A Goodwill Puzzle

Siri and I are now almost at the five week mark.  I would like to say that time moves slower here in Taiwan, but the weeks have been passing just as fast and each time I blink I am amazed by what day it is.  "Surely it can't be Thursday, it seems like yesterday was Sunday and we spent the day at the Xiao Wulai waterfalls and the day before that was Wednesday and we ate at that Teppanyaki place."

Over one month.  That is enough time to know how to order food, fill up the gas tank on my scooter, and explore some of the river and mountain trails by our apartment.  It is not enough time to feel comfortable being stared at, to have a full teaching schedule, or to have tried stinky tofu.

I have quickly realized again that living abroad (how many times now Mom? 3, 4, 5?) is very much a give and take existence.  There are very many new, exciting, wonderful, even frightening things to explore while living in another country- especially one as Eastern as Taiwan.  The trade off is leaving everything comfortable, that you have worked so hard to bring into your life, behind.  You miss shooting off fireworks at fourth of July, but you get to explore Taipei.  You miss a camping weekend with a big crew of friends (heal up Manoah!), but you get to swim in some waterfalls up in the tropical mountains.  You miss your mother's enchilada casserole but you try soup dumplings and fall in love.  Perhaps you miss your brothers 30th birthday on 12/12/12, but just maybe you get to go to the Philippines or Malaysia.  That is not to say that these new things that we are getting to know replace home and the things we love, they don't.  Not even close.  Sometimes these new things can be a great distraction from the void left by missing home.  It is a sacrifice, and I can assure you it is not always easy.  If it were easy everyone would be doing it.  A sacrifice for what though?  I think of it as unlocking another puzzle piece of human existence.  I don't expect to ever complete the puzzle.  In fact the puzzle was probably bought at a Goodwill and has many pieces missing, they will be lost forever.  I am here trying to understand how these people live, how they understand the world, what they eat, the beauty in life that they get to see everyday and sometimes take for granted.  The mantra that I am trying so hard to repeat internally is this: "Its not better, its not worse.  It's just different.  Try to accept it."  Even if I can't see the puzzle completed in its entirety, perhaps I can blur my eyes and look at all of the pieces that I have and pretend that i can see the entire picture.

Of course the other side of being away for a long time is the great return.  Seeing home again as if it were the first time.  Lots of hugs.  Eating things you haven't had for so long, seeing people, and perhaps seeing the beauty in life that you once saw everyday and took for granted.  But that is far from now and another blog post.

I can say one thing after these five weeks- I feel very fortunate to be sharing this experience with Siri.  She is quite the special lady.

PS- We are thinking about going to the Philippines in September around Siri's birthday....Suckers...