How are you? Have you started a wonderful new week?

After staying in China for 8 months ( passed the national examination and became a candidate for degree of Master of Fine Arts of Chinese National Academy of Arts, and then figured out the outline of the dissertation and painted 81/300 landscape painting assignments and wrote 59/300 calligraphy assignments; designed a Map of American State Birds with 112 birds; corrected the music and recorded 15 Chinese poems’30 poem songs in Chinese and English in a professional sounding studio; found a new and strong supports on theory from the angle of music and language for my cross-cultural and comprehensive art project; nearly finish the volume 2 of my last publication series with painting, music and poetry, which is a part of my study / research jobs; be sure to upgrade my current cross-cultural and comprehensive art study and exploration to be an international business / career and plan to work out a business plan for it within the upcoming about 1 year... ), now I have come back to Springfield, MO for 7 days.

I myself did not realize so many things have happened in my life in the past short 7 days.

The good news is:

-- On the first evening I arrived in Springfield, MO on Nov 1, 2016, Mrs. Carissa Griffin (she is on the 1st photo) who was my former student and a friend did not only pick up me at the airport, but also she unexpectedly helped me recover my cell phone at about 9:00pm.instead of doing it on the second day as usual.

-- My house in America is cleaning and bright after the good decoration of my former classmate Mr. Chu Bin, and under the good looking after of Mr. John David Lawson (he is on the 3rd photo) and Mr. John Walker (he is on the 2nd photo) when I was in China. My dream to have a work base in the USA has been true.

-- On the 2nd airplane, I met Mr. Li Junge who is from the Institute of Ancient Biology of Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is very interested in what I am working on, especially the Calligraphy which I am writing -- Qin / Xiao Zhuan which has a history for 2,230 years; while I am interested in an ancient insect which has been extinct but he is trying to recover its feature according to its fossil with some lines of Chinese paintings. We would have a talk before he leaves for China and to see whether it is possible for us to have a cooperation.

-- I have found a cross-cultural and comprehensive art study, research and development group of its members are my best friends, worker partners, supervisors, advisors and the industry elites who are from China, America, Australia and Europe are keeping close together with me since March, 2016.I do not feel alone no matter where I am in the world and what I have met on my road of dream seeking.

-- With a good emotion, as soon as I arrived in Springfield, I continued to work on my book and art study. Now I have checked most of the articles of the book and have written 3 calligraphy works.

The bad news is:

-- Some day during Oct 24 to Nov 4, someone removed whole of the outer glass which is 110cm x 170cm (43.3inches x 66.92inches) of one of my windows, removed 2 screen windows of the other 2 windows. Obviously, they or he wanted to enter my house illegally, but the inner windows are strong and they or he did not succeed. As soon as I found these, I called 911 and a policeman has checked my house and he would like to drive around of the area and pay more attention to the safety of my house and me.

-- At 2:30am on Nov 7, someone of a property management office from China called me 3 times, they asked me to move my car ahead about 1 meter for someone often parked in the room ahead my car and their car narrows the road. I was surprised for I was at home for about 3 months and my car there for a long time and they did not call me but as soon as I arrive in the USA, they did. This made me think of the similar situation last year, as soon as I arrived here, they called me 7 times and asked me to turn off the gas for there was some smoke blowing out of my kitchen. Oh my Godness, with a scare heart, I called back China 11 times and dropped my Iphone 5 into the water, and then they told me the smoke was from the kitchen of my neighbors, the result was I had to buy a new cell phone…

-- The most worst thing is: the new flooring that had just installed in Jan and Feb of 2016 has bubbled up from the floor, almost all of the rooms, there are“ some chains of undulating hills”, the highest “hills” is about 10 cm (3.93inches ) so that I can not open some door and do not dare to walk on them. When I have to walk on it, I would be careful, for it seems like I am walking on some floating waves, I mean the floor would move up and down along with my steps and make some terrible sounds which made me feel so sorry…

The Interesting thing is:

At the Customs of Chicago, I unexpectedly became a temporary interpreter and helped 2 Chinese compatriots who could not speak in English going through the customs when I myself had to face a customs officer and then a group of customs officers to answer their questions for I did not carry any data except a passport with me because of my tight schedule in a hurry... :-)

Anyway, no matter what have happened, I would like to do my best to complete the jobs below:

-- To hand in everything relates to my book to the publishing house before Nov 15.
-- To continue my art study no matter I am in the USA or in China. So, even though I was punished 200 US dollars for my luggage overweight, still I kept carrying a heavy Complete Works with 2 big books which I must study under the direction of my supervisor - Professor Mu Jiashan of Chinese National Academy of Arts.
-- To perform the work plan which OTC and I had made in Feb, 2016 or to do what they want me to do during I am in the USA.

I am sure the current difficulties is the temporary and I will certainly find someone and someway to resolve them. It maybe just a new test which the God wants me to experience for helping me become a stronger person who would be able to stand the work on a new career. After all, just like Mencius (372 B.C. - 289 B.C.) who is considered the second greatest of the ancient Chinese sages ( the first greatest sage is Confucius): 天降大任于斯人也，必先苦其心志，劳其筋骨，饿其体肤，空乏其身，行指乱其所为，所以动心忍性，曾益其所不能。 When the God is about to drop a weighty responsibility to a person. He will certainly frustrate the person inside, exhausts his muscles and bones, exposes him to starvation and poverty, harasses him by troubles and setbacks for stimulating his mind, toughen his nature and enhance his abilities…
I am glad to see that the God has given me an opportunity to experience these frustrations before I start a new and international career.

So, now I have opened a new channel on Facebook with my name Shirley Yiping Zhang and you are welcome to connect with me there as well.

With a big smile, before I finish this letter, I would like to know whether you have anything special to share in the past 10 days since I wrote to you last time?
I am just a student on Arts of Painting, Music, English and Management, to work on the web site in my free time. I would really like to do somethings with what I have learned to make this little web site to be an Electronic Bridge of Cross - Culture and Comprehensive Arts, Language & Friendship. To help the others and this world while improving myself and realizing my own value of life.

I would really 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.

Sincerely,

Shirley Yiping Zhang
Nov 7, 2016 (American Time)