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!