When I learned, about week before I began my fellowship with the International Center For Journalists, that I would spend three weeks at a newspaper in California, I was elated.
A generic email had already warned all 12 fellows that temperatures in Washington, during the first week of orientation, would be low. I also knew that when we ended the experience in New York it would be cold.
The weather in Southern California was expected to be warm and the area is breathtakingly beautiful. I felt I had drawn the long straw. No one told me about the Santa Ana winds though.
Depending on where you get your information from, the Santa Anas, as they are known in these parts, got their name from the Santa Ana Mountains in Orange County or Santana winds from the Spanish vientos de Sat
