Adaptablility Is Key
Adaptability is key, along with sacrifice to survive this medical school journey. My life is not quite as I had imagined it. Oh, I figured I would get married and probably leave beautiful New Hampshire, but I never imagined that I would leave the country to live on an island closer to South America than it is to North America. Life doesn't always go as planned. For Luke and I, sometimes it feels like our life is on hold, while Luke studies to become a doctor. I'm not allowed to work on the island, and Luke is extremely busy, which means a lot of down time for me with not much to do. However, when life doesn't go the way we had originally envisioned it and especially living here, you learn to adapt.
Every once in a while, I'll do something that I do here quite often, like light the stove with a lighter or match, then realize that this is not a normal thing for someone who lives in the states. Our lives here are not really normal when you compare them with young married couples starting out in the states. Most people own cars and can go anywhere they want basically whenever they want. Here, we rely on the school vans or have to pay extra for other transportation. In the states, you can go to most grocery stores and find exactly what you need. Here, we hope they'll have what is on our list, and we stock up on things when they do. For example, we purchased ten packages of frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts because many times the stores don't have those. Two weeks before we left for Christmas break, the stores here did not have eggs or white sugar. Again, instead of getting upset about it, you simply adapt. We can go grocery shopping once a week, but thankfully there is a supermarket about a ten-minute walk from our apartment that we can pick up something if we run out. Sometimes adapting here is harder than others. For instance, when you've been looking forward to a hot shower only to turn on the water to find that only a trickle of cold water is coming out of the faucet.
Over break when we were in Minnesota, I was so grateful every time I took a warm shower that did not run out of hot water or have fluctuating temperatures throughout the shower. That is one thing that I've learned from this journey. I took way too many things for granted when I lived in the United States. Hopefully, I've learned to be a more grateful individual. Like I said, life here is very different. When it rains a lot, we have to make sure to store up water because our water supply will probably run out for awhile. Our water is heated by solar power, so if it is rainy for a few days, we most likely will not have hot water. Sometimes we hardly have any water pressure. The power gets shut off here more often than I'd like. Sometimes it is a scheduled power outage, but most of the time it just gets shut off randomly. Just the other day, we did not have power for a few hours. Losing power makes life a lot more difficult here. When we lost power, I was in the middle of baking bread. I needed to melt or soften butter, and I couldn't use the microwave. Here's where the adapting comes in. I pulled out a pan and melted the butter on the stove.
I was having left-overs for lunch, which I would normally heat in the microwave. Thankfully, we have a gas stove, so I could heat them in the stove. Unfortunately, since I did not know we were going to lose power, my electronics were not fully charged. The only thing I could do was leave the balcony door open for light and a little breeze since it gets very hot without the air conditioning. I did some coloring while I waited for the power to turn back on. Thankfully, it was only off for a few hours.
Another thing we have to adapt to is keeping a lot of food in our refrigerator that we normally would not. For example, cereal, spices, rice, flour, sugar, open bags of chips, and boxes of macaroni and cheese are things we have to keep in the refrigerator to avoid having bugs in them. (I have had to pick a bug or two out of our food). I've also gotten a little more used to bugs. There are large cracks in our balcony door and our front door doesn't shut tightly, so bugs can get inside.
We put roach powder in the doorways, which helps keep the cockroaches out, but we have still had to kill a few. They are so gross! We also have to deal with small ants.
Thankfully they haven't been around as much, but for awhile, I was killing ten or more ants every time I went into the kitchen.
In the states, I would buy shredded cheese if I was going to use it. Here, I buy a block a cheese and shred it myself to save money.
Thankfully we have a cheese grater. The dishes and kitchen utensils we have here are an odd collection. We have only one tall drinking glass and a few short ones. Over break, we went to the Dollar Tree to purchase some kitchen items we wanted to have here. We don't have a pizza pan, so I use the bottom of a broiler pan or a cake pan to make pizza.
Another thing I took for granted was the fancy measurement guide on normal sticks of butter. The butter we buy comes in an unmarked block, so I have to guess the measurements.
Our apartment is painted white, blank white walls everywhere. Thanks to our friends and family, Luke and I own lots of items that would make a house a home, but almost all of those things are in storage. I wanted to make our apartment seem more like a home, even though it is only for a couple of years, so we had to adapt. Over break, we printed pictures and found wall clings and blank paper at the dollar store. Luke and I made our own wall hangings with the blank paper.
Someday, we'll be able to set up our own home the way we want to and plan on living there for longer than a couple of years, but for now, our little apartment is feeling a little more like home. Life doesn't always go as planned. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, although, we both are eagerly anticipating the day when Luke will be Dr. Luke Carlson. For now, we'll sacrifice being near family, sacrifice getting to be there for our friends' weddings, sacrifice being able to use our stuff to set up our home, sacrifice time spent with each other, and sacrifice going thousands of dollars into debt to follow what God has called Luke to. Our first married Valentine's Day won't include going to a restaurant, giving each other gifts, or getting flowers, but we'll get to see each other for dinner, and I'll probably light the candles I brought from the states.
So, in this crazy life we lead, we just have to learn to count our blessings, trust God who faithfully provides and protects us, and adapt.
Every once in a while, I'll do something that I do here quite often, like light the stove with a lighter or match, then realize that this is not a normal thing for someone who lives in the states. Our lives here are not really normal when you compare them with young married couples starting out in the states. Most people own cars and can go anywhere they want basically whenever they want. Here, we rely on the school vans or have to pay extra for other transportation. In the states, you can go to most grocery stores and find exactly what you need. Here, we hope they'll have what is on our list, and we stock up on things when they do. For example, we purchased ten packages of frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts because many times the stores don't have those. Two weeks before we left for Christmas break, the stores here did not have eggs or white sugar. Again, instead of getting upset about it, you simply adapt. We can go grocery shopping once a week, but thankfully there is a supermarket about a ten-minute walk from our apartment that we can pick up something if we run out. Sometimes adapting here is harder than others. For instance, when you've been looking forward to a hot shower only to turn on the water to find that only a trickle of cold water is coming out of the faucet.
Over break when we were in Minnesota, I was so grateful every time I took a warm shower that did not run out of hot water or have fluctuating temperatures throughout the shower. That is one thing that I've learned from this journey. I took way too many things for granted when I lived in the United States. Hopefully, I've learned to be a more grateful individual. Like I said, life here is very different. When it rains a lot, we have to make sure to store up water because our water supply will probably run out for awhile. Our water is heated by solar power, so if it is rainy for a few days, we most likely will not have hot water. Sometimes we hardly have any water pressure. The power gets shut off here more often than I'd like. Sometimes it is a scheduled power outage, but most of the time it just gets shut off randomly. Just the other day, we did not have power for a few hours. Losing power makes life a lot more difficult here. When we lost power, I was in the middle of baking bread. I needed to melt or soften butter, and I couldn't use the microwave. Here's where the adapting comes in. I pulled out a pan and melted the butter on the stove.
I was having left-overs for lunch, which I would normally heat in the microwave. Thankfully, we have a gas stove, so I could heat them in the stove. Unfortunately, since I did not know we were going to lose power, my electronics were not fully charged. The only thing I could do was leave the balcony door open for light and a little breeze since it gets very hot without the air conditioning. I did some coloring while I waited for the power to turn back on. Thankfully, it was only off for a few hours.
Another thing we have to adapt to is keeping a lot of food in our refrigerator that we normally would not. For example, cereal, spices, rice, flour, sugar, open bags of chips, and boxes of macaroni and cheese are things we have to keep in the refrigerator to avoid having bugs in them. (I have had to pick a bug or two out of our food). I've also gotten a little more used to bugs. There are large cracks in our balcony door and our front door doesn't shut tightly, so bugs can get inside.
 |
| balcony door |
Thankfully they haven't been around as much, but for awhile, I was killing ten or more ants every time I went into the kitchen.
In the states, I would buy shredded cheese if I was going to use it. Here, I buy a block a cheese and shred it myself to save money.
Thankfully we have a cheese grater. The dishes and kitchen utensils we have here are an odd collection. We have only one tall drinking glass and a few short ones. Over break, we went to the Dollar Tree to purchase some kitchen items we wanted to have here. We don't have a pizza pan, so I use the bottom of a broiler pan or a cake pan to make pizza.
Another thing I took for granted was the fancy measurement guide on normal sticks of butter. The butter we buy comes in an unmarked block, so I have to guess the measurements.
Our apartment is painted white, blank white walls everywhere. Thanks to our friends and family, Luke and I own lots of items that would make a house a home, but almost all of those things are in storage. I wanted to make our apartment seem more like a home, even though it is only for a couple of years, so we had to adapt. Over break, we printed pictures and found wall clings and blank paper at the dollar store. Luke and I made our own wall hangings with the blank paper.
Someday, we'll be able to set up our own home the way we want to and plan on living there for longer than a couple of years, but for now, our little apartment is feeling a little more like home. Life doesn't always go as planned. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, although, we both are eagerly anticipating the day when Luke will be Dr. Luke Carlson. For now, we'll sacrifice being near family, sacrifice getting to be there for our friends' weddings, sacrifice being able to use our stuff to set up our home, sacrifice time spent with each other, and sacrifice going thousands of dollars into debt to follow what God has called Luke to. Our first married Valentine's Day won't include going to a restaurant, giving each other gifts, or getting flowers, but we'll get to see each other for dinner, and I'll probably light the candles I brought from the states.
So, in this crazy life we lead, we just have to learn to count our blessings, trust God who faithfully provides and protects us, and adapt.
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