Our first Christmas married abroad wasn’t like I expected it to be. It wasn’t depressing or sad or lonely. I didn’t event cry–which I have done plenty of since we arrived. I don’t know if I can even claim to not be “a crier” anymore. Christmas was surprisingly wonderful, cheery, bright, and beautiful.
Category: South Asian Life
1,000 dollars & 8,000 miles for the 1st Date: How I Met My Husband
I was at a place of such contentment in my singleness that I felt pretty neutral about a guy who was living on another continent having my number. My friends said great things about him, so it couldn’t hurt to talk or text, right? I didn’t have any expectations and I thought, “Why not give it a shot.”
4 Lessons About Learning a Foreign Language
There are a lot of awkward moments that come with language learning and I am trying to learn to just embrace them. For example, imagine that you’ve only said 3 sentences but have already exhausted everything you know how to say. The only thing that is coming to mind are sentences like, “The blue pen is on the purple chair. The pretty picture is near the fast fan.” You just sit on the bed and look at the auntie and her daughter hoping they will start talking at you or to each other so you can at least learn a few more words from them and not be sitting in silence with nothing to say.
5 Aspects of Life Overseas that are Beginning to Feel Normal
Last week, we enjoyed a motorcycle ride around the city watching fireworks and looking at Christmas lights during a holiday in our country that is basically a cross between Christmas & the 4th of July. We each crammed an AirPod in one ear (which really does feel crammed with a helmet on) and listened to Christmas music together as we pretended that it actually was the holiday season, despite the fact that it was only the being the beginning of November.
Changing Seasons: A Country Without Autumn
A county where the norm when buying a pumpkin is to buy a piece of a pumpkin. Yes, just a slice. “How many KG’s (Kilograms)?” is the question I get. What could you possibly use or need a whole pumpkin for? It’s one thing to cook a pumpkin because of a pumpkin craving but be aware… it might just be white inside and not smell like a pumpkin at all (not that this happened or anything).
The Courage to Let Go: Embracing New Normals
I’m learning that letting go might mean that my to-do list for the day includes 1/2 of the first task on the list instead of the usual American 17 tasks per day.
3 Questions for Processing the Realities of Cross-Cultural Going + Sending
The night I said my “see-ya-laters” to most of my family, my dad gathered us all around a campfire to process together. He came prepared with a sheet that included three questions for each of us to answer (no matter if your role was a sender or sent-out one). After a few minutes of quietly scribbling our answers on paper with old middle school year books for “something hard to write on” –that wasn’t distracting at all. haha!– we shared our hearts with each other. Included below are answers from different family members.