sábado, 3 de agosto de 2013

!! syadiloH yppaH



Hmmm. What a weird session. That’s what I’d call it if you ask me.
It all began at the bar, where we all met for food & drinks. I have a picture to prove it, right below this text. Check us out! We’re all happy campers, must be the thrill to begin another TM session.
So we began by adjourning the event. That was after having Nacho Tellez, our General Evaluator, comment on the whole thing up until then. It is strange because to me his evaluation was really detailed and structured, yet, we didn’t really seem to have done much up until that point? Interesting.
I recall having an outstanding Table Topics session after that conducted by Table Topics Mistress Jelena Vetockina, where some psychoanalysts visited us and offered counsel. The board was integrated by Dr. Doriana Bagnoli (eminence in cigarette-stealing behavior), Dr. Catalina (specializing in motivating people with funny Manga names such as Kikuro) and Dr. Rayanne Bachammar, who has a PhD. in helping bulky, Schwarzenegger-like guys (I had to Google that surname to spell it right, dang it) to overcome their fear of small children.
We moved on into the evaluation portion of our session, with Judit Permanyer, Ana Villar and Marion Chevalier delivering in style as usual. Evaluations packed with ideas for improvement are great; having them delivered by those three and their savoir-faire? Icing on the cake.
On came the third speech of the evening: a breathtaking revisit of one of Andrea Buron’s most tough and changing moments in life. She took us on a six floor elevator ride of tension, fear, questions and eye contact with a person close to her final moments which deeply impacted her, and pointed out the way in which Toastmasters can be of help to come to terms with those traumatic experiences and put them into proper context.
Close your eyes now. Hold on, open them again so you can read the instructions. All right, close your eyes and use three seconds to think of a drug. Do it now. I don’t know what you thought about (better keep that to yourself?), but I’ll tell you what you didn’t think: Cars. Speaker Mariyana Tasheva went for an eye-opener on how the U.S. is heavily dependent on them and private transportation in general, and pointed at global warming as one of the undesired consequences of that. She proposed expanding public transportation and using one of the older means of transportation known to mankind: the body.
Somehow, some ice had built up at this point; someone had to break it. Marc Majoral was the brave soul to present himself to the club through three major moments of change in his life: travelling and living abroad; coming back and obtaining a job in the career he always wanted to pursue; and his change towards a healthier lifestyle when he began running. You have to love Ice Breakers, especially when we get to know someone so well and see their will to move forward in the TM experience. Way to go and an Ice Breaker ribbon to you, Marc!
With the speeches concluded we moved onto the technical team presentation: Cristian Couso as the Ah-Counter, Oleksandr Raspopov as the evening’s Grammarian and Lukasz Zagroba in the role of Timekeeper. They then gave the word to Sandra Almeida, our skillful Toastmaster for the session, who proposed the topic of Summer as our last theme in July. Okay … so now I see why the Word of the Day was ‘Dive’. All right, this is starting to make sense…
Then Sandra greeted Judit Permanyer on the role of acting president who welcomed the guests to the session. (Note to self: I should propose the committee changing this part of the agenda and actually wishing farewell at this point, looks like it’s a bit too late in the session to welcome anybody?)
On a final word, I want to thank you all for the great idea of walking backwards all the time for the whole evening. I found that to be original and hey, I went with the flow. After all, we do a lot of clapping and other peculiar stuff so it was appropiate for a club like ours.
…hold on…. unless... Hmmm. I think I might have messed somewhere people. erehw erus yllaer toN.
Definitely, I need a holiday.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS TOASTMASTERS, SEE YOU ALL BACK SAFELY ON THE 4TH OF SEPTEMBER!!
Isaac Riera

jueves, 1 de agosto de 2013

Una sesión de ensueño

[Miércoles, 24 de julio de 2003]

La vida es sueño y los sueños sueños son... Sencillamente magistral es nuestro Toastmasters de hoy, Isaac Riera, quien nos conduce a través del intrigante mundo de los sueños.

¡Atrapa tus sueños!
Para empezar con la presentación del equipo técnico que velará por el tiempo de nuestros sueños, que los articulemos adecuadamente para que sean inteligibles y que no se produzcan bucles o muletillas para evitar el recuento de ovejitas zzzzz....

Para entrar en materia, Isaac nos ilustra con una lección de historia y curiosidades relacionadas con el mundo de los sueños: desde los griegos hasta las tribus Lakhota y Ojibwa ¡es increíble lo que saben nuestros toastmasters!

El programa onírico de hoy se inicia con los sueños más profundos.
Aquí vemos a nuestro flamante nuevo socio, Cristian Couso, en su primer discurso en el club "Rompehielos 2.0". Originalidad, frescura, aderezados con altas dosis de humor nos llevan a descubrir a nuestro nuevo Toastmasters. ¡Bienvenido al club! Fixéchelo moi ben. ¡Noraboa!


Cristian Couso y Judit Permanyer
Nacho Téllez, despierta mi curiosidad desde el inicio con "¡Larga vida al egoísmo!" Amor, Pasión, Felicidad, Sexo... Fabulosa exposición y excelentes habilidades de oratoria que trae consigo este chico...¿seguro que es su 2º discurso?!?

Segundo también es el refrescante y afrutado discurso de Regina Fullana: "¡Bátelo!" Original y vigorizante tema para una noche tan cálida cómo la de hoy...mmmm

Los sueños son así, puedes parecer inconexos, impredecibles e incluso alejados de la realidad. Por eso, cuando Sandra Duarte comienza a hablarnos de "Los molinos de Castilla", Don Quijote y Sancho, me parece meritorio cómo consigue hilar sus divertidas anécdotas relacionadas con el castellano empleando unas transiciones de fábula.

Sin llegar a la fase REM, nuestros expertos psicoanalistas, Mariyana Tasheva, Lidia Plaza, Javier Macías y Jesús Salillas, se levantan del diván. Ni Freud ni el mismísimo Karl Jung podrían diseccionar mejor los sueños de nuestros Toastmasters.

A continuación, se nos presentan los sueños espontáneos, esos que te surgen cuando estás echando una cabezadita y que sientan taaan bien. Rayane Bachammar, nos sumerge de lleno en el mundo de fantasía de ...las telenovelas: "Ay, Jose Carlos Eduardo Alfredo ¡te prohíbo que te cases con Rosalinda!". Esto prometeeee.

Marion Chevalier deja "plantado" a su amado David (no sé su segundo nombre pero siendo mexicano seguro que lo tiene) en el altar. Y Ana, nuestra invitada, se convierte en una líder política que tiene que despertar de un mal sueño...como en la vida misma.

Seguimos soñando: Los sueños nos conectan con todos los seres humanos (Isaac dixit). ¡Me encanta!

Antonio Jurado, Dani Ramírez y Alex Carol, nos dan los informes técnicos de la noche. A continuación, Cristina Simon, nuestra evaluadora general nos presenta sus sugerencias, con su encantadora sonrisa, y nos felicita por una fabulosa sesión.

Judit Permanyer nos recuerda algo relacionado con los asuntos del club pero estoy tan estusiasmada con mis ensoñaciones durante la sesión, que no lo recuerdo (¿me echarán del comité por esto? glups).

Finalmente, nuestro embajador, José Belloq, nos explica sus experiencias Toastmasters más dicharacheras en el extranjero y nos anima a compartirlas con el club. ¡Che, qué bueno que viniste!

¡Vaya sesión de ensueño! Nunca dejéis de soñar...

Ana Villar