The theme of our January 12 meeting was “Culture Clash”. That moment when you are travelling and you experience different customs, foods or languages that are totally unfamiliar to you. How do you cope when you don’t know the language and you feel hopelessly lost? Have you ever been an invited guest at a business dinner while traveling and the food is not what you expected? What do you do when your 3-hour layover at an international airport turns into 24 hours, do you explore the city or stay put near the airport? We each have our “threshold” of being able to accept something totally new, unfamiliar and unexpected.
Our free form Travel Topics session focused on the theme of the meeting. We were asked to comment on our experiences with new foods, discovering new things in local markets and managing our travel in countries where we do not know the language. Meghan shared her experience with unusual food during a business dinner and a great tip for how to get directions if you don’t speak the language. She need directions in Paris and she was having trouble finding someone to help her who spoke English. Then she saw a Cartier store and realized that a high-end jewelry store would have someone on staff who spoke English. The store also had a map of Paris with all of the Cartier location listed and one of them was near to where she was trying to go. Great tip for those of us who need help!
Elma Knowles presented, “Mentor Me: Let’s Go, Let’s Grow” as the project speech for her Pathways Mentoring Program, Advanced Mentoring Project Speech. Through the stories in her speech, she encouraged all of us to become mentors, not only to help others become better speakers but also to help us learn and grow. The quote she chose to open her speech, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together” encapsulated the message from her speech.
Our Destination Master was Helen Josephine. She gave us the details of a city on the coast of the United States. The city was known for lumber, seafood and as a gateway to the Gold Rush. More recently the city has been known as a shipping port, a technology hub and for the manufacturing of aircraft. It was the site of the 1962 World’s Fair and the iconic Space Needle from the fair is still a tourist attraction. It is also known as the Emerald City due to the lush evergreen trees in the surrounding area. If you guessed Seattle, you are correct!
Join us for our next meeting on January 19 from 6:30pm to 7:30pm Pacific (-8 UTC). The meeting theme is “Local Favorites.” We want to hear about your local favorites in your home city or country, so we can plan to enjoy them when we come for a visit. Our speaker will be Vernitta and our Destination Master will be Meghan.
Register for the meeting: https://tinyurl.com/TravelTalkersZoomLink
Looking forward to hearing your Travel Stories!
Helen Josephine,
Travel Talkers Toastmasters
Travel Talkers Toastmasters 
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