Frustration

Stinky River looks a bit perturbed. I would be perturbed too if I was a sickly, polluted green color. Even the water bugs sound angry, rising together in furious buzzing. And this morning a mosquito purposely charged right at my forehead – twice. Perhaps I am doing that psychological thing called forecasting or foreshadowing or, okay, none of those things. The thing where you see your own anger or frustration in other people (or in my case, bugs). I wouldn’t say I am perturbed, but I am definitely given to spontaneous frustration. There are a number of things in life I find particularly aggravate frustration. Packing, calculating grades, drawn out dinners, excess perspiration, large numbers of vicious mosquitoes, moving, switching countries, an unhappy stomach, nitpicky etiquette rules, messiness, capricious internet connections, and dizziness. In light of all these things, I am faced with a number of questions and uncertainties.

1. Why does everything take twice as long as expected, 5x as long if it involves any type of government office?
2. How do I manage to get so little marked off my to-do list, yet each day seems to drag on forever?
3. Why is it that at the end of the semester, there are always missing grades?
4. Who created all these nitpicky etiquette rules for weddings and why do we have to follow them?
5. Speaking of which, why are there always two envelopes in wedding invitations? What is the point? It seems like a lot of wasted paper to me.
6. Why does Skype always cut out when you need it the most?
7. Why does dizziness make you feel tired?
8. Where will the Brennans live next year? Am I about to say goodbye to them indefinitely, or will we get to be friends in California?
9. I came to China two years ago with two suitcases. So how do I have so much stuff?
10. Why do we move so much?
11. Why did I decide it would be a good idea to get a masters degree? Is that really necessary?
12. Why do I keep having to remind myself to breathe? Isn’t that supposed to be one of those unconscious activities?
13. Do we really have a breakfast banquet tomorrow morning at 7:30am? Who has breakfast banquets?
14. Why does the length of time left here seem inversely proportional to the length of my to-do list?
15. And seriously, what is the deal with these mosquitoes??

These questions sound hypothetical, but really - if you've got answers, I'd love to hear them.