Bonjour from Belgium!: Beach Parties and Host District news!

I would normally go in chronological order when writing a journal, but for this special edition, we're going to go a little backwards. I say this because, as of today, I will officially be hosted by Rotary District 1630 in Belgium! I got the email from Mrs. Tracy Carroll today during Photography class! Ella and I will be located here for our year, though where exactly, we don't know. All we do know is that we definitely won't be speaking Dutch, but that we could be speaking German and that we might actually be in Luxembourg. Honestly, I'm just hoping for a French Belgian experience.

Here's a map of Belgium (and Luxembourg) with 1630 in the darker grey:

So, we could be placed in a bunch of places, though since we wont be going to the Dutch, it's pretty much just Liege and down. I absolutely cannot wait to find out my host city and I'll update (with pictures of course!) as soon as I find out!

Now, step back about a little over a week to Sunday, January 20, 2013. I got to attend District 6950's beach get-together party inbound-meeting-outbound boat-tour thing! In short, it was amazing! As some of you know, my sponsor district is 6890. But, I am so lonely in my district! I'm the only 2013/14 outbound. So, I emailed Mr. Lobel asking if I could attend the party as well and got a yes!

I drove Lucas (Italy) to Clearwater, which is about an hour's drive away. I navigated the interstate for the first time without getting us killed, so *snaps* would be much appreciated. When we got there, we made name tags, small-talked with some inbounds and outbounds, ate food (I hadn't had Cheetos in forever and I ate so many, sorry...) and just kind of waited around. Once most people were there, some of us decided it would be a good idea to walk down to the beach which was just a little way's away. Turns out the gate was locked, so we just went back and sat by the pool while some of the other's went swimming. We then ate pizza, chatted more, sang Happy Birthday to two of the inbounds, ate cake, and then walked down to our cruise ship.

Okay, let me rephrase that. What it really was was a 3-story giant, loud, dance party, free water, freezing deck, wrapped in a blanket, old people drunk, exchange students and Doctor Who, slow moving, turning around, all around beautiful "Calyspo Queen". It was just great! And I mean that completely honestly. We all had so much fun getting to know each other more and sailing around Clearwater. It was such a great experience!

Now, I must leave you, because this is turning into a novel and I could go into so much more detail, but I wont put you through that, so here are some pictures!

Au Revoir!

-Jess

P.S. Wish me luck for my job interview at Steak n' Shake on Thursday!