We're here!!

Hi all! We're in Solferino now - 43 hours after we left NZ, not that I'm counting or anything... We arrived at Melpensa Airport in Milan at 6.30am yesterday. From there we went to the Milan Red Cross office to wait for more youth delegates to arrive before boarding a bus and spending two hours driving to Solferino. Language was a bit of a challenge in Milan as very few people spoke English, but after spending a couple of hours waiting and making a few phone calls we got it all sorted. The bits I saw of the drive to Solferino were amazing, but it was incredibly hot on the bus and I was feeling rather tired having been awake for about 40 hours at this stage, so I didn't see much of the trip. (Brie Jessen and Aaron Turner upon arrival in Milan, Italy)

Once we arrived and checked in, we were able to sign up for workshops (1 per day). There are three days worth of workshops and twelve different workshops each day, it was definitely a challenge to narrow it down to one workshop, but I managed. My choices are:

Wednesday: Vounteering and Branch Development
Thursday: Non-discrimination and Respect for Diversity
Friday: Intercultural Dialogue

More to come on those later though. After workshop sign up we had the opening ceremony. It was amazing seeing everyone dressed up in there national society uniforms with their flags and signs. A truly awe inspiring sight!!

(Brie Jessen and Aaron Turner, New Zealand Red Cross youth delegates)

(Brie Jessen, New Zealand Red Cross, National Youth Representative to the National Board)

(Australian Red Cross and New Zealand Red Cross youth delegates)

(Cambodian Red Cross Youth Delegation)

(American Red Cross Delegation)