When we traveled through London on our way to South Africa we took in the usual tourist attractions such as Buckingham Palace; Big Ben; afternoon tea; the double-decker buses; and the oldest of British traditions, McDonalds. Well admittedly McDonalds actually has nothing to do with London, but the kids appreciated a quick trip to the Golden Arches for some dessert while we spent an evening in Piccadilly Circus.

That night Asher was quite excited to get a McDonald’s milkshake so far away from home. As I watched our server, Nick from Russia, make the shake I grew a little concerned that Ashe would be incredibly disappointed. This is because the milkshake was closer in consistency to chilled chocolate milk than anything resembling something with ice cream in it. As expected, Asher did not like the milkshake and despite our offers to buy him something else “suffered” through finishing the rest of the chocolaty drink.

The next day Michele and I talked with Ashe about his thoughts concerning the McDonald’s milkshake. He informed us that he would never again get a milkshake from London again. I was very much inclined to agree with him! In talking through this more, though, we discussed trying to not immediately make conclusions about what we observed.

In the case of his milkshake, the family up with some possible, different reasons for why it was not very thick:

• Milkshakes in London are made that way.
• That specific McDonalds makes milkshakes that way.
• The milkshake machine could have been broken.
• Nick, the Russian McDonalds employee, prefers to make milkshakes that way.
• The rest of the world outside of the United States makes milkshakes that way.

We all decided that we would have to make many more (delicious) observations in order to gain a better understanding of London milkshakes and better deduce whether or not we will ever get one there again.

This is actually an important moment for our family to remember during our time as cross-cultural missionaries. The “Milkshake Moment” is a microcosm of part of our lives living and working in a foreign context. We are going to make a lot of observations of new and different sights, sounds, tastes, and people. Instead of making potentially inaccurate, quick conclusions, we have to become the Sherlock Holmes and Watsons of cultural investigations. Our family has to continually hone our powers of observation, always paying attention. We have to take our time in making our conclusions in order to be more accurate cultural deducers. Unfortunately, this kind of deduction is not necessarily “elementary” but we hope to continually get better at this crucial skill over the coming years.

Here are some pictures from our time in London: