A report received recently from Jack Kadaoui, our outbound student currently in Germany …. I’d have to say the past few months since my last report have probably been the best of my exchange. I’ll start on the 3^rd of July with the start of Schützenfest. Schützenfest means shooting festival and is held in almost every town in North/Central Germany. It is held every year as a festival for all the shooting clubs in the surrounding area to meet. Hannover holds the biggest in all of Germany with a little over 300 clubs ranging from near 500 year old clubs to as recent as 10 years old. These days it’s more of a festival with rides and stands but it still has its traditional dress and music and naturally a lot of beer. The festival goes for 10 days and on the first Sunday there is the parade of all the clubs from the city center to the fest. The parade goes for a little over 2 hours with all the clubs and many different organizations participating. It is a very interesting and fun parade with many bands and a lot of floats giving out things such as sweets and the Germans’ two favourite things, fresh baked bread and beer. Every night at 11 there was fireworks and music all night and day. It was like this non-stop for 10 days with thousands of people going every day and night. I was there for the first 3 days and the last 2 and I’d have to say it is the best thing I’ve done in Germany. Directly after the festival all of the summer Inbounds began to head home, but I didn’t have time to get sentimental as I had the best three weeks of my life ahead of me in the form of Europa Tour. And the best three weeks they were. 9 countries, 15 cities, 44 exchange students, 1 bus and all in 21 days. For me it was a dream come true to finally travel Europe and to make it even more amazing was that it was with 43 of the best people I’ve ever met. We went from being total strangers to family after the 21 days. It’s the magic of exchange. During the three weeks experienced so much from pizza In Venice to a theme park in Vienna and almost everything in between. I have to thank Rotary back home and in Germany again for the amazing experience I was given. Words truly do not begin to describe how amazing my trip was and I can’t wait to get home and share my stories in person. Yours truly … Jack Kadaoui 😉