United Nations Luncheons...

I feel like I have become more culturally refined this week.  My neighbor (who I still can't understand her name because of her accent) is from India and invited me to lunch on Tuesday.  I wish your screen was scratch and sniff so this picture would have more meaning. I'm not going to lie, my stomach did feel a little like I was getting off the white roller coaster at Lagoon after we finished, but the bean thing on the left was acceptable.  We ate the following:

She told me it was the Indian New Year.  I felt very excited to learn that we were in the middle of a holiday that I didn't even know about.  I say the middle because the Indian New Year is three days.  What a genius idea!  I always felt Christmas went way too fast and New Years just made you tired the next day but you couldn't go to bed because who wants to start out the new year of life as a party pooper? Lame-o. Mega lame-o.  So why don't we take a lesson from India and just extend the holidays we like the most? Why not have a week long Christmas?  A four day Easter?  Can you imagine the egg hunt stamina you would have to develop?  And let's shorten St. Pat's big day to a couple hours. I've never been a fan. Why do we restrict ourselves to the day limit for each holiday? I'm telling you, India has something going on.  I'm loving the idea.  I don't know who we talk to but healthcare isn't the only thing America is struggling with. 

 

Anyway, I also met a woman named Liylia from the Ukraine who invited me and Tara (see explanation below) for lunch today and it was actually divine to digest.  It was such good food even though it all looked like a elementary science fair project.  She is Muslim and such a kind person with such a different culture.  I'm most definitely not in the Utah bubble anymore.  I don't really know where I am, but let's just say Deseret Book would shrivel up like a raisin here because there would be no business.  I love the diversity and learning about all these new cultures/religions.  I am yet to see a grocery clerk with their young womans medallion, there's no sounds of the sabbath on KOSY radio on Sundays, and when you mention stake center, people picture a restaurant (while we're on the subject, have I mentioned that they eat squirrel here? I wish I was joking. I'm not.)

The woman below is Tara Doggett.  She is American. Since this is an international oriented post, I thought I would clarify her ethnicity. Not that I am a respector of persons by any means. Well, on the contrary I try to respect all persons but I digress. To be quite honest, I feel like Heaven gift wrapped her and then paid for shipping and handling and had her sent right to my path. Literally.  I was out on a walk with Liv and stopped to talk to her and found out she lives across the street.  Her husband is in his last year of residency and works with Gar. She has 2 little boys and is 8 months pregnant with her first girl.  She is normal. She is funny.  She is not from here. She is an amazing mom.  We laugh. We talk. We have fun. She is a real friend.  That is an answer to prayer.  

There is nothing more important than family. Nothing. Family is everything.  But when you can't live by the people you love the most, sometimes Heavenly Father helps you out by putting people in your life as a compensation to let you know that He knows that you are not a mailbox, or a venus fly trap, or a jelly fish, that you a human, His daughter, that needs friends and people to talk to, to laugh with and learn from, no matter where you are in the world. Even and especially, in Bluefield West Virginia.