Rotary News

So, I think it's about time I updated everyone about my other duties here in Salamanca (besides being a grad student.) As a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, while I'm here in Spain, I will be visiting various Rotary Clubs and giving presentations in order to promote good relations and understanding between Spain and the United States. So far I have visited two clubs. The first club (el Club Rotario de Salamanca) is the one that my Rotary host couselor, Fernando Prado, belongs to. Below is a picture of the room where they meet every Thursday at 9pm for their meetings.

As you can see, it is a pretty small room (not anything like the room where the Pittsford Rotary Club meets- ha ha!) but it is perfect for them because they only have 11 members (all males by the way).

1st Presentation: September 17, 2009 (Club Rotario de Salamanca)

Unfortunately, on the day I was to present to my host Rotary club I had class until 8:45pm and my professor kept us late, so I ended up arriving late to the meeting :( so I have yet to see how they begin their meetings, but I'm sure I will have another chance to attend. In any case, once I arrived they were discussing upcoming events (which I didn't really pay much attention to because I was too nervous thinking about my presentation-- ha ha!) My presentation went very well, especially because I was able to project my PowerPoint onto a screen for everyone to see! They were all very impressed with and surprised by my Spanish-speaking abilities. They later explained to me that in their opinion, it is not usual for an American to speak without a heavy American accent, so I felt pretty good :)

Above is a picture of the President of the club, Ricardo Gómez Marcos, and I doing the traditional exchange of club flags.

My host counselor, Fernando Prado (on the left)

I know they look really serious in this picture, but I promise they are really nice- ha ha!

Since the meetings are held at the Palacio Prado (Fernando's place of business), after the meeting we all went downstairs to have dinner in the restaurant. Keep in mind that by this time is was already 10:30pm-- yep, that's Spain's dinner time-- ha ha! The food was great, although the amount was a little too much for me so late at night. We started off with paella (typical rice dish with chicken, mussels, and squid), then had pork ribs with salad, bread and roasted potatoes (and wine of course!), and finally dessert and coffee. Since I was the only woman in the group, I could tell they tried to make the conversation more interesting for me. They asked me a lot of questions about my family. After dinner some of the guys stay and play cards and smoke cigars together, but I didn't stay for that... ha ha! Not really my thing ;) All in all, a very good experience. Everyone was so nice and offered to help me with anything if I ever need it.

2nd Presentation: September 29, 2009 (Club Rotario de Salamanca, Plaza Mayor)

As small as Salamanca is, it actually has two Rotary clubs! The other one, specified by "Plaza Mayor" meets on Tuesdays at 9pm and has 22 members (3 of which are females.) I was really nervous to go because I thought I wasn't going to know anyone there, but a member from my host club came to introduce me to them :) I quickly found out that the Plaza Mayor club also has an Ambassadorial Scholar from the United States! Her name is Sarah Molbert and she is from Louisiana-- very nice girl, who I just met today. Her Rotary host counselor, Paco, was very nice and invited the two of us to have lunch with him so we could all get to know each other. I'm sure I will meet up with her again soon! :)

I was able to see the beginning of the Plaza Mayor meeting, which started with the traditional ring of the bell, however, after that they just got straight down to business. Before my presentation they discussed an upcoming excursion to a nearby town (which they invited me to attend!) and they talked about a previous fundraiser they had for cancer research.

Below are some pictures of me presenting to the Plaza Mayor club:

I started off by passing around the Pittsford Rotary Club roster and copies of my PowerPoint on paper, as they don't have a projector in the room where they meet.

Speaking in front of a crowd in Spanish is a WHOLE lot different than doing it in English! (I was so nervous!!)

Ha ha-- I think this picture is priceless! As you can see by my face, I'm a little confused/overwhelmed. This group definitely asked me some tough questions. For example: What do you think about Obama's stance on health care? Which city do you think is best fit for the 2016 Summer Olympics? Do you think that people in the United States have more individual freedom than they do in Europe? Is it true that everyone in the U.S. owns a gun? Phew-- definitely glad that's over!!

When all was said and done, things went very smoothly and we had a very nice dinner where they still continued to ask me questions. One of the women commented on a trip she took to the U.S. and how much she admired the patriotism of the United States-- seeing the American flag flown everywhere-- even on people's front porches! She loved it!

The President of the Plaza Mayor club, Joaquín Miranda Zafra, accepting the Pittsford Rotary Club flag. (He didn't have a flag for me just yet, but he told me that I will definitely be invited back before I leave to get a flag to take home with me.)