President Carr opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance led by your High Gear editor.

Invocation: President Carr's invocation mentioned referred to Burlingame Rotary's Japanese Exchange Program and what a difference it makes to the students involved who will speak to the club today.

Fines are back! During the invocation, President Carr fined Mike Heffernan and his fellow conspirator, Marilyn Orr, $20 each for talking during the invocation. It's for a good cause!

Visiting Rotarians: None

Guests of the Club: Past President Marc Friedman was delighted to introduce his wife Madeline and Dr. Kevin Skelly, Superintendent of our High School district.

Peter Comarato introduced James Young for his 2nd visit. Cary Koh introduced our Japanese Exchanges Students, Polina Poliakova, Karla Estrada, Alex Hwang, and Elena Hung.

Gift to the Club: President Carr thanked Past President Marc Friedman and his wife Madeline for donating $1,500 to our club's Japanese Exchange Program. Thank you. 

Announcements: Thank you Jim Shypertt for bringing in persimmons from your garden. Yummy!

Fun Faries Party: Our own Suzanne Juptner reminded us that next week on November 20th we are all invited to the Holiday Party at Suzanne's home. Be there and bring a friend. 

Marilyn Orr was proud to be photoed outside the Rotary Club of Galway, Ireland when she visited the Emerald Isle last month. I'm sure the Irish Rotarians gave you a wonderful Fáilte.

Pierre Bouquet: Reminded us to put our loose change in the 'Giving Jars' on each table. 

 

Name That Tune: Cary Koh, our talented member decided that the best way to get us to pay attention to our speakers for the day was to find out how well we listen. Using his violin he played us part of 8 tunes and dared us to recognize them...we did very badly. Jennifer Pence - you are a good listener. The rest of us were chastened to listen to our speakers for the day - our Japanese Exchange Students.

Cary Koh introduced the club to the 2019 Edogawa, Japan Exchange Students; Karla, Alex, Polina and Elena. The students were asked to pick 2 photographs from their trip and talk about why they are important to them.

 

Elena picked a photo of her last night in Japan at a farewell party and a ride she took on a Ferris Wheel. She has a fear of heights but was able to face it as her experience in a totally different country and culture inspired her to confront her fear. Her second photo was a picture of her host and reminded her of the loving-kindness of her host family and their hospitality. 

Polina pictures showed her fellow students and the Japanese students having fun in the rain under their umbrellas. Their cultures melded together so easily - not different but similar. She recounted the story of her host family driving home and getting pulled over and getting a speeding ticket. Then dinner was unexpected as it was octopus! Finally, she went to take a shower and the shower was broken and having to go to the public baths. Throughout all of this, her host family was so wonderful.

 

Alex is a senior at Burlingame High School and he was interested in Japanese politics and the system of government and the contrast with the American system. He showed a photo of his host family and talked about their hospitality and watching a Spiderman movie with them - they had waited to watch it with him. He was impressed with how considerate the Japanese people are.

 

Karla showed only one photo of her host family, her Japanese sister for the week, her brother, mom, dad, grandmother, and dog. She mentioned how considerate and friendly everyone was and that she bonded with them. They ate dinner together very different from her family. She is inspired to appreciate her family more and spend more time with them. Family is so important in Japan and she loved experiencing the closeness and vowed to spend more time with her family.

 

After some Q & A each student thanked the club for giving them such an amazing opportunity. Each student was given a Polio Certificate representing 5 polio shots to be given in their name.