From the Ground Floor Up

 I suppose I could use this post to talk about my return to the US of A, but I shan't.  I have made this kind of transition many times, and I don't really know what to say about it.
  What I will talk about is my job.  This week, I have been part of a small crew working on refinishing a wooden floor.  I couldn't help but see some parallels to real life.  This project has been an interesting one from the start.  The biggest reason for this is I have never done anything like this before.
  When one thinks of refinishing a floor, the first thing that probably comes to mind is shiny lacquer and a brilliant, shimmering coat of finish.  However, first, we had to take off the old finish.  We literally had to sand the old veneer off.  For a moment, I thought that, if I were the floor, that would hurt pretty bad.  You thought you were gonna get a new skin, but instead, your current skin was torn off.  How many times does that happen in your life?  And you pray, "Lord, I thought you were gonna make me better." And He just smiles and says, "You can't see what's next."
  We ran into some unexpected problems in this project too.  Things that made for a lot of work that we had not expected.  These problems lead to changes in our schedule.  We had originally planned for three to four days to finish, and tomorrow we start the fifth day of the assignment.   Not to mention going back to work in the evening to stay within this altered timeframe.  I'm permanently reminded that His times are not ours.
  I guess in all this, I'm really reminded of God's sovereignty. His control and presence have been evident in the workplace.  We have had days that made us want to pull our hair out, but on Wednesday, I honestly didn't want to stop working because things were clicking so well.
   In conclusion, before perfection and the final product, the object in question must be broken down in order to be rebuilt, and that object has absolutely no say in the length of time it will take. We could compare me to the floor, to tell you the the truth, the floor has yet to complain.  

McDonaldomics

This post is a little late, but I've been busy these last several days.  

  So, we're in the mall on Sunday night, after church, wondering what to eat.  As usual, I was trying to spend very little money, so I started to try to figure out what's cheap.  I was informed by Flor, that the Big Mac combo at McDonald's is cheap.  She proceeded to tell me why: 

  The McDonald's Big Mac is one of the products that is used to measure global inflation.  They compare the prices of Big Macs in every country in which they are available, which is almost every country.  As I have mentioned before, inflation is ridiculously high in Argentina.  So, the Argentine government takes care of the situation in the same way that it usually does, by providing a subsidy.  So, the Big Mac is partially subsidized by the government to hide the Argentine inflation rate from the rest of the world.  The Big Mac combo costs 21.90 pesos argentinos while other combos list between 35-45 pesos.  Of course, the Big Mac isn't listed on the big signs, it's on a little one off to the side, or not even listed at all.  

  This would be the appointed time where I rip on the government for all the stuff it does, but I shan't.  I just thought the whole situation was kind of fascinating. The problem, the solution, and how it related to me. 

  Just some interesting observations from a hungry, broke, international, college student.  

PS I know that some of you may be disappointed, but I'm pretty sure that was the first Big Mac I'd ever eaten.  What can I say? I'm just a Quarter Pounder kind of guy.