Tuesday 30th Lake County and an elementary school

Lake County Tech School and an elementary school

Monday September 29

Another busy day in the life of the GSE Dream Team and dreams certainly do come true as we made it to a White Sox game today....but more on that later! The day began with a visit to the College of Lake County---an institution a bit like our Polytechnics where we had a quick tour and a run down on the Alumni and Foundation programmes they administer. It was a campus of about 6000 students and we really enjoyed having a look around. The University Center was the next stop on our vocational itinerary. What an amazing place! The technology facilities available in this place would be the envy of any educational institution we have in NZ. We took lots of photos and will be telling our bosses that this is what we need in our places of work!! This facility was able to be rented out per room depending on the presentation needs of a particular group. All rooms had state of the art technology.
A lunch meeting with the Grayslake Rotary Club had us singing our National Anthem and exchanging a banner before heading off in to Chicago City and the US Cellular Field to see the White Sox vs Detroit Tigers baseball game. This was made possible by one of our host Rotarians and with a cancellation of the afternoon's prearranged schedule we were able to join the White Sox fans and cheer for the home team. It was a great atmosphere and it is amazing how quickly one can become a fan of the home team!
What a brilliant couple of hours to experience a major US sports game! This has truly been a highlight for us---thank you John!
With a quick trip back up to Waukegan we arrived just in time for a specially prepared barbeque meal of ribs (pork), chicken drums,salad and peach cobbler for dessert. We received a generous gift from the hosting area of tee shirts, drink bottles, pen, pencils, notebook etc etc.......very spoilt!
All in all another wonderful day in the US of A.

Monday - Lake County and The Chicago White Sox!!!

A photo diary.....
In class, at the University Center of lake County.




A quiet moment....




Incredible!!! We got tickets to a big game!! Thank you so much John, the Chicago Whitesox versus the Detroit Tigers!





And we got on telly with our New Zealand flag and the White Sox won!!

Saturday and Sunday

Well Saturday morning and the team was up and packed, and packed again and repacked into second suitcases! Then we all met at the train station and were driven into Chicago City. We stayed at a hotel in the central city and enjoyed a picnic in Millenium Park looking at the 'Bean'. Then the boys headed off for a boys tour of the city - this apparently included a tour of the art gallery and the library and a tour on the free tram, so we were most impressed. The girls headed off down Michigan Ave and found a few shops but we were pretty restrained, also the cultural centre and then we took a tour on the free tram aswell which included Navy Pier.



Back to the hotel to change and then dinner and then WICKED, which is a musical about the the wicked witches of oz - set in time before the story of the wizard of oz - and it was fabulous.
Then onto a sports bar and some pool with Cath - a GSE ALumnus - who hosted us in her fair city.
A late night followed by an early morning start so we could make it to Waukegan Marina to go sailing. Fab drive with our host through some of the most expensive real estate and one of the most exclusive post codes in the US. We also went past Northwestern University and we think we saw some frat houses - cool!
The boat - a Catalina 42 Mk 11 2009 (!) was absolutely beautiful, sparkly new. Unfortunately there was quite a bit of a chop, wind and some ominous clouds so we didn't go sailing but our host was wonderful. We relaxed on the boat, enjoyed watching the coming and goings off the marina and then he cooked us BBQ lunch and we chilled out before being picked up by our new host families.

A Village People kind of day!

The end of Friday here and another interesting day. It started with a trip to the Ela District Library which is an absolutely phenomenal facility! If you have time, visit the website and take the virtual tour http://www.eapl.org/
We again got the tour of every nook and crannie, great descritions of the programmes they offer, and more souviners. They have a number of different study and work spaces, mid-size conference rooms for hire, courtyard reading areas and about 150 computers throughout for free public use! The place employs over 90 staff and has everything for loan from books, magazines, music CD's videos, dvd's, gaming machine games, and much more.

Lake Zurich Rotary Club is our host for the day, and it was their club lunch meeting day where we presented, and had a lot of laughs. They are a relatively young club who are vibrant and enjoy taking the mickey out of each other!

From here it was off to the Foglia YMCA http://www.fogliaymca.org/
Bonnie was out tour guide and we were also joined by a local newspaper who were doing an article on our Rotary Exchange.
The YMCA has a focus on physical activity programmes and again has amazing facilities including an indoor pool, large gym, weights facilities, workout studios, cycling classes, sauna, steam room, circuit classes, indoor high ropes, fixed weight machines, and the list goes on...
The complex is funded out of the Chicago Metropoliton YMCA and also makes good money out of its 16,000, yes 16,000 members from the community.

Ice cream by the lake and then a goodbye to Sector 3 function at a Rotary Past District Governors house befor being transported home.

Schools and GSE Alumni

This morning (Thursday) started with a presentation at a the Barrington Breakfast Rotary Club. From here Brent was taken in a brand new Corvette to Barrington Middle School Station Campus where he met with the Principal for an hour to discuss the ins and outs of his job and what his school is like. It is the equivalent of a school for Year 6, 7, and 8 Students (the old Std 4 to Form 2) and it has 1000 students! The campus is very well resourced and had a really positive feeeling about it. Barrington is a pretty affluent area and 60-70% of a households property tax goes towards the school district.
If we thought this was impressive, then we were in for an eye-opener at the High School! WOW!!!! Talk about well resourced - it was incredible! Brent is staying with Dr. Tom Leonard, the District Superintendent, who showed us around the school. The roof area of the school is 52 acres - it is huge. They have 3000 students attending and even have their own full-time policeman! Big auditorium, 25m indoor swimming pool, Television studio, Kids playground with roundabouts and slides for teaching physics and forces, on-site child care facility for staff - which doubles as a child development study class for senior students, brand new turf American Football field with rubber 400m track around the outside, and so it goes on. If I had to go back to high school, that is where I would want to be!! Were presented with Barrington High School Sports Hoodies before leaving. Could have easily spent a week in these schools.

This afternoon we went into Chicago to the Old Town School of Folk Music, which runs community programmes in guitar, piano, dance, art, etc. An amazing community-changing place that has aided in the social development of the community.


At 6pm we were hosted at a GSE Alumni gathering where we met with people from this district who had been on trips like us before. It was great to share stories and talk about the joys and pressures of being involved in such a trip.

Troubled Times for Newspapers!

Another interesting day in Chicagoland!
Two visits today to two different newspapers - one that puts out weeklys, at a cost to buyers, into suburbs (much like High country Herald or Christcurch Star) and the other, the 'Daily Herald', obviously a daily paper that has about 140,000 subscribers.

At the Pioneer Press this morning, we met with the Editor and a number of reporters to dicuss their jobs and what the big issues are facing newspapers. The big one is the internet and how many people are now getting their news that way. Most papers publish their stories straight to the net as well as to press, all photos are now digital, and many papers are doing video interviews so that video footage can be put on the net to support the written words.

Lunch at a mexican restaurant before viwing a printing operation at the Daily Herald.
Amazing stuff technology-wise here, with the way they move the 1.3 tonne rolls of paper around and onto the machines - all robotic and very smooth so as not to disturb the print run. Print tablets are all digitally done now, still onto thin metal, but rather than raised typeface, they are printed with a material that acts like a magnet for the ink and sticks to it that way.
What was amazing about this visit was that Rob, the man who showed us around (a Rotarian) is the Vice-president of this company - a company that has been in his family since the 1890's! He took out his van today to transport us around, gave us the tour, and was so personable - the amazing hospitality continues!
What he did tell us though is that his company is also fighting the internet, and is likely to drop for the fourth year in a row its turnover. This is significant, and another sign that print media is really struggling over hear. Even this week, the New York Times has announced job cuts in relation to falling print readership.

Went to dinner at out team leaders host family's house tonight - wonderful Indian food and great conversation about the political scene, the financial issues, and whether the Cubs and White Sox will meet in the baseball finals or not!

Tuesday 23rd....we think!

Hi everyone, well we are now with our families in sector three. We met up with our new hosts last night after our presentation with the Lake in the Hills Rotary Club and their guests - 6 other clubs!
Yesterday, which was Monday, we spent time at McHenry County Community College. This was a great vocational day as the college had arranged a session matching everybody's interests. we had lunch in the cafeteria, and after a tour we returned once again to the Police station. None of us have spent so much time on the inside of a police station before (!!) but it was great as our host had arranged for us to use their meeting room and we worked on our presentation. Then home to pack and change for our Rotary meeting and our presentation which we really enjoyed giving to all those people who had looked after us and hosted us.

Today, we gave our first Breakfast Club presentation to Long Grove Rotary Club. Then we all enjoyed a gentle stroll around the village shops before heading off to Volo Car Museum. We all really admired the beautiful american cars and loved siting in the movie cars. We had a chicago classic hot dog for lunch before heading to the Good Shepherd Hospital and we were amazed to have access and see the inside of an accident and emergency department and cardiac care unit.
This evening it has been a lovely relaxing evening with our hosts.

The weekend....

Over the weekend the five of us have had lots of different experiences and adventures.
In short.... Kate went with her family on Saturday to Chicago and on Sunday spent the day on a horse farm, riding horses and picking pumpkins for Halloween. Naomi went for a ride on a Harley Davidson and saw a nuclear power plant, and later went to Lake Geneva and had a great family day at the lake. Wayne and Cheryl also went to lake Geneva with their respective host families.Brent had a really chilled out and relaxing day with his hosts and enjoyed a cook out.
On Sunday, Kate was with her family on the farm, while the rest of us all met at the train station early in the morning. We had an awesome day, the highlights included a boat trip with architectural tour, lunch at Billy Goat - "Cheeseborger, cheeseborger, cheeseborger"!! Oh and cocktails on the 96th floor of the John Hancock building!! Wayne meanwhile was at the Bears game and sending us picture texts - thanks dude! The game went into overtime so it was super exciting and he had a fantastic time.
Our hosts were absolutely incredible, we had an amazing day.

Friday - and off to Woodstock!

Today started with coffee at the Lake in the Hills Police Department with the detective sergeant (gun and all!) One of our day hosts (Jim) is the big chief there. He is a great guy who was one of only 1% of law enforecment officers who gets to do FBI training, and, who likes to drive his police issue car down the freeway in a hurry and commented to me, 'I see you don't mind the speed, I haven't seen you step on the imaginary brakes yet!'. I didn't know whether to laugh or be scared.
Our first stop for the day was a town called Woodstock. Thie town square here is where the movie 'Groundhog Day' starring Bill Murray was filmed.
We had 2 hours at the Challenger Technology Centre. This place is amazing! After the Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster in 1986, the familes of the fallen astronauts wanted to give something back and started these centres (about 4 of them in the USA?) to provide teamwork, maths, science and adventure education for school students. Here the students run a space shuttle simulated mission, with computers and equipment set up like mission control, with half of the class running this, while in the capsule room, the rest of the class are manning the space shuttle and communicating via computers and radio transmissions with ground control. Has to be seen to be believed - just and amazing opportunity. Lots of intersting memorabilia on the walls and great stories to go with them!



From here we wandered through Woodstock square and into the old McHenry County Courthouse - an impressive building with great histroy and a number of ghosts!
We started at the bottom (now an art gallery) walking in and out of the records vaults, before going to look around the 'cells' in ther basement (now a restaurant) where the prisoners certainly were prisoners - thick brick walls and small cells. The restaurant owner had keys for tha 'back stairs' and took us up to the top floor and the massive courtroom, where the law books still adorn the walls behind the judges desk and the ghost of a man tried and hung there roams. He was tried in McHenry because of mob connections in Chicago where his trial was not held because of the fear of the officials being corrupt - very Al Capone-ish!
The courthouse cloed in 1972 and on the backborad downstairs (now covered and protected ) are the last County election reult tallies, in which one Richard Nixon recieved the most votes in the County for President!

We had luch in a downtown 'grill' before heading to Lake in the Hills to the Chase Bank. (A short detour along the way had us stop at a Harley Davidson Dealership for a look around the showroom and a photo op sitting astride some great bikes!)
Banking is interesting. Mosat branches have drive through banking where you can get cash from ATMs(lined up like petrol bowsers) or make deposits via a teller from the window of your car!
Unlike our banks, who are getting stricter about who is let in depending on what they are wearing (hoodies, etc) this bank has open desks that the tellers work at (you can walk right around them - no long counters) and the staff meet you at the door, talking about your banking needs with you as you stroll through!
From here we went to a financial planners office, where he gave us a run-down on his work, how the current finanacial situation affects him, and what the future looks like for investing - really interesting given the current climate.

From Tri-Cities to Lake in the Hills

Hi All,
We have now moved to the Lake in the Hills District where we started with a tour around the local police station (fascinating!).The police here gave us great tour - with a recent detainee viewing included! Went through 911 control room, detectives station, cell block, in a car - which have laptops as standard issue now so that they can do reports on the run and have information fed through to them. The new Dodge Charger is the mufti car used for highway patrol - tops out at about 180 miles per hour!! The Dukes of Hazzard used to use one of these toget away from the law, now the law is fighting back! The systems of State, County and Local policing is mind boggling, with each district having it's own police, fire and schools funded from property tax (rates) which are amazingly expensive! About $6000 dollars a year (depending on the value of your property), of which 70% goes to schools - Yay!
This afternoon we went to a local elementary school (primary) and were guests in a number of classrooms giving the students a taste of life in New Zealand. Security is amazing here - you have to be 'buzzed' into the school, announcing your arrival via intercom so that the door can be unlocked for you. The access to classrooms is via corridors and lunch (either your own or provided) is eaten in the cafeteria. Outside the playground is fenced, again so no-one from the public can access the school or it's students.
The schools is dependent on ISATS (Illinois State Attainment Tests) to determine student progress and how the teachers are performing! Very scary and therefore quite an interesting curriculum!


Golf went well yesterday (Wednesday)- they have a trolley that goes around the course selling candy, snacks and BEER! It's cold too - better than carrying your own around and letting it get warm! That night we went to a steak fry (Bbq) and did our first presentation - really well received, and they said it was the best GSE presentaion they had seen! Sad to leave that district this morning, but excited about our days ahead!!

What a day! Today we started off with Mark on an Illinois Amercian History Tour! Much to Naomi's delight, we started with a visit to a Frank Lloyd-Wright house (Below) that Mark had actually lived in and renovated! He was able to point out the features - like how the design 'hugs' the ground - like the flat of the prairie. FWL also invented the design of the 'four triangles' roof.
Mark then took us to his home (built in the 1840's!) and just down the street we observed a hospital that was originally used to house 'deranged women' - enough said!!
From there we drove an hour an a half through the flat of Illinois farmland - rich with corn and soy bean crop - the area known as the 'Bread Basket of the World'. It was amazing to turn 360 degrees and only see the horizon! Not a mountain or hill in sight.
After a few detours (due to the heavy floodong of the Illinois River) we arrived at Starved Rock to be greeted by an amazing log lodge - built by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp.) during the great depression of the 1930's. We had lunch before walking over to Starved Rock, where two tribes of indians trapped another tribe, starving them to death! From there we went to the St. Louis Canyon (pictured above).
A trip back to Geneva, a pick-up by host families, and another day done!
Today (Wednesday) we HAVE to play in a Rotary Golf Tournament before our first official presentation this evening!

IMSA and Sikich - Monday 15th

What a day! It started out for Wayne and Brent with a ride (thanks to Mark) to Wayne's first vocational appointment which was at Sikich. Sikich is a multi-disciplined chartered accountancy firm who have a staff of 300 and a $48 million turnover. Wayne met with a number of different partners, including lunch with an investment banker and a tour of the premises (which includes a gym, games room and relaxation room!).

Meanwhile, over at the Illinois Maths and Science Academy (IMSA) Brent, Kate, Cheryl and Naomi were having an amazing start to their first vocational day. IMSA was established in 1985 by the Illinois General Assembly as part of the States educational reform package to address the critical need for the education of students who had particular strengths in math or science. Students are there for 3 years (Sophmore, Junior and Senior) before going off to College (University). All academic staff have at least a Masters Degree. Although the priority is on math and science, they also take classes in History, Languages, Social Sciences, Fine arts, and Well-Being. One of the founders (in the picture above) is Dr. Leon Lederman who has a Nobel Prize in Physics and told us of the time he met Albert Einstein!

The morning started with a meeting with the School's Principal for us all. We then split for a while and Cheryl and Kate met with the College and Academic Counsellor, followed by a Wellness class visit where they got to do Yoga for a while! Meanwhile Brent and Naomi met with the Residential Life Director and then with the Alumni and Development office. We all then spent time with Chris, who is the Instructional Technology Designer - he is basically in charge of pedagogy professional development for staff, as many of them have Masters Degrees in their specialist subjects, but no teaching qualifications!! We finished with a tour of the campus, wonderfully led by one of the students, and left with our mouths wide open in wonder and amazement!

From here we were taken to a Outlet Stores Strip Mall where we had a chance to do some shopping - I think everyone came away with something - and in the two hours we were there, we only saw about 1/3 of the stores!

Brent, Wayne and Kate then met the District 6440 District Governor before taking a walk around the beautiful downtown of Geneva, home of the Kane County Courthouse among other things.

We then had a meal in a bar in St. Charles before ending our day.

Off to Starved Rock national Park tomorrow after a TriCity Rotary Breakfast. Watch this space!

Thanks to Mark and Denny for their fantastic narrated journeys between appointments!

Jersey Boys - Chicago City!

We have arrived!

Hi y'all,
Well we have arrived!! We had a pretty good trip, with spare seats to spread out over on the big flight and loads of great views on the second leg. We are pretty sure we saw the Grand Canyon as we flew over Nevada,Colorado,Nebraska,Iowa and then Illinois. Unfortunately there were a few delays and our families had to wait till nearly midnight for us but it is great to be here and lovely to be welcomed to the USA. The Cummings, Curt Barrett and Mark were there to meet us with the NZ Flag so it was a very excited team at the airport! Local time - its Saturday morning and rain and relaxing with families and a party to go to this afternoon with our Rotary friends. So let the fun begin!!
10pm
Just come home from the Welcome Party! What a gathering--American hospitality at its best! Members from Batavia, St Charles and Geneva Rotary Clubs all turned out at the home of Don and Jeanne Cummings in St Charles to welcome us to District 6440. We exchanged information on our countries and learnt more about what is in store for us over the next 4 weeks. A few beers and wines and much lovely food later....... we're off to bed to catch up on some sleep:)

4 Sleeps to go!!!!

Well here it is departure week at last. Still some last minute organisation going on with bits and pieces,but most of the hard work has been done. We received our Itinerary 2 days ago including a list of our host families so excitement is mounting--especially with the prospect of getting to a 'Bears' game added in to the mix!
Travel documents arrived in the mail today and the suitcase is out and at the ready.
School relief lessons have been set and in Wayne's case--accounts managed and plans put in place for our absence both from work and families.
Naomi (alias Imelda)left for Melbourne today to attend a Conference and deliver a presentation--she returns on Thursday just in time to do her washing (unload shoes)and repack for departure the next day!!
Kate is leaving the Coast on Wednesday--not prepared to risk getting snowed in again and playing it safe this time.It's OK Kate--you'll feel at home as we have plenty of rain over here anyway:)
Brent sang his last band gig for a while at the weekend--his vocal chords will remain well oiled though on Maori Waiata and the National Anthem!
Wayne is compiling the power point presentation and trying to remember what the colour taupe looks like:)(The colour of our Team casual trousers).
Cheryl is sorting the brochure and finalising some shoes (eat your heart out Imelda!)and really looking forward to warmer temperatures and some good times!
Departing Auckland this Friday and arriving in Chicago the same day an hour and a half after we leave!:)
We'll keep you posted.........