13th Meeting

Our Kathiyawadi (a region in western India) exchange was surprisingly one of the best ones. I really wasn’t sure how this exchange was going to turn out. I left the last one thinking, “okay, let’s see how this goes (insert eye roll)!” This was as true to the theme as we have ever been before. Everything from the food to costumes (yes costumes!) was on point. I arrived to be greeted by two of the girls dressed in their very best garb – very reminiscent of what the women wear in the kathiyawadi region. Our hostess, Parul, even got in the spirit and was dressed as a more modern Kathiyawadi woman; where as Jalpa and Vaishali were fully in costume. Hetal and I were a minority and really felt out of place in our plain western clothes. Nishal couldn’t make it because she had gone out the night before and partied too much. Weak sauce. Parul even went the extra step and decorated her house with kathiyawadi theme. There were printed table clothes and wall hanging. She even whipped out steel thalis, bowls, and cups.  I really was impressed with everything. We even enjoyed genuine food. Just when I start to doubt the ability to do certain things, we all go and surprise each other, but mostly ourselves with how much we can accomplish when we put our mind to it. We all had made things we have never tried before. Hetal made the dessert from scratch which usually is very intimidating. Jalpa and I made the veggie dishes which we had never tried before. And Vaishali had made a different type of Khicadi (a rice and lentil risotto like food item) and Rotala (millet flatbread). Parul served us papad, papdi, and chaas. We joked that Jalpa, Vaishali, and Parul should do garba in the backyard and I am almost positive they would have if they had another couple of glasses of wine and if we  had encouraged them a little more. We ended the exchange with a nice cup of cold chai made by our hostess.

 Next up… July picnic. We’re back to picnic foods!

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