Grapevine February 5th,2015

President Bob chaired the meeting.

 

Register Pam reported 19 members present plus 2 guests, Linda Libronte and our exchange student Joanne.

 

Announcements:

 

President Bob mentioned that Jeanette, Sharon and himself would be attending the Foundation Dinner in Buffalo.

 

President Bob mentioned that daughter of Bob Gowans passed away due to cancer. Bob was a long time member of the Grimsby Rotary Club

 

Sargeant-At-Arms - Don

Marty- Thanked Rotary for there support following the death of his father.

Clarence- Happy to be feeling better.

Jim H - Happy to enjoy beautiful winter day.

Dick- Noted he was happy to be here.

Jeanette- In NY during snow storm but laid up with flue.

Bill-  3 terrible curling games followed by a win.

Micheal- Happy to be back after his operation.

Gerry- Happy to be here

Charles- Noted that the wife of one of his Scottish curling buddies passed away.

Katheryn- Observed that a Dental office opening up in the restaurant where rotary meet at one time.

Sharon- Happy for the snow day on Monday.

Sandy- Reading about friends happy memories growing up in Oakville.

Joanne-Enjoyed Snow day

 

Program

Jeannette introduced our inbound exchange student, Joanne Kuo, as our speaker.

 

Joanne was well prepared and delivered a great talk covering her family, her school life, Rotary District 3520, an overview of Taiwan, its culture , food, festivals and tourist traps.

Joanne has one sister, also her best friend, that is 15 years old. Joanne advised that her  mon is tough but nice, and her father is baseball pitching coach in Japan.

Her school , Dong Shaw High School , is 11/2 commute from her home.

Her school life would start at 7:00 AM when the school bus picked her up and she would get home at 9:00 PM, 6 days a week. All her meals would be taken at the school. The students would stay in the same classroom but the teachers  rotate. The class size is about 50 students. Joanne indicated that she has a very strong bound with her classmates.

Her mother's  Rotary Club, Yia-Shian ,is part of District 3520. This club  is all female club. District 3520 has 125 clubs and 5,000 members.

Taiwan is an Island off the coast of China and has 23 million people or 644 people per square Kilometer. There are 14 aboriginal  groups on the island. Joanne mentioned that motorcycles out number both cars and bikes. There are numerous festivals during the year. 35% of the people are Buddhists,  33% Taoism with Christianity groups representing only 3.9%. Food is similar to what is eaten on mainland China with Rice being a staple food. 7 Eleven stores are everywhere. Some popular consumer goods manufactured in Taiwan are Giant bicycles, HTC smart phones and LED lights.

Taiwan has an average of 10 typhoon days each year. She mentioned that a well known office building known as 101 has 101 floors and has the fastest elevators in the world.

Michael thanked Joanne for both very entertaining and informative talk and was  congratulated  on her presentation . We  can all be proud of Joanne for a job well done.

 

Jim Howden

Grapevine Editor