During September and October you will be hearing a little more about District 7090 Youth Exchange. Firstly, because we need you all to talk this program up and help us recruit the right students for next year (this is the time of year for applications!). Secondly, because as our current crop of Outbounds is settling in, most are still updating their blogs and sending us pictures. In a few months, most of them will be too busy with their exchange to do much of that... And I'm sure that we all enjoy these stories!

The 7090 Exchange program is exceptional, witness this email I received today from Kylie, one of our current outbounds: 
I have been in Brazil now for a little over a month and I am absolutely loving it here. Brazil was never in my top choices of countries to spend my exchange year, so when you brought it up for me in my interview I was very curious about what it would be like. When i finally found out I was going to Brazil I was really excited, and I just wanted to say thank you for all that you do for us exchange students. I really appreciate it.  Here in my district in Brazil, they don't do any trips with the inbounds and outbounds together and it really made me appreciate that we got to do those types of things. We got to meet other exchange students and talk to them before we left on our crazy and amazing year, and we got to talk about what kinds of things to expect. The kids here don't get to do anything like that at all. Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you, and let you know I am really enjoying my new life in Brazil.

If you know of a high school student between the ages of 15 and 18 that is showing leadership skills and would benefit from this program, please have them contact your local Rotary club, or if you don't know where to send them, contact me: aad@blueprintagencies.com.

This year our district's Governor Kevin Crouse has told clubs to sponsor two New Generations alumni (which includes past exchange students) to go to this year's district conference in Niagara Falls Canada Oct. 25 - 27th. So if you are interested in going and can get to Niagara Falls Canada (sorry the clubs won't pay for airplane, bus or train tickets) then go to- http://dc7090.org/youth/ - and fill out the application to be considered for sponsoring.

Emily Gibel from Lynden (near Hamilton) is on exchange in Sweden.

The orientation weekend for Inbound Exchange Students will be held September 27-29 in St. Catharines, where courtesy of the local Rotary Clubs, the students will be marching in the Wine & Grape Festival Parade on the Saturday.

If your club has not received the details for this weekend, please don't hesitate to contact me, as something must have gone wrong, given that those emails went out last week. Thanks!

Last time we showed you Mary indulging in frites, this time, Peter Giles (from Brantford), also on exchange in Belgium shares another highlight of Belgian cuisine with us.

So today my mom made me a very "traditional" Belgian meal. it's mussels and Belgian fries. Now when making Belgian fries there are many closely kept secrets. First of all they use lard instead of oil. then when their cooking them. They put them in the oil till they start to cook. Then take them out and let them cool down. When they are finally cooked down they go back in the oil till they are finally fully cooked. And that children is how you do something that would take a few minutes and turn it into a several hour long cuisine skeptical.

On to the mussels. Yes, the nearest coast line is several hours away by car, but somehow these little guys are a staple of Belgian cuisine. The host family did not understand why i thought it was so funny that this was famous in a land locked region of the country. I can just imagine some guy having to make the daily mussels run that would take him a week and everyone would eat them in a few minutes and the next guy would go.