Today, is China's Mid-Autumn Festival. I do wish that you would share the moonlight and the moon cakes with us together.

This week, a big thing in my life is that I have changed my former idea and I have gotten my visa to attend a study program as one of the exchange visitors between China and the US in a college of business in an American university that has been accredited by the AACSB International that means
Association of Advanced Colleges of Business and also been accepted by the Ministry of Education of China for 1 year.

I made my new decision September 4 in Shenzhen and I got my visa September 9 in Guangzhou, then I flied to Beijing for a business travel, to visit my parents in Wuxi, to fly back to Shenzhen. If there is no anything special, I will be in the US soon.

It is hard to describe my current heart for it is not easy for me to make this new decision and to have this new opportunity. After all, to study abroad was one of my long-term and far away dreams, that I have not been daring to think since I entered university in 1978 and it has been true in 2008 as the best admitting to my hard work for 30 years. After all, I will have to give up my comfortable life and tight work in China temporarily via the good support by the company.

After I said to the consulate officer that “Thank you for you have given me the best birthday gift.” I boarded the airplane with a Chinese idiom “Tian Dao Chou Qin”―“Heaven rewards the diligent” and an apothegm “Those opportunities will always belong to the people to be prepared”in my mind. Yes, when I started to major in English in Beijing Foreign Studies University as a part time student after I had learned Chinese, World Economics, Journalism and Business Administration in 4 universities, when I worked on my career with 120% effort, I did not realize that a potential opportunity was coming to me stealthily -- The organizer felt pity for me after they knew that I had given up the study so that they called me for 2 hours, wrote a long letter to advise me, while they have arranged everything in the US for me.

Meanwhile, I felt warm from my work partners, bosses, colleagues, friends and my family members. The partner company picked up me at Beijing Airport and offered me an Italian dinner with much Western culture in the Westin. Then I got the highest comments by my boss for my work in the cooperation project, to attend two birthday parties by 4 friends in Xinhua News Agency, my bosses, a team of our company and our work partners in Beijing. I was offered birthday cakes, noodle, local food, karaoke, friends and colleague's songs, videos and so on. Then in Wuxi, I got much bless from my family, former colleagues, old friends in Wuxi, Shanghai and Beijing. This noon, 7 of my classmates had a lunch party with flowers and Chinese food for me, one of them will also direct me to do a feature management before I start off.

I am happy and feel lucky. I am going to cherish the god-given study opportunity in the US as a new landmark in my life, to return my motherland, company, family, friends and myself with loyalty and work harder.

Are you happy for me? Have you had anything special in your life this weeks?
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
Sun, September 14, 2008