They called out one country at a time and once a country was called the Country Officer would formally call out the country and the inbounds from that country would come out and go out and grab the Outbounds that were going to their country!
Every Country Officer did their countries differently; and some of the Inbounds would sing to their outbounds, or add a lot of dramatic feeling when they would go pick the outbound that was assigned to their country.
I stood next to Sean and Makyla; and one by one the line of Outbounds grew smaller and smaller as people were being called. It was amazing watching other people being chosen. Some people would cry, others would scream, and some were too shocked to do anything!
Eventually...there were only two countries left. By then I KNEW I had gotten Finland. And strangly I started to cry. I was SO happy. Finland/Russia were called, and I heard all three of our names called. I was greeted by a huge hug, and given CD's for learning Finnish. Ive never been so happy that I cried before. But at that moment I did. It felt so un-real. And I was waiting for the moment to be woken up; and I never did! It was REAL life!
After we all found out where we were going people were still crying and screaming and calling their families and everyone they knew to tell them the news. Everyone was hugging each other and by this point it was well after midnight.
They ended up blasting music and turning on the disco ball and turning down the lights. We all danced around and it all felt like the happiest dream.
Dancing after 1:30am!
More dancing
They eventually made us go to bed; and we woke up and the Boy Scouts made us pancakes for breakfast. We took a professional group picture; and then helped take stuff out to the busses. We all got on the bus by country and sat with the inbounds for our assigned country. It was so cool to look around and see everyone having their first language lessons and asking questions.
First official Finnish lessons!
It still felt like a dream. And it was a long and crazy bus ride! Sean, Makyla and I sat near our Country Officer and asked questions and got information about our countries. The bus ride was about 8 hours long; and by then I finally started feeling tired after everything that had happend the night before.
We exchanged numbers, and eventually each of us parted at our stops and said our goodbyes until next time. Its amazing how quickly you make new friends and meet new amazing people through Rotary.
I eventually got to my bus stop; where everyone else on the bus got off and got our stuff and met our parents in the parking lot who were all excited to see us and talk about our countries. I was so excited to get home and talk about Finland!
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