First Rotary Meeting

Monday night I went with my mother to the first Rotary meeting of the season. We drove out to a golf range somewhere beyond Tartu for the meeting and a lesson in golf.

When we pulled into the parking lot, there was already a large group of ladies already gathered. We all said hello and then walked out to the driving range. Three ladies carried out their bags of golf clubs, probably those that actually play golf regularly. We got several baskets of yellow golf balls from the dispenser at the bottom of the hill, before climbing up to the driving range.

Once there, the ladies with clubs handed them out to everyone and we spread out so we had room to move. First we went through a series of warm-up stretches with the golf club, and then we each stepped up onto a piece of turf and one of the ladies explained and demonstrated how to hold the club and how to hit the ball.

We each got a bunch of balls and tried to send them flying. Most of mine went further than others because of the force I was putting behind them. It wasn't until the third round or so before I could lift the ball with any consistency. While we all struggled to emulate the experts hitting balls from the grass, more Rotarians arrived in clusters.

After a while, we stopped and followed the instructor lady through the playing of one hole, before walking back to in front of the restaurant by the parking lot. We gathered back together on a practice putting green for a lesson on putting and a competition. We had to put for three holes and record the number of hits. I got seven four four.

After that we went inside and sat down at two long tables.  I ended up sitting next to my mother and across the way from my counselor. We had little bits of bread as the club president made a small speech that I couldn't make heads or tails of. Then we had dinner, which was delicious. As people finished up their meals, prices were awarded for the top three places. Those people had seven, eight, and nine total. I remarked to my mother that I got eight...in two holes.

Then it was my turn to speak. I got up and talked a bit about Vermont, myself, and my family, then I asked for questions. There wasn't an overwhelming amount of them. After I sat down, one lady across from me asked me several questions about rugby.

We all ordered tea or coffee, then went to the deck to take a picture. After taking it, we went back to the tables for tea, coffee, and dessert. Dessert was some sort of eggcustard with a carmelized topping that required a little effort to crack (apparently that's how you can tell if the dish is well made). When I put the topping in my mouth it crackled and popped like pop rocks. After we finished dessert, my mother and I had to go home so that Adeele would go to sleep.

However, before we left, I met my next two host mothers. One has three daughters, 16, 14, and 5. The other has an eleven year old son.