Lunch at the Tuckers

12 Octobre 2008
This morning I woke up to an email from Bene, a fellow expat from Greenville. Bene and her husband, Scott, were having another expat family over for lunch and invited us to join them. Bene lives in a town called Aubiere. Aubiere has a really great market every Sunday morning, and it is walking distance from Bene’s house. Matthew and I met Bene, and one of her daughters, in the market and walked around with her as she finished buying things for our lunch. After buying everything needed, we walked to her house. Their house is gorgeous! It is everything I pictured in my mind a French house would be. Complete with lots of floor to ceiling doors that were all open since today was such a beautiful day. After some apéritifs, we sat down to a Spanish inspired meal in honor of the other family, The Peredas. Robin and Oscar Pereda have two girls (5 and 7, the same age as Bene and Scott’s girls). Oscar’s mother, who is originally from Cuba, was visiting. For lunch we had salad, paella (bought from a stand in the market), a cheese course, and then a mille feuille cake (Oscar’s birthday is this week). It was really nice to sit and talk with people who have gone through everything you are going through. It is a little scary, though, when we hear stories like the Peredas have about how there was water in their shipment container. They had to throw away all of their mattresses because of the mold, and Robin spent a lot of time washing clothes and linens in the bathtub with vinegar solutions to kill the mildew. We are hoping our container (even though it has been in storage in France since July) will arrive dry and in one piece! I have plans to join Robin on Thursday for coffee with a group of ladies from all over the world. This group meets once a week, and each week they meet at a different home. They speak in English and in French, so hopefully I will meet new people and improve my French!