A Little June Gloom

I've been feeling a little blue lately. Maybe it's the time of year (Father's Day makes me a little sad; this year is the third without my dad); maybe it's the frustrations of wedding planning; maybe it's the fact that we have yet to find our community of friends here in Shanghai. 

But today, I laughed and I laughed hard and I felt better. I started Mandarin classes this week with five other women: a Russian married to a German, a Thai married to a Brit, a German born in Turkey, an American who has lived in Ireland the last 10 or so years, and an Asian American from Diamond Bar. At one point today, we were trying to put sentences together that we could use when ordering a meal. It took us so long to actually formulate a question that finally, we all burst out laughing, knowing full well that even the most patient of servers wouldn't wait to hear our order in Mandarin and would simply ask what we wanted in English -- our solid efforts wasted. It was a fleeting moment, maybe insignificant to the other women, but for me, it felt so nice to let go and laugh and commiserate with fellow females also far away from home.