Lunch with Lucinda

Today, after school, I went to Lucinda's apartment for lunch. She is the treasurer for the International Women's Group and the domestic goddess I blogged about shortly after arriving here. She is so nice and welcoming, I absolutely love spending time at her place. When I first entered her apartment, I took off my shoes and she gave me some "house shoes" to borrow. Germans wear house shoes. They are kind of like slippers, shoes meant to be worn only inside. The students wear them at school too. When they arrive they take off their outside shoes and put on their house shoes before entering the classroom.

Lucinda had a pot of parsnip curry soup simmering on the stove and she served me a wonderful homemade lunch of soup, fresh bread, salad, and freshly brewed mint water. She is kind of like Martha Stewart meets Paula Deen and I love it! She gave me the lowdown on baking items and which ones I truly cannot find in Germany (chocolate chips) and which ones are just hard to find (baking soda can be purchased at the Apoteke, or pharmacy rather than the grocery store) or come in a very different form (instead of vanilla extract, Germans use pure vanilla which comes in little vials that look like perfume samples!). She said the brown sugar is different, but it works for cookies, but she would love for me to bring her some brown sugar and chocolate chips when I go home for Christmas.

She told me all about the organic produce she gets from a website that gets delivered to her home every Thursday. She mentioned making a dish with pumpkins and informed me that, yes, she uses fresh pumpkins because, "you can't get it from the can here honey."

She is a delight. Old fashioned, yet feisty.

Lucinda also invited one of her neighbors to join us for lunch. She was a strikingly and exotically beautiful woman, about my age, who was born in India, but grew up in Dubai. She went to university in Canada and lived in Geneva and London after graduating. Her husband Rufi works for Seimens and they have been married for about a year. They are also Muslim. I am interested to get to know her better. She was a lot friendlier than many of the Germans I have encountered thus far...

Our lunch lasted over 4 hours and I didn't get home until about 4:45. Lucinda is super hospitable, yet she will very nicely say, "Ok I am sending you home now" when she needs to get on with her day and handle other tasks. Visiting with Lucinda carries a guarantee of a belly full of good food and a great feeling of comfort. Hopefully I will be able to return the favor someday, if we ever get a kitchen of our own....