By Rosabelle White Aguirre de Rice, CTA Vice President
A group of about 20 Colorado translators gathered for the annual CTA picnic in beautiful Boulder on Saturday, July 16, 2016.
This year’s picnic was a credit to a young new member of our fold, Ekaterina Avdeeva. When I approached her about the idea of organizing a picnic a little over a month and half ago during CTA’s monthly coffee get-together at Café Soleil in Boulder, she immediately began scouting a location for our event.
She suggested Harlow Platts Community Park, a beautiful lakeside park at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Soon enough, members were notified, and all the attendees rolled up their sleeves and began preparing sumptuous dishes.
Ekaterina and her husband awoke early to prepare delicious Russian meat pies. They must have also ordered up some nice weather, because the skies were sunny with just enough clouds to keep it cool on a hot July day. Our pictures were framed by the Flatirons, and the views to our immediate west were picturesque.
Members came from as far north as Laramie, Wyo., and as far south as Colorado Springs, where our president, Marion Rhodes, currently resides. She came bearing goodies and with her young daughter in tow, who turned out to be a well-behaved and beautiful pint-sized helper and organizer.
Whenever I come to a CTA event, I am in awe of the range and scope of linguistic acumen that is gathered in one place. While the German translators clearly were in the majority this year, we also had Russian, Dutch, Spanish, Nepali and Polish linguists among us.
The food was as varied as the cultural backgrounds of the attendees, and we were treated to everything from spinach salad to homemade cheesecake. Attached to this blog you can find some pictures by Ekaterina’s husband, which highlight the savory culinary artistry of some of the chefs. The attendees got to select the winner of the best dish and chose the mango, cauliflower and cashew salad by “returning CTA member” Patricia Aiken, rewarding her with a CTA bumper sticker. Other dishes included German sweetbreads, a strawberry cake, guacamole, and puff pastries, as evidenced by the happy sighs, smiles and full bellies.
Thank you to everyone who attended, and we are looking forward to getting together again at our next CTA event!
