"Dinner Parties"

Dinner Parties” The crown jewel of my friend group and Euro-living experience? Hands down, the dinner parties and the post-work social soirees.

Let me spin you a yarn about one unforgettable evening when our French colleague extended a golden invitation to an end-of-first-semester feast. All we knew was the address, and trust me, it was about to be a night etched in culinary history.

We pull up to this clandestine underground spot where the owner's orchestrating the magic. This was peak pandemic, so seating was rarer than a unicorn sighting.

Our gracious host made it clear – this night was all about connection, and phones were to be treated like relics from a bygone era. Not that it mattered; there was zero service down there, so our screens were as lifeless as the stale bread on the table.

What unfolded next was a culinary odyssey – an 8-course spectacle where the real challenge wasn't deciphering the menu but a game ensued to guess how much the bill would be after every course. And did i mention that there were 8? Even though we felt trapped, looking up the place was useless and we’d later find out there was no site to be found we had each other and three bottles of wine.

Side note: It was at this very table I discovered that asking Europeans how they met their spouses is akin to opening a Pandora's box of personal questions. Note to self: non-Americans guard their love stories like state secrets.

Yet, amidst the financial negotiations and the diplomatic dance around personal inquiries, I found joy in forging connections, in weaving tales around the quirkiest of topics. Because, in the end, it's not just about the food on the table; it's about the laughter, the camaraderie, and the shared understanding that when life serves up an 8-course feast of absurdity, you grab a seat at the table and dig in with a smile.