Travel Talkers Toastmasters

India is home to eight of the fifty largest cities in the world and has a diverse population of over 1.4 billion. Samantha Jamwal had the opportunity to travel to India to meet her husband’s family and attend a wedding, Her speech at our meeting provided several tips for Americans travelling to India for the first time. In her speech, she included information about the diverse languages you might encounter, advice on drinking water and eating street food, tips on the appropriate clothing to wear and her reaction to impromptu selfies and locals staring at her as an obvious outsider. She concluded her speech by encouraging all of us to visit this truly amazing and complex country.

Avis Russell was the Table Topics Master at our meeting and she asked us questions about our future trips to India including modes of transportation we might experience in India and the types of hotels and accommodations we might find. Meghan Burns suggested that if you are travelling with a group of friends or work colleagues, have each one take on a task to help organize the trip. For example, one person could research and book the hotels, another could research places to eat, and someone else could investigate the must see palaces, monuments and other tourist destinations. Among her group of colleagues on a recent trip was a self-appointed safety officer who reminded everyone about the need to use anti-mosquito spray to prevent dengue fever.

Our Destination Master, Tym gave us these clues for a country:

• Largest per capita of cows to people (4.1) in the world
• Most unique way of making a grill to cook their meat
• Third highest output of wine in South America (to go with all the beef they eat)
• Known for “Chivito” — the national sandwich–thinly sliced grilled beef, topped with slices of ham, bacon, lettuce, tomato, melted mozzarella cheese, and a fried egg
• Hosted the first World Cup ever (1930)
• Has 3.5 million people
• Known for its beaches
• Second smallest country in South America

If you guessed Uruguay, you are correct!

Join us for our next meeting on February 23 from 6:30pm to 7:30pm Pacific (-8 UTC). The meeting theme is “South America.” Tym Myers will give a speech about his adventures in South America. You can participate in our Travel Topics session and guess the mystery Destination.

Register for the meeting: https://tinyurl.com/TravelTalkersZoomLink

Looking forward to hearing your Travel Stories!

Helen Josephine,

Travel Talkers Toastmasters

What are your first memories of a far away and wonderful area of the world with large wild animals? Would you like to experience the exotic animals, plants and birds that you have only seen in movies or zoos? Time to go on safari!

Kit Myers was the Table Topics Master at our meeting and she asked us to remember the first time we heard the word “safari” and to comment on the memories that word, “safari,” held for us. She also asked us about different kinds of safaris we would like to go on, what one modern convenience we would need on safari and what kinds of bug bites we might get on safari.

Clint Zentner, at his second visit to our meeting, gave an Icebreaker speech about his adventures in Thailand. He experienced riding an elephant, paddling a bamboo raft and crossing a river gorge on a narrow bamboo bridge. His enthusiasm for the trip made us all want to go to Thailand to try riding an elephant and trekking in the jungle.

Avis was our Destination Master and she provided these clues to help us guess the mystery destination:

• It is an island country (an archipelago) in the Mediterranean Sea.

• It is between Italy and Libya, and is considered a part of Southern Europe.

• With a population of about 516,000 – it is the world’s tenth-smallest country. 

• It has two (2) official languages – English &…

• It is very historic – having many rulers: Romans, Arabs, French & British …

• Achieved independence on 21 September 1964

• Currency: euro

• It is a popular tourist destination, with 1.6 million tourists per year. Three times more tourists visit than there are residents.

• It has a Mediterranean climate with mild winters and hot summers. Rain occurs mainly in autumn and winter, with summer being generally dry.

• In 58 AD, Paul the Apostle was washed up on the islands together with Luke the Evangelist after their ship was wrecked on the islands. Paul the Apostle remained on the islands for three months, preaching the Christian faith. The island is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles.

If you guessed Malta, you are correct!

Join us for our next meeting on February 16 from 6:30pm to 7:30pm Pacific (-8 UTC). The meeting theme is “Travel to India.” Samantha Jamwal will give a speech about her recent trip to India. You can participate in our Travel Topics session and guess the mystery Destination.

Register for the meeting: https://tinyurl.com/TravelTalkersZoomLink

Looking forward to hearing your Travel Stories!

Helen Josephine,

Travel Talkers Toastmasters

Have you ever considering travelling around the world? At our January 26 meeting, Travel Topics Master, Vernitta, asked us for our responses to her questions about travelling around the world. We heard about how to plan for a trip around the world, how to make money while travelling, and how to save money booking an around the world airline ticket with stops at various destinations. We also heard about where to travel for unique experiences, such as riding elephants in Thailand and travelling to Israel.

Our Destination Master, Samantha Jamwal, offered these clues about the country she had chosen:

• This country was formed from a federation of 7 countries
• The country shares maritime borders with Qatar and Iran
• This location has the world’s 6th and 7th largest oil and gas reserves
• The official language is Arabic
• There are no permanent rivers
• The country has the world’s tallest building 
• Official citizens of the country only make up 12% of the total population

If you guess the United Arab Emirates (UAE), you are correct!

Avis’ speech this week at Travel Talkers was to fulfill the requirements of the Managing a Difficult Audience project for Level 4 of the Leadership Development path. Members of the audience were asked ahead of time to take specific roles to try to disrupt the speech. For her speech, Avis discussed three key leadership styles and asked the audience to reflect on our own style. The three leadership styles she discussed were:

Authoritative – the leader is in complete control and sets the goals, writes the processes, and oversees the steps to reach the goal

Coaching – the leader fosters development and training and promotes high team morale and productivity  

Democratic – the leader actively participates in discussions and listens to the team views

We enjoyed the speech and Avis handled all of our questions, comments and disruptions like a professional speaker, encouraging the comments and inviting the audience to share their leadership style.

Join us for our next meeting on February 9 from 6:30pm to 7:30pm Pacific (-8 UTC). The meeting theme is “On Safari.” We want to hear about your Safari trips or why you would like to go on safari and where you would like to go. We are not meeting on February 2.

Register for the meeting: https://tinyurl.com/TravelTalkersZoomLink

Looking forward to hearing your Travel Stories!

Helen Josephine,

Travel Talkers Toastmasters

Unique, breathtaking, delicious. We heard about local favorites at our meeting on January 19, including favorite fast food in San Antonio (puffy tacos), San Francisco (Darby Dan’s sandwiches) and the Bahamas (cracked conch and fries). We also heard about unique locations that are local favorites and a “must see” if you are visiting. These favorites included the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Muir Woods National Monument just north of San Francisco, and the place where the borders of three European countries, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands meet.

Our destination master, Meghan Burns gave us clues about a resort town in Baja California on the Sea of Cortez. The local currency is the Peso, but US Dollars are also accepted. It is known for beaches, surfing whale watching, and sport fishing. It has an international airport, but many visitors arrive by cruise ship. The name in Spanish translates to the Cape of Saint Luke. If you guessed Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, you are correct!

Vernitta Brown was our speaker. Her speech, “What is Purpose?” included 12 tips for finding your purpose. In her speech, Vernitta revealed that her purpose is to become a motivational speaker. She has used these 12 tips to help her discover the central motivating themes of her life as she works to fulfill her purpose. More details about these tips is available on Betterup.com, a website with ideas on how to find your purpose and “unlock your better self.”

Join us for our next meeting on January 26 from 6:30pm to 7:30pm Pacific (-8 UTC). The meeting theme is “Around the World.” We want to hear about your adventures. Our speaker will be Avis and our Destination Master will be Raji.

Register for the meeting: https://tinyurl.com/TravelTalkersZoomLink

Looking forward to hearing your Travel Stories!

Helen Josephine,

Travel Talkers Toastmasters

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