Branching Out

Sometimes being married to an Asian is a little interesting. I love it, but it has definitely broadened a few of my horizons, that is for sure. I remember our second week of dating Nathan took me to eat a typical Vietnamese dish--Pho. I had never had it before, but it was really good. We left the restaurant, and he kindly informed my that I had passed his test--if I couldn't handle a little Vietnamese food, I wasn't a keeper. I even tried the tripe floating around in his bowl of Pho--bonus points. But then there was the time when we were in Philadelphia with his family, and we went to eat Chinese Dim Sum... I still tried many things, but definitely was not a favorite of mine. 

So Saturday morning we had a hot date to the Asian supermarket. Nathan had mentioned earlier in the week that he needed to go, and I told him to wait because I wanted to go with him. I hadn't been to an Asian market, and as soon as we walked in, I started asking a million questions. "Babe, what does this say?" "Babe, what is bean curd used for?" "Babe, why do we only use these types of noodles--look how many there are." Nathan never really had any good answers to my questions. I told him I'm now convinced he's not that Asian--probably only knew the two classic dishes he cooked all the time. Nathan just laughed, but claimed it's because the store had things from all over Asia, not just Vietnam. 

Anyways, we checkout--had our curry powder, big sack of Jasmine rice, shrimp balls, and hoisin sauce, and we were on our way. But we can't forget the husband's favorite snack: 

Squid shreds. Nothing like watching your husband pull apart dried squid and eat it like candy. And then want to kiss you. Um, no thanks. Brush your teeth first, babe. 

Anyways, so we had my parents over for dinner on Saturday night. They hadn't ever been over to our place, so it was nice to have them over and for them to see where I was now :) And Dad got to meet Rohan, our great dane, which he was pretty excited about. Nathan prepared everything for Vietnamese spring rolls for us, and we taught my parents to roll them. Mom was a little bit skeptical, but Dad was excited--Dad will try anything. Mom always has been the picky one, but she did pretty well--she rolled and ate three of them. She loves lettuce wrap type foods, so these were pretty similar, except for she was a little weirded out by the rice paper wrapper. 

 Dad with Rohan, who was VERY happy to have lots of extra attention

 Mom and Dad rolling their first spring rolls 

So yeah, I've enjoyed the new experiences I've had with Nathan and I've enjoyed getting to know his culture more and more. And I'm excited for all of the things he will cook me in the future :) 

Zzzzzzzzzz....

Right now my husband is sleeping, it’s almost eleven o’ clock. He’s exhausted from being out of town and driving for the last few days. And knowing him, he’s sleeping pretty soundly, sprawled out across the entire bed because I’m not home. I won’t be home for two more hours, and then I’ll try and quietly sneak in without waking him up. It’ll be one in the morning, but I’ll quickly hop in the shower because I’ve been cleaning up diarrhea and pee all day today, and hospitals are just gross. So he’ll hear that. I’ll slink into bed, and Nathan will roll over and hold me tight for a minute, give me a kiss, and quickly fall back asleep. And I’ll think to myself just how much I missed my husband while he was gone for two days, and how lucky I am, and then I’ll pass off into dreamland too.

Sometimes it sucks that this is an all-too-common experience for us. Married life is so fun and has been so wonderful, but it is also so busy. Busy because we are both just so dang busy. Because of school, and jobs, and trying to fit in time for families and friends, and exams, and the little random things that seem to come up each week. There are days where Nathan and I are sitting next to each other in bed, but it feels like I haven’t spent any time with him in days. We try and make time for us to do fun things together, we make plans… but then I fall asleep at seven o clock at night and leave my husband up all alone. Or Nathan will pass out at eight, and I’ll start studying for exams. Yep, we’re just tired.

Yeah, I know this is normal life for millions of other people out there, and that so many people are much busier or have more complicated schedules than we do, but hey… I’m a newlywed. So I’d like to spend pretty much all my time with that handsome husband of mine, but that’s definitely not our reality. I’m looking forward to the semester coming to an end, and then having a little bit more time with my husband—for about a month. And then it all starts back up again.

But man am I sure grateful for my husband—he is so patient. He is patient as I sit at my computer and take over our whole bed with books and notes and papers nearly every day. As I stay up late and don’t go to bed with him because I have another exam or test or homework to do. As I complain and whine about having to be in classes and the stupidity of the system. When the alarms go off at 5am every day and wakes him up, even though Nathan doesn’t even need to be awake for three more hours. When I come home dead tired because I went to school and work and all I want to do is go to bed right away. And he is more than patient—I know he’s always supporting me too. Tells me to go study when he knows I don’t want to, but I need to. Calls me and asks me how school was while I’m driving home. Prays for me to drive safely every single day, prays for me that my tests go well, that I’ll be able to get everything done and have good days. Yeah, I sure got pretty lucky. Love that guy.