friendship food

There is an endless list of difficult things about moving to a different country alone. On the flipside of that, there are endless possibilities. One of the hardest things for me was leaving a huge community of loved ones I’ve been so blessed to have. But I knew I would have some great new people come into my life. And I most certainly have. My coworkers are some of the kindest people I’ve ever known. Feeling incredibly blessed to see them everyday and to learn from them. And feeling the most fortunate to have found the circle of friends I have here. It took some time. And we are the oddest bunch to have ever put together. But we’re together, and I’m not mad about it.

WARNING: the rest of this post is going to be weird. I’m just telling you straight up. Allow me to explain why this weirdness is occurring. As you all know, I have a deep love of all these sugary. Your homegirl likes to bake. And I’ve been deprived of that in my 12x12 square ft apartment, which only has room for an easy bake oven in Celsius degrees. (Exponentially difficult. Really. Give me back Fahrenheit.) So instead I just talk about how I USED to bake a lot. Well, I’m not sure how this all played out, but “the girls” requested that I compare them to pastries. Yeah. Sometimes we run out of things to talk about. We’re together a lot…

Well, I thought it was a great idea! But I’ve expanded from pastries because that limited me to basically just food items. I don’t like to be boxed in. So this is what I’ve come up. (and you should all  know, I spent entirely too much time on this.)

Cheryl is a chocolate chip cookie. Crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside; because let’s be real, she’s always got her act together, but I’ve seen her cry a few times. And she’s just the right amount of sweetness. Not too much to make you sick to your stomach, but enough to make you come back for more. Who doesn’t love a chocolate chip cookie? And who doesn’t love Cheryl? The two go hand in hand. And she’s from the South. Which is wildly comforting when you’re 8,000 miles away from it. Comfortable like a chocolate chip cookie.

Katie is an elegant and perfectly flavored crème brulee. It’s creamy and sweet and I just get excited when somebody says crème brulee. And at first it seems a little daunting to prepare, but once you get going, you realize that such a great product isn’t all the hard to come by. (The torch scares me, but just be gentle.) And that’s how Katie makes me feel. Those big words she uses sometimes cause me to spend more time in my dictionary than actually listening to her, but once you get to know her and speak her language, you realize your life is a lot better with her in it. Katie and crème brulee. Two things I want in my life forever.

Tab is a funfetti cupcake with rainbow sprinkles. Because it isn’t a party without funfetti and it sure ain’t a party without Tab. She’s bright and shiny and energetic and is constantly keeping the rest of us laughing. Tab makes your day a little more exciting. You’re always in for an adventure when Tab is around.