The St. Louis TCC Chapter met on Aug. 3 at Gretchen’s Inn of the Feasting Fox restaurant. We joined with three other travel groups to enjoy food and drink of the Czech Republic. The menu included bratwurst, kielbasa with sauerkraut, schnitzel, spatzle dumplings and strudel. Our speaker, Ann Mracek, is a Czech descendent (related to composer Anton Dvorak). She presented a history of the Czech Republic and shared pictures and stories about her beloved city of Prague.
Kevin Hughes, of the national TCC, opened the program.
The next meetings will be Tuesday, Oct. 8, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Mike Duffy’s in Kirkwood (124 West Jefferson Ave.). The program for this meeting will be “Patterns From the Kutch District of India.”
This will not be the typical India travelogue, for we are being led by Amanda Jolley, an artist and traveler from Kansas City. She leads art and cultural exchanges throughout the world. Through her eyes we will explore the patterns and symbols influencing the architecture of the temples and monuments.
We will be shown how to see these cultural patterns infuse village life, homes, and landscapes of the Kutsch district of Gujarat, India. Amanda will bring to us examples of her own hands-on experience with local artisans doing embroidery, tie-dye (bandhani), Ajrakh block printing, and weaving.
—Laura Thompson, St. Louis Chapter Social Media Director
