Luca Mandelli, local inbound Youth Exchange student from Italy helped his New Hartford HS Spartans Track & Field Team bring the first victory in 9 years! (courtesy Utica O-D)

Subject: 2008 CSIET Global Classroom Award Winner
Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2008 13:31:22 -0500

Dear Skaneateles High School, Congratulations, your school has been selected as one of three winners for the Council on Standards for International Educational Travel’s Inagural Global Classroom Awards! Please find attached a letter with information regarding your award, a form to fill out and fax back to our office, and your nomination essay for your review. Again, congratulations for being selected a winner. Please feel free to contact our office with any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Kate Donnelly
Program Officer
Council on Standards for International Educational Travel
212 South Henry Street, Alexandria, VA 22314

Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2008 10:00 PM
Subject: FW: 2008 CSIET Global Classroom Award Winner

Attached is a beautiful essay that describes how special and unique our village of Skaneateles and what a big difference is made by the enriching engagement of Youth Exchange in the schools and community. Lori Ruhlman authored this essay, which has resulted in the Skaneateles High School being selected as one of three winners by CSIET of the International Educational Travel's Inaugural Global Classroom.

Lori put a lot of work into this and of course she did a fabulous job articulating the international support the Skaneateles Community provides to international education. Of course her essay portrays the huge and instrumental role Rotary plays in the communities rich international engagement. Thanks Lori!

Michele Tarnow, Doctoral Student, Department of Sociology
Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University

NOTE: The two Rotary Clubs of Skaneateles and the Skaneateles Central School celebrate this event, along with those in the community involved, the District Youth Exchange Committee, and proud District Rotarians. The award is a $500.00 scholarship to the school for one of their students to study abroad or equivalent funds to be put toward increasing school-wide international awareness. Download essay.

JUNE 2007 - The 2007-08 Youth Exchange Committee met for their Annual required training.

MARCH 2007 - District-Governor elect Marlene B. Brown announced the selection of Mary Stronach to be the 2007-08 District 7150 Youth Exchange Chairperson. Brown said "We thank the past Chair for his service and look forward to the committee continuing the great job they've done with our District's Youth Exchange program. Welcome, Mary. We know your dedication and enthusiasm will serve our children well".
APRIL 2007 Report from Incoming Youth Exchange Chair Mary Stronach: "We had our Youth Exchange meeting yesterday afternoon. The Welcome Home Dinner date is August 1 and it will be held at the Rusty Rail in Canastota. It should be a great night... But don’t plan on getting home early. The kids have a lot to say about their experiences — enlighting, touching, hysterically funny! We will be having a Youth Exchange Officer training on May 29, 31 and June 1".

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PROGRAM NOTES:
The Youth Exchange program in D7150 has a new name and is now incorporated. Their Annual meeting was held in Syracuse on 10/9 where they adopted implementation of a District wide Student Protection Program and certification process. Dg Jerry Gortner and DGE Carol Anthony attended the meeting. Several program changes will go into effect gradually over the coming months with full implementation for the 2006-07 exchange year. In addition the US State Department has published revised regulations for secondary school exchanges which dictate changes in youth exchange programs nationwide. At this time all current Inbound Students, Host Families and the District Committee have received training. Club YEO training is being scheduled for November. The District’s YE Program is in the process of recertification by the Council on Standards for International Educational Travel (CSIET) a VA based student exchange evaluation organization. Ten of our students, their families and their schools will be contacted in the next 30 days for a survey of the quality of our program. In addition we must submit copies of all our documentation and procedures plus a financial audit for review. We also have to submit these materials to RI for their review and certification. Twenty one of our students will be going on a District 7170 sponsored trip to New York City October 21-23rd. Oswego Rotary Club will be hosting all our Inbound students for a YE Weekend December 2-4th. Our District is working with Districts 7170 (Binghamton), 7120 (Rochester) and D7210 (Woodstock) to coordinate our student protection and RI certification activities.

THE 2006-07 EXCHANGE YEAR:
Club Presidents and Youth Exchange Officers will be contacted in October to make club decisions on student hosting for the 2006-07 exchange year. Clubs may submit two exchange student candidates for every one they are willing to host for 2006-07. At this time thirty one clubs have certified their interest in and commitment to the D7150 Youth Exchange program. The deadline for certification is November 1st. We are also contacting all our international partners to verify their RI certification progress and interest in continuing exchanges for 2006-07. Based on the club and international responses, we will determine the number of exchanges for next year.

APPLICATIONS BEING ACCEPTED:
Applications are being received from the District’s school students. The cut-off date for applications to District is 1 November. District interviews are Nov 12, 13 & 19th at BOCES in Verona. Sponsor clubs should send applications to Scott Wisner, 4958 Carnarvon St, Syracuse, NY 13215. We encourage Rotarian’s children and others between 15 and 18 years 6 months as of August 15, 2006 to apply. Applications may be obtained by going to our District YE website at www.rotaryyouthexchange.org and downloading the form. Most of the information can be completed on-line. Students should send their applications to the local Rotary club that will interview them and send successful student applications on to District.

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YOUTH EXCHANGE REPORTS

March 27, 2006
Oh man, very long time, no talk. A lot's gone on in the past 5 months. I've started a somewhat lengthier update, but I won't be able to finish it until next Saturday. I'm going on my high school's graduation trip to the south of Taiwan for the next 4 days. On Saturday I rest and prepare for Rotary D3480's "Around Taiwan Tour" which runs from next Sunday through that Friday. Two weeks from now, my Taiwanese geographical literacy will have reached critical mass!
I'll note a couple of experiences I've had recently (some of which I elaborate on in the update I just mentioned). I toured Taiwan's Legislative Yuan last friday. The LY is Taiwan's national lawmaking body (representative of the government China doesn't even think should exist). We spoke with a legislator (American-educated, so her English was better than mine), and a couple of staffers. And guess where the staffer who organized the tour for us went to grad school? SU! When I asked whether or not she'd heard of Utica, she was like, "Oh yeah, like the beer?" The world is ridiculously small.
My Chinese is coming along ok. I'm not fluent, but I can do most of the basic stuff without a hitch (i.e. order food, ask for directions, proclaim my love for Taiwan, etc.), and I can hold basic conversations. Then there's Taiwanese. I only know about 3 phrases. Taiwanese is a crazy dialect of Chinese that has 8 tones as opposed to Mandarin's 4.
A short list of Taiwanese notables: The Taiwanese premier is in my Rotary club, and the President of Taiwan is in one of my exchange student friends Rotary club. Neither of us have ever seen either at a meeting, but hey. Ang Lee, the director of Brokeback Mountain and winner of this year's Oscar for best director is Taiwanese. Ma Ying-jeou, mayor of Taipei and chairman of the KMT, the Chinese nationalist party, and probable next president of Taiwan, stopped at my school 2 weeks ago today for the ceremonial beginning of construction on some special building. Taipei City Hall is really close to my school (1 subway stop). Actually, Taipei 101 is only about 25 blocks away. It looms ominously over our schools' stadium...
I just wanted to let y'all know that I'm still alive and well, and having a pretty amazing time. More to come in about a week.

April 1, 2006
The time is long overdue for an update on my state of affairs here in Taiwan. The last time I wrote was around the middle of November, so that's getting into the pre-Turkey Day era of my exchange. I've also changed host families twice within that time frame. I'll see if I can't work my way back and try to mention all of the interesting stuff as I can, but there will most certainly be plenty left out. Oh well, good storytelling fodder for when I get home.
Last Friday, about half of the exchange students went on a tour of the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan's version of Congress. After watching the requisite english-language legislative yuan documentary, touting Taiwan as a beacon of democracy in the world, we moved onto the good stuff. Legislator Bi-Khim Hsiao spoke with us for about a half an hour about what her role is in the Legislative Yuan (co-chair of the Foreign Relation committee, leading Democratic Progressive Party member), and then opening it up for a Q & A. I'll talk more about the content of what she said in a bit.
Afterwards, we sat in on a hearing regarding the presentation of a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in Taiwan. Plenty of media at this hearing, and I'll talk more about the Taiwanese media more in a bit. We were then taken to a cozy conference-type room, where four Legislative Yuan staffers took all of our questions for about 50 minutes. (Another aside: all of this was in English.)
Now I can talk a bit about what we discussed with the staffers and with Legislator Hsiao. First some background. There are only two significant political parties in Taiwan: the KMT (Kuomintang) and the DPP (Democratic Progressive Party). The KMT is the Nationalist party that fled mainland China between 1945-1949. The KMT ruled Taiwan under martial law until 1992, when the first democratically elected Legislative Yuan was created. The DPP was the party created when the KMT allowed free elections, and the DPP's political platform is essentially "We're not the KMT."
This seems like an oversimplification, and I thought it was until we spoke with the people at the Yuan. The two focal points of the discussion were the Taiwan-China issue, and what the DPP stood for. After stating the issues that most American politicians run on (health care, terrorism, education, the environment, etc.) I asked what Taiwanese politicians ran their campaigns on. Apparently, their platform is"I'm Chinese!" if they're KMT candidates, or "I'm Taiwanese!" if they're DPP candidates. That's all there is. When one of the staffers was asked if a left-right political spectrum existed at all in Taiwanese politics, he said the no, it was just a matter of nationalistic identification. He said that he knew, after being educated in England for 10 years, that it's hard for westerners to understand a political system. In the end, nothing really gets done in the Legislative Yuan, and the KMT is enjoying the deadlock right now, waiting for the 2008 elections when Taipei Mayor and KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou will probably win the presidential election, making it far easier for the KMT to proceed with their pro-unification between Taiwan and China foreign policy.
The last thing I'll mention about politics is that the Taiwanese premier, kind of like the guy who takes all the hits in the Legislative Yuan, is in my host Rotary Club. Whoa. He's never actually come to a meeting while I've been here, but hey. Most of the Rotary Clubs in Taiwan are actively pro-DPP and pro-independence, which doesn't work out for me, because they only speak Taiwanese at their meetings. Ahhh!
I want to get this update out to day, but I've still got more to write about. So consider this part 1, with part 2 coming sometime after I get back from this week's "Around Taiwan Tour" on Friday. I've just yesterday returned from my class graduation trip, so that'll be in part 2 as well. I just read on the OD's web site that the weather is getting nice again in CNY, so enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. Beautiful weather is starting up in Taiwan again, so we're all on an equal footing. Look forward to some non-political Taiwanese 411 next time!
-Nick, 05-06 Rotary D7150 YE Student, Taiwan

YOUTH EXCHANGE NEWS
November 2005

It is almost unbelievable...more than two months have already gone since I arrived here, August 26th, at Syracuse airport at 11 p.m. after being in several airports for all day!! I was so tired that night, I didn't even realize what was going to happen to me and my life, but I can still remember everything, especially the wonderful reception I was given by my three host families and the other people who were there to greet me: flowers, hugs, kisses and that sign "WELCOME/BENVENUTA Elisa" that is now in my bedroom.

My first weeks here were very difficult, I missed my father, my friends, my life and I could understand less than a quarter of what people around me were saying...it was very strange to live here in a new country, surrounded by new people, knowing that in Italy everything was going on without me but things are much better now! I still miss my family but I know I can't waste this experience I have the opportunity to do and I know that they are happy even without me and so I have to be!

During these weeks, I have tried a lot of new things I didn't even know existed, I have seen different places and people and I have become in contact with the American culture, completely different from what most Italians, influenced by movies and tv, think it is...

My first day at school was a bit shocking: used to my 810-student Italian school, in which we are not allowed to choose what classes to take and the teachers move from room to room, not the students, I found everything so different and strange! I could not understand what was going on around me, my teachers didn't know I was an exchange student and I was very confused, realizing that I was in a huge building with 2650 students...but the situation was going to change and it is much better now: classes are not so hard (apart from the language), teachers are nice and not as strict as mine are in Italy, and school is much more fun than I thought. Some of the friends I met are taking Italian and the funniest thing is that all the people I meet try to speak their "East-Utica Italian" and want me to say Italian words like "mozzarella", "lasagna", "pizza" or their Italian last names...they say everything sounds better if said by an Italian!!

The homecoming week was kind of interesting, it was very funny to see crazy people dressed in strange multicolored clothes walking up and down the stairs, joking with the teachers even during lessons...I will never see something like that in my school. Of course it is not just fun, I have to study if I want to pass my Regents, and it is hard when you don't understand most of the words...I hope I will learn soon and I will get used to everything.

Fortunately my life here is not just school, so many things happened since I have been here: I made milkshakes at the ice-cream booth at the Bazaar during my first Sunday here; I went to the State Faire in Syracuse; I made brownies and cookies; my host family took me to a picnic in Verona Beach; I experienced a real football game (Proctor won!!) sitting in the rain, getting wet and cold, surrounded by noisy people; we went to the Casino for San Gennaro festival; we went hiking to Bald Mountain; we went to Trenton Falls; to the Garlic festival in Little Falls; to a corn maze; I met the other exchange students, spending a really good time with all of them in Lake Placid, where we went ice-skating and had a lot of fun for three days...

Again, it was wonderful to spend a weekend having my 22-year-old twin "brothers" at home, learning about their colleges and their projects, and then watching them making rockets...my brother doesn't do that in Italy!

I had the opportunity to spend some time with my next host families, wonderful and nice people that I love already (as my present host parents, of course); we spent a weekend in Baltimore and we went to Washington D.C.,unfortunately it was so rainy that we couldn't walk throught the Mall that long, but I really enjoyed the museums we visited (including the only Da Vinci painting in the Western hemisphere...)

I went to New York city with other exchange students from all over the world...it was AMAZING! I was so excited...all those huge buildings, those lights, those colors, so beautiful! We went to the top of the Empire State Building at night...zero visibility!!! It was very windy and cloudy so we couldn't see anything but it was so funny!!!! I love it and I hope I will go there again.

Another exciting "thing" was Halloween: we went to a haunted house, I cut the pumpkin and it was nice to see all the kids wandering from house to house trick or treating...we don't celebrate Halloween in Italy so it was something new.

A lot of other things happened with my family that I love so much, all different and new to me. Now everything seems to be OK (apart from some pounds gained...) and I am enjoying my experience here. I am starting to dream in English, I know it will get better day by day, I still have a lot of things to do, places to go, cities to visit and I still have a lot of months to spend here! Now more than two have already gone and I am sure that time will go very quickly, so I don't want to waste a second of my new temporary life.

Thank you to everybody for giving me this great opportunity that will change me and my life, hopefully making me a better person. It is a thing I have always wanted and I am really happy to be here now, thanking to you that believed in me and are still supporting me... Elisa

Right, so last time when I said "Until next month..." I forgot to add that there was a margin of error of +/- one month... Anyways, here are a few exciting things that I've done since last time I wrote, seasoned with some observations, analyses, dichotomies, parentheses, and what have you.

In my last report, I mentioned that every week, all the exchange students in Taipei have a Taiwanese culture class. On September 28, we all attended the annual Ceremony to Worship Confucius at the Confucius Temple in Taipei. The temple walls surrounded a courtyard, and in the middle of the courtyard was the, I don't know, call it an "inner-sanctum." The patrons... OK, tourists, stood on the outer rim of the courtyard. The ceremony followed what became a predictable pattern: the leader of the ceremony would quote Confucius (I think. Obviously it was in Chinese, possibly ancient Chinese). Then a guy would play a huge drum, diameter appx. 8 feet, that hung from the overhang of the wall at the front of the temple. Next a group of about 100 people in front of the "inner-sanctum," dressed in traditional Chinese teacher's garb (akin to our graduation caps and gowns) would dance with these really long feathers in their hands. Multiply this by about 5, and there's the Ceremony to Worship Confucius. I wish I could give a more thorough explanation of the specifics the ceremony, but the English brochures that were given to us could only fit so much information.

After the ceremony, we went on a tour of the temple. Some of us were sitting on the ledge of a small wall when a dignitary walked by and asked us where we were from. We told him Denmark, the US, etc. He said something like, "Oh, very good," and walked away. I found out later that he's Ma Ying-jeou, both the mayor of Taipei and the chairman of the KMT, which makes him Chiang Kai-shek's political descendant. Too bad I didn't get to shake his hand; it would have gotten me that much closer to being separated by only five degrees (the whole handshakes-connect-you-to-the-world thing). I probably would have gotten Mao on my list... Oh well.

The written Chinese language has between 50,000 and 60,000 characters. Granted, about 5,000 characters are used 99% of the time, but 5,000 is still a rather significant quantity compared with the 26 Roman letters that English speakers are accustomed to. Most of the characters are completely arbitrary with regard to the idea that they represent.There may be some hints, like with pronouns, which all contain the "person-radical," but there are never any hints as to how the character should be pronounced. Actually, the different Chinese dialects are just different verbal renderings of the same characters. A Cantonese speaker will usually understand what a Mandarin speaker writes down. Anyways, with all these different characters, a lot of the time new ones just kind of sneak upon you. Like, one of the MRT (subway) stations is called "Zhongxiao Xinsheng." I have been living on Zhongxiao E. Rd., so I knew those characters. "sheng" is a simple character, so I knew that one too. But the "xin" I always just ignored. you know how when you buy a new electronic device, and when you look at the section written in Chinese all you see are a bunch of little pictures? Your mind doesn't discern the differences that make every character unique. That had been the same in this situation, until one time I was on the MRT, and I looked at the station name, and it said "Zhongxiao Xinsheng," and I looked at "Xin" and said to myself, "Hey! That's 'xin!'" It sounds insignificant, and it is, but little stuff like that reassures you that you're learning something, and there are plenty of occasions when you're totally lost and don't feel like you're learning anything.

This weekend, most of the Rotary exchange students in Taiwan went on the annual Tea Farm Tour to central Taiwan. Remember how I described Hualien last time? Take that, and replace the Pacific Ocean with more mountains (or just call it a valley), and that's central Taiwan. Obviously, the first place we went to was a tea farm. They taught us how to sample tea. It's exactly like wine tasting, except you smell the tea leaves as opposed to the tea itself. Fresh tea makes Lipton's insta-tea taste like water. Afterwards, all the exchange students dispersed to the various homestays that we'd spend the two nights of the weekend with. Tim Crandall, an exchangee from Pennsylvannia, and I stayed with a hotel owner, and so we got a hotel room and some very good quality Taiwanese dinners and breakfasts. Not too bad, eh? If you're ever in Taiwan, and someone offers you warm goat milk with sweet beans, accept. It's an excellent way to start your day, eating sweet beans with goat milk. On Saturday we went to an insect museum, mostly, I think, because it was there. On Sunday we made our last stop at the Shui-Li Snake Kiln Pit (Home of the World's Largest Pot!). After watching some people hand-make pots, and then, upon trying to make pots ourselves and realizing that it's a lot harder than it looks, we got on our buses and headed back to Taipei. A weekend well spent.

Some of you may have heard about my host father being ill. About halfway through September, he was admitted to the hospital. He was in and out for 2 weeks, and then stayed for 3 weeks straight. Anyways, he's been home for about 3 weeks now, in good health and feeling well. He appreciates the thoughts and prayers said for him.

OK, so those are a few of the highlights of the past couple of months. There are, of course good days and bad days, but so it goes. I'll be changing host families on December 6, I think. It's going to take a whole extra 45 minutes to get to school. Ahh! I've met my new host mom, and she's very kind, which goes without saying for most of the people I've met here so far. Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone. Zaijian! -Nick, 05-06 Rotary D7150 YE Student, Taiwan

Nick reporting from Taiwan: September 12, 2005
Rotary District 7150 Youth Exchange, Inc.

I've been in Taiwan for over three weeks now, and the surrealism of being 10,000 miles from home, being one of three non-Taiwanese students at my high school (thus making us the center of attention for 1000 Taiwanese high school students for about a week), and relying on people whom I'm never met before as I would my parents at home, is beginning to fade.
Nonetheless, the events that took place during those first few moments in this new country are still vivid in my memory. The reception we (the 10 or so other exchange students and I who came over on the same flight) were given at the airport was the stereotypical “Welcome to our Country, Exchange Students!” welcome. We were greeted by a roar of cheers and applause from all the expectant families and Rotarians, who I later learned had been waiting for us for about 2 hours. We were subsequently bombarded by greetings and questions, the vast majority of which were in Chinese.
Eventually my host mother said to me (in English), “We're going to Hualin, and you're coming with us!” I felt like I had just won a prize. I remembered the photographs of Hualin that had reminded me of a story book-like fairy land that Alex Hart (last year’s D7150 exchange student to Taiwan) had posted on his online photo journal, and I was like, “Man, this'll set a high standard for the rest of the year.”
Three days later, I was sitting on a tour bus next to my 23 year old host brother, Hank, singing karaoke and sipping green tea as we traversed the Taiwanese Pacific coastal highway. It's clichéd to say that the beauty of some areas are almost indescribable, but Hualin truly is. My family vacations in the Adirondack Mountains every year, and I've been to both the Maine and Rhode Island coasts. Put both of those together, amplify the coolness about two or three times, and you've got something like Hualin. Huge mountains (over 10,000 ft. high) with clouds kissing their summits. A coastal plain about two miles wide, ending in a pebble beach on the Pacific Ocean.
There was an F-16 base at the foot of the mountains (as if this place wasn't awesome enough already). During the half hour we spent at this particular location, Hank, my host mother and I watched 4 F-16s take off. These jets are the most important weapons in the Taiwanese arsenal. They can be equipped with Harpoon air-to-surface missiles, and are Taiwan's primary defense in the event of a Chinese invasion. The mountains of Hualin make it an excellent place to locate an air force base. Hank and I started talking about American weapons and aircraft, and I soon realized that he knew more about the US military than I do. It wasn't one of my prouder moments.
The first couple days at Yongchun Senior High School were restless for me and the other two exchange students there, Tim from Pennsylvania and Brianna from Michigan. Each of the buildings at school are built around a central courtyard, so the hallways between classrooms are actually just balconies surronding the courtyard. It would be an understatement to say that Brianna, Tim, and I turned a few heads. When we walked into the building where our classrooms were, all eyes were on us. Foreigners are a rarity in Taiwan, even in Taipei, and most of the kids at Yongchun hadn't met many westerners before, if any at all. The three of us were on our toes for ahile, with our new classmates all eager to practice their English on us, and excited at the prospect of a couple Americans attempting to speak Chinese. Fortunately, their expectations weren't to high, since my Chinese was and is still very sub-par.
A girl at Yongchun was talking to me, and she asked me how I liked the bathrooms at Yongchun. I told her that they were fine, and she said, "Yeah. They refurbished them last year because you guys were coming.”They redid their bathrooms for Tim, Brianna, and me. I'm not quite sure how to pay that one forward, but I'm heartily grateful the administration did it. Rumor has it there are some pretty decrepit bathroom facilities in Taipei.
I'm living with high-grade people here. My host father works for the local government in a town about the size of Utica called Shui-Fang (pronounced shway-fuhng). My host mom is a housewife, and my host brother Hank is going to be a third year law student, starting this semester. My host sister is spending this year as a Rotary exchange student in State College, Pennsylvania. They're patient while I learn Chinese. In fact, they want to expand their own minds by using and practicing their English with me, so our relationship is mutually beneficial.
So as the exchange year settles into the monotony of routine, going to school every day, attending Madarin classes and Taiwanese culture classes every week, catching the occasional flick on HBO, I try to keep that thrill of being in a foreign country by constantly reminding myself, "Hey. I'm in Taipei, Taiwan." It's a simple mantra, but it's been effective so far. So, until next month...
-Nick, 2005-06 Rotary D7150 YE Student, Taiwan

Report from Spain: Saturday, March 13, 2004

for my friends and family,
thank you for all your concern and emails! it was nice to hear from you all. i´m doing ok right now, although i´m trying to steer away from the news reports....it can be a little overwhelming, you know?
we heard of the attacks in history class on thurseday-- my initial reaction was the same as it was to september 11th: you´re kidding me...right?
it didn´t really sink in until i watched the news that night. its one of the things that the family does every day, watching the nightly news cast while we eat dinner. seeing all of the clips from this morning was horrible. it was awful to see the trains ripped open at the sides as if someone had taken a can opener to them, and the hundreds of people runing screaming to avoid getting hit with the blast as the second bomb went off. you heard the reporters talking again and again of the cell phones ringing in the wreckage, and no one to answer them. there were so few supplies that for stretchers the emergency workers had torn up red metal park benches and were using them to transport the victims away from the wreckage. the news is shot after shot of pain, destruction and terror. a man covered in blood called his family with his cell phone, a man films the first moments of the "masacre" from his apartment window, people standing terrified as they listen to the anouncement of yet another body that has been identified, praying that it´s not mom, or dad, and then family members crying in the dorways of the makeshift morgue after recieving the worst news one can recieve these days. round the clock coverage.
but yesterday, it was different. from the shots of distruction at atocha, you could see the mobs of people that had gathered for the manifestation in madrid. 2 million people lined the streets: students, workers, politicions, the royal family. from a message of fear to a message of hope. it was an impressive scene.
here in jávea we had our own version of a manifestation: what seemed like the entire town gathered at 7pm in front of the town hall-- the entire plaza was so full of people you could hardly move. the mayor spoke, and the crowd solemnly guarded 10 minutes of scilence, gripping their banners and signs that declared "no al terrorismo, sí al paz" "¿porqué?" "¿qué enseñara sus niños?" *no to terrorism, yes to peace; why?; what will it teach their children?"
as with our 11S (as they frase it here) they have proclamed this 11M, and the headlines still scream Massacre in Madrid. but also as with our 11S the citizens of this country are showing an amazing amount of strength, donating blood, doing everything they can to help and trying to keep moving forward and going on with their normal everyday lives. here in my school students wrote a "manifiesto" that was read on the radio, and we also gathered outside the school friday and held two minutes of scilence for the dead and wounded.
all the rotary students that are in madrid have written to say that they are fine, and of course none of us here in jávea were hurt or injured, and as far as i know i haven´t heard of any of my friends loosing a family member or loved one in the attacks. we´re lucky that way. so, we´ll count our blessings, and keep moving forward. the terrorists, be they ETA or Al Quaida have not, and will not win.
love and besos, martha swann, youth exchange student in Spain