14th Meeting- Happy Independence day, all!

We celebrated the fourth with each other this year. Nishal hosted the get together at her house. She greeted us with red, white and blue leis and then some delicious sangria. We enjoyed our lunch on the patio talking about the Indian summer we are having and food, of course. We had a guest exchanger this time: Manali. I am sure she was shocked by how much we eat and surprised by how awesome of a cook we all are. Seriously, we can start our own restaurant and be the executive chefs. Yes, 6 executive chefs. What? It can happen. Or have a reality show about how awesome we are. Or a book deal. Or a movie deal.

After lunch we played a version of charades and telephone that Jalpa had recently learned. There are no pictures -  but this is exactly why we need someone video taping these meets. They are lot funnier when you watch it. Jalpa had to leave early because her husband was not feeling well. Shortly after that we followed her out.

While hanging out we talked about how people have asked us if they can join the exchange. The answer is usually a very polite no. The reason is simple: we have found 6 is a perfect number for people to get together, exchange recipes, and have conversations. If there are more than 6, it feels like there are side conversations going on and it becomes a group within a group. This past Tuesday I was talking to a coworker and she asked me what my plans were for the 4^th. I told her and to that she responded, “oh that sounds like fun. I want to come”. I laughed and kinda walked away from her, but a few minutes later she started asking me questions about the whole concept. I explained and she was really in to it. No, I didn’t invite her. I bring this up, because I want to know if we have any readers out there that have been inspired by our little CT Exchange and have formed their own exchange. We would love to hear from you. Drop us a line and let us know how it has worked out so far.