District 9670 Conference

Hi! I went to a Rotary d9670 conference in Dubbo. I had to leave Friday morning (at 10ish) to 4 hours drive inland to get to Dubbo. I travelled with Karina, from my Rotary club. The time went pretty fast with charting, listening to music and singing loudly. We arrived to Dubbo after two and registered to the conference. After registration Karina gave me a lift to the cabins where all the exchange students slept. I met some of the exchange students there and we just relaxed in our rooms. The girls ha two rooms of ten beds and boys had one. (We have 15(?) Students in our district). After six some of the Rotarians gave us lift to go to an old jail. There was "pre-party" for the conference. I met awesome Rotarians around our district and had a chat with everyone. We, exchange students, did a dessert from our countries beforehand (I did Pulla) and so we gave those to everyone. Everyone liked everyone's foods, which was very good. We went with a bus back to our cabins, after ten. I tried to get to bed early because I was feeling sick, but everyone came to our room to chat so it was a bit challenging.
On Saturday morning we woke up after sick, had showers, got breakfasts and then we he'd with the same bus to the Dubbo conference sentre. We had a important job with the flag parade, and it went well. We had a bit of tune to chat more with Rotarians as well as had a bit of a snack. There was really good guest speakers talking about interesting stuff. After lunch we went to a green room (it was in theater) to practise our coming performance. We did that for a while and then we went back to listen some more speeches. About two o'clock we went back to our cabins to practise more that performance and get ready for the night. Everyone had fancy clothes and beautiful makeups. A bit after six we went back to the conference centre to the District governors dinner. When the people came in we welcomed them and scanned their tickets. In the middle of the dinner it was our time to shine. We performed dance (the music was we all all in this together from high school musical) and a singed we are the world by Michael Jackson. I played piano (in wrong chords tho, haha)! Everyone was excited for our performance and they clapped and cheered to us a lot. It was good fun!! After the performance there was a band with some very good singers! We got excited and went in the front to dance!! There was also some Roatarians dancing with us. Just before we left to the cabins I met a lady who moved to Australia from Finland in 1968 and she could still fluent Finnish!! It was amazing and she also lives very close to me, so we are gonna meet soon!! We went to bed really late on Saturday, not a good idea.
On Sunday morning we had to wake up before six. We left to go to the Dubbo zoo at 6.30am. We had delicious cooked breakfast in the zoo (bacon&egg rolls, sausages and pancakes,  yummy) and then they showed a lot of the zoo. We got to pat a koala (so cute!!), snakes and different reptiles. And because the zoo is "open" we had to go with a bus to see a lot of the animals. We saw meecats(?), giraffes, zebras, monkeys, kangaroos, emus and a lot more!! It was so much fun. After that we went back to the conference centre to listen a few speeches more and to close the conference. The conference ended after one and we headed back home. I slept at least an hour in the car because I was so tired.
I had so much fun during the weekend and I already wanna go back!!
Also there was a man talking about mental health. He was talking about aboriginal mental health as well. Because we have to do a project in Aboriginal studies (we have to do a logbook and all that) he gave me inspiration to do the project about mental health. So when we had free time, I went and talked to him and he promised to help me!! He gave his details and also said he could gave someone from Newcastle as well. I love these people because they are generous!!
Xx Meri