I guess it's been a while since we've posted anything. It truly has been a busy month! Can you believe it's already June?!! We have been here for almost 1 year. Wowsers.
We just purchased our plane tickets to go home this summer! It just seems so surreal that we will be returning home! We will be in H-town from July 10th to August 12. (It really seems just like yesterday when we tearfully said farewell and left to come here!) After 4 weeks, we will leave to return to E.A for a 2nd year. Though we will only be home for a short time, we are super excited to get to see everyone. We hope that we'll get to re-connect with many of you!!!
When I think about going home... there are always tons of questions I have: One of which is, will I remember how to drive a car? Will I be scared of the freeways? Will my friends and family think I look different after being gone for a year? (Always riding my bike in the sun, I am now much darker for sure!! Yikes.) Has my English gotten much worse? How often will I find myself saying... "Oh, what a pity!" (It seems to be my local friend's favorite catch-all English phrase. Maybe they learned it from watching movies or something.)
And the hardest thing for me is to realize that life has gone on without us being home in H-town. Babies have been born. Friends have gotten married. People have moved around. Graduations have passed. Things have happened. A year has gone by. And we were not able to be there to share these big moments. Though my heart yearns in eagerness to see friends and family, a part of me knows that I will have to also grieve those by-gone moments that I didn't get to be part of when I see them. Though there are photos and stories... I will know that I didn't get to live in it with them. But that's the cost of being here and doing what we are doing. And we must continue to look forward and keep our eyes fixed on what's been given to us. And to continue to be thankful.
So, as to keep you posted on what's going on with us... a big highlight was that we got to recently see my dear cousin J! He came to a nearby city with a group of people on a business/school trip. It was so good to see family on this side of the world!!
Another interesting experience... Edwin & some guy friends got a chance to eat SCORPIONS for the first time ever!
We were in a different city, and this city happens to sell scorpions-on-the-stick, sold by local street vendors, for about two bucks! The scorpions were still alive and moving around when they cooked (fried) them in oil!!! Yikes.
Here's another reality photo that I took when Edwin and I were visiting a friend in her hometown. It's a picture of a pig's head being skinned and cleaned on the street!!
Below: Here's a chicken perched on top of his cage. And if you look carefully, behind "him" is another chicken, except this one has already seen his fate (met his "end".) I would be a scared chicken...
Oh, and interesting signs. Can't seem to get enough of 'em!
"Don't disturb the growing grass." Maybe that's why we got in trouble for walking on the grass!
And my favorite command: "Please take care of these plants." I suppose that means to stay away?!
Okay, that's all for today! Will try to post again soon! =)
