something Orange this way comes!

After a volunteer injury, Kathryn and I headed down this past weekend to Huntington Beach to organize the Big Five's AO PDO. Compared to Berkeley's orientation, 18 students seemed easy! And we had reason to celebrate too....

Orange County! The beautiful sandy beaches, the sunny weather, the... Wait a minute, where's the sun?!

OK, so no sun, but it wasn't cold. The Rogers Senior Center was more than happy to open its doors to YFU and it was a great venue for this group of students. More than half of the group is headed to Japan to the Japan summer program. Three students are headed to Germany (two for the year program), one to France, one to Argentina, one to Sweden, and one to Brazil. If I missed someone, I'm sorry!

Kathryn decided to fly in and out, same day. She was smart. I had to go and invite my father, a Big Five field volunteer, and make a family weekend out of it... Not a mistake, but driving is tiring! Three and a half hours from San Francisco to dad's house in Atascadero on Thursday. Four hours from Atascadero to the hotel in Santa Ana on Friday. Driving to and from the venue in Huntington Beach on Saturday. And from Santa Ana to Atascadero to San Francisco on Sunday.

Whew... I'm tired and all I did was sit down most of the time....

I fortified myself with delicious food. I celebrated my birthday (Friday) with my father, boyfriend, aunt, and cousin at an exquisite and adorable wine country cuisine restaurant in Costa Mesa. They had their own veggie garden out front! Very cool!

The pizza at the orientation itself never tasted better. Try running an orientation with 18 students for a day - on your feet the whole time! I definitely deserved a foot massage after that.

Before departing Sunday, we found this extremely friendly neighborhood brunch spot called Pop's Cafe. Big plates of food, great price, super friendly service. Dad enjoyed himself... :-)

There are some photos (coming soon!) from this past weekend's orientation.

But now, it's the end of the year! The time has come to prepare myself for saying goodbye to the 4 students I rep. I'm an Area Representative for 4 YFU students in the Bay Area. Chjanna, from Denmark, lives in San Francisco. Judy, from Germany, lives in Menlo Park. Martha and Lukas, both from Germany, live in Palo Alto. And they're all leaving for home some time this month.

Sigh... It'll be hard, but I know they will all go back home with a happy face!