Then I wandered around shopping for food for dinner that night. I volunteered to cook my host parents some of Mom’s famous mostaccioli, since they’re big into pasta. I found tomato paste and the noodles at this international grocery store—and paid a premium for them. It went pretty well, although when I wasn’t looking my host father snuck in and oversalted the pasta. Proof that sometimes I can cook…

I also picked up a copy of Ocean’s Eleven since my host parents were being evasive about what sort of movie they’d want to watch: “either a comedy or an action movie or a romance—you decide”. It seemed to have a little of all three. My host mom dozed off at first, but her head popped up when she saw Julia Roberts.