After a very long winter break, school is back. I missed my students very much and they missed me too!  I impressed them with my growing knowledge of the very difficult language of Mandarin!  Seeing the students again was the highlight of my week. Dealing with adults ~ not so much.

The daily struggle of not being fluent in the language can be so frustrating. Miscommunication is the biggest problem. Arriving at school to teach, getting into the first class only to be told then that grade 1 classes were cancelled for the morning ~ its a problem. The teachers each assume that the others have told me, when in fact no one has.  This was just one of several miscommunication issues of the week.

When you are abroad, its always good to remind yourself to be patient and not expect things to run smoothly every day. And every time something like this happens, I remind myself that I am here for the kids, they love me and I love them. 

Second semester is here, and I am so happy to be back !!  I will just remind myself every day that seeing the kids smiles and getting hugs is worth every issue I need to deal with.