Living in America, I always imagined other countries to be far off exotic places! Even as I write this, sitting in Thailand, I remember how I used to imagine Thailand as such an exotic and mysterious place. But after living in a small city in China for some time, Thailand practically feels like America.
For me, as I have become more immersed in a place, it becomes less exotic yet more complex. Beyond that, you remember you live on the same planet as everyone else, but at the same time you are in a completely different world.
China (or Thailand) is not like America, yet it is hard to describe what life is like over here unless you actually experience it. It is hard to describe how almost every single aspect of your life and how you live it is effected by where you live.
It is not like moving to another state, where there are many familiar things. It is not like moving to Europe, where people still look like you and act in a similar way. It is not even like going to a Spanish-speaking country, where you might be unfamiliar with the culture, but you can still read the language (even if you can’t understand it too well).
Everything is different, and you pretty much only experience the familiar when you are eating food that tastes like home. Most things you thought were normal, or have never even thought about, are turned upside down. Different isn’t usually bad, but it is uncomfortable sometimes.
At the end of the day, I do miss a lot of things about America. It’s comfortable, it’s clean, people stand in lines, there are smoking laws, and when something looks like a chocolate donut, it probably is a chocolate donut.
China is not very comfortable, most places don’t have the standard of cleanliness that I am used to in America, lines are almost nonexistent and cutting isn’t seen as rude, breathing in pollution and secondhand smoke is common, and foods that look like chocolate donuts are really red bean paste donuts.
However, amidst all the differences, good and bad, God made me for this place, this different world. I don’t know for how long I will stay here or what my future will look like, but I know I am supposed to be here now. And in that I rest, for there is such a great peace in knowing you are doing what you were created to do.
