Greece Rotary

27th of August, Wednesday

Last night I went to sleep at 2 am, so getting up at 7:30 was quite difficult. I was so disorganized, I forgot a bunch of stuff. Like apples for the girls and my Rotary blaser. I would have needed to grab those, because I had a tight schedule in the morning.
  We had an appointment at 8 am at the counselor to set up my schedule for school. I was 15 minutes late because I overslept. After 1 hour of trying to get my wishlist together, I still had so many questions.
  For now my subjects are the following:
AP English
AP Psychology
Creative writing
US history
French
Outside gym
Chorus

I could have Communication or Marketing too, but then I'd have to drop Outside gym and take Personal fitness. It's a tough decision. For now, we stayed with Outside gym. I'll have to say my final answer tomorrow. And I can change in the next week or so, if it really doesn't work out. If anybody has some useful advice for me, I'd gladly hear them out!
  After leaving the counselor's office with Kim Masiello, she gave me a ride to Gates-Chili, where our volleyball tournament was. I put on a uniform, but I didn't play. When I got there, the team already won a game. They played another one, but that wasn't as successful at the points. We lost by only 1 point! The girls were amazing, I admire their skills a lot. They're really professional, and they take everything seriously, but at the same time, they enjoy the team spirit and the game. Our team did seem more cheerful than the other teams I saw. After that game, the coach said a motivational speech about the strengths and the weaknesses of the group, which was true and simple. We sat around for some time, but I didn't see any more games, because it was time for my first Rotary meeting!

Mike Taylor gave me a lift to Ridgemont Country Club where the Rotary club of Greece meets.
I felt so happy meeting all these new people. A lot of them I already met before, so it was nice to see faces I knew, that gave me a sense of security I think. As it turns out, my blog became popular, so that was an instant recognition as well. The meeting started with the Rotary bell of course, the oath, some singing and a prayer. Then everybody grabbed a plate, and sprinted to the luch table where there was salad with different toppings, ham and cheese and soup. It was good. While eating, we socialized. As soon as everyone finished, our president, Al Meilutis introduced me and gave me the microphone. It's funny that I didn't feel the usual inhibition one feels when speaking publicly. After the first laugh, I just felt free to talk. So I tried to express how greatful I was for being there, but what I actually said, didn't even scratch the surface. I gave everybody who was there matches, that I brought from Hungary, with hungarian inventions on them. It was in hungarian, and I was asked to translate some. I gave my host club my sponsoring club's flag, and gave my present to Kim Masiello for organizing my trip here. It was a confident speech, but a disorganized one. I forgot to tell my idea of sharing fun facts about Hungary with my club, so I had to go up there again. It felt a little bit like I was stealing the show.
  After I sat down, our guest speaker, a hypnotist talked about hypnosis. It was really interesting. He showed us some examples of imagination and relaxation. I found it really interesting. Turns out you can't make a person do stuff they wouldn't want to do otherwise while under hypnosis. And 70% of the time, we're under natural hypnosis, we just don't realise!
 When the meeting ended, we took a couple of pictures with the flag and outside. Tony Pierleoni, who is a photographer and our club's fine master took some amazing shots. He told me about light, reflection, and why we shouldn't use too much flash.

 Larry Wills gave me a ride home. I was alone for a few hours. I wanted to be useful, but did something I haven't done since I've been here: I took a nap. I've barely slept the past week, so I needed those 3 hours. When I woke up, it was already 6 o'clock and Herb and Anne were home. We had dinner, and we went to Best Buy with Herb, just to look at cameras. I mentioned to him that my early birthday present should be a camera. So we go in, and see, that the camera I was thinking of getting was on sale, and therefore especially cheap. I texted my dad, where it was 3 am, and he got up and texted a permission back to buy that last cheap camera (I'm sorry Dad, I hope you could go back to sleep!).
  So we bought it! I have a camera. I still have to buy a memory card, batteries and a case. If anybody's wondering, it's a Canon PowerShot SX510. I'm very happy with it so far, I'll see what sort of pictures it takes. So I think I'll play with it untill I fall asleep today.