O Cananda!

Today I met my first real Canadians! And they ate their first real Yankee Salad!

Martin is busy with wedding preparations, so the responsibility fell to Angie and me to welcome Dean and Louise to Lito. This is their third trip to Litomerice, and this time they will see Martin get married!

I was very glad to make a meal for other people. It was an opportunity to pay back the hospitality that I have been receiving. I was not able to repay the people who had been feeding me; I could only be useful by feeding other people. I guess you could say that I've had to "pay it forward".

I was so happy to cook for the Canadians because I now understand how special it is to have someone prepare food for you. Even though I have a kitchen and plenty of money to buy food, for another person to prepare it and take me to their home and serve it is an experience that goes beyond food. When I ate with Martin and Petra last week, everything I ate tasted better and more filling, because not only my stomach was fed. This experience is gratifying and humbling. Now that I know the feeling of warmth and love that come from receiving hospitality, I have been thinking a lot about how I will show hospitality in the States, when I am in my home country.

But last Sunday I had an immediate chance to pass on the love I had received. I was so happy to spend the afternoon making dinner for Dean and Louise. As I worked and laughed with Angie I thought of every time that I had traveled and felt exhausted and the relief that filled me when someone met me at the airport or offered to carry my bags. I wanted to give them that feeling after their long flight from Canada.

Angie and I made a great team. I planned the meal and manned the stove. She prepped, organized, tasted and made everything look so pleasing to the eye. I mean, look at that platter of mushrooms. If I had been cooking alone that plate would have looked like a greyish pile of gooey blobs. Not very appetizing. But Angie is a great lover of French cuisine, and I think she did an impressive job Gauling it up with our limited resources.

We had a great 'getting to know you' meal. Angie and the Canadians caught up on mutual acquaintances and I heard about Martin at his first English camp. I knew it was going to be a good week.