Our second evening in our new home had been designated as our “meeting” night with the folks who run this place. We were to meet at 5, introduce ourselves, and basically ask any questions we might have. Since we had already been living together about 24 hours, we were past the introductions (and had more questions than could be answered in one night), and so I suggested that since we were all going to be together at the same time, it could be a family dinner night of sorts.

I guess Gal Foodie can’t help herself.

I trekked off to the Kaiser, the local grocery store, and for the next 2 hours (yes TWO) I proceeded to try and buy pasta and sauce and vegetables to make a dish that would feed about 12 people. It was exhausting, but so much fun to peruse the aisles of everything German. There was the Barillo pasta and the Bertolli sauce, but the rest of it was pretty much a mystery. I’ll write a bit more in a separate post about my food excursions. Let’s get back to dinner.

I arrived in the kitchen and started to cook. I finally felt at home. I was doing my thing. I was feeding people. It was as familiar as I could get. It started to smell great. More food arrived from the other kitchen down the hall. People arrived. Wine arrived. The table was set. We sat down.

We’re all here. And for the next 7 weeks, we’re all family.

(from L to R around the table) Ariel, Caroline, Susana, Ron, Gary, Julia, Rudolf, Antje, Johannes, Ryan, Chris