Our speakers today were Norah Burns from Lebanon High School and Sofia Polini, from Florence Italy.  Both Norah and Sofia are Rotary Youth Exchange students.  Norah spent time in Italy with Sofia’s family in June and July, and now Sofia is here in Lebanon spending time with Norah’s family.  They both expressed that they are thoroughly enjoying their exchange experience.  Norah shared that they both share a passion for basketball.
Here’s a picture of Sofia’s family, and Sofia playing basketball.
Norah shared pictures of time she spent in Rome, Florence, Pisa and Venice. These four places are just a few places she got to tour.  She got to see some sights that you may not get to see if you were there as a tourist. She described the trip as “amazing”.  Although not fluent in Italian, Norah was able to learn some Italian while she was there.  Her host parents and Sofia speak more English than Nora speaks Italian that helped Nora learn more about Italy and their customs. By the end of Norah’s time in Italy, she shared she was at least understanding more Italian.
Sofia shared that this experience has helped her learn more English.  Sofia was able to provide correct pronunciations of Italian venuse and locals when Norah showed slide and she was unsure about how to pronounce a word.  Sofia provided some color commentary for some of the pictures too.
Norah shared her impressions of the history, architecture and art that she got to see in Italy.  She came back with a new appreciation of history, architecture and art that was all around her. Here are just a few of the photos she shared with us at our meeting.
Places:
Rome
Venice, Italy
 
Pisa
Art
 
 
Architecture
Friendship & Art
Rotary Meetings
Presenting in Florence
Presenting at the Rotary Club of Lebanon
  
  
Food
Pizza
 
Rose Gelato in Italy….Yummmm
 Norah shared that Sofia was able to tour Boston on her way to the Upper Valley.  She will be in the Upper Valley until school starts at LHS.  Sofia’s school will start again in early September.
Sofia arriving in Boston
PDG Susan Cherry, District Chair of Youth Exchange joined our meeting via WebEx.  Susan complimented both Sofia and Norah on their presentation, and shared why Youth Exchange can be a life changing opportunity for high school students.  Our District currently had three outbound and three inbound year-long exchange students.  You can learn more about short term and long term Youth Exchange on the District 7850 webpage.  Click Here
Finally a picture of proud LHS faculty/Lebanon Rotarians with Norah and Sofia.
Sofia, Norah with Joy Gobin and Christian MacDonald