Ways to Connect...

Alumni Contact Network
Chorale Alumni Site (leave our site)
Alumni Activities
Contact Volunteers and Staff
Volunteer Interest Form
Be an Alumni Coordinator
Alumni Referral
Join a YFU Email Group

General Info | Contacts | Role

From your class contact, Julia Mattis (JMattis256@aol.com):

(more pictures on page 2!)

What a dream and what an experience my year in Norway was. I did so many exciting and different things that year - things that I had never done before. I met alot of wonderful people - my host family and friends from school and YFU - who I still keep in touch with. The first couple of pictures are from our first quarter orientation that was held outside of Oslo - the first time we would gather together since our plane ride into the country. IT was the first of many gatherings where we would come together to talk, to share, to gripe, to support. Enclosed is a copy of the article that they wrote about us in the Norgwegian YFU magazine. It was such an exciting discovery that I made in the deep recesses of my closet! I even found my old phone list! The last couple of pictures were from our Scandanavian trip the two weeks before we left to go home to the USA. For 2 weeks we traveled through Denmark, Sweden and central Norway in an attempt to separate us from the close bonds we had formed with our host families. It was a fantastic trip - lots of sun, mountains, and good times with a great bunch of Americans. We really bonded in those two weeks. It really helped us to understand and reflect upon the year that had just past and the share our experiences, joys, pains, etc.

I just went to my 20th American high school reunion for the first time in my life. It was so wonderful meeting up and reacquainting myself with people I hadn't seen in so long. WE shared a great time in our lives - "what a long strange trip it's been" - was our motto. Now hopefully, I can reconnect with those wonderful people that I shared that exciting year in Norway with. It is a memory and an experience that never fades. In fact, it seems to always be lerking in back of your mind - a thought, a feeling, an old David Bowie song....

I have been a volunteer with YFU for the past 8 years doing interviews, recruiting host families and making presentations. My husband and I have been hosting for the last 6 years - always two or three girls per year. Our family has grown to about 15 -20 daughters between our fulltime kids and our temporaries ones, not to mention the extended family we have gotten by being associated with their families! Almost every girls family has been here to visit us. Our girls come back and visit us all the time. Our Japanese daughter that just started at Princeton and our Spanish daughter is on her way to Georgia State. YFU has been a wonderful part of my life for so long! In fact, we just came back from a YFU CHristmas party! Hopefully, this website will help those of us whose lost touch with each other and help us to reconnect and share the experience that was our year in Norway.

(more pictures on page 2!)