Thanksgiving Break

This Thanksgiving I will be in Orlando, FL with most of my family.  We will be having the traditional Thanksgiving food and my cousins from Pennsylvania will be joining us on the actual day.  Last year on Thanksgiving Day I was in China!  Since they don't celebrate the holiday there (obviously) I did not celebrate in the typical way.  First of all, I was doing an internship in a Chinese businesss so I went to work.  They remembered it was Thanksgiving and wanted to appreciate me in some way so they gave me some beautiful flowers.  I was in China with a group of Americans so for dinner that night we went out to the most American restaurants we could find: McDonalds and KFC!  It was kind of depressing after talking to my family on skype that afternoon and hearing them describe all the delicious food they were planing on having.  A couple of weeks later I did get to have a Thanksgiving-like meal at the church I was attending.  Still, I am excited to actually be with my family this year and celebrating in the traditional manner. 

Communities

I like to observe different communities and see how they function.  I think that is why intercultural studies is so interesting to me.  This week I have had the opportunity to be in a number of different "communities" of sorts.  First of all, I am part of the CIU community.  I could divide this community into several sub-communities that I fall into--the senior class, the residence life team, MuKappa, and my hall: Walker 2.  I have also been able to be a part of the international students community at USC.  I attended the IFM Friday dinner for the third time this week.  This is a totally different community from CIU but I still kind of fit it because I grew up overseas.  I am also a part of my church community.  Since this is my fourth year attending CCF I feel pretty connected to that community as well.  The last community that I was briefly able to connect with this week was the community around Hyatt Park.  CIU students planned a special outreach at the park involving food, face painting, and sports.  I got to spend a lot of time with kids painting their faces and giving them a chance to paint mine.  Though I am definitely an outsider to this community, I enjoyed the time of fellowship and getting a glimpse into their lifestyle.  Overall it has been a very diverse week with a lot of opporutnities to interact with people.  I think God is slowly preparing me for the next step of my life!