Meeting Happenings- Over Cups of Tea by Coumbah

(Note: We are so so sorry for the delay of this post! New updates will be up very soon!)

1/24/14

Hey this is Coumbah and I'm going to talk about the last meeting!

Food

Selina brought dinner for this meeting. We had potstickers, fried rice, and this soup called Sour and spicy soup and, like the name suggests, it was delicious! For dessert, she brought a nice fruit salad. Unfortuntally she didn't get to bring the usual "Selina Surprise". 

(For those of you who don't know, Selina usually brings something special and weird whenever it's her turn to bring dinner. Over the course of the years, we've had the privilege of getting to eat: pig ears, chicken feet, fish heads, chicken hearts, even pig's blood, and much much more!) However, she did promise a very special surprise next time around. ;) Look forward to it!

 

Meeting

Facebook

 At the Girl Scout meeting we decided to make two Facebook group pages, one for our Iceland Group and a separate one for our England group. We thought this would be an easy way for us to communicate faster with each group by direct messages and pictures; also we could talk to each other whenever we wanted and wouldn't have to wait for an email. I can't wait for that to get started! 

Iceland and England Team

The major discussions really at the troop meeting  was locking down the places that we can stay. We decided that for England, we would draft an email with our questions to the our England correspondence/sister troop. We are still waiting for correspondence from the Iceland troop too.

Themed Trip

We decided to come up with a theme or a project that we could do while on our trip. After discusing a bit on what we thought was important to our troop, we decided that we all loved the outdoors, meeting new people, and learning new cultures and points of view. We are forming a project as I write. I won't give any spoilers yet but it is very interesting! All I'll say is that it may have something to do with the Girl Scout law!

All in all the meeting was pretty basic, we laughed and discussed over cups of tea and it was nice to loosen up a bit with my friends!

Look forward to our next post! :)

Coumbah

Meeting Happenings- AN ICELANDIC SISTER TROOP!!! by Selina

January 10, 2014
Hallo Hallo!!
Havo segrou gott?
This is Selina, and here's an update!

So Friday's meeting plans were thrown off a bit because of the photos (see Lizzy's post below), but in the end I think we still made good use of time!

Food
Of course we wouldn't skip dinner!!
Scrumcilicious baked potatoes and chili with sides of salad and some good old southern cornbread, all completely homemade by Mrs. Susan herself! We were famished by the time we got to eat (which was 7), so the stuff disappeared pretty quickly. For dessert we had vanilla ice cream with peach and pumpkin custard! Mhmhmmhmm!!

Meeting

Cookie sales: Yes, it is that time of year again. Girl Scout cookie sale - a big fundraiser nationally for the Girl Scouts.  Well, we discussed a bit about cookie booths, which we will be setting up at the local Krogers around here soon. We are officially beginning sales, so if you like cookies and would like to support Girl Scouts in general please do buy a box! If you don't really care for the cookies all that much or would like to support our troop and help us on our goal to get to Europe, please give a donation!

The Surprise!: Boy! Two meetings with big surprises in a row! Well, if I could have a fictitious drum-roll:

(Dramatic pause)

 WE HAVE AN ICELANDIC SISTER TROOP !!

This is so exciting!!! There is a troop in Reykjavik, Iceland that is willing to email back and forth with us, answering questions and giving advice what to do there and helping us understand lots of about Icelandic life!  The troop has 16-year-old girls and a boy, and they also work on a search and rescue team!  We can't wait to start emailing them and getting to know them better!  And then we will get to spend time with them while we are in Iceland!!!

We now have contacts from Iceland, England, and Port Angeles,Washington (This was from our last trip. To view our adventures there, please click on the "Seattle Blog" tab on the upper bar).

We ran out of time after we freaked out over the news! We will have an update on sponsorships and England and Iceland Team on the next post, as well as some new Icelandic words! (Hopefully we can get some tips on our pronunciation from the Icelandic Troop while we are there)!!

That's all for this week!

New posts are coming up soon!

Takk fyrir en Bless Bless!!!!
:)

Selina

Lights, Cameras, Smile! :) by Lizzy

This past Friday, after much debate, the troop went to get their photos taken by a professional at Portrait Innovations.  I was quite tired from the day, but ready to be there. We were all in uniform and after we sorted everything out, we went to go take the pictures. The photographer lead us into a room and we began with taking a group shot for the girls and then more with the leaders.  The photographer took three shots of each photo and later we would choose the best one of them. After group shots we did individual ones and then back to groups. It was kind of scary thinking: “What if I blinked in all three shots?!?”, but it was also kind of fun and exciting. After the Girl Scout troop was done, Mrs. Susan had some photos taken with her family. Meanwhile the rest of the girls wrote letters to out to the England sister troop! After all the photos were done and loaded on the computer we figured out which shots would be the best, and then at the end we figured out which ones to print and which to keep on a CD. Ms. Susan dealt with the end price and the nitty gritty of her own photos while we continued writing our letters. I must confess I fell asleep in the end, but the  overall experience was good and the people at the studio were so nice and welcoming. They really knew what they were doing and I'm glad we worked with them.

Thank you Photo Innovations for your wonderful service!

Lizzy

Meeting Happenings: AN ENGLISH SISTER TROOP!!! by Selina

12/6/13
Hello everyone!
It's Selina and here's an update!
Last Friday night we had a meeting.

Food
We had delicious, mouth-popping Mexican food from Frontera, courtesy of Mrs. Donna and Brittany! Dessert was this beautiful winter themed cake with the man from Cake Boss adorning the box, which apparently was all that he adorned, since the taste was a bit of a disappointment to the buds!

Meeting
Professional photos: Lately we have been trying to get some professional photos done for our whole troop, but since funds are still running low, we were hoping to find a place that could give us a discount or even a free session including copyrights to the photos. The nice folks at Portrait Innovations from the Avenue are willing to do all this for a little more than $100 bucks. This will probably be our best option.

The Surprise!: All right, as you have no doubt read in the title, here comes the special surprise of the meeting...:

We've found sisters in England!!

On Friday night, Mrs. Susan broke the news to us! Our sister Girl Scout troop, or Girl Guides as they call it, are located in a cute place near London. They all seem to super energetic and hopefully just as ecstatic as we are over here! We got to read some of the letters they sent us and respond  to them with our one. There was a lot that we had in common! I absolutely can't wait to meet them in person, it will make this trip just a whale size more special!

England: Well, other than the amazing sister trip news, England team brought us more info on transportation with the Tube. Apparently, you can get on for free if you are a student, but we are not sure if an American student would count. Still looking into that!

Iceland: We found more info on transportation and activities we could do. Brittany found some good restaurants that we were told to DEFINITELY check out. (Including a very well known hot dog stand that serves LAMB hot dogs!)

Over the past few months, we have been increasing our vocabulary in some Icelandic words. We ran out of time to learn new Icelandic words this time, but here are the words that we have learned so far!

1. Yes - Jai
2. No - Nei
3. Hello - Hallo
4. Goodbye - Bless
5. Thank you - Takk fyrir
6. My name is... - Eg heiti...
7. I'm from... - Eg er fra
8. What's your name? - Havo heitir pu?
9. Sorry - Eg bid st afsokunar
10. How are you? - havo segrou gott?
11. I'm good, and you? - Allt gott, en pu?
12. Just fine, thanks - Baro fint, takk

That is all for this week!
New posts are coming up soon!

Takk fyrir en Bless Bless!!!!

Selina :)

Meeting Happenings by Emma

Hey Guys,

Emma here.  Tonight I'm going to explain a little bit about what happens during our troop meetings. Each meeting one girl's family is assigned to make the whole troop dinner. Now we have 9 people and that might not seem like a lot, but when you're growing and eating like elephants, can you really be blamed? Anyways, the first few people who arrive help Rosie and I set up the table. That includes putting in the extra boards {to make the table longer}, putting a table cloth on, silverware, napkins, drinks, and, of course, to set the mood, light a few candles.  At the same time, we have two girls go to the creepy, dark basement and get the white board.

After everyone arrives, we help put the food on the table and sit down to eat. It's always very delicious! A custom we have all gotten used to is when Selina brings diner there's always a... surprise. She's brought octopus, fish head, duck's foot, pig blood, goose egg, and every time, they've had an acquired taste. Ah, Selina, you never fail us.

During dinner we share stories, have laughs and enjoy each other's company. When everyone has finished their meals, we start the clean up. Everyone takes their own plates into the kitchen and then just helps making everything go back to normal.

We then go into the den and begin the meeting.  Usually, we start with an opening, sometimes we say highs and lows of our week or what we're looking forward to during the weekend.  We have a Troop President who leads the meeting, and every girl has a leadership responsibility in the troop.  We run the meetings but sometimes get a little off track, so our Troop President has to keep us going. 

After we go through everything, we go to the kitchen and eat dessert.  A few words to sum this up: delicious, chaos, dancing, and music.

After all this is done it's about 9:45, and it's time for everyone to go home.

Timeline by Brittany

Hiya! Brittany here! 

Wow. Planning this trip is a lot of work. So many things to do and so little time to do it. We only have 15 meetings left before we’re off to Iceland! To get organized, we created a spreadsheet of things we have to do and dates by which they should be done. We spent an entire meeting doing this. “This should go on that day, and this should be done by then.” It took quite a long time to complete this. A list was made of everything that needed to be done (hostels, activities, transportation, etc.) and then we placed each thing on a date that it would be done by. For example, our last meeting was focused around activities that we could do in Iceland and England. And the meeting we are having tonight is focused around picking places to stay. It may seem like a lot at first, but it gets easier once we split the work up between the members in our groups. The girls in our troop are split up into different groups. Lizzy, Coumbah, and Emma are the England team, and Katie, Selina, Rosie, and I are the Iceland team. This makes research easier in that we don’t have everybody looking up the same thing. Organization has helped a lot in the process of research and panning for our over-seas trip.

Another CMM Story by Selina

Hello Everyone!
I haven't wrote much ever since I became the editor, but here I am now! Okay, getting right to the story!

Campfire Meadow Magic (for those of you who don't know, it is an event where our troop brings other troops of Girl Scouts to our leader's giant meadow in her backyard, and teach them basic and/or advanced skills on camping, survival, and fun ways to enjoy, appreciate, and respect good mother nature) this year was loads of fun as usual.  It is a troop fundraiser, and we earned about $500 in one day towards our trip.

I feel that this year's girls got a lot out of it, and I really hope that they had fun! I even made a new friend with my same name! A shout out to Selena! I hope you and your troop are having fun with the new knowledge, songs, and memories you've gained during our time together! :)

It is really magical when you see their eyes just light up when that first spark flies. To watch this generation of girls get their little hands into the soil and enjoying the feel of earth between their fingertips! It brings me back to when I was their age, sitting in the backyard making mud cakes and splashing in rain puddles. I only wish that I had an elder brother or sister to play with me, and teach me all about the wonders of the natural world.

That is why, my only wish this year, is that there were more young girls bursting with curiousity  like all of you who participated this year, eager to explore, create, and understand. I wish our troop got to work with more of them, and hopefully change the way they view the outdoors for the rest of their lives.

We will post more information on our next CMM session in Spring. We hope to see more old and new faces then!

Until next time, stay safe, have fun, and we cannot thank you all enough for your kindness and support!
Selina