The Two Sides of the Atlantic: Florida and Europe

The past few days have been busy. Last week Husband and I went down to Ft. Lauderdale in Florida. He had a deposition to do, I went along for the ride. We spent a lot of time looking at the beach and Atlantic Ocean but not getting into it. The sand was too soft. We also spent a lot of time at the hotel pool, but didn't get into it either. There were too many kids.

However, we did avail ourselves to the bars and watched the USA-Ghana soccer game. Gotta say, still not a fan of the game.

We got back Saturday night, then on Sunday we hosted dinner for the European Marshall Memorial Fellows who came through Atlanta.

Each year, the US and Europe select 60 emerging leaders in the fields of business, philanthropy, politics, etc. under the age of 40 and send them on trips across the Atlantic to continue the bond the grew out of the Marshall Plan after World War II. I did my trip in 2007. In fact, I started in blog as a place to record my experience.

When I knew that the European fellows were coming through Atlanta this year, I immediately offered to host Sunday dinner. From my experience, I knew that there'd be little planned for them on Sunday, since most people aren't doing meetings on Sunday.

I also planned a home cooked meal, since the fellows are traveling for 3 weeks, eating out all the time. A home cooked meal's a nice change. The menu was:

chips and salsa
carrots, Wheat Thins, and onion soup dip w/sour cream
tossed salad with mandarin orange and boiled eggs
brown rice
baked chicken with potatoes, onions, and rutabagas, seasoned with Zatarain's cajun seasoning
for dessert: mini-pineapple cakes imported from Taiwan. They're like little fig newtons, but with pineapple centers.

Here they are, all busily eating. Interestingly, front and center in this pic are 2 lawyers: Husband in Atlanta, and Emrush from Kosovo. The other fellows are a Spanish economics professor, a Portugese media guy, and a German working for the Church on refugee issues. Two other European fellows didn't make it, including a Greek woman named Afroditi (isn't that cool?) who's early in her pregnancy, and another guy who was working.

The American fellows who came were my local city councilman who apparently has a day job, but I never hear him talking about it; and an IT venture capitalist (I think) but all I know is he volunteers to be the local host for the European fellows every year.

It was a busy but fulfilling long weekend. Tonight is the farewell dinner for the EMMFs as they move on to Cleveland.