District Conference

Rotary is divided into districts all over the world. Some are bigger than others; my district at home,for example, District 5010, includes the entire state of Alaska plus the Yukon territory which is in Canada. Other districts are much smaller area-wise but they have many more people. My district in Sweden is in Skåne, the very most Southern part of Sweden. This weekend was our district conference which meant that all of the rotarians would come together and listen to speeches for a weekend and make new connections and friends with their fellow rotarians. All of the exchange students in the district are required to go and quite honestly, I was dreading it. All I had heard from the oldies who had to sit through their conferences was that it was mind-numbingly boring. When all of the exchange students arrived at the hotel where the conference was being held, we were given a few minutes to eat a provided breakfast of sandwiches, coffee, and tea, and then hurried away so that we could practice our presentation. About a week before, we were informed that we would have to give a short speech and presentation about ourselves to the entire conference. This was yet another reason to not want to go, but we had a meeting a few days before the event to get an idea of what we would be doing. By the time the event rolled around, we had prepared a short powerpoint to introduce ourselves and talk about one piece of culture shock that had affected us. When it was our turn to go up, we walked in a line with our country flags stretched between us to the front of the room. Our district coordinator introduced us and we all shared our pictures and experiences. After everyone was done speaking we shared a small surprise: we sang and danced to the song Små Grodorna. Små Grodorna is a song that translates to “small frog” and is typically sung during Midsummer, one of Sweden’s biggest holidays. so most Swedes know it. We asked the audience to sing along as we danced off stage. Afterwards we were each awarded with hats that said Rotary Sweden on them, which made the presentation worth it. The rest of the conference went by slowly, with a fika break, then lunch, and then an activity. By the time the conference was over we were relieved and ready to do something fun. That evening, my host mom Cecilia came and picked all six of us up for the activity she had planned for us. In my district, each host family has to plan an event for the exchange students and it was my family’s turn to plan. She had chosen to take us all to Laserdome in Malmö which is a arcade-like place where you can choose to do laser tag, paintball, escape rooms, and so much more. She had signed us up for one twenty minute round of laser tag and we were all ecstatic to be able to finally move after a long day of sitting. We got to the Laserdome and had about thirty minutes to spare so while we in the crowded waiting room we decided to have a little fun and dance to the music playing over the speakers. Our goal was to get everyone else in the room to start dancing, which failed miserably, but we still had a blast bouncing to the rhythm in the middle of the room. When it was finally time for us to go in, we were ushered into a small dark room with a large screen. The screen flashed on and brought us to what looked like a futuristic spaceship with two characters explaining the rules to us. After watching the video, a door opened and we walked into a small room with the only lighting coming from the laser guns. One side was blue, and the other red. We all wanted to be on the same team so we each grabbed a gun from the red side and suited up in our black vests with red lights on the back and shoulders. All of the guns were pre-named and I was happy to see that my gun’s name was Batman. The next thing I knew, we were all pushed through a hallway and into the arena. There were neon lights everywhere illuminating the artificial fog and giving the place an eerie feel. I ran up the nearest set of stairs and tried to find a good hiding spot until the other team came in. The next twenty minutes were sheer chaos with screaming, running, and multiple profanities. Although the instruction video clearly stated against these things, it was clear that no one cared about the rules as there were boys climbing to the top of the structures and sniping unsuspecting passerbys. When the siren sounded and we were all told to return to the front room, I was sweaty and excited to see how I did. While walking to put our equipment away, the other exchange students and I compared pathetic but hilarious stories about the small children that clearly kicked our butts. When we got the the board up front I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had gotten third out of the twenty people on my team. Then I realized that my team lost miserably with only half as many points as the blue team. Either way, we had a blast and we all agreed that we would absolutely be going back again soon. Afterwards, we were all famished, so Cecilia drove us to the Malmö Central station where we found an organic burger shop where we all happily filled up. After eating, I said goodbye to all of my friends and we left them at the station to catch their trains home, and Cecilia and I drove back to Svedala. I learned two things this weekend: one is that you need boring things every once in awhile to really make the fun things stand out, and the other is that exchange is a constant dance party.