Hannah Kelley’s Blog

At the end of May I went to Santiago with two other Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars to visit a Rotary Group Study Exchange (GSE) team. True to my informative spirit, I will provide some useful information about GSE teams taken from rotary.org:

What is Group Study Exchange (GSE)?
The Group Study Exchange program is a unique cultural and vocational exchange opportunity for business and professional men and women in the initial years of their careers. The program is designed to develop professional and leadership skills among young people to better prepare them to address the needs of their communities and an increasingly global workplace.

What constitutes a GSE team?

• 1 Rotarian team leader who is not the current DG, immediate PDG, or the DGE and
• 4 non-Rotarian team members who are:
  • Between the ages of 25-40
  • Currently employed, with 2 years of experience in their chosen profession
  • Not lineal descendants or spouses of Rotarians

Continuing…

We spent a day in Cerro San Cristobal, which is a municipal park organized around a hill. Around the hill there is a zoo, a wine museum, millions of places to picnic and a lot of joggers and bikers. On the top of the hill is a large statue of the Virgen de la Inmaculada, a gift from France (I guess that the French just love making huge statues to give away). Given that this hill is home to the second highest point in the city, we had an amazing view of Santiago and the Andes despite it being a foggy day. We took a cable car half way up the hill and walked the rest of the way.

Left to Right: Maggie, Dora, Maurice, Susan, Marina, Me, Dana, Paul

At night we spent some time eating sushi inside Patio Bellavista in the Bellavista neighborhood right outside of the park.

The next day was Día del Patrimonio (National Heritage Day), which meant all of the museums and national historic sites were open free to the public. We went to the Museo de Bellas Artes and then spent some time nearby in the famous Plaza de Armas, where all other points in Chile are measured from. The last thing we saw was the ‘presidential palace’ Palacio de La Moneda, which is in fact not where the president lives. She lives in another district near the military headquarters.

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1., 2.) Inside of the Museo de Bellas Artes 3.) Plaza de Armas 4.) Flower and sand art celebrating National Heritage Day 5.) The Santiago Stock Exchange 6.) Me in front of the presidential palace La Moneda

For more pictures click here.

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