How are you?

When you get this letter, I have come back Beijing for 8 days.

Originally, I booked the ticket and planned to fly Beijing April 12. Therefore, my doctors in Beijing University Shenzhen Hospital Dr. Liu Yu, Dr. Yuan Zhidong and Dr. Qi worked overtime and they arranged me to have the checks by nuclear magnetic resonance and the X ray three times on my bones ahead of my booking time. Also, I had a general health check, all of the results will be sent to me via a mail.

However, on the road that I came back from the hospital, I got a phone call from a former classmate Amy. She would come to Shenzhen April 11 and she wanted to live at my home until May.

To be honest, I had never invited anyone to live at my home, except my old friend Mrs. Zhao Huizhi who had saved my life when we were roommates of 18 and 15 in the frontier between Russia and China, even though my sister and my father came to see me, I arranged them to live in the hotel. Anyway, instead of saying“ No”and for letting her feel comfortable( did not feel to disturb my life), in my music lesson in the same evening she reached my home April 11, I asked Prof. Meng offered me another lesson on Saturday, and then I changed my ticket on Sunday, April 15.

Then I invited all of our former classmates in Shenzhen and our tutor who had helped us to study in USA to have a dinner to welcome Amy.

Then, rely on the threefold painkillers, I kept going to the airport. I had missed the lesson of painting from the nature in Taihang Mountain; I did not want to miss the last study in CNAA.

In the passed 8 days I came back Beijing, I have completed 2 new paintings and 5 pen drawings, painted from the nature for about 24 hours. I have practiced to sing a Chinese classical poem with my own creative music and I have written an article to introduce a new Chinese poem and the Ti Hua Shi ? Poem on the Chinese painting, even though I could not sit for a long time and sometimes, I had to write by squatting on the chair and on the floor...

In the short trip between Shenzhen and Beijing, I did have so many strong feelings:

-- Compare with the wonderful life environment in Shenzhen 10 or 15 years ago, the life quality there has declined.

Except the of prices soaring, there are too many people in the city“ suddenly”, it is said over 12 millions in the holiday times. A very serious thing I have felt in person is in the hospital, usually, we wait for 3 or 4 hours, we can just speak with the doctor for 3 or 4 munities. I was lucky enough that Dr. Liu Yu added a No. for me on the day I just went back Shenzhen to see her, because there was no any number by the check-in window at about 10:00am. Do you know what number I got specially? No.62. Can you imagine how a doctor see 62 patients within one business day?

As a patient who had gotten so much help from Dr. Liu, I did not think that I should require more from her, therefore, I called 114 and wanted to make an appointment ahead for 3 days, but, there was no any number within the 7 days, therefore, I had to get up at 4:30am and went to the hospital before 7:00am, then I got the number 35.

Anyway, the good thing was that this time, there were 2 doctors and an assistant in her office, then, I saw her before 10:00am and I talked with her for about 10 minutes. :- )

It was really a big progress, wasn’t it?

-- I was lucky enough to meet some so responsible teachers. Prof. Meng Wenye kept coaching me twice even though he had similar problems as me on his backbone, he has checked the first part of my music works 3rd time already, we will make the formal record job in Shenzhen after completing the study in CNAA. Also, as soon as I came back Beijing, my another music teacher Ms. Ma Xuan came to help me to practice singing.

-- The good education of CAFA and CANN has trained me a couple of new eyes.

With the new eyes, I ordered about 400 of my art books that I had bought in Shenzhen before I came to the art colleges in Beijing, many of them I had thought very good, now, they have been taken out of my collections.

With the new eyes, I have deeply fallen in love the painting from the nature. No matter in the hospital or at home, no matter it was drizzling or the temperature was just 16 C degree, I kept painting by taking an umbrella or dressed in as much as possible.

In Shenzhen, I painted bamboo, Chinese banana, durian and some Southern plants in the garden I was living in, or specially I went somewhere before my airplane was flying; After coming back Beijing, I kept painting peach blossoms and the Northern flowers around the school, every day 2 to 4 hours out of door.

Even though I have to go back to lie on the bed to reduce the ach once or twice during I was working in the nature; my current health does not support me to register to attend the lesson of painting from the nature by the Grand Canyon of Yellow River in May, with the good help of the new eyes, I have found endless things that I can paint around of me.

With so much appreciation, I would really like to thank the good education of China Central Academy of Fine Arts and Chinese National Academy of Arts. I wouls really like to do my best and try to complete my study in Beijing.

How about you? Do you have anything special to share?
I am just a student on Art of Painting, Music, English and Management, to work on the web site in my free time. I would really like to do a few things with what I have learned to make this little web site to be an Electronic Bridge of Inter-Art & Cross - Culture Exchange, Chinese Language Learning & Friendship Making. To help the others while to improve myself.

I would like to appreciate you for your understanding, directions, supports and help.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, you are welcome to write to shirley@ebridge.cn or leave your message on Message Board.

Shirley Yiping Zhang
April 24, 2012(Chinese Time)