Tuesday, April 29, 2008

My Mom, America & Apple Pie


My mom will be here in less than 3 days! There is much excitement in this house! We're praying for pretty weather so we can show her around this beautiful country.

Today during our language class we struck up a conversation attempting to speak only in Portuguese. (Which we're supposed to do every class, I just always break that rule.) Our topic of discussion was "America". We told our teacher all about America and specifically the "American Traditions". You know.... homemade peach ice cream...apple pie....etc. About half way through the discussion I got a real yearning for my homeland. Not the little passing fancy I've had a time or two since arriving in Portugal, but a real strong tug in my heart to see the open highways, SUV's, McDonalds and Baptist Churches on every corner. To smell the clean smelling breeze instead of the fragrances that waft through here most of the time.

Our teacher was shocked that the average family in America DIDN'T eat rabbit, had a library where you could check out up to 35 books at a time, and owned an ice cream maker that costs less than 30 dollars. (They are about $150 here, IF you can find them.) We talked about how everything in America is done on a large scale. If you've never left The States, then you won't understand this, but America is a very unique place. Most Americans are very wasteful without even realizing it.

Mississippi has approximately 2,500,000 people. Portugal and Mississippi are about the same size. Only Portugal has about 11,000,000 people. So there isn't a lot of room for "large" things. The cars are tiny, the roads are narrow, the grocery stores are small and the people are short. Everything is very different....

Thanks for helping us pray about our paperwork. Today we made our 4th trip back to the office and finalized the details. We paid for all 7 of us and we're supposed to receive the cards in the mail sometime within the next 6 weeks. When we get them, we'll all shout and thank the Lord, then I'll take a picture of them and show you what all the trouble was about.

So what did you think about the surprise visit from my favorite guest blogger? Isn't he great?! Anyone up for a challenge? If you like to be featured as a "guest blogger, just send me an email.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad that language school is going so well. Shame on you for always breaking the "Don't Speak English" rule! Keep up the great work. I love reading your comments about America from the perspective of the foreign culture that you are now a part of!

Anonymous said...

More from the guest blogger please! What I would like even more is to hear him preach. Just like you, I think he is handsome and exceedingly intelligent. Wonder why? I would like to do a guest blog sometime. Maybe when we get finished with Pawpaw's current project and I have some time to think. America misses you too.

Love, Nanny

Unknown said...

I know EXACTLY what you mean about how different things are in a foreign country than America. When you are used to wide, open spaces, your own language and "comfy" culture, everything in another country seems so, well, foreign!

When we went home to TX for our first furlough, my son remarked about how nice the highway was. (He is so used to the generally terrible roads in Guatemala.) One of my daughters promptly informed him, "Aaalll the roads in Texas are nice." LOL!

Hope you have a great visit with your Mom! Wonderful she could be there! :o)

Tori Leslie said...

I'm so excited that your mother is coming, hey you look like her!
What a wonderful time you're going to have, it's gonna be very special to show her "your" Portugal. If it isn't like that yet it will be. :0)

I remember those "Croatian only" language studies, how fun!

Anonymous said...

America isn't the same without you. Portugal may not yet be aware of the blessing they received with the arrival of the Andrzejewski's!

The guest blogger was exceptional...and very dear to the hearts here in the states. You do look like your mom, and even more like your aunt...or so has been said. :-)

It's impressive that the language classes are going so well. I look forward to hearing the first sermon in Portuguese.

So many here love you and are praying for you to have a wonderful visit with your mom. See, even Mother Nature cared enough to stop the rain!

Love and blessings,

AS