Some of my most cherished memories in Brussels are from dinner parties. I love hosting dinner parties at home or going to a friends' home and enjoying great food, wine, and conversation.  Given I have only been here less than three months, I am still working on building a social circle.  In Brussels, everyone lives at close proximity.  Here, at the National Capital Region, it is common to commute 70 miles to work which makes it difficult to connect with friends or colleagues after work hours.  If I commuted 140 miles roundtrip in Brussels, it would more than likely place me in a foreign place, such as Rotterdam, The Netherlands or Aachen, Germany.  However, I have been fortunate enough to reconnect with old friends and making new friends in DC proper.

Toasting to a New Life Life... and Friends

On Friday, I hosted a dinner party in honor of Carlis, my new neighbor and fellow blogger of SpicyCandyDC.  I had to feed a table of 9 and wanted to create a menu both creative and simple to make due to the large group and short preparation time.  My Dutchman is a very good cook and told me of a delicious stuffed shells recipe he learned to make during his time in Italy.  I decided it would be perfect main course.  I wanted to add European elements to the menu while making it accessible to my guests.  I decided to start with mussels, as a homage to Brussels with white wine and cream sauce. It always warms my heart when people drink the whole broth after finishing the mussels.  The ricotta and basil stuffed shells followed with a spinach salad with cherry tomatoes, fresh sweet peppers, and pomegranate.  Instead of a dressing, I just squeezed a lemon and added a few tablespoons of my recent Austrian discovery, pumpkin seed oil.  To conclude, I made a chocolate mousse with Cote D'Or Belgian chocolate which a friend brought to me from the Kingdom and thankfully just discovered it is sold on Amazon. I topped the mousse with fresh raspberries.

These Ladies Can Drink!

 There are many beauties of a dinner party.  It all begins with the preparation.  While making sauce for the shells the evening before, I begin to envision the following evening, hoping my new guests enjoy the menu.  The evening of the dinner, Carlis, Kat, and Grace arrived early to help.  We collectively chopped, tasted, and cooked, making it a party with stories and music even before the rest of the guests arrived.  Finally, we serve the meal.  Sitting in a warm home, trading stories, drinking as much wine as we want (10 bottles to be exact), and feeling the positive energy of talented and diverse women secured the fact there will be more evenings like this to come.  I do enjoy from time to time a dinner at a fabulous restaurant but nothing beats a lovely dinner at home. All photos courtesy of SpicyCandyDC.

This marks my 3rd year as a blogger. It all began in January 2010 when I decided to start my former blog, Adventures of a Puerto Rican Girl in Brussels.   It became a narrative of my life in Belgium and travels throughout the world.  It became a diary of my life as an expatriate in a country which gave me six wonderful years of learning about life, culture, love, food, and everything in between.  I enjoyed documenting about my solution to world peace through Oktoberfest and wearing my heart on my sleeve as I wrote about my broken heart.  The blog also became a place which inspired me not only to embark in new adventures but to accept new challenges.  It made me not only honest with my readers but with myself. 
Yesterday, I went to the DC Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to change my driver's license.  I officially became a New York State driver August of 1995 at the age of 17. Since then, I managed to keep my NYS license while living in Japan, South Korea, Belgium, and Germany.  In a way, it was a link to home. A home I left at the young age of 17 to pursue my dreams, see the world, and experience a life beyond the snowy hills of Western NY.  Yesterday, the DMV clerk made me shred my NYS license. He told me "just let it go".  Although it was a tiny sliver of plastic, it meant so much more.  I was saddened to see this 17 year link to my past go through a shredder.  At the same time it gave me a sense of optimism.

It also made me reflect on how challenging it is at times to let go.  Some things are trivial such as a license or an item of clothing. Others are deeper.  It can be a friendship or relationship which does not fit anymore.  When I was planning my move from Brussels to Washington, I had to make a lot of decisions about the things I wanted to hold on to and others that needed to go.  At times, it seems easy to say "throw it out" until the moment of truth comes.  I recall carefully packing a Leffe beer glass my friend Jaime "acquired" at Place du Luxembourg in Brussels sometime in 2007. When I opened the box in DC, the glass was in pieces.  As I threw it away, I acknowledged the memories Jaime and I created that night did not leave with the broken glass.
It is symbolic that I am starting a new year with a new identity card. It is a permanent reminder not only I have moved back but I am part of a community here. I am part of the community of Bloomingdale, where you can see a diverse mix of social class, race, and ages.  A place where Wanda, my front door neighbor organized a holiday block party and introduced me to the neighbors.  Some neighbors have lived there all their lives and some have just joined.  As much as I miss Brussels, I have chosen not to have an attachment of my former life.  Just as the Leffe glass, I’ve chosen to remember the nice memories. Sometimes we get caught up on “back in XYZ, it was so much better” or “that place was so much nicer” or “that person was so much better” without taking the time to be present and truly appreciate what is in front of us.  The things I threw out or sold in Brussels gave me space to welcome the new things in my life.
In Puerto Rico, we have a tradition of mopping the house New Year ’s Eve and throwing the bucket of dirty water outside at midnight. It symbolizes cleaning out all the negative things of the prior year and starting the New Year free of bad energy.  This year, I performed my new take on the ritual. With my Dyson vacuum cleaner in hand, I vacuumed throughout the whole house. My Dutch boyfriend at first witnessed in curiosity (or maybe horror) but later joined me in ritual.  Shortly after midnight, under the cold DC sky we emptied the canister of dust on the street.  I figured it would be more civilized than a bucket of water. I don't want my neighbors to label me as the "crazy Puerto Rican" just yet.  As the dust particles flew in the cold DC wind, I manifested  2013 will bring us good health, love, success, and fortune.