Saturday in the City... again

This time, I did commence studying as soon as my morning started. By noon I was wishing that my eyes would fall out so that I could be done for the day... you can imagine how excited I was when I received a friendly text message, inviting me to an Indian Thanksgiving dinner.

I don't mean Native American Indian, I mean Asian Indian.

Nothing makes you feel more like a plain jane than being the only swarthy German girl in a room full of Indians. Flowing hair, draping clothing, clinking bracelets, bright smiles... Indians are so beautiful.

Anyway, I'm not very good at interacting with other cultures. This is kinda amazing, because I've had lots of practice. My number one cultural shortfall is being completely ignorant of people's nationalities. One time, at an Irish festival, one of the "Irish Band" members asked me to guess his nationality based on his accent. I guessed Australian. He was Canadian. Another time, on a train in Europe, a man also prodded me to guess his nationality, again, based on accent. Remembering my previous history with this, I guessed Canadian. Nope, he was Australian. He was also offended. "You Americans know nothing about other cultures." Yep, that's pretty accurate.

Tonight, I walked into this room full of Indians and was immediately greeted by a lovely woman with flowing dark hair and olive skin. Doesn't quite look Indian, I thought. Still, this was an Indian dinner, I should play it safe. We chatted about this and that. She was very well traveled, and had been to India several times. "Do you stay with family while you're there?" I asked. She smiled and laughed a little. "I'm Portuguese."
Awesome.
There weren't too many other awkward moments. I did manage to sit down at an empty table with my plate of (AMAZING) food, and was immediately joined by 8 male grad students. I was the only female at the table... even to me it looked like I was fishing for a PhD husband. (This would have been a great place to find one, as they were predominantly PhD candidates.) Good grief.

Thankfully, Indians are the some of the warmest people in the world. Conversation was easy and free flowing (even at my table of male geniuses). The room went from being one full of exotic strangers, to a room of new friends... one lady laughed when she introduced herself, saying, "I saw you standing over here and thought, 'how unique.'"
What a gracious lady.
There is so much that could be written on this evening... how motivated to learn and achieve all these people are (Masters in Electrical Engineering, siblings in medical school, PhD in math/engineering, etc...) How extraordinarily brave they are, to be so far from everyone they love...


This post is longer than it ought to be already, but I haven't even gotten to the good part of the evening. That came when they sang some praise songs in their own languages... do you ever forget that Christianity is not American? The curse of growing up in the Bible belt is that Christianity is so built into the fabric of society, we completely lose sight of the fact that our being Christians is a total leap and about-face in Jewish history.
I read this passage in Acts this week, and I've been wondering what in the world it would have been like to be there when Paul said this: "Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses."
Let it be known... Everyone who believes... freed from everything...
This was brand new. This was absolutely crazy. It meant that a fourth generation German girl, sitting in a room full of Asian Indians, in some country that didn't yet exist when Paul was speaking, would partake of the same belief and faith as Paul himself. Me, these lovely Indians, Paul... all purchased and made alive by the same, earth shattering act of redemption.
The praise leader tonight said it best when he said "Some of you look lost, you don't understand what we're saying and singing because of the language differences. Well, in heaven, we will all understand each other."
Sweet comfort, midst such an unexpected shared history...

"Thus says the Lord God: 'I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out. . . I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bear branches produce fruit and become a noble cedar. And under it will dwell every kind of bird; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest. And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the LORD...'" Ezekiel 17:22-24