Today it seems like fall has hit Nanjing.  It has been pretty much 70 degrees + since we have gotten here.  But today it is cold and raining.  It is dark and windy.  The leaves are falling off the trees and it reminds me of home. 

It is a good day to think about my time here in Nanjing. 

I was running errands today and as I was in the back seat looking out the window I realized how many things I take for granted.  I love looking out the window as we drive along and I cannot take in the sights and sounds quick enough.  I love the millions of little shops.  I wonder what is in them and if there is something cool that I cannot find anywhere else and I just know that it is going to be so inexpensive, so I will totally need it.  But then we pass by quickly and the store goes out of sight it will be nearly impossible to go to that store because I cannot read the name of the store and I am not able to communicate quickly enough with my driver to tell him..."Yi, can you bring me back to this area tomorrow because I want to go back to that cute store." 

Communication is something that I have taken for granted.  The ability to read and write and speak your thoughts is a priceless gift.  As we drive by store after store and sign after sign, I have no idea what they say.  When I am in the store, I pick up products and I have no idea what they are because I cannot read the package. 

I will say that thanks to technology, I am able to get by better than I expected, but it is still challenging and frustrating at times.  But because of things like Google translate and another app I have that takes a picture of the Chinese text and translates it,  I do OK at best.  But Google translate does not always translate correctly and the text reader sometimes does not work correctly, so they are far from perfect. 

So I thought about people who cannot read or write or see or hear or speak.  And how to a very small degree, I feel like that some days. 

I suspected that my time in China would make me better appreciate my life in America and in the 2 months that we have been here, that suspicion has come true. 

I also take for granted being able to be get from place to place in a car that is warm or cool according the weather outside.  I am protected from the elements.  I get to my destination dry and warm.  I think about Ayi and how she drives an hour to get to our home, on a scooter.  She is never late and is always happy.  I don't know many people who would drive as far as she does, in the rain and cold, to get to a job where she works harder than almost anyone I have ever met.  She cooks and cleans and everything in between and does not make nearly what an equivalent person in the U.S. would get paid.  It makes me realize how spoiled I am and how selfish my human nature can be.  It is only by the grace and mercy of God that I have the life that I have and I realized that before, but I realize it more and more with each passing day.

I also took for granted being able to turn my faucet on and drink the water.  I never worried that I might get sick or that there might be something in the water that would hurt me.  Here we get our water delivered.  And some people do not have the luxury of being able to buy bottled water.  And I know in other parts of the world the access to clean drinking water is even more limited.  So for sure I appreciate clean, running water more than I did.

So those are just a few of my thoughts today.  As each day passes, I am sure that my life here will continue to make me appreciate my life back home more and more.  But I still enjoy my life here and would not trade this experience for anything.  I think that it is already changing me from the inside out.