Miscellaneous

Repeat from last week or until no longer relevant or until I delete it:

Zoom Meeting Rules

THE LINK TO OUR THURSDAY MEETINGS WILL NO LONGER BE EMAILED BUT ACCESSED THROUGH THE LINK BELOW.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86855229058?pwd=c1pxUklLeDMwWGpCdjIrOS9Oak4wUT09

Meeting ID: 868 5522 9058
Passcode: 473892

1) Mute your microphone if you aren't already muted. Background noise is distracting.
2) If you are not engaged in the presentation, turn off your camera.
3) Chat function should only be used to address the speaker, not for Club member remarks during the presentation

4) Unmute when harassing the Sergeant at Arms or taking your turn during Sergeant at Arms.

5)Don't forget your umbrella - a WHAT!

Please direct any questions to the President or a board member of your choosing and we will discuss any and all questions or concerns during our board meeting. Also please refer anyone who may be interested in attending a meeting or joining the club.

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE

From John: “Frisbyterianism is the belief that when you die your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck.” George Carlin

VISITORS

Peter Roaf, Dean Hsieh and Tylor Choy

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND

CLUB BUSINESS

Peter Roaf, ADG District 5040 and Dean Hsieh, past ADG gifted us with two “Owl” speakers to use for our meetings. These are powerful speakers which turn towards the people who are speaking. This was made possible through a federal grant focusing on supporting community foundations of Canada and a district grant. Enough funding was available that other clubs were able to receive Owls as well. Thank you, Dean and Peter.

Peter is trying to rebuild the Rotaract Club in Richmond, which has about 6 members. Peter sent an email asking for a venue for a “Meet and Greet” meeting. If you know anyone who might be interested, please contact him.

sergeant At Arms Tidbits

Danny had friends visiting last week from Germany, and they visited Lynn Valley, and he enjoyed being a tourist guide around Vancouver. This morning he was late because of the accident on the Alex Fraser bridge.

Gordon says that many students try to keep up with their languages so he hopes that Tylor will be able to keep up the Japanese and encourages Tylor to join Rotaract.

Micheal thanks Tylor for his insights. This week he went, yet again, to the PNE. Tomorrow is his son’s orientation for preschool. Work is busy and he’ll be up until midnight, but he had to come to Rotary this morning as Bobby isn’t here.

Blair loved the presentation from Tylor and hopes that our Max will take some of the insights back with him.

Mary Lou thinks Tylor was a perfect exchange student. She was at a family BBQ for 18 people on Saturday, then had her dad’s celebration of life on Sunday. There was just the right amount of food, and lots of friends and Lindsey and Sean were back in town. She is going to the cabin on Friday morning, then to the PNE on Monday. Lindsey got a Canada Council Grant for $15000. Wow! Congratulations! Oscar starts preschool next week.

Larry went to Lavina’s niece’s wedding in Pitt Meadows where he officiated. It was lots of fun. The surgeon whom he saw yesterday says it will be a long struggle, but he’ll get past it. There is too much information to share this morning, but the top of his head is dying, and a big piece fell off. He had pain during the night and thought he wouldn’t be able to go to rotary, but as he was up at 4 a.m. he thought he could come anyways. We’re so glad you came, and you look wonderful.

Debbie T. thanks Tylor for his presentation. Her son did a two-week exchange. Larry’s ribbon was on Debbie’s shirt this weekend during the Tour de Cure, which they did in spite of the smoke, 110 km the first day in 34º smoky weather, but she had enough energy for 70 km the next day, (which was called off at lunch due to the poor air quality). Today is International Overdose Awareness Day and there will be an event at 4 p.m. at Garry Point, then a candlelight vigil. We are with you, Debbie.

Garth had trouble singing this weekend due to the smoke. Tylor will remember his exchange all his life.

Elena, a breast cancer survivor, did radiation for a month and sympathizes with Larry. She thanks Peter for his support when she was Chair of the Rotary Youth.

Peachy is back and had fun on the cruise, although there was too much food, and she was sick and tired when she got home. She is back to her apartment after one month of renovations, so is setting up again. Overall, she is ready to rock and roll again.

Jeannette told us that last Thursday they went to Savage Creek, to try out the golfing thing. Next time they will go with Pat. She saw information on the rotary website which inspired her to register for a course.

Susan thanks Tylor. Last Thursday after rotary she went to work at Costco and saw Dick and Barbara Wagner. She was happy to tell about our contribution to the fires and they send their best wishes. (ed. Dick and Barb come and visit sometime please.)

Debbie S. is amazed by Debbie T’s tour. Her cousin’s son died of an overdose. John’s brother lives in west Kelowna, and was evacuated due to the wild fires, had heard their place had burned, but then their neighbour was able to go back to their place and see Pumba the Pig. It turns out her brother in law’s place is still standing, including his orchard and his trees. Surprisingly, maybe due to the wind shifting, to his sprinkler system and to his cleaning out of the debris. He hasn’t yet been able to go back to his property. Debbie is doing another succulent fundraiser, on September 16 to help those who are victims of the wildfires. Last year she raised money for Ukraine. Bravo, Debbie.

Chris M. was impressed by Tylor’s detailed presentation. She will be away for the next 5 Thursdays, going to close the cabin, then to Europe: Paris, Porto, walking to Spain, Bordeaux chateaux and then back to Paris. She’ll be back Oct. 12.

Marg was at Fred’s (Mary Lou’s Dad) celebration of life. They have known him for so long. The cabin that Mary Lou refers to was built by Fred. Tons of students were at the celebration. She recommends the Jade restaurant for dinner, even Don who hates Chinese food, liked it. Tomorrow their cousin is arriving from England for two weeks. Hopefully it goes well.

Dalbir thanks Peter for the Owls, and thanks Tylor for showing us what others can achieve. He knows that Tylor will stay in touch with his host families. Today he is dressed in pink pants, twins with Debbie S.

Peter started renovations in his house in March, with flooring and painting, and just finished the outside so they can finally put everything back in its place.

Chris B. had a great time in California, with her daughter and granddaughter. Stephanie, her daughter, did an exchange for a year and a half in Japan. Her husband is fighting fires in Yellowknife.

Sandra was in Sechelt, and thanks Tylor for his wonderful presentation.

Melinda agrees that Tylor has made us proud, excelling and a great job. Thanks to Dean and Peter for the new little toy. She arrived back from New York and Connecticut, having had a fabulous time, with the shows in New York where she was close to Times Square and realized it was much too crowded for her. But, great food, walking, a wonderful time. Family is still here, and they had the grandkids last night, so she couldn’t come to rotary this morning.

John was in the Okanagan during the fires and on a scale of 10, the smoke was 11. He is going to Hawaii on Saturday and reports that the Banyan tree is living. He had a refugee from the fire staying at their condo who had lost his home in Lahaina. John’s daughter has a YouTube site with “Grow your song” which has 25000 views. If it gets to 1000 subscribers, she might make some money as she is an autistic counsellor. Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/@growyoursong.

Dean Hsieh thanks us for the opportnity to come back to visit our club. He still feels part of the group as his family, and is happy to be here to share the “toy” with us.

Peter Roaf feels privileged to be here to support our club and we should just let him know what he can do. His house is currently full of family in from Salmon Arm as evacuees, plus grandchildren. He is delighted to learn that his son and wife are finally expecting at the end of February.

Tylor thanks us for the opportunity we offered him and he is happy to share his experiences. He starts school at UBC on Tuesday, which will be quite a commute. There used to be a bus from Bridgeport to UBC bus loop but that doesn’t seem to be available anymore.

Bob thanks our guests. He did one more hike St Mark’s summit at Cypress, 7 hours instead of 5, due to the newlyweds who came, the husband falling ¼ of the way down and spraining his ankle. Bob had a scary slide down to the edge of a cliff, stopping at a stump. Whoa!

Meanderings

To mark overdose prevention day I had Bing's chat provide the following advice:

Hello, this is Bing. I’m glad you’re interested in preventing an overdose. Here are some tips from reliable sources:

Use with someone else and take turns spotting for each other. A buddy system is safer than using alone 1.
Use a supervised consumption service where you can get medical help if needed 1.
Avoid mixing drugs and alcohol, which can increase your risk of overdose 2 3.
Start slow and low, especially if you have a low tolerance or are using a new batch of drugs 2.
Carry naloxone, a medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, and know how to use it 3 4.

You can find more information on how to prevent and respond to an overdose on these websites:

SPEAKER

Tyler Choy, our exchange student has been in Japan since August 2022 and just returned in August with stories of his exciting experiences. In Japan, Tylor went to school, played sports, played his saxophone, and travelled throughout the country. He shared his rich experiences (including driving a tractor in a rice field and sitting correctly during a Japanese tea ceremony).

His Facebook Marketplace camera followed him everywhere and he intends to publish a book of his amazing photos. We enjoyed seeing many of the photos he took.

He lived near Sapporo on the island of Hokkaido, in northern Japan. He was at the Eniwa Rotary Club, which has 50 members, many of whom are farmers. Some events they supported were sumo wrestling and cherry blossom and snow festivals. Meetings were held at noon on Wednesdays, serving bento box lunches and Tylor had to give a two-minutes speech each time.

He lived with 3 host families, 3 months each. One had a daughter who had attended Whistler and Lillooet for her exchange, a family of four who run a printing company. One had a wonderful cat called Red Bean. The last host family had 7 members, with smaller siblings, the youngest of whom slipped a note in Japanese under Tylor’s door which said, “Let’s play!”. The father was a monk in a Buddhist temple.

During Golden Week all Japanese people go on vacation, so he accompanied Rotarians and saw Tokyo, Kyoto, Yokohama, Nagano and other parts of Japan.

School in Japan was quite different, with fewer liberties and more rules than in Canada, especially regarding hairstyles and clothing. They wore school uniforms.

He had a tight schedule, leaving by 7:30 a.m. to take the train to the neighbouring city to school. Each class was 50 minutes with a 10-minute break. At the end of school, during homeroom, students cleaned all the classrooms and were respectful of their school environment. He enjoyed concert band club from 3:30 – 6:30 p.m., so when he arrived home, it was quite late. Students were in one group, sharing all subjects. There was less homework, but more tests. Many students commuted from outside of their cities rather than going to their closest school.

Many students slept during class, which seemed ok most of the time. His school had Grades 10, 11 and 12, with a total of 900 students, maximum 38 in a class. The curriculum was teacher-directed instruction, mostly memorization, without much critical thinking.

Tylor shared his challenges: knowing he wouldn’t graduate with his friends at Hugh Boyd, keeping an open mind and not being judgmental with the way of life, presenting in Japanese at meetings.

These challenges allowed him to grow, and he recognizes that growth in becoming fluent in Japanese, keeping in touch with friends he made, becoming a good advocate for himself, becoming good at getting out of his comfort zone and being able to enjoy even unfamiliar experiences. He built good habits, such as cleaning the classroom.

It has been strange getting back to Canada, to driving a car, to getting used to our less-than-perfect transit system, to speaking English, to seeing the rise in the cost of living, to Canadian food and he tried to keep up some of the lifestyle changes such as waking up early.

In the future, Tylor will be studying arts at UBC, will definitely return to Japan, to revisit his host families and to travel. He will be keeping in touch, helping out with Rotary, perhaps joining Rotaract. He would like to travel elsewhere in the world. He thanks us for our support.

upcoming events

Next years Gala is Friday May 3rd, 2024.

TODAY'S CHUCKLEs

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