I haven’t updated my blog for almost a whole year. It was simply because I had to work hard to support my life and study, so there was less time left for online writing. “Was she telling the truth?” Don’t doubt about it, for the answer is always positive. Last year, I paid off my tuition fee and my student loans—a total sum of 56,000 yuan (about 8,000 dollars), and lived on my own. For most of you with jobs, it is not a big deal. But for me, still a student, this is no less than a long march. Whenever people around me needed English services, I would sacrifice my eating and sleeping to earn the money. That’s how I have been surviving. Back to the point, as I will graduate this June, I want to discuss with you the heated topic of this season—the JOB market. To begin with, I have to confess that I still haven’t found a job yet. Any reason for that? I DON’T know. As you read this, you may assume that I am not excellent enough to get a job. Is this really the case? I can’t agree on that. I believe you can tell what kind of person I am from the following backgrounds. First, I am a postgraduate from a prestigious college, majoring in English Interpreting, and I do well in my study. Though a student, I have at least four years of translation experiences in various fields. Besides, I have provided several interpreting services for institutions and corporations concerning foreign affairs. Once I even worked as an interpreter for Chen Xiaohua, Vice Minister of Agriculture in a foreign affairs reception. As I mentioned before, this is my way of make a living in Beijing. Second, I have rich experiences in working with people from different cultures. If you happened to read my blog before, you may remember that I was a Chinese teacher in South Korea a year and a half ago. I worked with an American English teacher and some Korean English teachers in the English Department. What’s more, I was responsible for two training seminars for agricultural officials from developing countries. We now are good friends to each other and still keep in touch. Apart from these, I have great skills in organization and coordination, and I can speak three foreign languages, namely English, French and Korean. If you don’t believe that, there are two ways to dissolve your doubt. Option 1: you can test me online. Option 2: Leave your email address here, and I will send my language qualifications to you. This is not all of me. I am sensible in working, but sensitive in life. So I turn this aspect of me into creative writing, both in Chinese and in English. I can write novels, prose and sometimes poems. Here is my Wechat public account: Captain亚秀, on which I always publish my works and introduce my translation experiences. Seen from above, I am never a lazy or incompetent student. Here comes the question: Why couldn’t I get a DECENT job? There was a time that I sent my CV to one company, and got refused for a translation post. The human resource manager told me after reading my resume, “it seems that you’d better work for governmental institutions. I am afraid you cannot adapt to corporate working environment well.” Serious? How could he know that even before he interviewed me? After hearing that, I calmly replied to him on Wechat, “Thanks for your suggestion and guidance.” There was another time that I had INTERESTING experience in an interview. One employer promised that there might be a chance for staying after three-month internship without pay. It was not bad. But when I prepared to be on board, my predecessor warned me to take a second thought because no interns have ever stayed after the internship, which means the so-called “chance” was nothing but an empty promise. Isn’t it CRAZY? How could I survive in Beijing without any pay? So I gave up the golden chance of working for a senior governmental institution. This is not all of the cruel stories in the job market. Let's talk about SALARY issue. I must confess that it is the biggest joke I’ve heard from employers in Beijing. Some fresh graduates may not concern about it because they attach more importance to the collective hukou (registered permanence residence) quota. For them, a salary of 3,000 to 4,000 yuan is acceptable because companies or institutions they are going to work for can provide them with working lunch and dormitory. However, not all of us are interested in Beijing hukou, including me. Then I believe a pre-tax salary of 8,000 to 10,000 yuan is reasonable pursuit for a postgraduate, isn't it? Unfortunately, employers in the job market don’t think so. But I wonder if we could only get a monthly salary of 6,000 to 8,000, how much will be left after we pay tax, rents and living expenses? By the way, the monthly rent for a house within the six ring roads is at least starting from 3,000 yuan. I really want to ask them to put themselves in our shoes. Some interviewers asked me what my salary expectation was. I told them no less than 8,000 yuan before tax, and I got refused. They warned me that such a salary was rather unrealistic in today’s job market. So what? If I couldn’t make a living, why should I take the job? Here is nowhere but BEIJING! Some companies promised to give me offer after interview and urged me not to sign labor contract with others companies. So I did. But several weeks later, they told me the post was already occupied. So I replied to them after hearing such sad news, “Thanks for your KIND notice. I will apply for new jobs.” But right after that, I felt like a fool. Why should I trust the general principle that one’s deeds must match one’s words? There are other FUNNY stories about my job-hunting failures. If you want to know more, please leave a MSG here, and I will keep my blog updated. But it will be very kind of you if you can offer me a job after reading the blog. Do remember, I NEED NOTHING BUT A DESCENT JOB! Honestly speaking, I am always wondering, what’s wrong with the JOB market? What’s wrong with ME?

About the author: Ding Ling (Chinese: 丁玲; pinyin: Dīng Líng; October 12, 1904 – March 4, 1986), formerly romanized as Ting Ling, was the pen name of Jiang Bingzhi (simplified Chinese: 蒋冰之; traditional Chinese: 蔣冰之;pinyin: Jiǎng Bīngzhī), also known as Bin Zhi (彬芷 Bīn Zhǐ), one of the most celebrated 20th-century Chinese authors.[1]She was awarded the Soviet Union's Stalin second prize for Literature in 1951.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ding_lingAbout the Translator: Carol Ren (Chinese name: Ren Qiao), a postgraduate student majoring English Interpreting in China Foreign Affairs University, with Level-2 CATTI English Translation Certificate. Dec.28I invited Liufang and Yunlin to come over to see movies today. But Liufang also brought Jianru. I was supposed to cry with anger, but instead I laughed loud. They had no idea how Jianru would embarrass me! Her look, her behavior, all feels like my best childhood friend, so I couldn’t help getting close to her long before, and she gave me the chance. But later she made me feel depressed, which became unbearable. Whenever I thought of her, I would always hate the past, and regret my stupid actions: I wrote her eight letters, but got no reply. I don’t know what was going on in Liufang’s mind to bring Jianru. She knows quite well that I don’t want to recall the past. But she still took Jianru with her. How could she invite Jianru? Did she do it purposely to arouse my hatred? If so, she succeeded. Liufang and Yunlin didn’t notice what’s wrong with me, but Jianru felt it, though pretending not. She chatted with me freely as if nothing went wrong, which made me even more angry. I wanted to shout at her, but at the thought of the promise I had made, I gave up. Needless to say, the more I overreacted, the happier someone would be. So I swallowed my unpleasant feelings and joined the talk. As we arrived at Zhengguang Cinema earlier, we encountered a group of hometown girls at the door. The unnatural way they behaved themselves made me sick, so I just ignored them. But somehow I blamed the crowd for it. As Liufang chatted with them cheerfully, I left alone my invited guests and returned home without a word. I guess nobody but I would forgive what I had done. They criticized my wrongdoings, but none of them knew how hard I struggled to hide my true feelings. Some of them treat me as a weirdo, but with no idea how hard I tried to please them. But they never encourage me to say what is against my will, which in turn gave me time to reflect on myself and at the same time drove them away from me. Though late and quiet around, I still lay awake. What else would make me sad after having figured out something?

The day before yesterday, I got a call from my close friend. The moment I picked up my phone, I knew for sure that there was something wrong, for we usually did not phone to each other for easy talks. I remember what brought our last phone call is each other's heartbroken breakup. So before she could start the conversation, I asked her what was going on. She told me that she felt lost as if she stood on a crossroad. Her sad voice worried me. She said that her current life was too distressing to live. Since she is also a postgraduate student, I wondered whether it was all due to the great academic pressure existing among us. She didn't deny it this time. But she was never such a weak girl who could be wholly defeated by great pressure. Gradually, she started to complain about everything, her life, her future and even "herself". I could understand her complaints on her life and on her future, for I am in the same dillema. In pursuit of higher education, both of us sacrificed a lot, our job and our love. What's worse, higher education cannot promise us a brighter future. But when she began to complain about herself, like her age and her apperance, I could hardly put myself into her shoes, for I never take these as big deals. It is true that we are neither pretty nor ugly. We are just ordinary girls. But to be ordinary is neither our choice nor our fault. We are born to be that. She told in an envious tone that all her classmates are younger than her. But actually she is only one ot two year older than them. She also told me that there is a girl in her dormitory who always shows off her boyfriend in front of her and other girls. She was dissatisfied with her body weight, too. It seemed that everything went wrong in her and her llife... But according to what I know about her in the past 15 years, she was not such a superficial person. In her talking, she frequentedly mentioned a man in her laboratory. She said that that man always made fun of her age and her weight. Whenever she gained weight, he would "warn" her of being too fat. But in fact she is only one year older than me and she is much slimmer than me. That night she said she wanted to eat dinner and sweeties, but she couldn't. I asked why. She said she was afraid of gaining too much weight. If she gained any weight, she might probably be "warned" of being fat again. She confessed every day she went to gym not for good health but for losing weight. After hearing her whole story, I was extremely angry at that man who said mean things to her. I think it is appropriate to say that that strange man is the one who should be blamed for her loss. What added to my fury was that he is even not her boyfriend. What on else made him so mean? I tried to comfort my friend by cursing that strange man. "Never mind what he said. He is just a nut, a jerk and a weirdo. You don't need to listen to him.What is for to live by that man's standard? What he said doesn't matter! You shouldn't be bothered!" But after that, I couldn't help asking myself: Is it true that what man said never bothers me? Apparently not. All of sudden, all the unhappy memories due to man's harsh criticism flooded over me. I remembered how often I fought with boys for their bitter words and how often I cried alone behind all people. Some man made fun of my plain appearance, some of my "limited" intellectual, and some even of my modest origin. You may argue that these seldom happen to one's adulthood. But it is not the case. Two weeks ago, I posted on Wechat a picture of my foreign friend and I. A "jerk" who was once my college classmate gave me such a comment: "a girl with an awkard accent and a plain face could only mess around with this kind of man. " After reading that, I burst into tears, and I couldn't stop crying, even though my roomate and some of my close friends tried to comfort me. Now it still hurts me. It is like a painful scar on my tender heart. It reminded me that the first day I went to college, he also joked at my accent and apperance, by calling me "a southerner". Because of what he said, I spent one month practing, practicing to the hardest to change the way I spoke and the way I looked. A year ago, on hearing the news that I got the chance to work aboard, he also threw bitter words at me by indicating that I must earn my chance by "dishonest" means rather than by strengths and efforts. Can you image what kind of expressions I wore when I wrote these down? Sometimes, a girl lack of love experiences will become another joke for man. But that kind of joke is fine with me, for I have my own understanding on love. I am sure I know love much better than them. To put it simply, love is not a game, the more you play, the better you do. As Shakespear says "journey ends in lovers' meeting. " I remain single just because my journey is longer. That is all. But when it comes to "personal attacks", I could barely keep my head cool. It is strange that when we hear judgements and criticisms from the same sex, it doesn't hurt us that much, but when all these come from the opposite sex, it causes us trauma. I guess sometimes man barely notice that their words do poison us...Like spring blosoms

Since I have not written blogs for nearly one month, so I want to take the chance to say sorry for all my friends on the platform. It was not because I did not want to continue my writing, but because in the past 20 days I had no access to Internet, and what's worse, recently I have been fully occupied by school works. In fact, I have been back to my campus for a whole week. It seems that everything has changed in the past one year, so I had to spend those days adapting to my new school life. Here I want to share with you some of my thoughts. Now in my mind, school is a heaven, and study a blessing. Some of you may hold different opinions toward campus life. For example, some may probably argue that school is a hell, for everyday piles of school works stand in front of us, and suppressing exams also wait us. It is true of it, but only when you take this life for granted. In the past, I tended to take my days in school as another kind of vocation. I did not need to stress myself out for making a living, for my parents had already paid off my tuition fees and living expenses. I took these for granted as if my parents were supposed to support me, economically and psychologically. As for study, it was no more than a daily routine. It was not because I wanted to study, but because I was required to do so by both my teachers and my parents. However, thanks to my teaching life abroad, I have had opposite views now. Nowadays, I start to appreciate how precious my school life is. First of all, I want to make it clear that I have paid the expensive tuition fees all by myelf, and I support myself dependently. Since my life abroad last year taught me how hard it is to earn a living, I realize that my every moment in the school is charged to certain amount of money. If I do not want to waste my money, the only way is to learn as much as I can. The more I learn, the less I lose. Therefore, I need to take advantage of every resource I can get from the school and make full use of my time. My life here is based on my own investment. By the way, time is money, and money means a lot to me, especially when I still have lots of student loans to pay off. Second, I realize that school may be the last place where I can free myself from different kinds of social pressures. For instance, I do not need to trap myself in the trivialities of life, such as when to clean and when to cook, when to buy and when to pay. As long as I have enough money in my pocket, I can live comfortably and peaceful in the campus. Moreover, I no longer suffer that much from peer pressures. When I was exposed to social life, such questions from my peers frequently flooded over me, as "What do you do?", "How much is your salary", "Are you still single?“. But here in campus, the focus is on study, a much easier topic. Last but not least, I begin to appreciate and respect others' works. I used to think that some of my teachers were teaching meaninglessly, so I did not have to listen to them. But now, I think totally differently. Teaching is not a one-way process, but a two-way interation. Both teachers and students need to involve themselves in it. They need to be interactive and communicative in the process of teaching and learning. We have our own expectations on our teachers, but our teachers also have the right to expect something back from us. If we cannot be "professional" student, how could we expect our teachers to behave professionally? Apparently, we are not the center of the world, so no one is supposed to take care of us all the times. We cannot expect something from others if we ourself cannot fulfill the same expectation. Believe it or not, I feel so lucky that I can have a lot of time to study in my campus, and that I can take the time to prepare for what I want to achieve in future. By the way, I do feel I am blessed to live and study in my campus.

This New year differs from all the previous New Years I have experienced. It is all because of my eldest sister. She didn't appear at home even on New Year's Eve. Various from the popular one-child family, all in all our family has six members. I am the third child in my family. I have two elder sisters and one younger brother. Undoubtedly, the absence of my eldest sister made a family gathering of six an incomplete one. My eldest sister is 27 years old now. Even though she just graduated from her graduate school in June, she has has a stable job and a stable relationship. Her boyfriend is of the same age of her. They are campus couples. They graduated from the same unniversity and the same graduate school, and they are of the same major! Up until now, their relationship has lasted nearly 7 years, quiet a long time. In common cases, most people of their ages are married now, and some even have their sons and daughters. It is no surprise for me that they will get married someday in future. However, what surprises me is that they decide to get married so soon. My eldest sister phoned my parents she would spend this new year with her boyfriend's family. They would come back to see them on the fourth day of lunar new year and leave on next day. Yesterday my eldest sister brought her boyfriend back with her boyfriend's father. It is the second time that she brought him back, but the first time that her boyfriend's father met my parents. My sister forgot to tell my parents in advance that her future father-in-law would come. Few hours before she came back, she told them the news. As you can imagine, my parents were almost in panic right after they heard of it, especially my mom. She started preparing delicious dishes for lunch. Everyone in our house were in a state of tension, busy cleaning the house and helping mom cook. Without exaggeration, it was just like prewar period. After almost four-hour preparation, everything was perfectly done. Before we could take a break, my sister's future father-in-law drove to our house. My dad waited them in our frontyard right after he caught a sight of the car. While he welcomed them, my mom let us set the table for lunch.( Here is the picture of the inviting dishes that my mom cooked for them) That day's lunch seemed to be a hangover ceremony to me. My parents told a lot with my sister's boyfriend and her boyfriend's father. And they made their promises that they would treat her well. My mom also prepared my sister favorite dishes, and she kept telling her to eat more, as if she would never come back. Right at that moment, I realized my mom's true feelings. In fact she felt lost more than happy. So did I. To be honest, our house is a little bit small and shabby. Usually we three girls would sleep together in one room, my brother in another room, and so would my parents. But yesterday before we got to bed, mom told my brother to go to my uncle's house for one night, and left his room to my sister and my future brother-in-law. Not until that moment did I realize that my sister is not only my sister. Few months later, she will become a wife. And soon she will have her children and she will be a mom. All our roles will be multiplied. Deep at night, I could still hear the sound of turning over from my parents' room. Even though they talked in low voices, I could still feel it. My mom mentioned many times that she and dad wanted us to marry to a near place, especially after they knew my eldest sister would marry to a place far away from our hometown(Hubei Province). But I don't know whether I can live as they want or not, because I am in Beijing now. I am 23 years old. I am a graduate student and I am still single. Part of the reason for my singleness is because I have to take care of my parents' lives and their feelings. I am not sure where I will marry to. I believe no one does. But I hope oneday when I get married, my parents won't be as sad as they see my eldest sister off~

Today is Feburary twelfth, the twelfth day that I came back from South Korea. It is a little bit hard to believe that I can adapt to my life here so quickly. There is no network, no shopping malls, no coffee houses, but only an old TV in my house. Everyday I sweep frontyard, wash clothes, light fire and cook food. But you know what? The most surprising thing is that I do not find my life boring and tiring, even though now I am more like a village girl than the fashion girl I know at abroad. Believe it or not, I am no longer a "cell phone zombie", who cannot live without fiddling with her phone. And young as I am, I prefer sitting next to my parents to hanging out with my friends, even sometimes aimlessly. To sum up, I used to be a adventuous person, but now I am more willing to live a common and peaceful life. It surprises my parents the most, because they thought I am the same person as I was one year ago. Moreover, whenever my families and friends see me, they turn to comment on me, "you are maturer." I take it as part of compliment and part of criticism. On the one hand, I have become more attentive and more considerate. Instead of acting without thinking, I think before I act. On the other hand, I have become more cautious and more sophisticated. For example, I no longer do things that will do harm to me. Sometimes I feel no pity for homeless beggars or elderly people on the street. I do not trust people as easily and wholeheartedly as I did before. Sometimes I couldn't help questioning myself: Am I a Cruel Person? After back to home, I start to ponder over the following question: What have I learnt in the past year? Perhaps the most valuable lesson that I have learnt is how to tell right and wrong by myself. In the past, I always wanted to be independent, but more like economically independent. But in the year of 2015, I have become more psychologically independent. No matter what happened, I could trust my own decision, rather than rely on other people. I can decice what to do and what not to do, what should be done and what should not be done. I tbelieve every foreigner has the similar thoughts. Our life abroad teaches us how to live on our own, for better for worse.

To be honest with me, right in this moment, I still cannot believe that I am actually on my way to home! To some extent, coming back home is kind of blessing. Not until the monent I told a foreigner I met on a bus I would go back to China soon, and she sent her warm "congradulations" to me did I realize it. I admit that I am lucly to leave this country earlier than other foreigners. Don't wrong me. I did not intend to say that my life in Korea was either hard or unbearable, but intended to say that I miss my life at home so much. I bet any foreigner has the same feeling when it comes to his final day abroad. After a year of hard work in Korea, I really want to go back to see my families and friends, especially to try some of my Mom's cooking. My Mom is an expert on cooking. Every dish she cooked has her own special taste. No one can neither learn nor copy that. Such words as "delicious" and "tasteful" is far from enough to descrie how it actually taste. Therefore, I would like to borrow one special Korean expression here. In Korean it uses the phrase "Mom's craft" to describe either how good the taste is or how good Mom is at cooking. So my Mom's cooking is of "Mom's craft". Doesn't sound interesting? As you can see, the whole year in Korea influences me a lot. Before I realize it, I I unkowningly dress like a Korean, behave like a Korean, and even think like a Korean. Nowadays whenever I walk on the street in Korea, no one would doubt I am a Korean. Sometimes even some Korean people would ask me for directions. If I didn't talk, no one would find out the fact that I am a foreigner. It is true that a year abroad makes me more considerate and more independent. Moreover, when I began to pack my things, I found myself easily lost in memories. Frankly speaking, I didn't know many Korean people. I only know those who's always around me. But only memories with them are enough for me to recall of. During the past year, I worked with other English teachers in English department. We neither used Chinese nor Korean. We always chatted and discussed with each other in English. Even though sometimes we couldn't make ourself fully understood, our emotional ties could also become closer and closer. I am so grateful that I can meet such good Korean friends in this foreign country. On my last day in Korea, I want to introduce briefly to you three Korean friends of mine: my working partner, my partner's daughter, and another English teacher in my office. Believe it or not, my partner was like a mom to me, because she almost took care of every aspect of my life. Whenever I had any problem, she would be the first one to stand up to help me. She is only 31 years old, though a mom of a four-year old daughter. Other teachers in my office always made fun of us. In their words, we were more like a mom and a daughter~_~It is appropriate to say that she was my "Korean" mom. I appreciate it. In fact in my mind, it is a magic to have someone who is trully responsible for me in a foreign country. No doubt that I am a truly lucky dog. What's more, we always had our private meetings after work. Sometimes she would also bring her daughter with us. By the way, she has been pregnant for 7 months. I have a very good relationship with her daughter, too. We are like "kindergarden" friends(Since my Korean is so poor that I can only communicate with kids freely). Yesterday when they came to bus terminal to see me off, the little girl almost cried. She kept questionning her mom why I had to leave Korea. She explained to her that I have to go back to China to finish my graduate study and it is time for Spring Festival every Chinese is supposed to go back to their house and stay with their families. But you know what? Young as she is, she couldn't trully understand what it means. So she just begged me to stay, and kept winkng at me. She even made a promise in front of her strict mom that rom the day on, she would behave very well. She asked her mom that please don't let me leave. She never kisses other people willingly, but there is an exception: when her Mom told her she would probably never see me again, she hugged me and kissed me. It is kind of surprise to me. And she kept waving her little hands... Another Korean friend of mine is the youngest and prettest English teacher in my office. She is 28 years old, four years elder than me. In Korea, age determines everything. If someone is elder than you, you have to respect them all the time. It is rarely-seen that people of different ages can play around like friends. However, for the reason that I am a foreigner who speaks in English, these rules never work well between us. We freely exchanged our ideas on movies and music, on love(especially BF issues) and marriage, sometimes even on dreams and future. There is an interesting thing between us. She is a superfan of Hello Kitty, and I am very into one-eyed Minion. Whenever we travelled to different places, we would buy each other a Hello kitty or Minion gift. The day before yesterday, she just come back for her trip to Singapore. But ten minutes before I left, she made her way to the bus terminal and sent me a Minion purse she brought back from Singapore as a farewell gift. Long time agao, we promised that we would meet each other in China next year. At that time, she wiould bring me another Minion and I will send her another pink Hello Ketty. I also promise that the day of her marriage I will come back to Korea for her~-~. I will work harder to keep my promise~-~ On my last day in Korea, I wish my partner can give birth to a healthy and pretty baby, I wish her family a happy and fruitflul year, and I wish my Hello Ketty-like friend can find a good guy next year and an ideal husband in future. I wish one day I can come back to this small but warm country. I wish we can gather together some day in future~-~

Nowadays in China, if you want to get your driver's license, you have to spend a lot of time, money, and energy on it. What's worse, the driving tests are notoriously difficult. If unluckily you fail your tests, you have to line up and wait long for another chance. Heard from a close friend of mine, it almost costed him over 5,000 yuan in three months to get his driver's license in my hometown. During this process, he failed his road tests twice, so he also had to spend extra time and money. Compared with his bitter experience, I guess I am much luckier. I only spent no more than 15 hours within one month to get my Korean driver's license. What's more, it only costed me no more than 3,000 yuan. Some people may wonder whether a Korean driver's license can be used in China or not. Don't worry. There is always a way out, that is, to apply to transfer your South Korean driver's license into its Chinese equivalent. Doesn't it sound great? Considering that getting a driver's license at home is a "long, expensive, and arduous" process, many Chinese travellers to Korea choose to take full advantage of their tourist visa and get their Korean driver's license for futural transfer. It is said that in Seoul there are many tourist agencies having added the activity of getting a Korean driver's license into their travel package. To be honest with me, I got my driver's license in Korea for the reason that it is almost "mission impossible" for me to get that in China. I believe many Chinese travelers have the similar motive. So let's see together how easy it is to get a driver's license in Korea:1. Bring money, 3-4 photos, and your Alien Registration Card(ARC) to a Driver's License Agency, and apply for your trainning and tests in person. 2. Take 5-hour safety class, and you can apply for your written test. (In Korea your can choose to take your test either in Korean or in Chinese.~_~actually all you need is to remember all reference questions~_~)3. After presenting the result of your health check, you can take your test. In most cases, it is only about 40 or so questions, available in Chinese. 4. Having passed the written test, you can enter the second stage, that is, to receive 2-hour basic driving course and apply for driving course test (only available in Korean, so you have to remember the orders. But the contents are pretty simple: how to start and stop a car, how to use different lights, how to use wiper, and how to handle emergencies.)5. Having passed your driving course test, you have to take on-road driving courses (8 hours in total) and apply for on-road driving test. (There are four driving courses: A course/B course/C course/D course. You only have to drive one of them. But it is only available in Korean, so you need to follow exactly the Korean orders given by car navigator)6. If you passed on-road test, you can get your driver's license in one or two days. (so if lucky, you can even get your driver's license within one week~_~) Seen from the above, you may understand how easy the whole process is. However, in the meantime you may also notice that there exists potential safety problems. It is true of it. Nowadays there is an increasing growth of car accidents in Korea, let alone in China. For second-type Korean driving tests (the most common one), the passing marks are 60 out of 100. But in China, the passing mark is unreasonably high. For example, the passing mark for the written test is 90 out of 100. So dear China Daily bloggers, here comes my question: Do You Support the Idea of Getting a Korean Driver's License and later Transferring it into a Chinese One? Why or Why Not? (It will be very kind of you to present your opinion below, clearly and with details.)

As I mentioned on my last blog, I have the problem of low blood sugar (also known as hypoglycemia). For the reason, I have fainted many times in my life. Luckily, it doesn't threaten my life in most of the time. To reduce the incidence of hypoglycemia, I have to live a regular life such as three meals every day, and have to bring candies with me all the time. But before I tell you more about my stories, I need to make it clear that I am not always a sickly person. Instead, in most cases, I am in very good health. For instance, I haven't been ill in the whole year of 2015, not even caught a cold. Believe it or not, I can even count out how many times I have been to hospital in the past ten years. What's more, I am good at sports. During my college years, I run the fastest than any girl in my class, and I could also jump high and jump far. Before I went to college, I almost took part in every school sport carnival. In other words, if I don't tell you I am hypoglycemic, you will never think it will happen to me. Sometimes I couldn't help thinking if I had taken good care of myself in the past, I would probably not suffer from hypoglycemia so often. However, in my daily life I tend to neglect my own health just as most young people do. I have to admit that it is all because of me. The first time I fainted was when I took an English midterm test in class. I was in the second year of my middle school then. Young as I was, I cared about everything except health. At that time, I lived in school dormitory with my weekly living expenses of 25RMB. Since it was the first time that I could manage my own money, I preferred buying snacks to meals like every teenager girl. What's worse, craze for saving money also flooded over me. Every week on the last two days in school I would only have one meal each day. Yeah, I saved money from skipping meals. It is very stupid of me to risk my health for money and to look only the interest at present. Before I fainted, I only had one small bread for both breakfast and lunch on that day. As you could imagine, under exam stress with hunger, all of a sudden, my blood sugar level dropped too low to provide energy for me. So I shivered and fainted. I did not know how my teacher and classmates reacted to it. All I knew was when I woke up I was on a drip in hospital. From then on, I started to pay attention to my body conditions. Heard from a doctor, my blood pressure is much lower than most ordinary people. Apparently, it is a dangerous thing to my life. When I was in high school, once again I skipped my meals. But this time was not for money, but for study. Everyday I was told if I did not try my best I would be surpassed by other students, and would finally be left behind, which was totally unbearable to me. I saved my time from eatting and sleeping in order to study more. Thanks to my hard work, I was always one of the top students both in my class and in the school. What's more, I passed the College Entrance Examination with a reasonable result. But as I could remember, the heavy price was that I fainted more than 5 times in the whole three years. I suffered a lot from hypoglycemia. I should have reached a balance between life and study. I should have known the importance of good health. But when I was in college, I repeated the same stupid mistake. Admittedly, I am from a poor farmer's family, and I am the third child in my family. I have two elder sisters and one younger brother, all of whom are college students in Hubei Province. But my university is in Dalian, Liaoning Province, a city far from my hometown. My life in Dalian was hard, for my tuition fee and living expenses are relatively high. To ease economic burdens on my parents' shoulders, I cut down on my living expenses, and lied to my parents I did not need that much money they used to give to me. To support myself, I took low-paid parttime jobs and won school scholarships. Different from most of my classmates who are the only child in their families, money was always a big concern to me. I had to do reckoning every day, wondering "Did I have enough money for food?" or "Did I have extra money for fun?" So most of the time I bought myself the cheapest meal, and seldom had fruits. Not soon after, this kind of living style induced severe malnutrition, and with it the rate of fainting increased greatly. The most unforgetable fainting experience occurred in the last year of my college. In an early morning, I fainted suddenly and fell down, knocking my head on the ground. I lost my consciousness immediately. Thanks to my roomates and teachers, I was sent to hospital by ambulance timely, and was taken good care in ICU (Intensive Care Unit). Were it not for them, I would be a dead man now! The reasons why I wrote such a long blog are as follows: firstly, I want to draw your attention to your own health. I want you to take good care of yourself, and never risk your health for something else. As the saying goes, "your body is the capital of revolution"; secondly, I want you, especially young people, to answer carefully what matters most in different phrases of your life, and what is the right way to achieve something you want; last but not least, I want you to think over and over again what would you do if you saw such an emergency happened right in front of you, or if you had the similar accident. I want you to equip yourself with first aid knowledge. Sooner or later, it will benefit you and people around you!

On this Friday, we had the last Chinese class in my winter camp. The main topic of that day was the Lantern Festival(Yuánxiāo jiē 元宵节), which is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunar calendar. To expose my students to its traditions and customs, I taught them how to make lanterns in class. We used glue, scissors, one small led light, two paper cups, and red papers and threads. As is well-known, everytime when students touch sharp things, a teacher will get extremely nervous. The same goes for me. In case they might hurt themselves when they cut things, I did the most difficult part for them. But unfortunately, when I was cutting a paper cup that day, I cut my own finger. I got a deep wound on my third finger. It started bleeding. At that time, none of my students noticed it, and they were all asking for my help. So I had no time to clean my wound. Since my students are all either third-grade or fourth-grade students, I hid it from them so that they would not be in panic. In order to clean the blood, I walked around to find tissue paper. But I failed. There was no tissue paper in my classroom. While one student was calling loudly "teacher, please help me", I grabbed a piece of red paper, wrapped up my wounded finger, held it hard, and walked directly to help him. When they finished their own lantern, they got excited. With content smiles, they left my classroom. Right after my class was over, I rushed downstairs to my office, and asked one of my colleague for help. She took some medical measures. While cleaning my wound, she questioned why I didn't show my wounded finger to my students. I told her I thought they were too young to accept it. But she said if she were I, she would probably show them the wound, for she thought students had to adapt to classroom emergencies and learn how to handle them. All of a sudden, I realized that I might be too protective of my students. Is it a good thing or not? I wonder if you were in the similar situation, what will you do to handle emergencies in your classroom?