Community
Living in a college town has been a different experience. It takes me back to the days when we were first married and lived close to UCI. Collegians and grad students are everywhere, as are foreigners. Most restaurants and stores here have signs translated in English and, most of the time, you can order simple things in English.
Language Learning
I’m not sure if I can speak for everyone, but language learning has been one of the greatest challenges thus far. Through a friend’s recommendation, we decided to check out private language schools. We initially thought it might be too expensive, but decided that having a smaller class size and more flexibility would better suit our needs.
I’ll be posting several “settling in” posts to share our experience with you. We hope they’re as encouraging as they are informative!
Settling in has introduced interesting challenges. The following is meant to create a realistic picture of our experience here and not to complain or compare by any means (although I’ve done plenty of both, sad to say). I hope these encounters will make us wiser and more discerning so that we’ll be a helpful resource to other future pilgrims.
As we settle into life in EA, there are a number of “interesting” observations we’ve made about life and culture here. We’ve also had to make some personal adjustments to living in a different country. Here are just a few highlights:
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