The Behavior Contract by Brittany

I'm in charge of collecting the group's ideas about how we will conduct ourselves on the trip, and putting it into a little contract we all sign.   The neat part about it is that the troop puts it together, is accountable to it, and manage our interactions as a group..  We went through this process for our Seattle trip, and it’s not as scary as we thought it would be. Basically, the Behavior Contract is a list of rules we come up with that we all have to follow while overseas. It includes things like how we work together, how to stay safe, what we would do in case of an emergency, and so on… Probably the only scary thing about this contract is the Last-Resort Punishment. If someone does something absolutely terrible, like drinking or breaking the law or rules, she will be sent home. Some of the rules on the contract are normal rules that we abide by: always make sure the leaders know where you are, no walking off with strangers, always stay with a buddy, etc. It's just basic good behavior.  Since one of our biggest goals is to CONNECT with as many people as we can in Iceland and England, we WANT to talk to as many people as possible, to get to know them and about their lives.  This will be a very exciting and memorable part of the trip, and as long as we abide by our own behavior guidelines.

Brittany

What we’ve learned from our Icelandic sister troop over Facebook by Rosie

Rosie here! We’ve been communicating with our Icelandic Sister Troop over Facebook lately. We’ve learned about their different personalities, and what they like to do. We also have been getting the “inside scoop” about where to go in Iceland. We’ve learned about a teacher’s strike that went on, and they even made a video for us! The video gave us a special insight on where we are going to stay (the scout house). In the video, I could really see their personalities shine. Communicating with the troop over Facebook has been really great!

Rosie

Nightmare of Hostels by Coumbah

In the beginning, the England Team was in CHAOS! We were all busy and didn't have the time to set aside to actually get into the meat of our trip to London, England. After some regrouping we were finally able to become organized and start putting our trip together.

Lizzy put me in charge of finding our Hostel, which was a HUGE deal because that's ultimately where we were going to sleep and live for the day while we were in London. At first, I didn't really think it was a big deal. I had the mentality that all I had to do was go online, find a website with trip information, and pick a place in our location that we wanted. I was well aware that I would have to talk to people to plan and get further information but I thought it was a pretty easy task. But that's not it at ALL!

Finding a hostel 3-4 months before we go on a trip is equivalent to finding a needle in a haystack. I seriously could not find a hostel anywhere. The problems would be that our ages didn't match with the hostel age restrictions or there wasn't any openings for an  all female bedrooms. (After all, we couldn't stay in a mixed room with BOYS! It'd be just too scandalous.) But all in all, finding a hostel was terribly difficult, I talked to so many trip-helper-people, looked at so many hostels and hotels, and all of this really stressed me out and killed my vibes.

This hostel search made me feel like I was in an endless scavenger hunt for just one piece. Finding the hostel made me anxious and mad because I had so much other things going on. I swear I could never be a travel agent because this search had me literally crying myself to sleep. Since I couldn't find the hostel, Emma and Lizzy couldn't go along with their plans because we didn't have a place to stay. Sometimes I felt like everyone thought I wasn't trying hard enough to find the hostel because for a while it seemed like every meeting we, the England team, didn't have much compared to the Iceland team and sometimes I felt like it was my fault. I felt like I had the world on my shoulders with all the school work and social issues I was dealing with. :(

Even though I felt all this emotion, I still worked my tail off to find this hostel. A hostel was very important to us because the atmosphere of a hostel is very global and you can meet all kinds of people. I finally was able to find a hostel and it was just fabulous!   It's called "The Budget Mapesbury Hostel" and it looks perfect for our group.  That's all I can say, completely fabulous!!! The Heavens opened up from the gates of Hell!

Coumbah

Horses of Iceland by Selina

Hey Everyone!

This is "Elding" (Lightening) from Stokkseyrarsel Farm
 

So we have been continuing our research on Iceland and we have been interested in Icelandic horseback riding for a while now. The place looks just perfect to go tour on horseback. Also, the horses themselves are very unique! Riding horses usually have 4 gaits (speed of step) but the Icelandic horses actually have 5! Haha, that'll be fun to try out! Another cool thing we found in our research on Icelandic horses are that they are one of the purest bred in the world, because once an Icelandic horse leaves the island it can never come back no matter what. Aww!
Anyways, we found this website with a bunch of horseback riding tours. The one we're interested in is this tour called Country Charm. Its about a 1.5 hour tour, perfect for our schedules! We'll be exploring uncharted terrains with danger lurking at every corner, and crashing   through raging waterfalls....

Look forward to our next post! :)

Selina

Why are the leaders meeting for 10 hours a week? by The Assistant Leader

As leaders, we have “given the car keys

Ms. Donna reviewing the itinerary

to the girls” and they have been responsible for driving the planning of our Iceland/England trip. It is a wonderful thing to watch the girls figure out that they can do something they were not so sure they could do. Finding a place to stay, a vehicle to rent, where to shop, where to eat, and what to visit seemed a daunting task but they’ve done it! Now it’s all on the leaders to actually pay for the reservations, compile the final itinerary, and submit all the necessary paperwork required by our Girl Scout Council. Who knew it would take so much time! Ms. Susan and I spend about 10 hours per week on these tasks but it’s great to see it all come together. 

Ms. Donna

What are we going to do Outside of the tourist box in London? by Lizzy

I wish I could say and list out a bunch of things outside the “tourist box” in London, but I can’t. There are a few places like the China Town in England. However, what most of us wanted was in fact the touristy places – London Eye, National Gallery, etc. Also, there wasn’t really enough time to plan “outside the box”. That doesn’t mean the trip is ruined, this trip is going to be what we make it. Therefore, if we think, “Oh man, we’re only doing touristy things”, we’ll miss out on all the incredible experiences we could be making and doing. In the end it’s not what we do that really matters, it’s what we choose to make of it. We’ve balanced it pretty well between the “tourist” attractions and “non-tourist” attractions, but honestly, the amount of tourist vs non-tourist attractions shouldn’t even matter. We don’t know what will happen. Things on a schedule are weak and disposable, but the people you go with and the memories you make are what really matters. :)

Lizzy

The Energy in the Room- A Brief Insight on our Meetings by The Leader

It’s Friday afternoon again, not quite 50 degrees, raining, and cold outside. I shiver when I think this will be the HIGH in Iceland. My daughters come home from school exhausted as usual after a long week of busy days and late nights with school work and collapse into a fast power nap. They can do nothing but sleep! But I need help…. Girl Scouts have met at my house for five years now – hard to believe it has been so long. For some reason, we’re never quite ready…..the counters are dirty, dishes in the sink, random clothes dropped on couches, the bathrooms needs a quick swipe. We’re out of paper towels again – who used the last of the toilet paper and didn’t replace it? We do a quick surface clean. 

The doorbell rings – the first Girl Scout arrives. There are squeals and shrieks and lots of excited talking – everything that has happened in the last week gets aired. More girls pile in from the dark rainy evening, shedding shoes and notebooks and journals and bags in a pile at the door. They talk about EVERYTHING – and no subject is barred, and they get louder and louder and louder – there is lots of laughter. The energy in the room is palpable – joyous and exuberant. They have been waiting all week for this time with their friends.

One of the families brings dinner. What IS it? YUM! The girls pull out the tiny dining room table and add chairs and tablecloths and dishes and napkins and silverware and candles and in ten minutes, the empty room is now a table set neatly for 9. We sit, and the girl who brought the meal explains each dish – one night it could be a French meal native to the Ivory Coast, another a soup native to Taiwan, or an English meal in preparation for the trip. We sing a grace. We eat. We are so glad to be together again.

Ms. Susan