Lessons learned

During our recent trip, N and I sat down and wrote out all the lessons we have learned during our first year overseas. These are things that we should have known or noticed long before now, but it took moving halfway across the globe to see this.

1) Immersion in a culture doesn't mean you will learn a language -- you actually have to use the language regularly, meaning making an embarrassment out of yourself.
2) Culture shock doesn't happen in one week -- it occurs over the course of a year. It's the gradual wear and grating on your nerves that gets you -- like when the salt doesn't come out of the shaker.
3) You don't know the blessings you had until they are gone -- you even begin to notice the insignificant blessings, such as getting to drive 40 minutes to and from work in a quiet car, with heat/air, with just the radio and you.
4) The things you most dislike about yourself and the things that irritate you the most are amplified in a different culture. Deal with it.
5) It is possible to make a variety of scrumptious meals using only fresh vegetables and grains.
6) It is possible to live in a home without central heat and air -- it's just not very fun.
7) The perceptions of a culture and country from the other side (through books, vacations, etc.) are completely different from the reality with which you come face to face. It even changes from day to day.
8) Cultural different food is delicious to tourists, but gets really old, oily, and monotonous if you eat it for more than 6 months.
9) From consistent good habits before your life undergoes upheaval, because it's not any easier to do when under stress in a new environment.
10) Just because you are doing what you should do doesn't mean you won't question what or why you are doing it.
11) Sometimes the only reason you move and change your life is to learn something you should have learned before. Sometimes the only reason you move to a foreign culture is for someone else to learn something through you.
12) The only results of some actions, attitudes, and habits are ones that you personally may never see, experience, or even know about. You just have to believe you are making an impact. You will never make it otherwise.