Shortly after we moved here, my friend, Jolene, introduced me to her friend, Iemei. Several years ago, Iemei moved to Mexico City for her husband’s work. She just returned about six months ago and recently reached out to me to see if I would be interested in meeting her for coffee. We talked about all kinds of things about life in Mexico and what it’s like returning to the States. She shared that she wanted to continue to keep her Spanish up and asked me if I would be interested in meeting with her and a few of her Spanish speaking friends. I said, “Claro que si!” or “Why yes!”
Well, it turns out that one of Iemei’s friends, Leticia, is actually a friend of mine. Leticia is from Mexico and her daughter went to school with Walker at Montessori. It’s a small world here.
Iemei invited us to her house to make bread. I had no idea what a talented baker Iemei is. She had prepared several loaves of bread in advance of our arrival because the whole process would take longer than our time together. It was great fun to think once again in Spanish and to attempt to translate a recipe into Spanish. Leticia and her friend are strong English speakers but there were nuances in cooking and in English that we were able to help them with. Likewise, they helped Iemei and me quite a bit with our phrasing and word choices. Although Leticia was very complimentary of our Spanish, I still felt like a rusty old nail.
Iemei shared her recipe with us.
Things were moving right along with the baking when I got a call from school saying there would be two hour early dismissal due to an impending storm. What?!
Just as I rushed out, Iemei handed me a loaf of warm bread to take with home.
It was about as amazing as could be and I cannot wait to try to make it again at home.
Another hidden talent….2 if you count bread making and fluent Spanish.
Nothing better than homemade bread, fresh out of the oven.
Sounds like a very stimulating day!
xoxo Kim