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Welcome to Dallas!
Club
Information
Official
club name:
The Friendship Force of Dallas
Arrival:
Arrive
at DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport). Hosts meet the
Ambassadors at the airport in private cars.
Hosting:
The
maximum number of Ambassadors our club can host: 25
Membership:
Our members live in Dallas within a 30 mile radius and our club has been
growing. It now includes about 130 members from all walks of life
who enjoy traveling and meeting new people here and in other places.
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About
Dallas
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The
region:
With a population of over one million (about 6.2 million for Dallas,
Fort Worth and surrounding towns), Dallas is the ninth largest city
in the US and the fastest growing city in the United States. It is a large financial, manufacturing and technology/
telecommunications center, has the largest wholesale
merchandise mart in the world, the third largest film production
center, and is home for hundreds of major corporate offices. |
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Texas Fun Facts
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Did you
know:
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There are 254 counties in Texas |
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Texas has 624 miles of coastline running along the Gulf of Mexico. |
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The King Ranch, located in Kingsville, Texas is bigger than the state of Rhode Island |
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Texas was the 28th state to enter the union, joining the United States on Dec. 29, 1845 |
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More wool comes from the state of Texas than any other state in the U.S. |
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Texas gets its name from the Hasinai Indian word
tejas, meaning friends or allies |
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The capitol building in Austin opened May 16, 1888. The dome stands seven feet higher than that of the nation's Capitol in Washington, D.C. |
Texas State Symbols:
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Flag: Known as the Lone Star Flag |
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Motto: Friendship |
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Nickname: The Lone Star State |
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Bird: Mockingbird |
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Flower: Bluebonnet |
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Insect: Monarch butterfly |
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Tree: Pecan |
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Mammal: Texas Longhorn |
More state symbols and facts:
http://dev.tourtexas.com/ |

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Inbound
Exchange Activities
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When
Ambassadors come, we offer a program from the following list of
activities. Sorry - there isn't time to do everything listed here, but
we ask the Exchange Director of the visiting club about the
members' interests so we can offer some activities they would enjoy.
During our inbound exchanges we introduce visitors to Dallas sights
such as the:
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Downtown
area - Pioneer Plaza (cattle drive sculptures) and Arts District |
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Dallas Museum of Art |
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Winspear
Opera House |
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Wyly
Theater |
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Trammel Crow
Museum of Asian Art |
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The Nasher
Sculpture Garden |
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Fountain
Place |
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Reunion
Tower (revolving restaurant and observation deck) |
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We may include architecturally
interesting places such as
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The Meyerson Symphony Center designed by
I.M. Pei |
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Guadalupe
Cathedral |
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Texas State
Fair Grounds (large selection of 1930s Art Deco buildings housing
permanent museums - Aquarium, Science Museum, Museum of Natural
History, African-American Museum, Women's Museum, and Discovery
Gardens) |
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SMU and the
Meadows Art Museum |
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Thanksgiving
Square |
And
historical sites such as
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The Sixth Floor (Kennedy)
Museum |
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The Wilson district of historic homes
and Swiss Ave |
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Dallas
Heritage Park |
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Dallas
Historical Museum in the Old Red Courthouse |
Many incoming groups like a taste of the old West at
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The
Mesquite Rodeo |
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Or the Texas State Fair
(October only). |
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We include
our world-class Dallas Arboretum |

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And
sometimes our ecologically innovative Trinity River Audubon Center |
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Nearby places of
interest include:
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Fort Worth
- visiting sights such as the stockyards, Kimbell Art Museum, Sid Richardson or
Amon Carter western
art museums, the Cowgirl Hall of Fame, Japanese Garden, Water Garden and
Sundance Square |
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The small towns of
McKinney, Denton or Waxahachie |
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Horse farm
tours |
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The Gaylord
Resort |
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Cowboy
Stadium |
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Individual hosts or day hosts may take their visitors
to
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Shop at an
outlet mall, flea market or the elegant Galleria shopping center. |
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The Dallas Aquarium (actually a jungle
featuring monkeys, birds, otters and gardens as well as beautiful fish) |
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Southfork (site of filming of the TV series "Dallas") |
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One of several
flight museums with vintage airplanes |
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Sporting,
music or theatrical events |
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The Dallas
Zoo or Fort Worth Zoo |
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Fossil Rim
Wildlife Park |
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Local parks,
lakes and hiking trails |
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Jazz at the
Dallas Museum of Art |
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Festivals |
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Salsa or
country-western dancing or late night jazz |
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Some of the
great Dallas restaurants |
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And did we
mention shopping? |
For career-oriented groups,
we can arrange meetings with professionals in your field. |
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We host welcome and farewell
parties including a festive meal, music and program as well as arrange
in-home dinners for smaller groups with club members and Ambassadors.
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After the
exchange is over many members continue to correspond or visit again;
many have visited their guests or hosts in their countries
as friends or hosted them privately on return trips. Texas
hospitality is something the Dallas club is proud to offer! |

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Some Comments
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Previous ambassadors to our club and city have said:
"Your club is so big,
well-organized, and active..." Gail Boyd, ED, Friendship Force San
Francisco Bay Area
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"The people in the
Dallas club really know how to make one feel the 'western' spirit. The rodeo, horse
farm, barbeque lunch...how exciting!" Anonymous

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"The people in the
Dallas really turn out for events, even when it is pouring down rain..."
Lori English, ED, FFSFBA
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"...and, the people are
so friendly" Gail Boyd, ED, FFSFBA
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Our Japanese friends enjoyed our kitchen table as it became the venue for all our
discussions including how to play Jenga. They were awed for several hours at
the 6th Floor Memorial Museum to JFK. An October visit allowed them a visit to the
Texas State Fair.
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Canadian friends enjoyed our agenda for the week that did not overload
them; got
to know us in small dinner groups, included a real rodeo and had
plenty of picture taking opportunities.
A chance to visit a large Arabian horse farm with recent colts reminded them we are in the
west.
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Romanian friends spent several hours walking the
world-class Dallas Arboretum when it was in
full bloom. At their request we had a career day where they met
professionals in similar businesses such as medical, legal, construction and newspaper
publishing.
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We
invite you to watch a slideshow about our club so that you are sure to include FFDallas in
your exchange plans. This 8+ minute video is a composite of photos from our Canada, Japan and Peru inbound
exchanges showcasing our typical exchange activities. Our newsletter editor, Ken Walker, picked interesting photos of people that showed places we visit or activities we engage in.
These photos, with a few captions, speak for themselves.
You can watch the slideshow on
YouTube
by
clicking on the link below. It is best viewed
full
screen; click the icon
corner after the show starts.
http://tinyurl.com/ffDallas-exchanges |

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