Me...The "Foreigner"

Yesterday we went to beach. Kiwi (New Zealand people) people are so friendly. They like to give us advice for being safe in the sun. While at the beach there were a few venders on the beach who were walking around handing things out. They would come up to us and give us things and then ask all about where we are from and what we are doing. Most people so far have a general idea of Indiana. One man made a statement “you guys sure like your basketball” and while getting ice cream later last night the server said he had a friend at Notre Dame and that was before we said we were from the area.

Since everyone here speaks English it doesn’t seem so much like another country. And the roads and buildings are similar to the U.S. so it doesn’t feel much different than home. Except that we are near water and the weather is amazingly hot and it’s January. I haven’t noticed many different customs yet by just watching people. But I’m sure I will soon and haven’t been out around too many people.

We went to church this morning. It was similar to a church in the U.S. with opening with worship, a few announcements, then a message and a few other songs. And even though it was similar I still found myself sitting in my chair thinking this is so weird. I don’t know what it was. I just felt weird and out of place. I should feel like that I suppose since I am a “foreigner.” They took communion at the end. And had coffee and time to chat and visit with each other. They were on “holiday” recently and so they didn’t have church for awhile. I found that different. And a few of the member mentioned that they had visited other churches while on “holiday.” At the very end of the service they had a time where anyone could say what they wanted and read a verse they felt led to read. That is something I did in my youth group but not in an entire morning service with people. But then again, my church services our made up of hundreds of people. This service was not even a hundred people.

We start our classes tomorrow. We dive into learning Chinese. This should be fun!