Who said integrating had to be hard?

Aaaahhhhh....another successful day of integrating into the community!

Since my nose wouldn't stop dripping and I couldn't stop sniffing, I stayed home and started on the mountain of paperwork I'd been putting off. Having successfully accomplished more than I'd intended to (I set very low standards for myself this morning), I decided to make a blackberry pie while the dough for my calzones was rising.

Although I had initially decided to make a personal-sized pie, I realized that-if it turned out- this pie could be a great way to meet more neighbors. With the large mound of pie crust in fridge, there was no reason not to. Although I failed to add enough sugar, it was an overall very successful first attempt at blackberry pie!

Quite pleased with myelf, I ate a nice-sized piece, added some more sugar to the pie and took two pieces over to my neighbor who had just bought me some bowls and a few sticks of butter since she felt bad that I'm poor and my house is it next to empty...and then ate another piece.

Things were NOT looking good. I'd seen this trend before. Make a pie "for the neighbors" or some cookies "for the children" and a fourth....OK, alright...half ends up making its way down my intestines before the night is over. I had to do something before another afternoon ended with me eating an unhealthy amount of some kind of pastry.

Luckly, I had forgotten I promised the neighbor kids around the corner that we would play soccer at 4pm. SCORE! Maybe, I thought, I'll run off the cookie dough from the weekend and at least the crust from the pie I ate the other day.

After soccer and a few games of freeze tag in the field in front of the school (p.s. watch out for the hidden mud-holes...they'll getcha), we headed back to my house for a blackberry pie extravaganza!

It was a great sharing experience! I learned a few new words (marchitarse-to wilt), realized I didn't know the word for gazelle in Spanish (gacela), learned that if you touch a certain tree it stunts your growth and other miscellaneous but important things ....they asked about the States, shared the words they knew in English and each tried on my glasses; it was the kind of cultural experience you hope for when in a foreign country.

After sharing spoonfuls of blackberry pie on the steps of my house as the sun slowly made its way towards the mountains, we parted ways-sweaty, tired and covered in blackberry juice.

It was a good day!