Yesterday afternoon after all sessions had completed, people queued for the buses that would take them out to that night's entertainment. There was an air of excitement and anticipation and the queue snaked its way in coils in the atrium just to fit everybody. We were carrying our bags of picnic food and wine and with the excitement, there were a few crashes where bottles of red were smashed on the ground accidentally, "No! Not the wine!!"
While in the queue I started a conversation with Anna. In 2003, she was an Ambassadorial Scholar to ANU in Canberra and studied law. She's from a small town of 500 people in South Dakota so going from there to Australia, when she hadnt travelled before was an unforgettable experience ad she said she loved it. She was sponsored by the RC Queanbeyan and we had a lot to share given that I had also spent 4 years of my working life there. She is currently and immigration lawyer and has submitted to work in a remote part of Alaska with the Innuits; but also going for jobs in Anchorage and San Francisco as she is trying to find more of a challenging role and wlling to move from South Dakota. We got on quite well and I filled her in with all the Australian political news [she also studied politics and worked in Washington] as well as about Kevin Rudd, his apology to the Aboriginals, his leadership summit inviting Australians and overall the election results. She was fascinated !
and commented on the differences between our countries. She mentioned that John Howard and Alexander Downer had lectured to her group at ANU one day and this would have never happended in the USA. She then took out a bottle of Rawson's Retreat from her bag and we sat outside the Hollywood Bowl enjoying our red wine and chips. We finished off the wine while debating the pros and cons of mandatory voting. I was glad I met her so we exchanged our details and promised to email each other and then went our separate ways to our allocated seating.
The Hollywood Bowl is an outdoor concert hall under the Hollywood sign, surrounded by the hills that makes it a cozy enclosed area where you watch and hear the performances. I was up in the cheap section but with the big screens, you had a view of the composer and the orchestra so you didn't miss anything.
Last night's entertainment was a tribute to 70 years of Warner Brothers entertainment. Our MC was Shirley Jones and for the first half Burt Bacharach played his musical soundtracks while the images of those movies were projected on the big screen. It was a surreal experience to be part of something you usualy se on television. As darkness fell, the massive spotlights on each side of the bowl created a cross in the sky and the image was that of what we had seen on tv. The second half of the performance was by far the best. David Newman [father Alfred who was also a composer of many movie musical scores] conducted an orchestra wile snippets of movies were being played. The musical score of Casablanca while Humphrey Bogart was trying to convince Bergman that she should be on that plane with Victor; the quidditch scene of the first Harry Potter movie; the score where Batman fights his enemy played by Liam Neeson in Batman Begins; atribute to western movies where they played !
How the West was Won while we viewed scenes from all western movies in the last 70 years. The finale of course was Judy Garland's "Over the Rainbow". It was a truly spctacular night that ended with a fireworks display with the Rotary symbol and the words END POLIO. The night got everone in a great mood and the thousands then slowly moved to the many tour buses in the car park all marked to take us back to our relevant hotels. The whole night was superbly organised and certainly left a lasting impression on me. in fact, the whole convention has left me with a positive perception to the good that Rotary does as an international organisation.
While in the bus queue I struck up a conversation with Jeffry and Pierrette from the Netherlands. I told them aout my GSE experiences in their country and all the places I had been to. The live very close to the Belgium border so they were south to District 1150 who sponsored me. They invited me to have a drink with them at the hotel bar aterwards and we sat talking close to midnight. Of course, we exchanged details once again as we shared some common connections.
In the bus I sat next to Salwar. She was a doctor in Egypt and told me that she belonged to the only Rotary District that had 3 continents represented - Africa, Europe and Asia. In her district, the countries covered are Egypt, Lebanon, Arabia, Cyprus so her District Conferences are always interesting with the different nationalities although their common language is English.
Tuesday was a long day but every moment was worthwhile!
No comments:
Post a Comment