Travel Talkers Toastmasters

Happy Diwali was the greeting at our meeting on November 9th. We learned about Diwali, the Festival of Lights and the celebration of light over darkness. Diwali is a five-day celebration that includes good food, fireworks, colored sand, and special candles and lamps. It is one of the most significant festivals in India. During the Travel Topics session lead by Kit Myers, we learned about Diwali traditions from Sini and Judith. Samantha shared a recipe for Onion Pakora which is one of many foods eaten during Diwali celebrations.

Our speaker, Helen Josephine, presented a speech about how planting a garden can nurture us by providing inspiration and beauty, neighborhood improvement, and habitats for insects and wildlife. She encouraged us to join community gardens, lobby our public officials to re-green vacant lots, and add flowering plants to our own gardens to attract pollinators.  She reminded us that if we love strawberries, then we need to help save the bees! 

Our Destination Master, Tym Myers, provided these clues about a city in India that is currently named Chennai. He asked us to guess the name of the city before it was officially renamed as Chennai in 1996.

• Chennai is the “Detroit” of India. India is the 5th largest producer of automobiles in the world and Chennai accounts for 60% of its exports.
• In Chennai, eight-mile long Marina Beach is one of the world’s longest urban beaches.
• Many kingdoms have ruled over Chennai including Pavalla, Chola, and Pandya Dynasties, the Vijayanagara Empire, as well as the Portuguese, Dutch and British Empires.
• Chennai is known for the famous cotton fabric manufactured here, which was also the previous name of the city.

If you guessed Madras as the former name of Chennai, you are correct!

Join us for our next meeting on November 16th from 6:30pm to 7:30pm Pacific (-7 UTC). The meeting theme is Discount Trips. Have you ever found an amazing deal on a dream vacation? A cheap underrated destination? Or a location where the off-season is discounted and is still a great place to visit? Let’s hear all about it at our November 16th meeting. Guests are always welcome to attend our meetings. If you would like to join the club, contact Helen Josephine for an application form.

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

RSVP on MeetUp to let us know you are coming to the meeting. Guests are always welcome!

Looking forward to hearing your travel stories! Join us to be inspired to take your next trip.

Helen Josephine,

Travel Talkers Toastmasters

Where do you go for travel advice? Do you have favorite websites, travel books or trusted advisors? At our November 2nd meeting we shared our best sources of travel advice. We also offered each other some of our advice on the best sites to check for hotel and restaurant reviews before you book your trip. Our Travel Topics Master, Helen Josephine, asked the questions and our guests and members shared their experiences. Kit Myers reminded us to include “comfort” items in our carry-on bag including, extra socks, perfume, hard candy or gum, and other treats to make a long flight more comfortable.

Our Destination Master, Raji Bandanapudi, gave us these clues for the mystery destination.

• This is an island country in the African continent.
• This country is home to 103 species and subspecies of Lemurs.
• The capital of this country is Antananarivo.
• First settlers were of Malayo-Indonesian descent from Indonesia Sumatra and Java, not from Africa.
• The island is home to two-thirds of all species of Chameleons existing  on Earth.
• A phrase heard often in this country is Mora-Mora, which means “Take it easy.”
• This country has a Hollywood namesake, however the movie presented some misinformation about the country.

If you guessed Madagascar, you are correct!

The speaker at our meeting, Samantha Jamwal, delivered a level four speech about building a social media presence. Samantha is on a journey to learn Hindi so her future children will be able to speak Hindi and connect with their cultural heritage. As part of this journey, Samantha began labeling common items in her house and kitchen to learn the name in Hindi and be able to use the words in conversation with her husband. She thought others might also want to use this language learning technique, so she developed colorful stickers, labels and magnets that others could use in their homes. She sells these items on a website she created, elaichico.store. She also has an Instagram account as an additional social media platform to market her culturally inspired home decor items. Samantha shared her research and advice about how to effectively use different social media platforms. She also included pictures of some of the items that she sells on her website. Samantha’s speech was entertaining and informative.

Join us for our next meeting on November 9th from 6:30pm to 7:30pm Pacific (-8 UTC). The meeting theme is “Festival of Lights.” In India, one of the most significant festivals is Diwali or the Festival of Lights. It’s a five-day celebration that includes good food, fireworks, colored sand, and special candles and lamps. Have you ever celebrated Diwali or a festival of lights in different cultures? Do you want to know more? Share your stories with us at our November 9th meeting. If you would like to join the club, contact Helen Josephine for an application form.

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

RSVP on MeetUp to let us know you are coming to the meeting. Guests are always welcome!

Looking forward to hearing your travel stories! Join us to be inspired to take your next trip.

Helen Josephine,

Travel Talkers Toastmasters

The theme for our October 26 meeting was “Hollywood Vacations.” Members were encouraged to think about a trip they took that might have been inspired by a movie or documentary. Our speaker, Raji Bandanapudi, gave a speech about a trip she took with friends to attend the Hollywood Horror Nights at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. Actors in costume from famous horror movies provided the scary entertainment. Raji explained in her speech that she is not a fan of Halloween or horror movies. Before the night was over, she spent most of her time trying to avoid being scared. She encouraged all of us to not make the mistake she made of having friends that like scary movies and that convinced her to go to the Hollywood Horror Nights at Universal Studios.

Our Destination Master, Meghan Burns, provided these clues for the mystery city:

• This city is a popular filming and production location thanks to lower costs and tax incentives from the local and national governments.
• It is one of two cities called “Hollywood North.” This city is the west coast location.
• This city boasts the 3rd larget Chinatown in North America, which was founded by Chinese immigrants seeking gold in the 1850’s and then as laborers building the Canadian Pacific Railroad in the 1880’s.
• This city has a popular historic neighborhood, Gastown, which was named for a bartender who was “gassy,” an 1800’s slang term for talkative.
• From 1995-2021, this city was the home of the NBA team, the Grizzlies. This team now plays in Memphis.

If you guessed Vancouver, Canada you are correct!

Our meeting guest, Judith Ferber, provided the table topics for our meeting. She shared slides with famous quotes and asked each of us to provide a response to the quote. The quotes included:

“You will never do a whole lot unless you are brave enough to try. –Dolly Parton

“Stay positive and strong even if it feels like everything in your life is falling apart. Your efforts will soon be rewarded.”

“Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.” –Oscar Wilde

“Your life isn’t yours if you constantly care what others think.”–Norm Kelly

“Just for the record darling, not all positive change is positive in the beginning.” –S.C. Lourie

“For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.”–Amanda Gorman

Join us for our next meeting on November 2nd from 6:30pm to 7:30pm Pacific (-8 UTC). The meeting theme is “Travel Advice.” How do you research a trip? Where do you go for the best advice? Share your sources for travel advice and travel planning at our November 2nd meeting. If you would like to join the club, contact Helen Josephine for an application form.

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

RSVP on MeetUp to let us know you are coming to the meeting. Guests are always welcome!

Looking forward to hearing your travel stories! Join us to be inspired to take your next trip.

Helen Josephine,

Travel Talkers Toastmasters

At our October 19th meeting our theme was Great Museums. We explored the Louvre in Paris, the Guggenheim in Balboa and the Hermitage in St Petersburg. Our Travel Topics Master, Kit Myers displayed a picture of 7 great museums and asked us about our experiences visiting them and what we might expect to find.

Our Destination Master, Helen Josephine, gave us these clues for the mystery country:

• This is an island country and a city-state in maritime Southeast Asia.
• It has the second highest population density of any country in the world.
• It has four official languages – English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil.
• Tourism is a major industry, with 18.5 million international tourists in 2018, more than three times the countries’ total population. It is the 5th most visited city in the world, and the 2nd most visited in Asia-Pacific.
• It has a tropical rainforest climate and the airport has a butterfly garden.
• The movie, Crazy Rich Asians, was filmed here.

If you guessed Singapore, you are correct!

Our speaker at the meeting was Vernitta Brown. She presented her level four speech project, Managing a Difficult Audience. Her speech was about trying to study in the library when other patrons were talking loudly and playing music. Throughout her presentation, she stayed focused on her message and politely handled the interruptions from the audience members who tried to disrupt her speech. The purpose of this project is to practice the skills needed to address audience challenges when you present outside of your Toastmasters club. Vernitta successfully completed this project and we all enjoyed hearing her speech.

Join us for our next meeting on October 26th from 6:30pm to 7:30pm Pacific (-8 UTC). The meeting theme is “Hollywood Vacations.” Join our meeting to share your adventures. Were you ever inspired to take a trip after watching a hollywood movie set in an exotic location? Share your stories with us. If you would like to join the club, contact Helen Josephine for an application form.

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

RSVP on MeetUp to let us know you are coming to the meeting. Guests are always welcome!

Looking forward to hearing your travel stories! Join us to be inspired to take your next trip.

Helen Josephine,

Travel Talkers Toastmasters

We invited our members and guests to take a trip to Australia and New Zealand for our October 12th meeting. Our travel topics master, Samantha, asked each of us travel questions about what we would like to see and do while visiting these two great travel destinations.

• If you were traveling to Australia, would you rather go snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef or visit the Sydney Opera House?

• The majority of Australia is the Outback and most people live on the Coasts. If you visited Australia would you make the trip into the Outback?

• Which of these 3 movie locations in New Zealand would you like to visit: from The Hobbit, the shire set, from Mission Impossible Fallout, Milford Sound or from Narnia, Cathedral Cove?

• If you had an all expenses paid trip to either Australia or New Zealand, which would you pick?

• While visiting New Zealand would you rather visit a hot-water beach and create your own sand jacuzzi or go whale watching in Kaikoura?

We had fun creating our own unique vacations based on the photos and questions asked by Samantha.

Our Destination Master, Lydia Norman, gave us these clues:

• This country is both an island and a peninsula.
• The country was named after Ama, the patron Saint of sailors.
• The country has two offical languages–Portuguese is one.
• The country is a gambling center and has a casino that is an exact replica of an iconic casino in Las Vegas.
• Drinking alcohol is not allowed while gambling, unlike Las Vegas where drinking alcohol while gambling is encouraged.

If you guessed Macao, you are correct!

Our speaker, Helen Josephine, presented a speech using body language and vocal variety. She told us a story about her first summer living in Phoenix, Arizona. Because the day-time temperatures are over 110 degrees, she discovered that the best time to take her small children to the park to play was after sundown when the playground equipment was no longer too hot to touch. However, other dangers were at the park that she was not prepared for. After being bitten by ants, she had an allergic life-threatening anaphylactic reaction. Luckily for her and her 3 young children, a clerk at the local convenience store called 911 when he noticed that Helen fainted in her car. After that experience from 10 ant bites on her feet, she no longer wears sandals to parks for picnics in areas where there might be invasive Fire Ants and she carries an epipen in case she experiences another ant bite reaction.

Join us for our next meeting on October 19th from 6:30pm to 7:30pm Pacific (-8 UTC). The meeting theme is “Great Museums.” Join our meeting to share your adventures and be inspired to visit a museum somewhere you have never been before. Where did you find a museum that changed your perspective or brought you great joy? If you would like to join the club, contact Helen Josephine for an application form.

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

RSVP on MeetUp to let us know you are coming to the meeting. Guests are always welcome!

Looking forward to hearing your travel stories! Join us to be inspired to take your next trip.

Helen Josephine,

Travel Talkers Toastmasters