Never Say Never...

1.) Let's get one thing straight: I never, in a hundred million bajillion years, ever thought I would live somewhere else besides America.  Never.  I am not one of those people "who likes to travel".  I am one of those people who like to stay home.  Furthermore, if I lived somewhere besides the good ol' USofA, I thought it would be in an orphanage in Africa.  But here I am, living 7000 miles from home.  Thank you amazing husband for suggesting that we live somewhere else.  Thank you that it is not Russia.  Thank you God for bringing me here and teaching me things that I could never have learned anywhere else.

2.) I tuck my shirt in.  I tuck my shirt into my pants.  I never thought I would do this.  Never.  I hate tucking my shirt in.  I think it looks horrible. (I wear several layers so that you can not see the tucked in layers.) But. I do not have a dryer.  My pants do not fit anymore.  Well, they fit for about 2 minutes after they come back from the dry cleaner.  sigh.  So in order to keep my pants where they are supposed to be, I now tuck in my shirts.

3.) I never thought I would actually run a marathon.  I thought it would be something that I always talked about but never did.  I neverever thought I would run a marathon in Asia (see #1 on this list).  I better get a good T-shirt out this race.  I need to proclaim my accomplishment to the general public whenever I get back to the USofA.

4.) I never thought I would actually learn how to use chopsticks well.  I can now fillet a fish with my chopsticks and spoon (they do NOT take the bones out of fish here....I got a lot of extra calcium the first few weeks we lived here).  I can use chopsticks well.  I am quite happy about this accomplishment.

5.) I now listen to instrumental music (insert me making gagging noises).  Yuck.  I like music with words all the way.  I am not a classical/baroque music type of person.  But.  I like to listen to music at work.  My office is a loud place, so if I listen to music with words, I can't hear the words.  I refuse to turn up the volume as I plan on still having my hearing when my grandchildren come to visit me (which will be in, like 60 years, right?)  So I have started listening to music without words.  I can still have the calming presence of music in my life without getting frustrated with missing the lyrics.  What is this world coming to?

6.) I never thought I would start thinking, "subject, subject marker, object, verb" before speaking a sentence. Learning Korean is one of the more interesting endeavors of my life.  I never thought I would learn Korean.  (see #1).  The more Korean I learn, the sorrier I feel for my precious kiddos who are trying to learn English.

7.) I added this in later because I forgot about it at the time.  I never thought we would drink tap water while in Korea.  We do (now).  After boiling countless pots of water for 7 months, we have begun drinking tap water.  No one has died or gotten sick.  I guess we could have started after just one month, but I was too scared.  I seriously thought we would boil water the whole time we were in Korea.  Koreans do not drink tap water, so I thought it was not safe.  It is.  end of story.

For the time being, those are the top 7  items on my "things I never thought I would do" list.  For the record, I never want to get a dog or cat inside our home.  I never want to home-school my children.  I never want my family to doubt my love for them.  I never want to tuck in my shirts again once I have a dryer.  I never want to have more kids than a mini-van can hold.  I never want to listen to instrumental music in my mini-van.  I never want to loose contact with my girls from college.  I never want to become a golfer.  I never want to stop growing closer to my sweet Lord Jesus.