Nolan Wells recently attended a Jamestown Noon Rotary Club meeting to thank club members for sending him on an exchange trip to Australia.
Wells addressed the Jamestown Noon Rotary Club, and also thanked the Wednesday Morning Rotary Club, for giving him the opportunity to be a student ambassador and representative to Australia. Wells reported on the educational system there and said he looks forward to completing his senior year of high school in Jamestown.
Lisa Yaggie, in charge of a Rotary program that sends and stays in touch with students like Nolan, described Wells as the "perfect exchange student." Nolan also developed a taste for some traditional Australian foods along with his "No worries, Mate" accent. Meat pies, a fistful of spiced or seasoned meat enclosed in a golden baked crust, is popular everywhere in Australia. Vegemite, however - as popular in Australia as peanut butter in the United States - a dark brown, spreadable Australian food paste made from yeast extract is, at best, an acquired taste, Wells said.
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Nolan Wells is pictured with Bill Tucker, Jamestown Noon Rotary Club president.
Nolan described Australia's native inhabitants, the Aboriginal peoples and the Torres Strait Islanders, as predating the 18th and 19th century European arrivals by as much as 40,000 years. Most Australians are immigrants, or their descendants, who arrived from more than 200 other countries. Nolan also explained that Australia is "a place that can hurt you," a home to more venomous species of creatures that crawl, swim or slither than anywhere else in the world.
The highlight of Wells' year abroad was the three-week grand tour at the end of his stay, a cross-country trip from one end of Australia to the other, with a group of fellow Rotary exchange students from around the world.