I never thought I'd...Thursday

Have you ever done something that you never thought you'd do?  Yeah, me too.

I never thought I'd marry a Honduran.  Ever in my life.

Hubs and me in my Honduran house.

When I joined the Peace Corps, I specifically remember telling my PC friends that I couldn't imagine ever marrying a host country national - the cultural differences seemed immense and hard to overcome.  Language barriers, food differences, lifestyle differences, different moral codes.  How could it ever possibly work???

And then in March 2010 - I married a Honduran.  I sometimes still can't believe it myself.

And although my Spanish is pretty decent and we rarely have Spanish-English communication problems - we still have food preference differences and lifestyle differences and many other differences.  And sometimes it seems impossible to overcome these differences while at the same time they seem so small and insignificant.

And in all reality, I think most of our conflicts tend to be the exact same conflicts that all married couples have: who washes the dishes, whose turn is it to change the diaper, husband is golfing too much, wife takes seven hours to grocery shop, and we both pretend to need to use the bathroom when we want a secret minute of our own (i.e. Can you watch Evan while I use the bathroom quick sometimes = I'm going to go read five chapters of my book in the bathroom all by myself).

I'm not sure when I changed my mind about marrying a Honduran.  I don't think I really changed my mind completely.  I think I met Ivan, then felt like I wanted to marry HIM (as opposed to any Honduran).  And it's not like we are similar at all - we come from very different backgrounds and we have had practically opposite life experiences.  When I met him and we started dating, I just had a feeling that he was the one.  I knew shortly after we got together that I was probably going to marry him - eventually...after years of immigration paperwork and bills and expensive visits and interviews with embassies.

And the adjustments have been hard - him moving here, trying to learn English, adjusting to new food and new ways of doing things.  Our first year of marriage was tough and even now it takes a lot of work.  But it's worth it.  I remember when I was still in Honduras and I talked with a Peace Corps employee who had married a host country national 20 some years earlier - and she said that she loved her husband but if she had to do it all over again, she wouldn't marry him - that the cultural differences were so intense and her marriage took so much work, that it almost took the joy out of it.  She said she didn't regret it, but that if she had to make the decision again, she would make a different one.  Her opinion has stayed with me all this time - constantly making me wonder if in 20 years I would think the same thing.

On our honeymoon in Hersey Park.

Luckily, as of now, I would still marry my husband.  Hard work and all.  I think all marriages are hard and require a lot of communication, understanding, flexibility, and forgiveness.  Yes, my husband is obsessed with WWE wrestling, but I can forgive him for that.  :-)  And he hates garlic and most Italian food, but I can forgive him for that too.  :-)

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What is something you never thought you'd do?

What is the hardest thing about being married?

What do you do when you need ten minutes of peace and quiet?