first day in cali

after 4 days of driving, i finally arrived in cali last night!

the lovely santamaria family greeted me warmly. jigo, the youngest of the family, gave up his room for me.

since my travel commenced one day earlier as originally planned, i was able to attend the district's track and field meet earlier today. i took jerika (ate bel's daughter) and lyn-lyn (ate lou's youngest daughter) with me in livermore.

we walked around and i was pleasantly surprised to see a number of familiar faces. i immediately saw ka gaudy and family. gleng competed in the 100 m dash and long jump. gleng even won second place in the long jump event for her age group. there were only 2 contestants :). gemma invited me to the district Kadiwa gathering on the 20th. there will be a special worship service and luncheon for all single brethren in the district. maybe i should start praying to meet somebody haha.

i also saw brethren i originally knew from the boston and philadelphia congregations. i was very excited to finally see bro. bob and sis. sandy after so many years. bro. bob was our minister in boston ('94-'95). he is now the district minister here in northern california. i chatted with his wife for a little bit. i told her of my plans to go to jerusalem after graduation. they were previously assigned in israel and took care of the locales of jerusalem, haifa and tel aviv. she told me that when they first got there, they lived in joppa. remember that jonah went here to find a ship for tarshish instead of nineveh. wouldn't it be great to get to visit biblical lands? i am definitely planning on a taking a dip in the jordan river. she also mentioned that it used to be that the worship service in jerusalem took place in a cave-like structure. it sounded so very first century. but since the jerusalem congregation has grown they had to move to the more touristy area of the city. right now, they worship in a hall above a mcdonald's. it would have been nice to worship in a cave :).

and of course, i also saw PB. he made plans to have dinner with ate mayette and becky on thursday. i met ate mayette in '94 but has not seen her since then. i'm not sure how late i need to stay at the hospital that day but i will also try to meet with them.

so tomorrow, i will start my rotation in ucsf. it should be fun!