Change

Something that I have had trouble adapting to is definitely the food.  Our cultures really prefer different types of food.  I'm from the midwest.  In my family (in comparison with here) we eat a lot of potatoes with salt.  Here in South Korea (in comparison to back home, all is relative here) they eat a lot of rice (in many forms such as noodles, cakes, and soup) with several seasonings that I am not used to.

When  I saw the picture above, I felt inspired to share something with you.  Last night I had not felt appreciative of supper, so only ate the piece of honeydew melon.  It wasn't really filling and I put off cooking a proper meal back at home for several hours.  By the time I finally did eat, it had been long enough that my body thought I had skipped a meal.  Personally, for me, skipping a meal can have results that are similar to eating something wrong.  I get sick.

Worn out and feeling a bout of self pity, I prayed (rather pleaded and begged) that God would go change the menus so that breakfast as least would have something I really, really liked.  He came through.  God provided the bean paste vegi meat at breakfast.  Not in the popular form where I would pig out and suffer from the overload of spice, but scrambled with egg instead.  In addition to that was a nice, cool fruit salad.  Oh I was so happy.  Who said God doesn't answer prayers?

Then at lunch, they unexpectedly served what is supposed to resemble Chinese sweet and sour chicken but really is fried tofu chunks coated in something red.  It is slightly spicy, but well worth it.  That became most of my meal and I was grateful God was still looking out for me.  Then after lunch a bag of cookies ^_^ which I am still snacking on.  The best part was supper.  Sure there was their version of spaghetti and along with cherry tomatoes.  (The kitchen staff frown if I walk by with no rice, so I had some of that too.)  As I was getting ready to leave though, they brought out rolls of bread.  Nothing like that to bring back pleasant memories.

Pleasant memories by the way also coming back from the lovely weather.  We had a proper rainstorm, finally, and well as normal wind instead of the slight breeze they think is wind.  I was walking down the sidewalk back to the office filled with what felt like normalcy.  It is a rare feeling.  How can I not be thankful to God for looking after me like that?  Finding small ways to remind me of home is so like Him.

Back to the picture at the top.  If you don't like your life, change something.  For me it was the food.  Short of ordering the cafe to provide fruit every meal, I really can't do anything.  Except pray.  So that is what I did.  I prayed about something that seems super trivial.  What is the big deal with adjusting to another culture's food, right?  However God still came through and it meant a lot to me.  Now I am happy with my life because my God is taking care of me.  He is doing so in the small ways, which matter.