Fatigue/Frustration

It is said that homesickness ebbs and flows, generally making an appearance around months 3, 6, and 9. I've been doing decently well, with minor occurances. For me, missing home and all that means usually is only a dull background ache (previous episodes of homesickness excluded), as opposed to a sharp pain. The pain seems to have shifted to the foreground in the last few weeks, and I'm having trouble deciding if it's because I really want to go home to visit, or I'm simply tired and lacking in patience (it is, of course, possible that both are true).

I find myself getting angrier and angrier at small situations. I no longer have patience with the older students at school. I'm feeling more frustrated on a daily basis (both in school and out), and I'm not really sure what to do about it. My guess is that I'm adjusting to kindergarten, new hours, a new commute, and new germs, so it's to be expected to feel rundown and cranky.

Luckily, one of my largest frustrations (not being able to effectively communicate in Chinese) is getting slightly better. Today, I was actually able to understand one of my kindergarten students speaking in Chinese! I mean, that's a whole sentence pattern I got. Sure, it was a 4 year old's sentence pattern, but you gotta start somewhere. She told her friend "Ni meiyou he tang le!" (You didn't drink soup!) He ate his lunch very quickly and was already asking for fruit, when she hadn't even finished her rice, so she assumed he hadn't had any soup yet. It took me a second and then I told her that Terry had already had some soup. Finally it registered that I understood a whole sentence spoken quickly! Yippee. It only took 7 months...