Honestly... honesty

Of course you know, "Honesty is the best policy!"

Well...

Here... not so much.

I'd heard about it. And I thought that it would always be easy to make the honest decision.

However, first you have to identify the decision to make it an honest one, right?

Here's my story that illustrates how different my life is from six months ago.

In our hunt for an apartment of our very own we went to see our 'realtor' and potential landlady last night. After three hours of discussion in three different languages (until 11pm)... it basically boiled down to us paying a lot more money every month to be completely straighforward. Now our landlady will be registering us officially at that address.

And I think that we are now renting it from her, but I'm not really sure. And I'm pretty sure we are being totally honest. At any rate, we have ANOTHER set of fantastical looking keys!

I was thinking of this verse... but in the hunt for the reference, my roommie found this one instead... and I find it more appropos than the one I was thinking of!

"Pry for us.

We are sure that we have a clear conscience,

and desire to live honorably in every way."

Heb 13:18

smile!

I got smiled at by a local yesterday.

You don't know how momentuous a moment that is... until you know the saying about smiling here. Basically it says that if you see someone smiling they have had too much to drink, or they are crazy (and in my case we add- "or they are a foreigner").

So when this lovely old babushka (old lady) came up to me and gave me a smile wreathed in wrinkles yesterday... I smiled back! I was a tad shocked by this little gift... until her caretaker led her away from me mumuring (as far as I could understand) something about "Leave that girl alone. She doesn't want to be bothered."

It was then that I realized... that kind little babushka... probably had Alzheimers or some kind of senile dementia. And that was why she smiled at me...

I love it!

The start of week four here…

Wow. I hadn’t thought of that until my wonderful roommate counted the days for me.

Not only is she fantastically funny, my compass and bus map for getting around the city, a language coach… but she does math for me too! I am so blessed by what she does for me… as I try to learn my right from my left here.

I am finding out that language is still going to be a very steep curve for me… I just can’t seem to learn fast enough! I think subconsciously I was hoping that miraculously I would wake up one morning after breathing in the air, smiling at a few locals, and listening to their conversation… and would just automatically KNOW.

He he… instead I found out… I will have to learn the normal way. The hard way.

But in the midst of it all- I am being blessed.
Just by being here.
Just by meeting my students at the English center.
Just by being able to answer the questions of the teachers who teach at the center.
Just by being me.

I love it!

I love that the women here perfectly match their astonishingly high heeled boots to their beautiful coats and are pretty much always dressed ‘to the nines.’ I love that there is actual architecture in downtown buildings. I love that “hot” here was yesterday, a whopping 80 degrees F. I love that I can have internet and keep up on Facebook with friends and family across the globe. And I love… well… I love that I can say “I love…” in yet another language even if I can’t properly conjugate the direct object yet!