talking about ourselves in Italian. Yikes! The good news is that we will be flying back to Italy with our new Italian friends so hopefully they can help us prepare on our way. May 4th will definitely be here before we know it but I think overall this great weekend together only helped increase our anticipation for that departure date. We’ll keep you posted!