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.

The event took place on a small parcela (ranch house), in the outskirts of Quilpué. On the menú was a feast of seafood stew called curanto. I filmed the whole process! It consisted of 5 or 6 delicacies tied inside of plastic nets, layered in an enormous pot with onions, garlic, lettuce leaves, white wine and potatoes. The potatoes go on top, and once they are soft, the stew is done.

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1.) Smoked pork ribs, chorizo, chicken, clams and mussels put into plastic nets 2.) Stuffing the nets 3.) Layered pot with knotted nets and garlic, onion, white wine, lettuce leaves and potatoes 4.) Rotarian John enjoying curanto 5.) Closeup of the final product

The parcela turned out to be the beekeeping workshop of Sergio, one of the Rotary members.

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1, 2, 3.) Bee boxes behind the ranch house 4.) Old honeycombs after being centrifuged 5.) Me talking to Marruja, one of my favorite Damas Rotarias! 6.) Happy 20th anniversary, Bellavista

¡See even more pictures!

To see more pictures from the Rotary meeting, click here.

To see a video of Valparaisan Rotarians singing to their guests, click here.

I am living in front of Plaza Anibal Pinto in downtown Valparaíso. I live with a girl from Brazil named Priscila, a Swede named Gustav and a German, Christoff. I had actually talked with the renter when I was still in Michigan and assumed he had already found someone for the room. I went with a new Mexican friend Leonardo on Wednesday to look at the room, and moved in on Thursday evening. I was greeted very warmly by all of my new roommates and feel very much at home.

Kitchen and entrance of my apartment.

The same evening I went with my landlord, a young architect by the name of Daniel, and a group of other students (some from my university) to a place around the corner called “El Boliche”. There was a wonderful duo of Argentine girls singing old Tango songs. I seem to meet so many Swedes here. When we arrived at the venue almost everyone sitting at our table was Swedish, although there were a few Norwegians. I ordered something called a Churrasco Italiano–basically a sandwhich with tomate (tomato), vacuno (beef) and palta (avocado).

I left around 12:30, yet everyone was asking me why I was leaving early–can you imagine! They stay up so late here. Maybe I will get used to this…

Katrina Fenton and I received a warm welcome by club president Lynne Killion. The program consisted of an update by Group Study Exchange participant Sean Payne– firefighter from Dearborn Heights who will be traveling to Finland, a representative from a local school where the club has sponsored a robotics team, an update for the Lobster Dinner fund raiser the club is hosting on March 15th, and my own program on my Ambassadorial Scholarship.

Pictures of the meeting can be found here. A video of Sean talking about his trip to Finland can be found here.

Left to Right: Mike Cutler, Mike Roy, Hannah Kelley, Derek Locke, Katrina Fenton, Lynne Killion

*At RYLA myself and another Rotaract member, Aisha Hunter, talked to students about Rotaract and how to start an Interact Club. I also spoke about my Ambassadorial Scholarship at the event.