Oh man,
I don't even remember the last time I posted on this thing, but I DEFINITELY know a post is overdue. There's a lot of debrief on, and I'm not even quite sure where to begin, but here goes!
A quick thing on the month and a half of training I went to: it was a very life-giving time right before leaving for the field. Lots of good, nothing necessarily bad--more so challenging than anything, and learning to identify and even possibly embrace the "different". During my time on the East Coast, I found myself getting humbly stretched in ways I hadn't before, and I grew increasingly aware of the reality that my heart is capable of loving so many people without loving others less. I found out that I understand and interact with the world through a highly relational lens, and by far the biggest adjustment from my time at training was accepting that many relationships I develop will be entering a season of "revolving doors" Always willing to say hello and give friendships my all, but it never ever gets easier or normal to say "See you later"
I had 23 hours at home in between training and arriving on the field, but even then the boundaries of each transition were so blurred. I was still trying to process NC while being physically and emotionally present in SF while anticipating my arrival in Asia. I was an emotionally constipated mess. And yes, that term is very very precise for what I was feeling.
Anyway! To finally arrive at the meat/point of this post, I am finally here!! I've completed my first real week in Asia, and in some ways it's taken forever but in other ways the week flew by! I still wake up and have to remind myself that I'm here--with people that until now I had only known over Skype for the past year, hearing the language all the time and not being able to communicate or understand well, and that blue skies and seeing the sun are RARE!! (I'm not even that homesick yet, but man am I bummed about the sky.) It's been a productive time however, my teammates keep remarking how quickly I'm getting things done! I've set up my home, gotten a local number and bus card, signed up for language school, and!! I've managed to navigate places on my own! There's still so much to look forward to doing--still many firsts to come.
This isn't very typical for me, and I much prefer sharing stories than listing things I've done. They'll come in time. But I just wanted to share that I've arrived safely, soundly, and that all in all I've made it.