Lane Crawford speaks to Rotary about his year-long exchange experience

Lane Crawford in souvenir covered Rotary blazer
T. Lucas photo

Toni Lucas

Lane Crawford addressed Pincher Creek Rotary on Thursday, October 2, speaking of his year-long Rotary Exchange program experience that took him to Germany, and to many points across Europe.  Crawford returned to Pincher Creek in July of this year.   Crawford finished grade 12 in Pincher Creek, but took an additional year of schooling while he was in Germany.


He spent the first part of his trip in a German town called Eggstedt, and then went to Heide. One of his studies was the German language. Crawford said that he was there to travel, meet people, and learn the language. "At first, I didn't understand anything, a few months ago, I think I could understand 70% to 80%. Of course, I couldn't speak that well. Learning another language was a big tough one."

He showed photos of his experiences, from the people he had met, the groups he had traveled with, the food, festivals, landscapes, architecture, and culture that he experienced. He toured shops, cathedrals, castles, Olympic sites, and enjoyed it from the most grand and breathtaking sites to the cheese bread offerings from the street vendors.

He spoke of a three week trip through Europe that he shared with other Rotary Exchange Students. A few of the stops on the tour included Rome, Paris, Venice, Prague, with stops in Germany, Netherlands, and Belgium.  As exciting as the list of places was, his descriptions of traveling with a group Rotary participants from all over the world on a Double Decker bus had a lot of charm. "I would love to go back to Italy. Italy was probably my favorite in the whole Europe tour. The people, the food, the beaches just everything was fantastic. I would love to go back to Germany. I would say Hamburg was my favorite city in all of Germany."

He was very happy that he had the opportunity to go to Wacken Open Air Hard Rock Festival. "In the few days that it is on, I think 80,000 people go through there. There were nine different stages there, and all the big famous bands go there, so it was really cool."

"There are a lot of things that I don't think I could have done by myself, before," he said, reflecting on how the experience has made him grow and has changed him. "After a year by yourself, you learn how to take care of yourself."

Related:  Arianna Korbett is the latest Pincher Creek young adult to go on a year-long exchange.  She's in Croatia and has a great blog detailing her adventures at arianna222.wordpress.com