I found this picture on the Internet by chance and I like it. Here I'm sharing it with you. It is always this case that we see the success on the surface, but have no idea how much we have to do to gain it.

Yesterday, I had the first English class in my lifetime. At first, I was so nervous and worried that I might screw it up, but it turned out to be OK. The nervousness was gone in a few minutes after I started the class. What’s important was that the students were all very active to respond to me. So I would like to thank them a lot. After finishing the review of the words, expressions and grammar points they learned in the last class, I divided them into two groups and asked them to name their groups by themselves. One was named Mackdaddy by the girls and the other was named Dark. C by the boys. Then I would give them one point after they gave the right answer to the exercise or they guessed the right meaning of any new word. I told them the group which got the higher points by the end of class could have the right to ask for a song from the other group. Thanks to this contest, they were all very active to answer my questions. Through this experience, I have realized that it’s not easy to keep the class space, because some energetic students might have questions questing our explanation or they might whisper to others when we have to take time to monitor the discipline. Besides, it’s challenging for us to plan for different activities or tasks in order to motivate the students and interact with them. I will have to learn all these from other experienced teachers. Anyway, there is still a long way to go....

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving”. This year is surely going to be a milestone in my life, because I have been planning to make a substantial change of the type of my work. I have to admit that it’s a big challenge for me. To start a brand now type of work, it calls for the great courage to say goodbye to the previous career and the frame of mind to start a new one. Early this year, I was facing a little fear, the fear of not having the courage and ability to do it, but after several interviews, I came to realize that as long as I overcame that fear, I would have the opportunity to get what I wanted i.e. being an English teacher. Now here I am. I have gained the new job and I’m very satisfied with it. Last week, I came on board and became one official member of the English teacher team. It’s so exciting that I could not wait to share with you. Now what I need to do is putting myself in a good frame of mind and learning hard from others to get myself improved. It’s a good beginning and I will keep on taking down interesting things about my new career. So, the new journey has begun! :)

I spent half a day reading the famous book “To Live” which is one of the master works of Chinese writer Yu Hua. The movie shot based on this book is a classic movie in China reflecting life philosophy and social changes. Reading the book is like watching a movie. It seems that we have witnessed the experiences of the protagonist and the transformations of Chinese society with our own eyes.[imgid=0]The first scene of an old man driving an old ox caught my attention. The man named Fu Gui is the protagonist in the book and he also names his old ox Fu Gui. It makes us sigh about how life changes a man. He tells his own stories to the narrator and Yu makes him put his own story in the first person to make it real to the readers. The yong Fu Gui simply fools around every day with women and money. As the only heir to the family property of more than a hundred mu farmlands, he has no family responsibilities at all. Later, he is deceived by a gambler Long Er and loses all the money, farmlands and real estate to that cunning guy. It’s not until that time does he feel scared and sorry. He is scared because he and the whole family will has no money at all and he will lose his position of a property heir. He feels sorry because his parents, his pregnant wife and his little daughter will have no money or shelters and they will all have to suffer poverty because of his foolishness and impenitence. His father becomes sick because of angers to him and died shortly after. Then he has set on foot of his misfortune. What I feel unimaginable is that when he is on the way to the town to buy drugs for his sick mother, he is caught and then forced to join the Kuomingtang Army to fight against the Liberation Army. All this is caused by a little boy who plays a prank at the gate of the county magistrate. If he did not help the little boy to knock on the knocker, he would have not fight with the doorman and would have not been compelled to do labor work in the army. Having seen the death of many innocent lives in the battle fields, he feels grateful for his survival and eagers to return home to meet his mother, his wife and children. Sadly, his mother passed away not long after he was forced into the army and she even did not know where her son was when she closed her eyes to the world. His daughter Feng Xia becomes mute because of a high fever. He is glad to meet his son who is about three years old. Then they started their life anew together. However, life seems to play with him. Several years later, his son died when donating blood to his head teacher when she is giving birth to a child. Has family have suffered years from the social transformation starting from agrarian reform, severe famine, community movement, Cultural Revolution etc. When his daughter comes of age, fortunately she marries a decent man. Life teases him again that his daughter leaves him forever when giving birth to a boy. At that time, his wife is heavily sick. Although he has been trying not to let her know about the death of their daughter, she guesses it finally and one night, they sit together beside the tombs of their son, their daughter and their parents. Tears roll out of my eyes and I cannot imagine how can a man’s life be so tragic. Shortly after his wife passes away and leaves only Fu Gui and his little grandson Ku Gen. However hard it is, life has to go on. His grandson is the drive for him to live on until one day the poor boy was choked to death when eating beans. He regrets for having not taken good care of his grandson, but all is too late. He will never come back to him anymore. He is the only one left in the family. If I tell you the story of Fu Gui, you must have the same feeling with me that he has a tragic life. He intends to start afresh and be with his family, but it turns out that he loses every one of them. He desires a better life, but poverty of the society has dragged him down to disappointment. To live or to survive; this is a question. For us, he has survived from the war, disease, reform and death. However, for him, this is what life is all about. It is about suffering from what he has to suffer and living the life he has to live. He lives to live but not to survive. Every one of us has a different life to live. Every kind of life exists for some reason and belongs to someone. No one can doubt its existence and no one can live others’ life. So be ourselves and live our own life to our best interests. I like the following sentence and would like to share with you. Don’t let the noises of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice and most importantly have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. 不要让别人的看法淹没了自己心底的声音，最重要的是，要有勇气跟随自己的内心与直觉。

I remember when I was in college, “The Way to Success” was once the writing topic in one examination. Now I would like to pick it up again and share my experiences and opinions with all of you. A lot of people are wondering why others can gain success, like Jack Ma, entrepreneur of Alibaba, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, etc. Some of them are millionaires when they are very young. Most of us can do nothing but admire them and name them biggest winners. In interviews, in most cases, they will say that their success has been gained through great efforts instead of talents. People are born to win, but not to lose; yet, no one is born with success. Success can only be achieved by great endeavors and through overcoming a lot of difficulties. There is no shortcut to success. Anyone who intends to achieve success without efforts will surely fail in the end. To be successful, one must set a goal and do whatever he can to gain it. For example, the hero in the famous novel The Great Gatsby was successful with his career and he has endeavored to achieve what he deserves. He sets the goal of becoming one member of the upper society under the drive of winning back the love of his beloved girl. The goal can be categorized not only materially but also spiritually. Pavel Korchagin in the classic inspiring novel How the Steel was Tempered is a man pursuing spiritual fulfillment. His goal is to be a glorious communist soldier and make his contributions to the communist career. Baptized by cruel wars and ruthless invasions, he is being tempered into a spiritually strong man. Despite blindness and paralysis, he has never given up his goal and his heroism has inspired many generations. We would rather act steadfastly from now on than only marvel at others’ success. Effort is the factor that really matters. “Yesterday is history; tomorrow is mystery; today is a gift and that’s why it’s called present”. So let’s go into action right away and seize the moment! Fighting!

Everyone has his or her own views on the word “inequity”. Few of us can find proper solutions to deal with it. Nearly half a million children die of hunger or various diseases in Africa. How can we find practical ways to help those poor children? We have to admit that what Bill Gates has said is true: It is full of complexity. However, we have to and we should cutting through the complexity in order to find solutions to the problem. Some help might have been given to them while there are still much more in need. We cannot pay too more caring to their harsh situations. Sometimes we have to wonder that why humans have to bear inequities and how we can prevent it from being like this. Some people may think that “Inequity has been with us from the very beginning and it will go on here together with us in the future. There is no possibilities to prevent it.” I do not agree this opinion. I am strongly behind the appealing of Bill Gates when he was giving his speech in Harvard. “Do not let complexity stop you. Be activists. Take on the big inequities and you will gain a great experience in your lives”. His appealing can arouse the spirit of this modern society in which science and technology are developing at such a rapid speed that no one could ever imagine. The great brains in this modern society should deepen their research and try to find practical solutions to those preventable deaths. Lives are all equal even if some of them are faced up with diseases or hunger or any other hardship. They all deserve respect and awe from everyone of us. They should not be condemned to the bottom of lives, desperately and helplessly. We should hurl our time and energy into the holy and lofty cause of philanthropy where every poor life in need can share hope and help. We clearly know that this cause is no easy thing. It requests not only materials but also mental efforts while the latter is of great importance. Material and mental supports can help those in need to gain a ray of hope in desperation and helplessness. It is exactly this ray of hope that can bring them liveliness and energy that will sustain them in their lives. Everyone is making a living in a different way. Those who are inferior in social status or possessions should not be diminished, because they have still the spirit of striving for what they long for despite the lack of materials or opportunities. They will have much confidence in themselves that will provide them with the energy and power of going forward no matter how hard or harsh life is or life will be in all the coming days. Maybe to a certain extent, we can say that it is this “inequity” that has endowed them with that strength and resistance which enable them to overcome all kinds of difficulties and setbacks till dreams come true in the future. From those to whom much is given, much is still needed.

Different people have different understandings about “fragility”. This word has different meanings literarily and connotively. Here I would like to talk about this word on the mental level, which means “quality of being easily damaged or destroyed” in emotions or spirits. Someone might have had this quality of fragility since he was born. Although he might be strong or fit in his figure, he is easily hurt in feelings and emotions. This fact can be changed to some extent and this actually changes his characteristics or even his personalities. However, the making of changes is no easy thing. It is just like the saying goes, “A leopard can not change it's spots” or “Jiang shan yi gai, ben xing nan yi” in Chinese. On the contrary, a person who is born to be strong-minded might become fragile in his life. This often happens when a disaster falls on him. His strong mind is so destroyed that it can never be re-gained any more. The frustration or even hopeless has brought to him the fragility of mind and will. A friend of mine has gone through this change. He used to be an out-going boy with strong will and mind and is very popular at school. Since he broke up with his girlfriend, he has become a totally different person who is contrary to the one he used to be. Later, he told me that he had the so-called “neurasthenia”, which means “nervous weakness”. He seldom fall asleep fast and always go to bed very late. At first, he could help thinking about all issues and problems and stayed up very late into the night. Then he went to the doctor and began to do other things to keep himself busy so as not to think about the girlfriend thing. He has become very fragile in mind and emotions and is very easy to get upset. To be honest, it is very hard for me to understand this sharp change. But the only thing I can do is show sympathy to him and encourage him to let go of all those unhappiness. I hope he can get himself out of that darkness and shade as soon as possible and get rid of the fragility to re-gain his strong mind and will. Life is hard sometimes and it needs much courage to live on ignoring all the hardships. The reality is cruel sometimes and it requires many tears to forget all the sadness and unhappiness. These are true for every one of us. Knowing all these facts, we should cheer up despite the various setbacks and tortuous ways to success. We should look ahead and go forward without turning back however hard life is or is going to be. I strongly believe that we will succeed despite the fragility in ourselves.

This Spring Festival is very special for me, because it’s the first time for me to spend it with my husband’s family. We are from different cities and own some different customs when celebrating the Spring Festival. Some of their customs are new to me and they seem very interesting. Similarly, there was a hearty lunch in the last day of the Year of Ram (7-Feb). Of course, there was fish which symbolizes prosperity in the year ahead. Meat was essential such as fried shrimps, four-joy meatballs, meat jelly, braised meat ect. My grandfather was so happy that he could not help grabbing the chopsticks and ate a piece of meat. As you can see in the photo how happy he was. After lunch, we started to paste spring couplets, which is a common tradition in Chinese Lunar New Year. The wording expresses greeting and good expectations. For example, some couplets reflect wishes of booming business, achieving academic excellence. Some express good expectations for a better and richer life and good luck. The background of couplets is usually red, which symbolizes booming and moving forwarder and upward in life. Although it was very cold outside when pasting the couplets, we were all very happy. Also, we put up red lanterns on the front door. On the lanterns, there wrote “恭喜发财 Gong Xi Fa Cai”, which means “May you be happy and prosperous!”. They were very beautiful. Then my mother-in-law and me started to make dumplings, which is traditional and classical in China. We made two kinds of stuffing, one was leeks and the other was cabbage. The leek dumplings were for New Year Eve and the cabbage dumplings were for the first meal of the new year (Year of Monkey). Some dumplings were put into a container called “bo ji”, which is an ancient tool mostly used to winnow grains. It’s implication is wishes of enough food and necessities in the year ahead. Yet, there was no such a custom in my hometown. So it was very interesting to me. We arrayed the dumplings in it carefully. At night, the whole family watched the Spring Festival Gala together. It was so harmonious and pleasing. We got up very early on 8-Feb, the first day of the lunar new year and gave new year greetings to parents and grandfather. It’s so exciting that they gave us hongbao, red envelope with money in it. Traditionally, it is called “ya sui qian” (money given to children as a lunar New Year gift) and it expresses wishes and expectations from elders that the children can gain good luck and grow safely and happily. Then we went out and extended greetings to other family members. Everyone was very happy and celebrating the coming of the new year. After that we watched variety shows and played mahjong with our parents. Every moment was worthy treasuring. It was a special Spring Festival for me and I will never forget it. Hope every one of you had a wonderful Spring Festival, too. Happy New Year to you all!

This morning on the way to my workplace, I was stopped by an old woman. I was told that she and her husband had not eaten anything for the whole day and she asked me to give her some money to buy a bowl of noodles. I felt very sorry for their starvation and I thought I should show my sympathy to them. So I did not hesitate to take my purse out of my handbag and was to give them all the money I had in it. However, I only had about ten yuan. It was just at the moment when I extended my hand to the old woman with the money, I was stopped by two of my colleagues. They told me in secret that they were liars and not to give money to them. I was very confused then and did not know whether I should give some money to the old couple or not. Finally, I took my colleagues’ advise and put the money back into my purse and then left for work. Later they told me that that old couple had been doing this for a long time and they had run into them. They always tended to ask young girls for money, because young girls often show sympathy easily. To he honest, I was really stunned by this thing. I even begin to wonder why the old couple are doing this and why my colleagues know all about this. I was then to be said innocent enough to believe their words. Who can tell me whether I should believe them or doubt them? To say it plainly, I know some of these kinds of behaviors are deceptive. Some people did this or are doing this only for money. However, we have to admit that there actually are some people who are really in need not only for money but also others’ sympathy and care. We should not deny all of their such kinds of behaviors. We have to learn to believe someone, especially those who are weak and in need for our kindness and help. We are all living in this world which can merely be said to a material world. In this world, “trust” is the exact factor that it is lacking more and more. How can it be so hard for us to believe others especially strangers? Are we only caring about ourselves and neglecting others’ agony? We all know sometimes it’s hard or even to some extent miserable for us to live in this world. But how can we not understand others who are in need? How I wish I could have enough money to give to the poor and the weak. How I wish this world would not be so relentless. How I wish warmness, cares, sympathy can brim in this world where no one is suffering from the agonies in life. How I wish we can all live in harmony and peace and in a wonderful world which is full of trust. I wish every one can open his or her heart to others and share happiness and love together and I hope that day is not too far away.

Late last night I saw a movie named Postman in the Mountain. Maybe you will find this name familiar to you. It is the rifacimento of a book with the same name written by Teng Rujun, a traditional Chinese novelist. It is a very popular book and this movie is also a big hit to all Chinese people. It tells the story of an old postman, his son and his dog “Lao Er” which mean his second son. The old postman wants his own son to take over his job as a postman. However, his work is much more difficult than a common postman, because he has to climb over many hills and go across the mountains to get the letters to people in different villages. It is the first day for his son to work as a new postman, his successor. His father has to retire for his rheumatism. His father is worried about his son, since it’s the first trip for him. So his father decides to go with him for this only time which means it will be the last time for himself to walk that post mountain road he has walked for all the past years. Many stories happen on their post mountain road. Father takes him to deliver a letter to a blind old woman. His father takes out the letter and begins to read for her. However, there is no a single word on it. There is also a piece of ten yuan RMB in it. The old woman thinks that the letter is from her grandson who has entered the university and his grandson really cares about her. However, later father tells his that her grandson has never come back to see her or even written a letter. I feel sympathetic about the old woman’s misfortune and also moved to tears by the old postman’s kindness and care. For so many years, the old postman has pretended to deliver letters and read them to the old woman in order to give her warmness and love. His son is also moved by his father and has decided to do as his father has always been doing for all the past years. When they walk to another mountain village, there is a brook standing right in front of them. Father tells his son that he often walks to cross this brook with cold water which has caused the rheumatism. His son does not hesitate to wade through the brook holding the package over his head. Then he comes back to put his father on his back and carries him to the other bank of the brook. His father says that he has never enjoyed this happiness before. Later “Lao Er” brings some firewood for them to set a fire and get the shoes dried. How considerate it is. Father tells him that it has always been doing this every time he comes here. Sometimes his son wonders why his father has to suffer so much without any payback. Why does he get nothing in return? His father has overcome all the setbacks and difficulties to deliver letters to so many mountain villages but he has never quitted all this. Instead, he loves this job, because he loves all the scenes and people here. They all love him and feel grateful to him for bringing what they really need and what have always been missing and waiting. The mountain road is very hard to walk on. Sometimes he may get hurt or even roll down the hill once. However, it is the love for the villagers and mountains that has intrigued his passion and zeal for this special job. For him, there should not be any complaints about what he has done. The mountain roads are very hard to walk. However, if he walks in a firm footing and in a down-to-earth way, he will get to the destination in the end. For so many years, the really person that he owes is his wife. He does not have the time to be with his wife, leaving her alone at home. She has to wait for quite a few days to meet him again. When his son is child, he does not have enough time to accompany him, care about him and love him. He wants to be at home and be with his wife and son. However, he has to take his responsibility for his job. He has to go into the deep mountains and deliver the letters to the villagers. He clearly knows that he has to give up the time of being at home and do what he really need to do. In the movie, the old postman is educating his son and he is also teaching me how to live my own life. That post mountain road is exactly like our life. We all know that sometimes it’s difficult for us to go over a certain leg of our life journey. Sometimes we may find life is no easy thing. Nevertheless, we have to pull ourselves up and find out solutions and move forward.It also educates all of us in the relationship between parents and their children. Sometimes we may think our parents do not have enough time to be with us and care about us and we may complain about this. But we should think about them. They have been doing all they need to do to make us happy and the bring the whole family well-being. They have paid so much for us. We should all care about our parents and try to understand all their hardships. “Lao Er” in the movie stands for our friends in our life. They are sincere to us and care about us. We should stay together and love each other for good. Even there are various kinds of difficulties in our life, our friends will all be right there for us. Whenever there is danger, they will not hesitate to come to our rescue. They all the savior to us that we should treasure although our life. That postman, that mountain and that dog have moved all of us. They love and care about each other. They are all keen to not only their job but also to their lives. They are not afraid of setbacks and hardships. They fear nothing and never quit what they need to do. They are too stubborn to stop for a rest in the benefits of others instead of themselves. However difficult the mountain roads are, they will keep walking. However hard life is, they will keep moving forward and never say “I quit”.