Neighbors Abroad of Palo Alto

Congratulations to our neighbor, City of East Palo Alto! 👏👏👏 Welcome to the Sister Cities family!

🇫🇷✨ Bonjour, Albi! ✨

Next week, a group of JLS and Gunn students and teachers are off to our Sister City of Albi, France — our partner since 1994! 🎒

On the agenda: the red-brick Cathédrale Sainte-Cécile and the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum at Berbie Palace 🎨 — both part of Albi's UNESCO World Heritage Site — plus a reception with the Mayor 🤝 and a French high school tour.

The best part? Lunch in the school cafeteria with French teens — where the food is always délicieux 😋 and the conversations about teenage life in Albi vs. Palo Alto are even better.

Bon voyage! 🌍💙

Learn more about the Palo Alto-Albi Sister City relationship here: https://neighborsabroad.org/cities/albi-france/

After months of anticipation, Brass Meets Rock played to a wildly appreciative crowd in Linköping last evening. The double bill, which featured the soothing sounds of the Linköping Brass Band followed by the energetic Enschede Rock Choir, was enjoyed by members of the City of Palo Alto delegation, including Mayor Vicki Veenker. Many thanks to all who worked so hard to bring together Palo Alto, Linköping, and Enschede in beautiful harmony.

This morning, the City of Palo Alto delegation was fortunate to receive a detailed briefing from acclaimed Linköping University professor Anders Persson on the fascinating, cutting edge research being done at LiU on medical imaging and visualization. The day concluded with a sumptuous dinner at historic Linköping Castle, hosted by Mayor Mikael Sanfridson, and joined by the delegation from Palo Alto’s Dutch Sister City, Enschede.

Our Linköping delegation visit began this morning with a flurry of exciting activities. Mayor Mikael Sanfridson welcomed our group and a delegation from the City of Palo Alto’s Dutch Sister City, Enschede. After learning about Linköping’s impressive economic growth, we toured the Skylten Cultural Center, which houses art studios, dance rooms, art galleries, and more under one roof. There, we met up with our old friend Joanne Posluszny-Hoffsten, who you may recall exhibited at Neighbors Abroad’s art exhibit “We Are What We Eat” a few years back. Joanne and her husband, Lars, graciously toured us through their studios which feature their remarkable work.

Thank you, our neighbors in Linköping and Enschede! Looking forward to joining you all next week! 🙌🎶

Grateful to Neighbors Abroad of Palo Alto for connecting Linköping and Enschede through music🌍🎶...

Because of this, Brass Meets Rock is more than a concert. It is a true international collaboration.

Thank you for making it happen 🎺🎸

✨ Imagine Palo Alto at 150. ✨

Our friends at the Palo Alto Museum have launched Palo Alto 2044 — a call to artists, writers, and dreamers, locally and around the world, to picture our city in 2044, the year it turns 150.

Two ways to enter:
🎨 Visual Art
✍️ The 15-Word Story
Selected works will be exhibited at the museum's grand opening this fall, published in a commemorative book, and sealed in a digital time capsule. 🌳

Submissions open through June 30, 2026; more details → https://paloaltomuseum.org/palo-alto-2044/

🌍 Calling all our Sister & Friendship Cities — — share with your artists and writers, we'd love to see Palo Alto through your community's eyes! 💛

🎡 Happy kids, happy hearts — Neighbors Abroad had a blast at May Fete!

It's always a joy watching young curious minds guess where our Sister, Sibling, and Friendship cities are hiding on the globe. 🌍 And there's a lot to discover — Albi 🇫🇷, Bloomington 🇺🇸, Enschede 🇳🇱, Heidelberg 🇩🇪, Linköping 🇸🇪, Narok 🇰🇪, Oaxaca 🇲🇽, Palo 🇵🇭, Tsuchiura 🇯🇵, and Yangpu District of Shanghai 🇨🇳.

Friends new and old stopped by to spin the wheel, share stories, and learn about the exchanges, projects, and connections we're building around the world.

Thank you to our board members and volunteers for bringing the energy, and to Mayor Vicki Veenker and Hobee's Restaurant for your support!

See you next year, May Fete! 👋

Photos by Roland Wilhelm .com

🌼 ¡Gracias, amigos nuestros en Oaxaca!🌼

On May 2, our Sister City Municipio de Oaxaca held a beautiful ceremony celebrating the March donations Neighbors Abroad helped bring from City of Palo Alto - Public Agencyto Oaxaca — and the photos are warming our hearts.

From Palo Alto, with love:
🚒 Gear from the Palo Alto Fire Department→ Bomberos & Civil Protection, strengthening emergency response across the city
🏥 Medical items from Avenidas→ DIF, supporting care for elderly residents in need
🧵 Sewing machines from Vidas y sueños enlazados por ayudar→ partner agencies & the municipalities they serve, opening doors to livelihoods and self-sufficiency
🔭 New equipment for Observatorio Astronómico Mpal. de Oaxaca, the observatory Neighbors Abroad and Palo Alto helped found 53 years ago!

This is what Sister City friendship looks like. 💛

A heartfelt thank you to the volunteers, donors, and partners on both sides who made every one of these gifts possible. None of this happens without you. 🙏