My Place

Culture Shock. 

It's that thing everyone who goes to a foreign country has to experience some time or another. 

It can hit from the very beginning as the monster of unfamiliarity or creep in more subtly over the passing weeks as the slug of discomfort and dissatisfaction, but at some point you have to look it in the face. 

Well, we can all conclude that I stared at it in terror from the very beginning--maybe even before I got here. 

But this week, culture shock began to morph into something else...because I finally started to find my place. Or, we could say, my place here was shown to me a bit more. 

My students, my darling, naughty, crazy babies, finally started to turn into little people with their own names, faces, and personalities. Not all 280-something of them, mind you, but some of them. And we are beginning to learn how to interact with each other in the classroom because I'm getting to know them and they are getting to know me. 

Can you see my twins, Tom and Marty? They both suck their thumbs. And Hannah looks really displeased about being in class. 

Jonah is sneaky, hilarious, and full of himself. He likes to waggle his eyebrows at everybody else when his team gets a point in class.

Stuart's glasses make his eyes look bigger than they actually are.

On Friday night we were invited to a party simply because our foreign selves would give the party-thrower a little face.

  Ok, whatever, it's a party, LET'S GO.

The food was fabulous, the people were fun, we had to sing in front of everybody, and I got to show off my dancing skills. Some of our co-teachers were there as well, so in the midst of the fun I felt us becoming more friends than just co-teachers. And while I saw more of their fun sides, I also got to peek through the cracks of their happy faces--where they were tired from working too hard, where life was not quite as full as it could be, where there was a lack of hope behind the smiles. 

That's what that brought me here in the first place, isn't it?

I'm telling you, it was quite the sha-bang.

On Saturday night, we got to help out with a program that was a cross between youth group and English corner. 

How was it?

Fan-flipping-tastic.

We sang songs, played a game, and talked about respect. We got to meet university student volunteers, parents, and the children who were coming to practice their English. And I got to spend time with two special little girls who were in sixth and seventh grade. At the end of it, my team leader (dear Susie) came up to me and said, 

"Tonight I feel like I saw a REAL Laura Love smile for the first time."

Huh. That's cool. 

Campus was empty today because of October Holiday (and today is Mid-Autumn Festival, ya'll), so I got to take a walk with the Father without everyone craning their necks to stare at me. I got to appreciate the trees we have here and I was given a reminder that, even though I'm far from home, time continues on the same way. It's still Fall, and in some places there is still beauty. 

On top of it all, according to my calculations, I'm finally fully funded to be here. 

Amazing.

This week it felt like the Father was finally saying, "Here is your place, my daughter, and I am providing for you." Because, for right now, it is, and He is.