Life is normal on a not-normal day

Yes, you read correctly. I ate at Arby's. Yes, they have Arby's in Istanbul, and I ate at one--without having even been here a month. They also have McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, KFC, 7-11, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, TGIFriday's, and I'm sure more that I have not discovered yet.

Yes, they also have Turkish food. (Unlike Sri Lanka, where one only can order Chinese food at Sri Lankan restaurants. Here, they sell the local food at local restaurants). Yes, I eat Turkish food, and rather enjoy it. My roommates tease me that I've eaten more doner (a street sandwich) in my two weeks than they've had their entire time in country.

But it's Christmas weekend in a country that doesn't recognize Christmas. They decorate as if it's Christmas, but only to celebrate New Years NEXT weekend. Santa is everywhere, but Jesus is not. While going to Arby's and then the movies did not any way, shape or form help me feel more like a Christian, it did make me feel more American, just for a minute, on a weekend that I desire to feel both. I'm trying not to miss my family too much and saw roast beef and cheddar and curly fries as comfort food.

Tonight, for Christmas Eve, I will follow an odd tradition of my extended family back in Virginia and eat Chinese after attending a candlelight service with some refugees. But today, Christmas Eve, probably my favorite day of the year--life goes on here as normal. I will spend the morning at the Bazaar with my new family, who won't celebrate anything about Jesus this weekend. I'll go have language with my tutor and practice making sounds new to my mouth and throat. I'll attempt to communicate to a salesperson that I need to set up my cell phone. I'll sit in Starbucks and humble myself as I try to make friends with those around me.

I'm glad to be here Christmas weekend. If "Jesus is the reason for the season," and the reason I am here as well, it makes sense to be here during the season. But to the extent that I am able, I will do some things the American way this weekend to make up for not being in America. So I ask for grace for having eaten at Arby's, and for staying up until the wee hours of the night with my roommate making cookies, and for listening to the pop holiday music station on the Internet. I promise I truly am attempting to enculturate myself on the normal given today. Today just isn't quite that day.