Goodbye, Honeymoon

It's been a hard week.  I feel compelled to share this because I've been challenged/encouraged by some good plain honesty I've seen on other blogs recently (this is a must read for any women out there), and I figured a blog isn't worth much if it isn't real.  Right? 

So, as I said, it's been a hard week, and I'm coming to realize that what some experts call the "honeymoon" phase of crossing cultures may be coming to an end.  But at least it lasted two months, right?

Tears and impatience and frustration have come much more easily this week than joy and gratitude, self-control and perseverance.  I'm tired of not being able to understand people or signs and of not being able to say what I want to say.  I find myself jealous of folks who can speak, whether expats who have lived here for several years and are reasonably fluent or even three year old local kids who can comprehend and speak better than me.  I miss the Dairy Kastle and the library and Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens and the Louisville Zoo and Katie's preschool.  I miss good coffee and cream cheese and guacamole and chocolate chips.  I feel like I've hit a wall in language learning and am easily discouraged to keep going when I see how far I still have to go.  So there it is.  The honesty. 

Friday was a low point, and thankfully things have gotten better since then.  On Saturday I had two successful shopping experiences which involved lots of speaking and comprehension and new vocabulary (like "bike helmet" or 头盔 tou2 kui1 and "color printing" or  彩色打印 cai3se4 da3yin4)..that was encouraging.  (Hooray for Google translator!)  I also had several encouraging conversations with some other expats.  And best of all I have this promise:  "His mercies are new every morning; great is His faithfulness."