Wednesday

Sorry this is really brief...
Up early for breakfast rotary meeting in another fabulous yacht club.
Then off to Rotary International Headquarters - great fun visiting and seeing the presidents office and taking photos.



then i separated and met wiht the former deputy director of development at Northwestern University. really interesting given northwestern is ranked 13th in the US by endowment.
Then lunch, a quick tour by car of northwestern and i popped into a sorority, then met up again iwht the team and we visited NEw Trier High School - very hgh socio economic school, 95% go to college (university) and many of those are to ivy league colleges.



Then a visit to the baha'i temple - which is the only one in the US and home for a sandwich before heading off to a jazz club in the city which was just fab!

Tuesday

Another slow start which was delicious and then we headed to the west side of the city to see Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity temple building. Wonderful church, very angular and in need of restoration but fabulous to see it and touch it.



Then past the Ernest Hemingway museum and into the Hispanic area of town for a cuban sandwich before visiting an incredibly interesting school. Its a charter school - state funded but now with its own independent charter etc. They ahve recived initital funding to restore buildings and now in thrid year of new school with uniform codes, responsiblity and behaviuoral codes and prime prupose to get students to u iversity. Incredbily well presented studnets and it was an impressive institution. Apparently tehre are 600 shcools in inner city Chicago, 162 High Schools and this charter shcool si ranked 10th in the city!
anyway it was tehn home to one of our host families who hosted a fabulous sit down three course meal around a huge dining table. it was a wonderful night.

Monday

Relaxed start... 9.00am pick up ...practically the afernoon!
And off we went into chicago city and we went first to the Field Museum. We saw Sue the Tyranasurs Rex (sorry about the spelling) this is all written in haste as always.
Two huge stuffed elephants (a little bit creepy) and wondeful egyptian and north american exhibits. Oh, and a couple of meteorites.



that took us till 2.00pm then lunch and the Shedd aquarium. Quite fun watching the fish =, sharks and anaconda!! Then t the World jazz music mart and a wee walk around the city before a pub meal and home. Big day, well walked but great to ahve a day in the city doing tourist things.

Friday and District Conference at the weekend

Up early with bags all packed including additional suitcases.
And off we went to the Naval Academy to watch the graduation ceremony. This was a real treat as this is the only academy in the whole of the US for the entry level training for naval recruits. 936 graduated with a heap of wonderful pomp and pageantry and we witnessed it all from the dias, and apparently graduation occurs every week! It was a neat experience.

Then off we went to Lincolnshire and the Rotary District Conference. Its all a bit of a blur but we joined the Paul Harris Luncheon and then presented in the afternoon and then had pre dinner drinks with the District Governor before sitting down to dinner with the Inbound GSE Team who arrive in NZ from Illinois in April 2009.
Friday evening the kiwis enjoyed wine tasting and swing dance in the Hospitatliy Rooms before finally getting to bed about 2.00am ish.
Saturday was bliss, we wore mufti, , I got my staples out, caught some ZZZZ's, went shopping (oh and how we shopped!) and then got our sparkly outfits on for the banquet dinner. Oh and by gosh there was dancing!! Some latin dancers taught us salsa and meringue and swept us off our feet and we finally got to bed about 2.00am ish!
Up early Sunday and Cheryl and I went to Willowcreek this mega church in the area. Its 33 years old, and it was a fantstic experience. Normally a congregation of 7000, the 9.00am service was only 4500 (!), and included a full rock band, 11 piece orchestra and afterwards you could get lunch in the food hall or return to your car (one of 1500 parked outside). Actually although it was a wonderful service and suprisingly personal for something so big.




This afternoon, Wayne, Brent and I got to meet Dan Seals, a Democrat Congressman trying for office and a close colleague of Barack Obama. There is a huge amount of support in this area for Obama and gosh its going to be interesting to see whats going to happen at the elections.



This evening, i met my host for the week, we've had a quick meal and i'm off to bed now before another busy week begins. This time though, it is our last week and all of a sudden we feel like we want everything to slow down as we don't want this great trip to end and we definitely won't want to say goodbye to the wonderful friends we've met.

Thursday - phew!

Up early for another breakfast Rotary meeting, but in fab venue. the most superb yacht club you can imagine, and the biggest on the lake i think i was told. Also, a native american indian had been invited to speak with us, he is from the Potowotamie Nation whihc is local to this area. Then back into the bus and we were off to a brand new specialist high school whihc has been open 5 weeks. Specialised in project based learning and it was quite interesting and made the other educationalists amongst us reflect quite positively on what we are already doing in that area in the NZ curriculum. Then back onto the bus and off to another ratary lunch meeting but this time wiht full presenation and thge club of our own host families etc. We had thansgiving meal - turrkey follwed by pumpkin pie and we were presented wiht a huge goodie bag and a beautiful book of Chicago. The generosity is overwhleming.
Then not time to dilly dally, we were off for a golf lesson wiht a pro. Sad to say, theat folloiwng the lesson my golf took a sharp decline and i had a rather sad and dismal success rate in our game, but it was fun nonetheless and great to be in the fresh air, and the head was fine too which was great.
Then.... finally home to our host families and this time by about 6.00pm. I have had a beautiful meal, and we curled up and watched the vice presidential debates on tv (along wiht 69.9 million other americans)and ahd a Black Cow each (thats root beer with icecream!). A lovely wee respite before repacking the suitcase for tomoorrows 7.00am start!!!

Wednesday

Well there is no time to sleep in this sector of the journey. It was up at five am to be ready to leave the hosue at six for another breakfast Rotary meeting, i think we're all doing quite well to sing the national anthem that early in the morning!
Then off to a local accounting firm after which, i separated from the group and was taken to the train station by one of our hosts. i caught the train back into chicago city and then a cab to Roosevelt university where i met with their development director. it was a great meeting, and afterwards i took myself on a self guided tour of the uni - well that building anyway. Great views of the lake and a wonderful victorian staircase and stained glass windows. Then , becuase I could, i took a cab to the Oprah Winfrey STudios and shop.




The shop was nothing much, but I was just in time to see everyone come out of the show and i stood talking to alady as i waited for a taxi. We eneded up sharing the cab into the city and heard all about the show. A wee stroll up Michigan AVe while i waited for the others who were at athe Botanic Gardens, then a taxi to the Mexican Restaurant where we met up.
Then...... we headed to the Goodman Theatre and saw a wonderful wee musical aobut ELvis, jerry Lee Louis and some other 1950's rock and rollers. Great music!
Home by 10.30 ish and starght to bed in readiness for another 5.00am start.

Tuesday ?? Was it?

This week has been just a blur but it is coming to an end and it will be sad to say goodby once again to our host families and our hosts for each day.
Tuesday:
We visited a high school technology campus - interesting, all the high schools in the area send their students to the tech campus for the vocational subjects like chef training, automotive etc.
Then Rotary lunch
Then we visited an elementary school and each went to a separate classroom and read a kiwi book to the kids. It was heaps of fun, most of the children are hispanic in this area and they loved that the Maori vowels are the same as spanish. they sang me the vowel song so i had to sing a waiata in return - solo! Very cool kids!





Then a tour of the local theatre that has been restored
Then we all headed off to the Methodist Church to feed the hungry. The team cooked rice and measured out drinks and served the crowd. They all loved the funny way we talked.
Then after changing in the loos and the van we headed off to the Yacht club to have dinner with the mayor, and finally home to bed