How are you? Have you had a good week? Are you enjoying a relaxed and easy weekend?

On my side, I have given Chinese poetry and painting courses for 63 hours for free at 3 American K-12 schools (Immaculate Conception School, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School and St. Agnes School ) and Park Central Library, Springfield, MO and all my total lessons have reached 196 hour for about 4,000 students/ person-times; I have also attended a free English course in America for 38 hours. Meanwhile, I have been dealing with the job relates to building a foothold and a base of my project as well.

In the past a week, there are many things have happened in my travel. Some of them will be in my memory for forever:

-- First of all, I lost my roads twice on Tuesday and walked alone in the USA for about 3.5 hours so that until now, I am still scaring as soon as I think of them.

Tuesday noon, after a lunch at a Chinese restaurant on the road names Kimbrough, I would like to go to another road to see the house that I had given an offer for the Termites were found in the inspection. I would like to see how the Termite Contractor dealt with it by walk because Google Map told me it is just for about 25 minutes by walk since I had checked the map last night. However, on my road, the street names Elm was broken on a crossway so that I did not know where I should continue. After I finally reached the destinatio and wanted to go back home, I made a mistake and thought a road names Grant which is South and North to be the other road Grand which is West and East, so that the more I walked, the more I was far away from my home. Even I walked on to the 66 High Way and saw so many colored butters on the walls of the road, just like I had seen between France and Luxembourg. With a lot of scaring for there was no anyone on the road, there were no many cars and few residential houses but something like factories or gas stations???, I reached the crossway between the Kansas Road and College St. And I totally lost my road and did not know the directions at all. Also, I did never dare to go back again, for I was scaring and I did not know how I went to here.

The most terrible thing was: my old American cell phone (since I my Iphone 5 dropped into water, I have been using it, but it is not smart) did not work (I have been surprised why I opened a new American Cell Phone on August 21, why the monthly payment time to be change to be Sept 20 and Oct 19 ) and my Chinese cell phone had only little battery. With the last little battery, I called 3 of my friends with an international phone calls, but there were no any answers ( usually an Americans do not answer an International call), no way, I tried to call my second agent Mr. John Walker from Murney Property Company. I was lucky enough that both of his wife and he just came back from Kansas City and he would like to “ Rescue ” me. And during the time I was waiting for him at the crossway, the last battery of my cell phone was gone.

By the good help of Mr. John Walker, my American cell phone reworked at At & T and then, my classmate Mr. Zhu Bin came to pick up me to go back home at Wal-Mart on Canball Ave at about 4:30pm.

-- Secondly, once more, I was so moved by the extremely responsible work attitude and work style of Mr. John Walker for he had gone down the so narrow crawl room of the house to check up the situation relates to the Termite in the inspection in person. A good news was: According to the checking up and photos that Mr. John Walker took under the house, except the old mark of termites which maybe 20 or 30 years ago by the entrance of the crowl room, there was no any active termites and any damage of Termite was found under the house...

To be honest, when I looked at the photos from the so narrow and dirty crawl room beneath of the house, I did think, if there were no a high responsible work attitude, people would not work this way at all.

So, even though I have stopped my step on the housing inspection for worrying about something, I do think, Mr. John Walker is one of the best agents I have met. It was/would be my luck to have him to be my agent indeed.

-- Thirdly, as soon as I finished the teaching jobs at the second school on Oct 22, I got my second Certificate of Appreciation. It was from the Principal Cheryl Hall (she is on the first, second and fouth photos) of St.Elizabeth Ann Seton School. The funny thing was, I was so happy when I saw Principal Cheryl Hall went into the classroom with a bag of gifts(they are on the 6th photo), so that I forgot to give my books and album of paintings to her as a return. Therefore, I gave them to her secretary (she is on the 4th photo) to deliver her before I left for OTC to take some of my English lesson.

What I cannot forget was: I have gotten so many friendly greetings from all most all of my students as soon as I went into the school, no matter in the aisles or in the classroom. The lovely smiles of the students will always live in my heart.

With a grateful heart, I have moved my step on my writing job. Right now, my music instrument which has been storing in the house of my classmate Mr. Zhu Bin has been fixed by him in my temporary home ( I did not do that until now for I wanted to move into my new house once-time). I would like to check the drafts of the Volume 2 and write as much as possible on the Volume 3 of my last series books and DVDs: Poetry, Painting, Music -- Comprehensive and Artistic Chinese (Together With Me to Learn Chinese Culture and Language by Enjoy Painting, Music and Poetry ) before I leave for China.

Also, I am going to attend the training at OTC from next Monday, Oct 26 to Dec 6.

Even though I am very busy with a stomachache often, while I have to take some painkillers to stop my headache sometimes, I am very happy to see the progress of my students.

Something made me happiest was: 7 of my students (they are on the 5th photo) at the library have not only been able to recite two Chinese poems, but also they have been able to sing them in Chinese already.

I am going to work harder for seeking my cross-culture and comprehensive art dream which aims at helping non-Chinese speakers to learn Chinese art and language with painting, music and poetry... To give my limited life to the unlimited career for helping the others as many as possible...

I am impression on the safety consciousness at the college in the USA. Within the past 5 business days, we have had twice drills in the classroom at OTC, to learn how to protect ourselves when an earthquake or a shooting accident happens in the city or in the campus.

I am touching by the attentive and considerate work of Principal Paula Baird of Immaculate Conception School, it was she who entrusted Mrs. Glad Eyerman to beliver her and her school's gifts to me (it is on the last photo).

How about you? Do you have anything special to share?

Sincerely,

Shirley Yiping Zhang
Oct 25, 2015 (American Local Time)