We arrived at what was called the 1910 distrikts jamboree. When we arrived we really had little idea of what was going to happen or who was going to be there, we were just told that we had a district conference in Hungary, not too dissimilar from the one that was in Salzburg. The district im in covers Austria, Hungary and Croatia, so we were told that all the kids from that district would be there. We were naturally looking forward to meeting the new exchange students, we wondered what they would be like, it would be really interesting.
We hopped off the sauna, oh, i mean bus, at a nice open grassy kids recreation park. We thought that if we got time to have a look around here it would be alright, there was a place to swim, and everything, tennis courts, basketball, volleyball, so we were hoping that we could get to do some of that. We went in, set down our stuff, and flew into rooms. We then met the others from Hungary and Croatia.
From the word go, we were all more comfortable with our own group. As everyone kept saying, they are just.....wierd. But we wanted to get to know them all the same.
That night, both groups (the Hungary/Croatia group and ours) had meetings to organise what we were going to do for the district conference the next day. We were lucky in that we had done one already and we were going to copy that program, which we did almost exactly. It was a great night. We performed for the rotatians in the lobby of a hotel, and we really did well. I was really happy with the way i sung, especially as it required blowing a few cobwebs out! But we did that, and then socialised with the other group and the rotarians that were there (there were about 350 people there). I met a rotarian from Graz ( i approached him and asked about his typical Styrian dress), he said we should catch up in Graz, so i was looking forward to that.
But the highlight of the night was too come.
Yes, when you become an exchange student you turn into the biggest scrooge in the world, for example, whether to buy the chips that cost 1.70 or 1.90 even though you know you want the 1.90 chips more, becomes an issue. So what could excite an exhange student more, than yes, a full buffet in a very nice hotel. It was our dreams come true. We chowed and chowed and chowed on the best food. It was awesome.
The next day was spent playing sports around the camp. That was i think the best day we had. We played sports, swam all day, had hamburgers by the beach, kicked a footy, and the whities (those who arent latino) even beat the latinos in a soccer match, how we did that i seriously dont know. They had tactics, team talks and everything else, we had guts, no goods, and, um, that was about it. We had the best time though. And that night we went out and celebrated our last night with the group, it was really sad, but a good way to finish it off.
Paz