How are you? Have you had a good week already? I do hope that you are well and enjoy a relaxed and easy weekend.

Today is the 121st day that I am in the US and I will go back to China in 245 days. So, I cherish every day here and try to learn something new and advanced as much as possible.

If saying that the most excited thing last week was that I passed my 3rd lesson -- Financial Management, this week, there were more excited and inspired things happened in my study and life.

Monday morning, I suddenly found that I understood the first part of the lesson by Dr. Nancy Keith totally. The basic conceptions of statistics -- Variance, Standard Deviations, Normal Distribution, the big sigma and the little sigma… The things that I first touched and learned in the Financial Management have appeared in the new lesson and they have become something alive in my mind... You can not imagine what my heart liked when I went out of the classroom, there was full of the appreciation to the professor and the tutor of my last lesson indeed. I felt lucky enough that I did not give up this lesson. Also, I felt that the courses of us have been arranged scientific and reasonable indeed.

Then, with a happy heart, I created my first painting in 2009 after stopping paint for 67 days Tuesday night. I translated and sang my 5th Chinese folk in the the US as well. Do you know? Last Monday, I woken up for I dreamed that a sum of sunk cost dropped on my nose; this Tuesday, I dreamed that I was painting some water lilies and fishes with Chinese Gongbi Style... Since my time and heart have not allowed me to paint with Chinese Gongbi style, I completed my home work that my Chinese art professor asked me to work 56 days ago. Even though I felt that my hands had a little bit lack practice and my birds are not ideal as I imagined in my mind. I am still very happy to see them stand on the flowers on my wall every day.

Ha! Since last Sunday until this Thursday, except driving my classmates and schoolfellows to go shopping, I drove to the Best Buy 6 times to buy a new computer -- I bought a Dell Sunday night and I changed it to be HP Thursday night -- The cold weather makes my screen of laptop not work and it does not support the software that the professor asked us to fix. So, I would like to buy a new one during the time that the university was closed for the heavy snow and iced weather. However, as soon as I drove out of the gate, I dropped into a snow hole, then I bumped on a snow wall, so that my kinky boot was so wet for I had to use my feet to "shovel" the snow and to move my car out of the snow. Wow! Really we can not look down anything soft, when the soft snow flowers united together, they really have the so strong power...

With many inspirations and excited heart, I worked in the so beautiful snow with smiles -- I come from Shenzhen - a semitropical city by the ocean next to Hong Kong, there is not any snow in my city at all. That is why this is the first time that I know that my LCD screen should not be in the cold place for too long time. Comparing with the time that I bought my TV 3 months ago, I did find that I could have a good talking with the clerks in the store alonely. During the process to buy, to change my computer, I did feel the friendship, polite and excellent service of the local American Stores once more

The funniest thing that I found, was the computer of Dell made in China. It makes me smile and thought of that after I came back to the university in the Christmas Holiday, I just found that 4 of the 7 Christmas gifts that I had gotten in CA were made in China. Yes, along with the time, both of the US and China's connecting is closer and more and more.

How about you? Have you had anything excited this week? Are you smiling for my experience in the US? I am just a learner on that art of painting, music English and Chinese language, to work on the web site in my free time. I would really like to do a little bit things with what I have learned to make this little web site to be an Electronic Bridge of Culture Exchange, Language Learning & Friendship. To help the others while to improve myself.

I appreciate your understanding, directions and supports. I do hope to get your friendly help...

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, you are welcome to write to shirley@ebridge.cn or shirleyz004@yahoo.com, or to publish your opinions in the forum.

Shirley Yiping Zhang
Fri, January 30, 2009 From USA