I have now been in the beautiful city of Ufa for 6 weeks and 2 days. It is a weird feeling being gone this long in a completely different country.  On average, it takes 21 days to condition an action into becoming a habit; however, it takes approximately 6 months of not doing something habitually to break the said habit. The point being that I am beginning to feel at home through the conditioning of “doing” some of the same things every day, for example: coming back to the same apartment, going to the same university, going to coffee shops, grocery shopping, etc. 

Yet, there are things that will take quite a bit longer to get used to “not doing”, for example: not hearing English as the main language, not driving a car and instead taking a bus, the change in my pocket is not necessarily like change back home, when someone answers the phone they may use three different words for “hello” in procession before they begin a conversation, etc.  Some things are just different and may stay that way for a long time.

However, there are things that are not different. Just over a week ago, America celebrated Thanksgiving. My family gathered together this day, without me, and did their normal routine of giving thanks to God, eating wonderful food, and blessing the conversation with joy and thanksgiving.  

Some of the Americans I have met here, all decided to do the very same thing.  We all gathered together on that day and pursued a normal routine of giving thanks to God, eating wonderful food, and being blessed by the fact that whether we were back in the states or here in Ufa or in any other part of the world we still give thanks to the One who deserves it all.

Kevin S.