Just like dandylions

Last Thursday was a bad day. The lesson I taught was not as engaging as I thought it would be and, not long after getting home, I was told that Joanna (my Filipino hostess) had given birth. I was happy for the family, of course, but I also felt nervous about having to do so much work in a house with a newborn baby in it...

Last Friday was a really bad day. I found out that I would have to prepare two assignments over the weekend - not just one. I was also not able to stop thinking that my next lesson would be as bad as the previous one.

The weekend started with a lot of anxiety but my will to improve led me to work hard and, more often than not, through the baby girl's crying. By Sunday evening, I was already feeling positive again.

This week has been going well! The lesson I taught on Monday went better than last time; yesterday I was fortunate enough to see the beautiful colours of the twilight; and today the quality of my teaching improved ever so slightly.

All in all, this whole experience has been truly enriching. It's not nice to feel that having a meal or a shower is too time consuming; and it's definitely not great to have so little time off that walking to and from the bus stop feels like a mini-vacation! But I'm trying not to focus too much on this aspect. In the end, this is all just like the dandylions I see on the gardens I walk passed every morning - one day the wind will blow and all the spores will be gone...