Thnigs I did not use to know...

Things I did not know, feel, think, or do before living in China:

• Diligently carry an umbrella at the slightest hint of rain
• Consider drinking hot water to satisfy my thirst
• Did not know that ice is not readily available everywhere.
• Regularly take a taxi or bus to traverse a city
• Use a bicycle as a regular method of transportation. (At least, not since I was a kid)
• Travel by train or bus from one city to another
• Wear a hat, coat, and sometimes gloves-indoors...while teaching, or just sitting around the house.
• That rice, vegetables, and noodles would be considered breakfast.
• Bargain with a street vendor for some item I wanted to buy. 
• Did not know that milk does not taste the same in every part of the world. 
• Did not know I would need to have tourist visa before I could board my flight to Australia from China
• Other than a 3 hour trip to Canada in the mid 90's, travel to a foreign country. Now, I have been to 3: China, Thailand, and Australia
• Consider a city of 2.5 million people to be a "small city"!
• Consider God to be a "western" God.
• That many of the songs in the Chinese hymnal are the same ones we sing back home.
• That it could be tricky to maneuver through cultural differences.
• That cultural differences could be such a fine teacher. 
• That I could survive 5 years in a foreign country.