Anyone for croquet?

Sunday started off in a slow pace for the team. Some went to church with their host families and some took the opportunity to do some R & R. At 3 pm the team and host families joined up at Maddens resort for a nice game of croquet. Who would´ve thought that the game could be so complicated and exciting, the team leader had to bite his tongue on several occasions. The afternoon was rounded off in the restaurant where stories from the match were told. Maddens is known all through the US as one of the finest resorts on the shores of Gull lake.

On the Mississippi

After saying goodbye to our Bemidji-hosts we embarked for an outdoor adventure. The Bemidji Rotary Clubs had arranged for us to go canoeing on the Mississippi. The team all thought this would be an extraordinary event.After paddling for 45 min we anchored and got ready for lunch Rotarian of the year Chris Keenan treated us to an fantastic outdorr lunch with barbecue. By then it had started to drizzle so we got on the move again. After another 25 minutes of paddling we reached our goal and got ready for the next evolution - Brainerd area. We send a big thank you to Rotarians in Bemidji (who also managed to get the GSE-team on the frontpage on saturdays Bemidji Pioneer!)

Good morning

At 6.45 PM we meet up at the Fargo Sunrise Rotary club for breakfast and team presentation. Despite the early morning boot the team and the Rotarians were up to speed. We enjoyed a loot of jokes and a really good breakfast.

After that we went to Detroit Lakes Rotary Club for team presentation at lunch. The last part we even travelled with semi trucks!! As soon as we crossed in to Minnesota the scenery became very much like home, with a lot of lakes and a lot of trees.

The Bemidji Rotary met us at Itasca State Park and we got to see AND CROSS the Mississippi River. Even if it only were a couple of meters wide here it was quite a challenge to cross in the cold weather. It’s really mind-blowing to think that this little river is the start of the big and wide Mississippi River. The team also enjoyed being able to go for a walk in the forest.

When we finely came to Bemidji we were greeted by Rotarians and members of the American Swedish Institute. They had put together a lovely pot luck.

Best of Bemidji!

Today we started the day at Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Forensics Lab. We got a tour around from Mr. James Dougherty and he told us facts about DNA. After that we got more facts also from some other things like bullets and their weapons, drugs and fingerprints. All of us found this very very interesting so the time quickly went by. After the Lab we went on to the Concordia language villages where Mr. Warren Schultz showed us around. We had a real skandinavian lunch at the Finish village and after that we headed further to the German village. We can really understand that it must be a really lifelong experience to be able to live the life in one of the 15 different country villages that they have been building up in Concordia. We ended the day at the Ainsworth lumber OSB mill by a tour by Mr. Tom Quinn. This was a big industry with VERY big machinery. Amazing what you can do different things with a tree, and that you actually can use almost everything from the tree for something.

// The team

Vocational day

Today it was time for another of our vocational days. I spent my morning at the biggest law firm here in Fargo, Vogel Law Firm. I gotto meet many of their staff members. I found it very interesting tohear about their work. What they do is very different from the TVseries like LA Law and Ally McBeal.After lunch we visited the Federal Court. I really enjoyed sittingdown and talking with the staff comparing our different judicialsystems with the judges and relating my tasks at work with the lawclerks in Fargo.At 5.30 I met up with the other team members for an "after work" at the HoDo, a trendy hotel and restaurant in the downtown area. We allwent up on the roof bar and mingled with our Rotary hosts. We bid them all a fond farewell as we headed off to our next Rotary community.

Vikings of Fargo!

The program was meant to begin at Americas Crystal sugar Company but instead we went to Northern Crop Institute. The the director Brian Sorenson with some colleges met us in the in the entrance for the day decorated with the Swedish and the American flag. the NCI (Northern Crop Institute) invites people from the whole world to learn and discuss methods to get crops to higher qualities to please customer demands.After that we visited Hjemkomst Center, a museum with Norwegian stavchurch like the one in Minot and a Viking boat "hjemkomst" that was built during eight years and thereafter crossed the Atlantic Ocean from America to Norway in the eighties. A remarkable achievement.house for a get together party with Rotarians. the Swedish flag was raised and the Swedish national anthem was sung before we split to our new host families.For lunch we visited a Moorehead Rotary meeting at moorehead Country Club and we gave them a "Taste of Sweden" with our presentation. The afternoon was spent at Bonanzaville, a outdoor and indoor museum with old buildings from late 1800 to early 1900 gathered from different places in the region and nicely put together in a historical town outside Fargo. A nice and interesting museum with lots of inheritance from history times.The day gave us warm and sunny weather but the evening brought rain. Wonder if our team had something with that to like in Dickinson? Anyhow, the rain was very very welcome from farmers around and specially those in west ND. We hope they got some of it too.

Mid tour rest

Monday was team rest day. We lived for ourselves in our "own" house and we have to admit - there was some Swedish talking that day. In the evening we were invited to the family Nolte's house to a get together party. The Swedish flag was raised and the Swedish national anthem was sung before we split to our new host families.

District conference

Saturday was a big day for us. We had our presentation in the morning and we had our biggest audience yet. Everything went smoothly and by judging by peoples reactions it was appreciated. At the luncheon we got to see a real historic character, former President Theodore Roosevelt - who talked about how living in North Dakota made him president. The day´s best tip: "Never be photographed on a golf course if you want to be a politician!" As the evening approached the conference tent transformed into a banquet-hall. All guests were very nicely dressed, and we noted that a real cowboy keeps his hat on - even during a banquet! After dinner we started boogie to live music which was very nice. Tomorrow we´ll be heding for Fargo and some much needed rest. We´ve been told that that landscape will change as we travel eastwards, that will certainly be interesting to see!

/Team

All muscle

In the morning Kristina and I decided to give The West River CommunityCenter a try, and so our muscles. We only had to pay $ 6 for the entrance and then we could use all the amenities. We had a great workout! A much needed one since we spend so much time in cars here.Then all of us had lunch in a big white tent together with all theother hundreds of people who also are participating in the Rotary district conference. It was quite cold and windy today. But a greatand amusing speech by Dennis White, Ph.D. about being aware of andunderstanding cultural differences in the world kept us warm.At 6.30 p.m. it was time for some rodeo; The Dickinson's Cowboy TripleCrown. None of us had ever been to one before so this was interesting.The rodeo competition made me think about the speech we had listened to earlier today.

//Anna Mia

Dickinson & Medora

Today we started at the law enforcement center. We got a good look around the building by the Chief of police, Mr. Chuck Rummel. After that we went to the community center and the whole team got truly impressed, both of all the sports that you could do there and how many memerships (6 000) they had comparing to the citys population (18 000) After lunch we went out to Medora, a town who maked all of us in the team feel liked we had traveled at least a hundred years back in time. As a tour guide we had Mr. Bruce R. Howe, who told us all the history there is to know about Dickinson and Medora! We also went into the saloon and of course some of us had a beer, as you should in a saloon.We also went into the national park at Medora, and we saw some buffalos! Man, those animals are big! After touring the park we went to the Dedication cermony in Medora and got the big opportunity to shake hands whith both North Dakotas governor John Hoeven and Rotary district 5580:s governor Jim Ozbun and others. We want to end todays blogg whith Sylvia Mahoney, Texas words; - The cowboys still exists and are truly alive!

// Kristina