Posts tagged culture shock
Grocery Shopping and Other Unexpected Expat Skills

While prepping for the weekend errand run, I stopped and realized the internal dialogue that was running through my head.

We need bread and meat, so we’ll stop at that one store with the good butcher and the bread we like. However, other things are more expensive there, so we’ll swing by the store on our corner after to get everything else on the list. That first store has ramps in and wide aisles, so we can put the baby in the stroller, and they have carts we can put the toddler in. But the stroller does not fit easily in that second store, so one parent will stay in the car while the other runs in. Let’s also plan on eating dinner out tonight, so we can pop into that other store after to grab any final things left on the list. Oh, and they have that cheaper brand of diapers, so we can get those there too. And of course, I’ll do the produce order for delivery on Monday morning as well.

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When Dreams and Reality Don't Line Up

We first arrived in Southeast Asia five months after the destructive tsunami of 2004. My husband was leading our family on an adventure and I was excited about it. We were going to live on a base camp with our children and receive volunteers who were arriving into the affected areas to do everything from clean up the destructed areas to build fishing boats for fisherman who had lost everything.

We had read books like "Don't Waste Your Life" by John Piper and "Waking the Dead" by John Eldredge and we were ready to live for something greater than ourselves. Our family verse is Psalm 119:32: "I run in the paths of your commands for you have set my heart free!" We felt like we were running after Jesus.

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