Food and Celebrations

April 24, 2014. A different meeting for our club, as it was not held at our usual location. Instead, we had a dinner meeting at The Palomares Cafe, on Lake Chabot Rd in Castro Valley. Food and Celebrations was chosen as the theme. Several of our members came early and had dinner finished and out of the way before the meeting began. The theme carried through the meeting, with the Table Topics which were led by Pamela. She asked several carefully selected members questions about celebration and seasonal food customs. And as for celebrations, well, Top of the Hill likes to party. Tonight was a joyful, yet somber, farewell to one of our own. Sachiko is returning home to Japan and tonight was her last meeting.

The first of the two speakers for the evening was Eugenia. The title of her speech was "Conversation during a Conference" Project #1 from the Interpersonal Communication - Conversing with Ease. This project included two demonstrations of four different conversational techniques separated by a description of the techniques.

Next, it was time for one of our newest members, Cynthia, to give her first speech, the infamous Ice-Breaker. Cynthia told us of how, because of her passion, she is changing careers to teach English as a second language. She weaved a good story of where she had been and where she was going. Cynthia particularly caught our attention by choosing to go back to school years after declaring that she would never, ever do that again after getting her Masters degree. 

Next week we'll be back at the Moose Lodge. Hey Castro Valley residents, here's an open invitation to you all for some free entertainment! Who knows, maybe you'll want to join in and have fun with us. Our schedule, contact information, and directions to our meetings are posted on our website http://topofthehill.toastmastersclubs.org/

Also, Sachiko posted a touching story about her experience with our club on her Facebook wall. It emphasizes what we at Top of the Hill are all about --- friendship and diversity. Please go to our Facebook page and read what she had to say. https://www.facebook.com/ToastmastersInternationalTopOfTheHillClub