Two Months!

I have officially been living and learning in this beautiful country for two months now. It's kind of crazy, when you think about it. March is drawing to a close. I know what this means back home. People are going crazy. Professors are getting frustrated and taking it out on students (haha, just kidding.) Students are pulling their hair out with a spork. Laptops are conveniently breaking right before midterms are to be sent in, and hours of work is dissapearing in an instant. Friends are going days without speaking, yet there's no damage to the relationships. Every conference or retreat has to be in this same month, for some unspoken reason, and students are determining their priorities.

And I'm eating garlic mashed potatoes on my bed, jamming out to old school CCM (from back when they used that term) and blogging about my friends' suffering back home.

Despite this, life is getting tougher here. Em was pointing out to me the other day that in an ICS class she took last semester, they taught that after 2 months in another country, things start to get harder. The honeymoon phase is gone. It's been longer than any short term trip would be, whether a 2 week or whole summer one, and the wonder fades away. It's so true. We're not noticing how "everyone is the same everywhere in the world!" like we felt we were supposed to when we got here. We're pulling out our own hair as we realize just how different people can be. Entire philosophies change after a single day on a plane. There are some values that I love here, that I wish would carry with me back to my home state, but there are others that I can't wait to get away from. I'm learning what is cultural, that we should adapt to, and what we should challenge because it goes against B*blical principles. It's teaching me what to be flexible in and what to stand firm on.

There is so much suffering around us, so please pr*y. I can't share it all on here, but I can say that it hurts to see. A dear friend of ours suffered a stroke this week, and is healing well but there may be some permanent damage. There's also so much joy, though. G*d is doing amazing things here. My girls are picking up the jewelry-making sooo quickly, it's amazing.

The car I was in this morning hit a dog on the way to Free School. That was pretty unpleasant. I didn't see it, but I heard it and felt the bump under the car. I think it survived. The child in me died a little because I wanted to be culturally appropriate so I didn't scream or jump or anything, but if that had happened back home, I'm pretty sure I would have cried. A couple of my students even saw it, but they didn't seem to care. They were just saying their normal "Hello Madam!"

As we like to say here, just another day in paradise.