I've never been the most outgoing of personalities. Although I see myself as a strong person on the inside, there are so many insecurities that dominate the exterior. I'm discovering that living in a different culture will cause me to confront them. Here's one example:
I'm an observer. I love learning cultures, evaluating, discerning. One of the most uncomfortable things for me is to walk into a room and immediately call attention to myself without having time to take everything in and figure out my place in the environment. I realize now that my primary goal when entering a new situation was to become invisible as quickly as possible and scope it out so that I could join into what was happening without disrupting it. Here, that instinctual urge is impossible. In the US we focus on greeting people, welcoming newcomers and integrating them into the whole. Here it is the responsibility of the person who arrived to immediately greet with a kiss each and every person in the room, whether you know them or not.
I know that this is one of millions of changes to my life, but it is a perfect example of the way God uses change (cultural or what-not) to cause me to know myself, face myself and hopefully in doing so change little by little into His likeness.
-heather
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