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Joanne M. Fuchs's avatar

The honesty is refreshing. We redefine place as it redefines us. Congrats.

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Sabrina Simpson's avatar

Thanks Joanne; I appreciate your thoughts. Honesty is always a good place to start and, hopefully, end.

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Rebecca Holden's avatar

Loved loved loved this, Sabrina! You took me on a whole journey from disorientation to deep comfort of home... absolutely beautiful. And YESSSSSSS to the great British Sunday lunch!

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Sabrina Simpson's avatar

Many thanks Rebecca! Love Sunday lunch (although yesterday I did give it a miss for the sheepdog trials!).❤️

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Rebecca Holden's avatar

LOL - because we were out and about for work yesterday, our Sunday lunch was soup in a flask made out of the leftovers of the LAST roast we'd had! 🤣

Sheepdog trials - I am SOOOOO impressed! I used to watch 'One Man and his Dog' on BBC2 every Sunday night in the 1980s with my parents and brother - you've taken me right back! How wonderful.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Man_and_His_Dog

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Sabrina Simpson's avatar

Wow, I am impressed with the longevity of your previous Sunday roast! Pete was talking about that show the entire time we were watching. Thanks so much for the link! I may see if it is on iplayer now for my bingeing delight!

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Rebecca Holden's avatar

Longevity is a misnomer in this case - we have our Sunday roast on a Saturday night, so Sunday’s soup was fresh as a daisy! 🤣 I’ve frozen most of it, though, to thaw day-by-day as we need it for lunches!

All bets are off whenever we go out for Sunday lunch, though - they don’t ever let me raid the kitchen for leftovers…. 🤣

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Sabrina Simpson's avatar

At least in the US it would be ok to ask for a box to take home the leftovers. I think asking to go into the kitchen though, would be a step too far!

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Rebecca Holden's avatar

Given half the chance I'd be in there, sleeves rolled up, shoving everything soupable into a trolley....! 🤣

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Andrea Eschen's avatar

This is another beautiful piece and so much of it resonated with me. I admire your courage and bravery to take the big leap over the pond in the first place and then to share the ups and downs in the second.

I particularly identified with not knowing how to do things or where to buy things. For example, at the end of my last trip to the US, I bought baking powder and baking soda to bring back to Madrid. I wish I could have brought fennel, broccoli rabe, canned black beans, pinto beans, and a host of other foods that I cannot find here. My nice banker patiently shows me how to pay taxes or other payments to the government from the cash machine, something I never would have imagined possible. (Her son is at Wesleyan so she's sympathetic to my plight.) All these things that seemed so simple are not.

I told Fabio as we had completed our one year anniversary of living in Spain that I was very pleased with myself for how I'd managed a major move into a new culture and different language. I don't panic when a Spaniard speaks to me in fear that I won't understand the accent, I know my way around many parts of the city (and the other parts I have Google maps), I haven't been lonely or bored for a minute, and I have a small social life. Those are big accomplishments in a year of stepping into a new day-to-day existence.

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