Looking forward to Asia

Sometimes I catch a scent of something on the wind (I'll not lie, it's usually the scent of rotten vegetation or animal products) and it will remind me of walking around in the 3rd world. It really is a lot different than an American town or city, the smells of food, tea, body odor, rotten food, sewage, animals, perfume, incense, and exhaust all blend together to make this wonderful 3rd world aroma. You really grow to miss it when you are away from it. (When I stepped off the plane in Nicaragua last year the first breath made me think, "Oh, yes! I'm alive now, I can smell the evidence." I know that's wierd...I won't deny it)
Anyhow, I caught a smell like that recently and it made me look forward to Asia this summer. Here are the top 7 things I like about Asia in reverse order.
7. Tea - I can drink it all day, I do drink it most of the day. I bring a suitcase full each time I go so I can have it at home. I love the green tea, the wulong, the pu'er, all of it.
6. Food - Get all the gluttony out of the way early, but it's fresh, healthy, and tastes very good. Even the rat.
5. Hundreds of kids running around playing on the street. I get tired of American kids and their indoor lifestyle with excessive video games (I know I did this too, but I am sorry I did) and their solitary, brooding personalities. It's a joy to walk down a street and hear children laughing. American kids are too over-medicated and over-protected to ever play in large groups laughing anymore.
4. Hospitality - you try to buy a painting from the old lady, she will fix you tea (see #6) and make you sit down and drink it with her, though you speak not a word of her dialect. Your students will try to invite you over for dinner. You can't go near their parents without being offered tea, cigarettes, or anything else.
3. Native believers - you want to see a real Christian? Go find one that can go to jail if they run across the wrong official. And then watch them share Christ with all the people they meet. Where do you think their treasure is? Do you know the Almighty like they know the Almighty?
2. Ethnic worship - you get into the songs. They aren't like Gadsby's hymns, but they'll do.
1. My fiance - Chinese women weren't my thing, until I met one. ;-) I miss her. I'm ready to see her again. I'm ready to take her home.