It was a delight to start 2023 and spend time with Farid this afternoon. Thanks to Connect Moderator @ErmesT , who contacted me while Farid was visiting Italy for the first time, his motherland. They were eating dinner at Ermes’ home with Connect Moderator @JaneBurunina and reminiscing about our meeting in San Francisco during Connect Live 2018 and what Farid is up to during his 3-week Grand Tour of Italy.
Local Guides, with travel now open, who would you like to meet in person this year? Where would you meet? What would you like to do together?
I would love to meet, eat, drink, and hang out and explore a place (it doesn’t have to be a Top Destination) with my Local Guides friends. Eating and drinking virtually together doesn’t cut it anymore. It doesn’t have to be adventurous (for example, jumping out of a plane). Just great, quality time chatting, catching up on lost time (Thank You, COVID-19!), and being together. That is what I have been missing for the past three years.
Thanks Ermes, Farid, and Jane for spending time with my family and me this afternoon.
Hi @KarenVChin It’s really amazing journey. I pray for you from the bottom of my heart, as long as you live on earth, may this bond of yours remain unbreakable. Good luck to you all. Thank you very much for your real story sharing with us.
Hi @KarenVChin The photos are very sincere and sincere. I think you asked the hardest question to ask. There are many people we want to tag here, but I want to leave an infinity sign here and I want to meet everyone I can meet:smiling_face:
Hola querida @KarenVChin , me resulto muy hermosa la sorpresa de poder verte a ti y tu familia, están todos hermosos y tu con el pelo más largo te queda muy bien , @ErmesT es una maravillosa persona que me tenía preparada esta sorpresa jajajaj cuando marca el teléfono yo pensé que lo llamaron y no eras vos. Estábamos casi todos @JaneBurunina y Antonella .
A tu pregunta ya quedó respondida, con todos ustedes, ya que los parientes entran en los sentimientos de maneras diferentes. Tienes un año para planificar un encuentro en Europa , tal vez España jajaja.
Happy New Year to you @KarenVChin and all Local Guides globally. I joined the community during COVID-19 in Early 2021, and I learned a lot from Local guides in Virtual meetups. I got a chance to interact with Connect moderators and most of them are my Mentors today, so humbled and grateful . I miss those moments badly! I always miss #ONEACCESSIBILITY Monthly meetups by connect moderators @EmekaUlor#Accessiblelife Meetups by @ErmesT , I did not get a chance to be in meetups by @JaneBurunina and @KashifMisidia about accessibility awareness but I read through their recaps and learned a lot. wanna meet you all one day inshallah, with Googlers too . also @Nyainurjanah@doc_dells@Erna_LaBeau , @FalguniP the list is endless. And of course you Karen, Tejal, Our senior TG, @Kwiksatik , @indahnuria , as much as I wanna meet most of the local guides in Person, I wanna meet them virtually too as before, At least once a month.
I can also say! THANK YOU COVID-19 . I Met my second Family here on Connect.
That’s a wonderful meetup, @KarenVChin . Indeed, it’s been so long since we’ve met these wonderful people. I would like to meet a whole lot of people this year. I would like to meet my friends from all my road trips, prior/ post Connect Live/ Local Guide Summit, I would like to meet all the Connect Moderators, I would like to meet the wonderful local guides from around the world with whom I have interacted several times through their wonderful posts on Connect. I wouldn’t mind meeting all of them together or just a few of them or even just one of them anytime soon. Happy 2023! Happy New Year everyone!
we should arrange more VMU while waiting for in-person meet - up opportunity @FaridTDF@ErmesT@KarenVChin et all. I have to admit I do miss a lot of VMU due to my location at this moment. Being far down South in the Pacific make it a bit tricky for me sometimes. Nevertheless, I will try my best to join whenever I can
Wow wonderful it’s amazing it’s a good happy New Year to all friend best wishes for New Year best of luck be happy always in your life my best wishes with you regard from Karachi Pakistan thanks a lot
Thank you for this post, @KarenVChin , and for joining our small “private” meet-up, on which we had 4 Guiding Stars, and three of them are also Connect Moderators
El reencuentro con amigos es un sentimiento muy fuerte y profundo @ErmesT ya que a los amigos los escoges tu, no es la la vida los que te los da, y en el sentimiento de elegirlo hay lazos que perduran por mucho tiempo y espacio, imagina, como de algún modo dijo @KarenVChin , a pesar de tanto tiempo, a los pocos minutos de la charla era como al principio de todo, por eso lo que nosotros llamamos amigos son eso, hermosas personas que escogemos a lo largo de la vida que cuando en breves momentos nos encontramos es como siempre fue al principio.
Con quien me gustaría encontrarme, solo deseo que estén bien todos esos a los cuales conocí y sentí cosas hermosas cuando estuve con ellos, el Connect Live 2018 fue muy lindo y fuerte para mi, todas las emociones del mundo se juntaron cuando via a todos los LG del mundo, nunca mas se repetirá de la misma manera, me gustaría estar con todos jajaja.
Great thoughts @KarenVChin there are so many I would love to meet up again with or meet a new. There are two main people for me to name first, my friend Traci who now really is a Local Guide just like us who I talk to very often still and @Kwiksatik because we’ve shared many moments over the last couple of years through her journey in life involving pain and hardship it needs to be balanced with an in person hug and frankly a good cry together while staring into the new and bright future.
I miss @ErmesT who I hope has kept up his streak because mine died - he does so much for so many people I would love to thank him in person over a great bottle of red. Perhaps we can argue over whether Australian wine has grown up yet when compared to the European masters?
I need to share pizza with @FalguniP because we did virtually for such a long time we need to do it in person.
I miss your energy and determination to organise and be the Connect Mom to everyone.
I would love to get together will all the people who made the covid lockdown photo workshop series the success it was and of course include all the participants. We made the best of a very tough time for the world and had great fun enjoying each other’s company each week.
I could sit here naming people for days but I will leave some space for others.
Especially you, 
, 
yo pensé que lo llamaron y no eras vos. Estábamos casi todos 
. I miss those moments badly! I always miss 
. I Met my second Family here on Connect.
What a question.
. Yes the 3 musketeers (Captain Karen, 