Detroit Redeemed

After the car incident, I've been sort of down on Detroit and the whole Michigan thing. Well, I've come around and for the moment, am really happy to be here. Our week trip to South Haven helped a lot (pictures and post coming soon...) This morning I set out to pick up a few items from the Oriental Market. Long story short, after 3 different stops, I have everything I need and I had such a fun time meeting an old lady from Taiwan who owns this dinky little (very dirty) store, an old man from the Philippines, and some really nice Middle Eastern men. Laura, the lady from Taiwan, just loved the kids, fed them cookies (I was a little nervous judging from the looks of the store, but it seemed to make her so happy), and she just fell in love with Michael. The man from the Philippines was so nice and kept asking me questions about some festival. I couldn't really understand everything he said, but he was so helpful in my search for red curry paste and lomein noodles. Finally, I walked into an Eastern bakery (for all of you who live here, it's called Eastern Bakery and it's on the NE side of 16 and Dequindre. It's awesome!) They have this huge hot oven thing and were making fresh breads/pita/etc. It reminded me so much of my days in Jerusalem. I haven't had bread like that since I had been there. The old men working there couldn't speak much English, but they were busy slaving away over the hot ovens. I bought a big bag of bread fresh from the oven and the kids and I ate fresh, hot flat bread on the way home. I feel so lucky to live in such a culturally diverse area. Now, if we can just keep all of the wheels on the newly fixed Suburban...