2026-07-18 Nostalgia: Smells, Cars, and Places from the Past

Session Overview

Participants shared weekly updates — from job searching and dementia research to a trip to San Diego and welding a backyard grill — before diving into the session’s main theme of nostalgia. Guided by the idiom of the week (‘cup of tea’), the group explored how smells, fermented foods, childhood sweets, and old cars can trigger vivid memories of the past. They also compared notes on revisiting once-beloved places like Guam, San Diego, and Austin, and discovering how much those places had changed.

💬 Idioms

“cup of tea”

something that suits your personal taste or preference; most often used in the negative (’not my cup of tea’) to say something isn’t for you

• I tried the new thriller series everyone was talking about, but slow-burn mysteries just aren’t my cup of tea.
• Thanks for the invitation — outdoor yoga in the park is really my cup of tea.

“time warp”

a sudden feeling of being transported back to another moment in time, usually triggered by a smell, sound, or familiar place

• One whiff of that old woodsmoke put me in a complete time warp — I was back at my grandfather’s cabin.
• Walking into the abandoned school felt like a time warp; nothing had changed since the 1980s.

“spark nostalgia”

to trigger a bittersweet longing for the past, usually through a sensory experience like a smell, taste, or image

• A single photo from that summer trip sparked nostalgia in everyone at the table.
• Old commercials have a way of sparking nostalgia even for people who weren’t alive when they aired.

“come up with”

to think of or produce an idea, plan, or solution

• She came up with a clever way to fix the broken fence using spare wood from the garage.
• I couldn’t come up with any good ideas until I went for a long walk.

📚 Vocabulary to Remember

• nostalgia — a bittersweet emotional longing for happy times or places from the past
  • The smell of my old school hallway filled me with nostalgia for my teenage years.
• bittersweet — a feeling that is both happy and sad at the same time
  • Saying goodbye to her childhood home was a bittersweet moment — sad to leave, but exciting to move forward.
• fermented — preserved or chemically transformed over time by bacteria or yeast, often producing a strong smell and deep flavor
  • Miso soup is made from fermented soybean paste, which gives it a rich, savory taste.
• deteriorated — became worse in quality, condition, or appearance over time
  • The old boardwalk had deteriorated so much over the years that the city finally replaced it.
• replicate — to copy or reproduce something as closely as possible
  • He spent years trying to replicate his grandmother’s hot sauce recipe.
• rebellious — resisting authority, rules, or expected behavior, especially as a teenager
  • Her rebellious phase lasted only a year before she settled down and focused on her studies.
• amenities — facilities or features that provide comfort and convenience in a place
  • The resort had great amenities — a rooftop pool, a spa, and free shuttle service.
• pick up — to gradually learn or acquire a skill, habit, or language, often without formal instruction
  • He picked up basic Japanese just by watching films with subtitles.

🔧 Say It Better

1. ❌ I applied the job in the site with the workforce solution people. ✅ I applied for the job on the site through the workforce solutions agency. 💡 Use ‘apply for a job’ (not ‘apply the job’) and ‘on the website/site’ (not ‘in the site’).
2. ❌ I participate the IT meter. ✅ I attended the IT meetup. 💡 ‘Participate’ requires ‘in’: ‘I participated in the meetup’; ‘meetup’ (an informal gathering) is the intended word, not ‘meter’.
3. ❌ You can arise your idea over 10,000 in every moment. ✅ You can come up with more than 10,000 ideas at any moment. 💡 ‘Arise’ is intransitive — ideas arise on their own; use ‘come up with’ when you actively generate ideas.
4. ❌ I started a new skill in my life. ✅ I picked up a new skill. 💡 We ‘pick up’, ’learn’, or ‘develop’ a skill — not ‘start’ one.
5. ❌ I borrow a wealthy machine and restored my grill. ✅ I borrowed a welding machine and restored my grill. 💡 Past tense ‘borrowed’; the machine is a ‘welding machine’ — ‘wealthy’ was a transcription mishearing.
6. ❌ The smell of the water, the smell of the fish… remember me a very great time. ✅ The smell of the water and the fish reminded me of a wonderful time. 💡 The correct pattern is ‘remind someone of something’ — ‘remember’ cannot be used this way in English.
7. ❌ We are not agree in how we can enjoy our lives. ✅ We don’t agree on how we should enjoy our lives. 💡 ‘Agree’ is a verb, not an adjective; say ‘I don’t agree’ or ‘we disagree on something’.
8. ❌ Besides the cultural chalk, it was hard for me. ✅ Besides the culture shock, it was hard for me. 💡 ‘Culture shock’ is a fixed phrase describing the disorientation of adapting to a completely new culture.
9. ❌ Let me the opportunity to develop my hobby. ✅ It gave me the opportunity to develop my hobby. 💡 The sentence needs a subject (‘It’) and the verb ‘give’: ‘It gave me the opportunity to…’
10. ❌ We go to eat outside and we go to the swimming pool. ✅ We went out to eat and we went to the swimming pool. 💡 Use past tense ‘went’ for past events; ‘go out to eat’ is more natural than ‘go to eat outside’.

✅ Check Yourself

Q1. Live jazz music is really my ____; I try to catch a concert at least once a month.

• cup of tea
• time warp
• nostalgia

Q2. One whiff of my dad’s old aftershave sent me into a complete ____.

• time warp
• bittersweet
• fermented

Q3. Watching her daughter leave for university, she felt ____ — proud and excited, but quietly heartbroken.

• bittersweet
• rebellious
• deteriorated

Q4. The old wooden dock had ____ so badly over the winter that the park had to close it.

• deteriorated
• replicated
• fermented

Q5. The architect wanted to ____ the ornate stone carvings from the historic building in the new wing.

• replicate
• spark nostalgia
• pick up

Q6. After just one year in Seoul, she had ____ enough Korean to order food and ask for directions.

• picked up
• come up with
• fermented

✍️ Mini Diary

Today I found an old banana-flavored candy at the back of a kitchen drawer, and the smell sent me into a complete time warp — I was suddenly standing in my grandmother’s little corner store again, waiting for her to hand me a sweet. It was a bittersweet moment, the kind that makes you smile and miss someone at the same time. I sat down and let the feeling linger, the way a good memory deserves. Later, I went through some old photos of the neighborhood where I grew up, and each one seemed to spark nostalgia all over again. By the end of the evening, I decided I want to pick up the habit of writing small memories down before they fade.