You should be more careful next time

Living overseas can be a very "romantic" thing. Romantic in the Anne of Green Gables sense. It can be fun, it can be interesting, adventerous, and definately stretching.
But, those of us who live or have lived overseas in a foreign culture know that with all of the "good stuff" also comes the stuff that threatens to drive you absolutely cuckoo.
There are just those moments that leave you feeling like you would like to throw your hat on the ground, jump up and down on it, with steam pouring out your ears, while letting out a blood curdling yell from the bottom of your gut. I won't get into a big discussion about it all here right now...but I will talk about it sometime. All in all- cultural differences are healthy. They make you, nay force you to choose whether you will walk in step with the Spirit or not. And they develop your character. But there are those choice moments when it's just so hard to not be an angry foreigner!

Here is an example. Tonight, I went to work out with a couple friends. We checked out a step aroebics class. Quite good. We were feeling fine. It was a little late, so we just popped into a little restaurant nearby to grab something quick to eat. They had some food that we were looking forward to eating. So, we order, the food comes...we start to eat. My friend finds an egg shell in her food.... we keep eating, I chomp down on a hard piece of bone, I spit it out. We keep eating. Then I bite on something hard and sharp. OUch!! What is it? I take it out...it's a jagged little piece of glass!!! (So, I must say here, I've never had glass in my food here, so it is an out of the ordinary experience) So, immediately I worry that maybe there was other glass in my food that I ate already, or something. I definately felt unsettled! So I go up to the girl behind the counter and I show her the glass. And she replies "You should be more careful next time." That's it. That's all I get. Fortunately I didn't make a scene because at that moment I didn't understand what she said until I went back to my table and repeated it to my tablemates who informed me of the meaning of the response.
So, I saw the manager, brought her to our table and told her what happened. and she basically just offered my money back or another bowlful. I appreciated that she was fair about it. We didn't say too much other than that is not safe. And she really didn't say much other than making that offer. Now I wish we would have given her a long speech about what to tell the guys in the kitchen. About how if they break something and they aren't sure where the glass went, then they should throw it out, and to be careful not to get egg shells in stuff..etc etc... Not angry like, but long and descriptive so as to stress how unsafe the situation was. And I wished we would have coached her on how the staff should respond if someone complains that there is glass in their food. ie you don't say "You should be more careful next time." Anyway, stuff is like that here. You always second guess how you handled something. Oh, maybe I was too hard on them, oh maybe I was too easy on them, maybe I didn't say enough, oh maybe I embarrassed them, oh maybe they cheated me, oh, maybe they didn't understand what we were saying!.... and etc!

ANyway, my point wasn't about the manager, but about the first girl. "You should be more careful next time" girl. She and I should both be very thankful that I couldn't understand her response right away. Sometimes it's grace to not have all the words you need to express what you are feeling!! But in the situation, she said what she could say. In her mind she wasn't being a twit. I don't exactly know what was going on in her mind, but I do know this.... that here, someone with her job has no power. So she only has permission to do her little job and nothing else. She can't step out of her little job "box." She has no power to say- "Oh that's terrible!! I'm so sorry let me see what I can do for you!" Nope, she doesn't have that authority. Only the manager has the authority to do anything or offer any consideration. So, actually even as I walked up to the counter to complain, I knew in my heart, "this is going to go nowhere. "( While I realize that in canada a lot of clerks and restaurant personelle are limited too, that they have to get the manager to ok a lot of stuff... it's just a whole different level here)

SO, anyway, all this to say. While I do really love living here, and there are so many things that are all those great things- fun, interesting, adventurous, new and we love the people here.....Sometimes living here isn't "romantic." Sometimes it's hard, and it tempts you to be grouchy, and irritable, especially when people say things that you think "Dude, why would you even remotely think that is an ok thing to say to me?" "Why would you tell ME to be careful when YOUR restaurant served ME a shard of glass hidden in my food?" Ok, calm down....so, sometimes it's hard. But it's always healthy. The harder cultural things here do serve to refine you. It shows you your own ugly side, and calls you to make sure that you are walking with Christ. And sometimes you bungle it, you scowl when you should smile, you snap when you should be gently firm....and often you feel rotten later -"Oh why did I handle that so badly?" but even in that you grow. You grow because it only reinforces how great the grace is that we stand in.

My "Most" moments for this last little while

Here are the winning moments in various categories of everyday living over the last couple weeks:

My most Pleased with myself moment: had a few friends over- made a meal of squash soup and a chicken couscous dish. And, hey whatdya know -it all turned out well. My dear Hubby also made strawberry smoothies for everyone! The crowd went away satisfied!

My Most displeased with myself moment: Discovered I've lost my bike key, with the lock locked. Arg!

My Most Fearful moment: In the middle of the night I heard a noise in the corner of the room. While I am not afraid of mice, it's still alarming to have some unidentified -"could be a rodent" noise in the corner. We later identified the noise as our blind sweeping an airfreshner across the window sill- it was soooo windy the air was coming right through the closed windows, and moving the blinds.

Most windy moment: A few nights ago. It was really windy.

Lowest moment: the other morning laying on my bed, sick as a dog.

Most encouraged by others moments: 1. - a friend here told me the story of how her daughter broke her arm a few months ago but God healed it in 7 days. Apparently the doctor said "This is not possible" when she looked at the healed arm. 2. An encouraging email from Amy about what God has done in her life recently. Yeah!

Most inspired moment: Did a word study on the word "guard" from Philippians 4:6.

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
4:7
And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
The Greek word for "guard" here is used in other places in the NT in a military sense....


Moment most lacking in closure: Watched half of "The Sound of Music" then the disc was all wonky and couldn't finish it. (Yes I have seen it before, but i was really into it)

My most pleasant turn of events moment: Got message that one of my teachers from last term is taking over my conversation class- it's the lady who does the splits.... I like her.

My most anti climactic moment: Had this lovely couple over for lunch- they are also foreigners here, but not from North America. I spent a good part of the morning getting ready, served Shepherd's pie and stir fried veggies.....they were very polite, but I could tell they didn't really dig the food. (Not used to it...I've served that same dish to nationals here, and they really liked it, so I thought it would go over for them too....) We still had a good conversation, and we'll hang out again which is great, I really like them.

Alrighty - well that's enough of that!
Hope you are having lots of notable moments too. For all kinds of reasons.

Nick names

There's a new friend that we recently met, his english is quite good. He has this super sincere personality. Very friendly and loves to speak english with you. I just had to post this little story that I heard about him tonight!!

He also knows two of my North American friends-Brad and Rhonda.
So, one day our friend (Let's call him Earl) walks up to Brad and says "Hey! I have a new name for you! Want to hear what it is?"
Brad:" OK!"
Earl: "It's Chubby Boy!"
Ok, so Brad at this point is none too thrilled with the new nick name.... (he's not chubby at all either..)
so then Earl goes over to Rhonda and says "Oh! Brad doesn't like his new nick name!! Hey I have one for you too! It's "Hot Chick"

(Where he got these names - I have no idea!!)
Seeing as how Brad was thumbs down on Chubby Boy, Earl comes back to him again and says:

Earl: Hey Brad - I have a new name for you!"
Brad: "Ok, what is it?"
Earl: "It's Hank"
Brad:"Hank, oh ok, Hank."
Earl:" Don't you like it!!!! ????It means handsome man!"
Brad realized later that he was trying to say "Hunk"

Ok, I don't know about you ...but i find everything from "Chubby Boy to Hot Chick, to Hank and Hunk" very funny.

Spring sniffles

Well, it's a sunny gorgeous day here. The sun is streaming in and its very springy all around.
Last week was the first time I noticed that the bushes were starting to bud. Now there are bonafide leaves on some of them, and I noticed green clover that was starting to come up on my walk to school yesterday. The trees still look pretty bare, but it is amazing how far just a little bit of green goes in giving you hope!

But, while it is nice outside, my head feels like it is in a foggy cloud. I have come down with this nasty cold or flu. It's one of those very contradictory kinds- I'm really really cold, so I cover up, then I'm really really hot, so I take off some covers, then I'm really cold etc...and I feel like I need to lie down but when I lie down I get a headache, and earlier I felt hungry and nauseous at the same time. Very Contradictory. Right now, I'm feeling somewhat better, but I'm prepared that I may feel worse again soon.

My husband also has it, but it seems much more low grade for him. He seems hardly effected. So that's good. He has been slowly working at coming off of his medication for his other health problem. He still has a number of weeks left. It seems to be going well so far though.

Well, there's your health and weather update for today!!

UPdate: Apparently my husband feels quite rotten too.(with this cold)

My fav Jack Handy saying- or close to it.

A quote on Tiffany's blog reminded me of something that I once found very very funny.
It goes something like this....


"The most fearsome animal in the world is not the lion, tiger or bear. It is a shark riding on an elephant, trampling and biting everything in sight."



Note: I wrote this from memory- it's pretty close to the original saying in my Deep Thoughts book.

The difference

Does anyone know the difference between regular vinegar and distilled vinegar?

Things that speak of the splendor of God

While we were away I really enjoyed the flowers, and shrubbery- it was a feast for the eyes!

The Make over

My husband and I have been talking about sprucing up this one little corner of our place, the area that is our guest "room." I'm sort of excited about the result of our make over so far! We spruced it up some things we recently found along the way in our travels!

Before

And after!

Well, you may think- "Umm, actually, I really like the brown plaid couch better." Well, while I realize that brown is really "in" in Canada right now, uh, well, everything here is brown or grey outside right now, so why add to the depressive colour scheme by our own choice? (when we bought it it was supposed to be blue) ....

I intentionally posted these house make over pictures just after the flower pictures. The reason being that both sets express creativity. The first, God's handiwork, the second, a creative project of ours. I love the idea that when we are being creative, we are simply reflecting the fact that we are made in the image of God. He is creative, (flowers, trees, animals, the universe, people) we are made in His image, and therefore we also have that characteristic. (we decorate, write, draw, write music etc) We are simply reflecting Him. Our ability to be creative is a gift from Him, but it's extra special because we not only have this wonderful gift but we are also reflecting the giver when we use the gift.

I got so much satisfaction and joy out of simply creating a new look for that couch. My mind can only conceive of a fraction of the joy and satisfaction that God must derive from all of His creative projects!

Humans can make some really cool stuff. But His work blows our away everytime!!(Of course anything we make, is actually made up of things that He has created first, and He gives us the capacity in the first place to even have a remotely creative thought!) In a nutshell, I think the idea that my creativity is a reflection of the Creator of the universe is incredibly wild, and beyond cool at the same time.

What is this? DeGrassi Junior High?

Do you ever have those moments that bring back those insecure feelings from Junior high school?

The other day I was sitting at the back of my class. My friend didn't come that day, so I was the only one back there. There were a smattering of other students from various countries there....amongst them - 4 Russian girls. They just transfered into our class, and are quite good with the language- and are eager beavers to say the least. They like to be the first to answer the questions, and are good at reading, will correct you if you give the wrong answer etc.

For me, it was one of my first days back at school after being away for quite some time, so I was just getting back in the swing of things. Feeling rusty.

I was sitting with my head in my hand staring at my book...the teacher was saying "waw waw waw waw waw" (think Charlie Brown- that is literally how it sounds to me- 60% of the time I have no idea what they are saying. If I don't pay attention it sounds like that 80% if the time.)

After a few minutes it dawned on me that I was hearing "Waw waw pause" ....."Waw waw pause".... "Waw waw? pause" .... I realized that the teacher was talking to someone in the class and they weren't responding. Upon lifting my head I realized it was me. If it were in english it would have sounded like this " Stella...", "Stella", ....."Stella?" which makes no sense right? Yeah, cuz my name is not Stella. So, understandably I was a little confused....who is Stella? Is that the name of one of the people in the dialogue? Or does she think I'm Stella? So, in my flustered state,I fumbled through explaining that my name is not Stella, my name is actually blah blah blah.... etc..." I don't think the teacher understood me as she just moved on to asking someone else to read the dialogue and didn't ask me to read anything else after that. Which was ok with me actually, but what bothered me was that the Russian girls laughed at me. And I felt a sting of that kind of embarrassment that you become well acquanted with in Junior High School, but rarely experience after that time. I don't think they were trying to be mean, I think it was actually a funny moment- if you weren't the person being called Stella...

I realized from this event that it doesn't take much to bias you against people. Really. I felt a touch of distaste for the eager beavers after that. Most likely that distaste is based on a misperception. Regardless though, I decided I'm going to make a move to be friendly and choose to be gracious. Forgive it, move on, reach out. I know it sounds like a petty little thing-....but even the little things can cause rifts. I know that I have the capacity to let that tiny bit of embarrassment cause me to be just a little bit less friendly, to be a little less warm...and to be truthful, they probably wouldn't care. But I would know it. And God would know it. And my heart would be a little colder for it. And really, isn't life too short for that? After all, I'm really not in junior high anymore.

Remnants of March 8th - International Womans Day!

It must be noted that only one of these lily stalks was given me for International Womens Day. The other one that you see in the picture is a gift from my husband, for no reason in particular, which is also a great reason to get flowers.

Some time ago, I mentioned a few things that I was going to share about our time away that I haven't told you about yet. On the whole- it was very good. I can't possibly go into it all here. So, suffice it to say, it was good, we are glad we went. So, that is the overall synopsis... however I feel compelled to say that it was (as is painfully obvious from the previous posts) an unusual trip for us due to unusual mishaps minor and major.

Both my husband and I have traveled a fair amount, but this trip stood out in having an unusually high number of critter run-ins. As I've already mentioned- there was Buffy the vampire cat, and my husband's illness which may have be caused by something mosquito born (the jury is still out on that one.) Here is where I throw in a disclaimer.....disclaimer: I'm sharing about this due to the fact that it seemed unusual, so if you are given to a controlling fear and aversion to creepy crawly critters, then don't let this add fuel to a fear of travelling!

Ok then. When we arrived in our first local, it was a great place. A clean, bright place....but what I noticed upon inspection of the place was a HUGE spider....no......think biggger....... no think bigger....as it sat on the glass of our window the span from one side to the other was about 10 cm....or 4ish inches....neither of us were really scared of it but both of us wanted that thing out of our room! So, my husband was kind enough to somehow get it into a glass and take it outside.

The second thing that we discovered in that room was a thick trail of ants that went from the window in the bathroom along a ledge around the back wall behind the toilet and up over the doorframe. They disappeared into a hole in the doorframe. We didn't even attempt to get rid of them. There were thousands of them. They stuck to their little trail for the most part. And they would disappear during the hottest part of the day, then come back later. So we just ignored them.

The third thing in that place was the hardest to shrug off. I get the willies just thinking about it. One night, we turned out the lights and I flopped down on the pristinely made bed get some shut eye (it was too hot to go under the covers so I just lay down on top of the sheets without disturbing the covers. ) I was laying down for all of about 1 minute when I felt something prickle me. I shot around with a gasp to see what it was and saw this guy zipping away over the side of the bed. (click on it to see picture) Brrrrrrrr! I was out of that bed faster than lightening. (faster than the mouse incident in Winnipeg Karen D) We searched and destroyed that thing. Should have taken a picture of it. It was huge. (we were on ground floor by the way, and there was a huge crack at the bottom of our door, so I think that's where some of our little friends were coming in..)

Later, we went to a different place, no critter incidence. But the third place we went to we also had a night time visitor. There were a lot of little geckos around everywhere. They are these very nice little lizards that eat mosquitos. They don't hurt you or want anything to do with you. Generally they mind their own business. But we did have some in our room that would chirp at night. One night my husband was thrashing around in bed- one of them had fallen off the ceiling onto the foot of the bed in the middle of the night. That gecko will definately be more careful next time.

I can say, while being not super critter tolerant. We still had a very good time. Even with my husband's illness, he would still say it was a good trip.

Ok, gonna go relax now!

Classic moments

Just a few odds n ends about things I've enjoyed recently .

I was thinking about this tonight that one of my favourite phrases that I've learned here is, "Hello little friend".... useful. I use it a lot. Since lots of kids stare at, approach , or yell HA-LOW! at me, it's nice to be able to say something to them. Also, lots of people with babies respond really warmly to me if I talk to their baby. So I say "Hello little friend" (usually with raised eyebrows and high pitched voice) and then the mom, dad or grandparent will say "Say hello to auntie!" (They call everybody auntie and uncle here)

A favourite moment the other day was riding my bike with a friend. We were coming home from something that we had been out doing and we happened upon a strawberry cart. That in itself was fun, but get this- the strawberries were $1.40 Cdn for 3 pounds. Amazing. Anway,as we were pulling away, I hear this commotion behind me, this girl laughing. She had walked into this massive pole, but wasn't hurt. I think she walked into it because she was staring at me. Ah, that gave me a chuckle.

Some friends of ours just had a baby. He's about 2 months old right now, I've seen him twice. Huge kiddo. (For here that is) I got to hold him for the first time this week. Oh it was fun! And for some reason he smiles for me. Apparently I'm the only person he's smiley with. I consider myself greatly blessed in this. Apparently I'm also the first person he's peed on. Can't say that that is such a blessing, but hey, I guess he's comfortable with me.

Wednesday was International Women's Day. I recieved a stem of stargazer lilies and a free dinner. Canadian women, I'm telling ya, we gotta get on this international women's day thing. Here there are big sales in stores, restaurants often offer deals, and some people get time off. Some Russian girls in my class said that Russians get a 3 day holiday. At least that's what I think they were saying. Why don't we do more?

Ok, well, I'm going to go now, I need to go do some baking, before it gets too late.

Hubs health update

Friday night. At home for once. It was a full Looooong day. But a reasonably good one none the less.

My husband and I are going to watch an episode of Lost in a little while. To unwind. He is digging around right now for a "Big Turk" to eat for a treat. (That's a chocolate bar that is made of turkish delight. He likes that kind. It's an aquired taste.) He got some as a gift awhile ago and has been storing them away for times like this. Generally we've been watching what we eat, as he is still on the medication from his illness, and it raises his blood sugar levels so it's a bad idea to eat a lot of sugar right now.

As for his health, it's going ok. We've made to trips up to the big hospital about 3 hours away. He's being tapered off the meds, but last week had to raise the amount he was taking as it seemed to be a little too rapid for his body to respond rightly. So, he gets his blood checked again in a few days.

I asked him if he wanted to be a guest blogger to share some things about his experience. So, that may be an upcoming post!

This guy didn't do so well during our time away

Yeah, when I bought him, he looked great. Green and tons of leaves. When we came back from our travels he was a brown scraggly mess, so I pruned him with high hopes that he would be on the mend and rebound. He's always been a fighter.

I think he needs a high dose of intense sun, but he just doesn't get that in our living room. Or maybe i've watered him too much since I came back- or not enough....
I think that I am almost ready to admit defeat. How I regret all those months of neglect that led into a lowered ability to survive while we were gone!

Joni Mitchell was right, you don't know what you've got til it's gone. I'll miss you hardy corner plant. Boo hoo.

The Rest of the story

Ok, so sorry to leave you hanging there.

So, to set the stage- there we were ....just been transfered to what we now realized was a world class hospital (at least to me, having a Star Bucks ranks you up there....even though I hate coffee) and it was late, but my Dh was in good spirits, and so was I. I guess for both of us, by this point we were both feeling that God was in control. I had been much more fearful earlier just after getting the very low platlet result back, and in the crazy ambulance ride. In the midst of things I had had a talk with God and told Him that of course my hand was open and if He wanted to take my husband home, that was His decision, and I wouldn't be bitter....but I also asked Him to spare His life, to heal him, because I love him. After that, my husband and I had bit of a quiet talk together and after that although things were stressful....both of us had a calm sense of God's overarching sovereignty in the situation. That was comforting.

So, we had to wait for his test results til morning. There was a bed for me in his hospital room so that was great. (Except for the endless stream of people coming in and out giving him medicine etc. )
In the morning the test results came back- his platlets had gone from 2.5% to 10%....now 10% is not the best amount in the world, but at that point it was fantastic!! what it meant was that the medicine was working!! SOOOOOO, he didn't need a platlet transfusion! That was an amazing relief for both of us.

Later the doctor told us that that seemed like too big of a jump in too short a time, so they were calling into question the results from the other hospital, thinking that they made a mistake. And, that could be. However, I think that God did it. During that stretch of time between those two tests, there were a bunch of people praying for him. I wasn't able to call or email many people, but some of our friends prayed and got on email right away and asked a bunch of other people to pray for us. So, we were thanking God. Hugely.

So, that was a turning point. We ended up being in the hospital for almost a week before his platlets were up high enough to leave. Now we are back home and it looks like it will hopefully be a one time problem, however do pray for him if you get the chance that it will be only a one time thing.

He got checked for all kinds of stuff while he was in the hospital, to try to figure out what caused it. So, far it is still a mystery.

Ok, once again it is late, so I MUST go to bed now.

Peace to you wherever you are!