<![CDATA[After 75 years of wonderful life on Earth, it's sometimes easy to forget that there are still plenty of simple experiences that some never really get the chance to absorb for themselves. My grandmother, at the age of 75 years, has just experienced the ocean for the first time in her life. This is also the first time my Dad, who's in his mid-50's, has experienced the ocean as well. My grandmother has been nervous, excited, afraid, skeptical, enthusiastic, and so many other emotions on this trip so far. She doesn’t get to experience any of the activities that we’re doing here, and never has she experienced another culture outside of the United States. If she were here alone, it would be total culture shock. She’s not alone, of course, and she always has somebody around to keep her company, but that doesn’t take much away from the immense differences she’s having to take in while she’s here. This place is full of exotic (to her) foods, music, people, languages, and more. Even the weather here is new for her (being really warm all the time does tend to wear her out a bit though). The most wonderful joy of all of this though, is that I can be a part of all of these new things with her. The excitement on her face with each and every new thing is really making it all worth it for my family. She’ll have so many stories to tell her friends at the senior center back home. They probably won’t believe some of the stories she’ll have… until, of course, they visit this site. 🙂 [charliead]]]>