Last night we participated in the 5th annual Capitol Hill [[http://aliteraryfeast.org/|Literary Feast]]. We prioritized four books/cuisines and were delighted to be assigned to the Unaccustomed Earth dinner. The book is a collection of short stores, all about first generation Bengali-Americans and their struggles to blend their parents' Indian heritage with their American upbringing. Its an outstanding book, especially for anyone whose family has recently emigrated to America (from anywhere, not just India).

In any case, all of the meals were themed around the books, and so we had a delightful Indian meal (one of our favorite cuisines is Indian, especially after our trip to India in 2007). Our hosts were an American woman who'd married a Jamaican man (whose family was of Indian descent). (Ironically, they met when she served in the Peace Corps in Jamaica, making for some "small world" conversation between them and Jon.)

The meal was delightful, and the company even more so. We've lived on Capitol Hill for a little over a year now, but we haven't had much opportunity to meet other Hill folk outside our immediate neighbors. It was really nice to meet a group of Hill residents, of all ages and professional fields, and find that we have so much in common with respect to personal and professional interests (backyard farming, political persuasions, community participation; international development, space and defense, and ICTs).

The one hilarious note is that, this being DC, a delightful community dinner ended in a business card exchange. I am glad that I'll be able to reconnect with some of the folks we met, but still, only in DC... :)