At one o'clock in the afternoon, I arrived at the meeting venue to chat with long-time-no-see members of Pacific and Peace Toastmasters Clubs. At 1:30PM, I volunteered to serve the Sergeant-at-Arms to announce the start of the meeting and to invite President Wang of Peace Toastmasters Club to preside the last meeting in 2010.
As usual, the meeting started with the variety session. Upon the request of the session master Professor Wang, we were divided into two groups, members group and guests group. I was appointed as the leader of the guests group to compete with the members group to see which group between the two can answer more quizzes prepared by Professor Wang. In the end, the guests group won, Japanese no doubt knew more about their language and culture.
Three prepared speeches aroused a great amount of emotions in the audience. Toastmaster Abiko Katsuhiro talked about the indispensable book in his life. When he was in college, his father passed away all of a sudden. As the eldest son, he had to return home to shoulder the family responsibilities. The indispensable book of his, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie, helped him go through the difficult and challenging times. Toastmaster Iwashita Etsuko talked about the family members of suicide victims. Being one family member of the suicide victim, she delivered the speech with tears in her eyes throughout her speech. Toastmaster Sue Wun talked about her experience to search for her family history. With the internet, she collected a great deal amount of information about her grandmother who she barely had any memories.
During the intermission, we enjoyed three boxes of delicious cookies and chocolate candies from Japanese Toastmasters. Peace club officers also prepared eight cups of Tapioca Pearls Milk Tea for our dear fellow members from District 67 to reciprocate their generosity and kindness.
After the intermission, Keynote speaker Abe Masafumi talked about the Japanese and jokes. He commented that people of different nationalities appreciated jokes in many different ways. He grouped jokes into five categories, and told one joke from each category. He also told four jokes about Japanese people. One of them went like this. The Japanese usually laugh about the jokes for three times. The first time, they laugh for the purpose of laughing. The second time, they laugh because they understand the meaning of the joke. The third time, they laugh because they get hold of the punch line.
The tabletopics session was conducted by Immediate Past President Hong. She prepared questions about gratitude, harvest, reflection, planning in December. I was called upon to review my new year resolutions of 2010. I stood up and announced that I should have written more articles on my blog, and I tried to catch up in December to finish a total of 100 articles as planned. I should have spent more time with my loving husband for his support of me traveling abroad often. In the meantime, I needed to attend many Toastmasters functions to enrich my blog and my life.
Even the Peace Finale Meeting 2010 started ten minutes late, and the variety session was five minutes overtime, we ended our last meeting on time, at 4PM sharp. The end is well, all is well. Year 2010 was concluded with a perfect ending with the witnesses of 8 Toastmasters from District 76.
Dinner party, also the year end party, was held at the King-en Chinese Restaurant. Three tables of members and guests from Japan gathered together to enjoy a good meal and a happy moment to bid farewell to one another, and to the year of 2010. We sang, we danced, we ate, we drank, we talked, we strengthened the friendship between Taiwanese and Japanese. We consolidated the relationships between the Toastmasters members of Districts 67 & 76.
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