Being transformed...
There are moments when I recognize His hand transforming my thoughts, emotions...my entire being.
I grew up in a small town and never desired to be in a big city.
Ok...honestly, the thought of doing so was frightening to me.
I can remember those rare days in the states when my car was in the shop for maintenance and how frustrating it was to depend on someone or to call a taxi (my thoughts were, "that would be a waste of money"), walk? Are you kidding me? In this heat or cold or...
Being transformed...
Today I live in a city of 14 million plus, walk almost everywhere within a mile or two, ride our scooter to those a bit further and take a taxi, bus or one of these for those even further or if I'm carrying many bags.
And
I have loved each moment of it - I stand transformed.
In the states, I never cooked. I mean if it came out of a box - sure I could do it!
I started this post at 1 am while I was making cinnamon rolls - from scratch.
Yes, I know those of you who know me are in shock but I have found no other way to make things here. Did you know you can make powdered sugar and sour cream?? I truly thought they just existed - haha!
Again, being transformed and I'll be honest - I am not completely enjoying each moment of finding what to make and spending the time making it (many days it is exhausting), but there are glimpses of enjoyment here. :)
AND since I am working on food - why not start with more food pics?
Here are two beautiful bakers, cutting out some biscuits for breakfast.. I mean dinner. :)
Some have asked how much things cost here. Many things are cheap - eating from street vendors, noodles (like REAL ramen) in a shop, even fruits/veggies are much cheaper than in the states.
However, anything from a cow is crazy expensive. Ground beef - if you can find it, costs about $6/lb. Now for organic lean beef, I would've paid that in the states, but this is just regular old, filled with water/fat beef. So, we haven't had any. :) The 1 quart of milk below is about $2.50. The HUGE chunk of cheddar was $40 (we sold some to other folks here but this is the only way we've seen it here so far). The two baggies that look the same thing contain butter (about 2 sticks = nearly $3) and mozzarella cheese (500grams = $5). I don't remember how much the mayo was but thought it was funny in the bag. :)
Some other interesting packaging - eggs in bags (either like this or in little plastic bags), bread comes as 8 pieces per loaf and has a sweet taste to it and the bottom is a bag of sugar.
Shopping in general takes longer here (which is truly the more exhausting part than making the food - I've never been a big shopper anyway). Many items we either must identify by the way it looks or by a friend telling us what it is. For example - can you guess what these are?
The little blue and white bag is salt, the middle is a form of corn meal and the far right is baking powder. Now imagine everything being like that!
As I struggle through some of this I am reminded He is worth it. :) Those around me are worth it....
This is a picture of a few stores/markets outside our apartment that we frequent. The one with the meat is our meat store (we have bought pork there). This is also where we buy eggs (interestingly, they are bought by weight). Next to that store is where we buy steamed buns and next to that is where we get our veggies.
This is across the street where we get our fruit. The lady in orange we affectionately call "the fruit lady"as we don't know she and her husband's names yet. In the other shops is "the meat man" and "the veggie lady." We gotta start somewhere right?? Hoping as we learn to talk we can get to know them better and share life with them.
This is a picture of the food street that we talked about in the last post. Up and down both sides of the street are various street vendors and little shops where you can buy food. I have no idea what most of it is at this point as there are almost no pictures on menus and very very few places have anything written in English. We have ordered by pointing and grunting (grunting is common here). Aside from the Korean restaurant, ran by a Korean, where Brian can order us some food. :)
I feel like I am a bit consumed with food - but it is a basic necessity. :) Seriously though, as I stated earlier, I have always struggled with cooking but in a pinch could open a can of spaghetti sauce, boil some spaghetti and voila! OR I could quickly order a pizza, go to McDonald's/Taco Bell/KFC and order without there being a language barrier. I'm sure we are eating healthier, just eating later as we try to put it together. I feel a bit limited in inviting people over at this point too as I have no idea what to serve anyone. ;) So, if you have some great 'from scratch' recipes that have few ingredients - please pass them on!!
Thankfully - Meisi gets fed at school! Apparently often, as her teacher sends me multiple pictures every day of her eating different things. :)
We fix the older kids breakfast before leaving and make their lunch to take with them each morning. Our days are long. We start at 5:30 reading, then wake the big kids, sending them off to the school bus (one hour in each direction).
Next up is Meisi. She is out the door for school shortly after the big kids leave.
It has been so cold it hurts here so we bundle her up for the scooter ride to school. ;)
After dropping her off we go to language class. We have been in language school for nearly three weeks. So far we haven't learned to speak but have learned over 400 words that we can recognize by listening. Here is a glimpse of the words we have learned.
It looks like we should finish this part of our phase (phase 1a) tomorrow. Next week we will begin to speak! Oh how I long to speak and be able to converse with people here (which we've heard is at least 6 months down the road). However, this is a tough language and the idea that I might be able to understand what people are saying and have the ability to respond in 6 months is exciting!!
This week in our language class we had a field trip to a market to see if there were other foods we wanted to learn the names. We hadn't been to this market before - but it was big! Unlike a Wal-mart, every aisle or two was a different vendor. The veggies and fruits are very fresh and yummy here but they don't keep very long, so we only buy enough for a few days.
Meat anyone? There are even pigs' noses and faces. :) There truly were some beautiful cuts of meat here.
If you'd like a fish, you can pick it out alive. They will scale it and even filet it for you.
Ok... so after 3.5 hours of class and shopping for dinner we do our homework until kids get home (about 2 hours later). It has been taking us about 3 hours to cook, eat and then clean up. By then it is bath, family worship time and then bedtime for kids. After kids are in bed we have to finish our homework. It has been 12-1am by the time we've been finishing. Needless to say, we are exhausted.
STILL, it is worth it. They are worth it. He is worth it.
And I...
well, I just keep being transformed.
Oh... and those cinnamon rolls?? They were sooo yummy!!! Click here for the recipe - but be warned - it took about 3 hours to make these - not quite like the pop'em open and in the pan kind, but they tasted MUCH yummier than those quick ones. :)
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