Since today was my day off, I decided to take the road less traveled. So I set out by foot and explored a very small part of the city. It is always an experience when you travel to unfamiliar cultures. I have eaten so many varieties of raw fish this week. I can’t even venture to guess the types or names. The salmon and squid I did recognize, however. I wandered into a side street restaurant and ordered a bowl of noodle soup, and the server brought it to my table with chopsticks. How in the world do you eat soup with chopsticks? As I observed those around me, I noticed that you eat the noodles with the chopsticks and then raise the bowl to your mouth and drink the soup. Imagine that, it is proper in the Asian culture to do what my mother corrected me for doing when I was growing up. If only she could see me now!”

I love to wander off the well trodden path because you see and experience things that you wouldn’t ever get to experience in life otherwise. You meet new people like this man roasting a variety of nuts for sale. I even stumbled upon a Korean prayer meeting, one of those which are held in every church at a variety of hours every day. A kind woman sitting next to me wrote the points of the pastor’s teaching in English on her bulletin so that I could understand. It was an important word. “God helps us. Keep praying!”

Many of us resist the challenge that comes with tackling the new and unfamiliar. We would rather live in the repetitive patterns of our comfort zones. Let me ask you a question. The restaurants at the hotel where I am staying serve many Westerners. They offer knives, forks and spoons at each place setting as well as chopsticks. Which would you choose? May I recommend the chopsticks? I know that it’s harder, and yes I have dropped food in my lap more than once. Thank the Lord for hotel laundry! But try going for the adventure. Life is incredibly brief, and you have to leave the familiar road that most people choose to discover it. The worst thing that could happen is that you might lose some weight.

God bless…