Culture: what a wonderful thing.

I lost a dear friend in HZ this semester. My Malay.sian mentor and her husband decided to pursue seminary in Wake Forest and whisked away their family to the gloriousness of North Carolina. She was the head of the orphan min.istry (that I now am in charge of - oh dear) and she wore many hats at HICF. Her departure from Hang.zhou was very sad for a lot of people, including me. But nevertheless I was really happy for her new life in Ame.rica and all the wonderful things that will come out of it.

I heard from her for the first time today and loved her email. I think it really shows the beauty of a person who is from Mala.ysia, who used to live in Chi.na, and now lives in Amer.ica. I love the inter-cultural-ness of her discoveries. And it made me miss Ameri.ca even more. What an easy place to live for many people. (I know not all in Amer.ica have it easy, but golly gee it's a different world than most).

Here are some excerpts from her email that I found awesome:

Well, my family and I lived in a rented 3 rooms apartment and it was a walking distance to the schools my children and my husband and I going. It was a good location with a few shopping marts around and with clean and friendly neighbourhood. Today when it snowed, we realised that many people came over to our area to do snow boarding or sledging. It seems we were hit by winter storm but we were not aware of the seriousness. We are fine here like nothing happens. We had some fun there as well. It just snowed last night and today it was about one feet thick. Tomorrow many churches are not have services due to the snow. The palce we rented were not furnish with sofas, bed and mattress and the washer and dryer. So we were busy going to places to shop and we were blessed when we found some furnitures were on clearance sale. Well, having to buy furnitures for just 2-3 yrs of stay. Anyway, it was a good buy. My apartment were carpeted and it has central gas heating system.The house is heat proof and we really feel very comfortable here. We would love to have 4 rooms, but when we went around there were not many houses for rent with four rooms.Anyway, we got queen sizes bed for the three rooms so that we could have guest to stay with us.

I started my class last Friday and it was like my first day back to school experienced. ha ha ha. Anyway, I was treated with an interesting and a humorous lecturer who tells joke every now and then. Amazing. !!. It was a good start for me.

Shopping was easy for me and there are cheap precook pizza, fish chips, meat loaf, ... Wow, it makes my student life easier. Ha ha....

I think I am going to like it here. No traffic jam, no spitting, people are polite, and they greet you whenever they meet you. I spend less time on the roads and more time walking and enjoying the air and environment around me.

There is no hassle in enrolling my children in their school. They are very efficient and they asked for a few documents and there they enrolled them on the same day. They even gave them their computer password, etc.

Living in Amer.ica sounds like a glorious dream. Let us all be thankful and put even the small things, like central heat, fresh air, pre-cooked meals, clean sidewalks, feet of air between cars on the street, and school systems that encourage laughter into perspective. Please, fellow Ameri.cans don't become complacent and forget the bounty that you have; the bles.sings of convenience and comfort, even in a time of financial hardship for so many people.

I'll be remembering C and her family as she settles into life in a new culture (again). Join me?

Cheers. xoxo.