How are you? Have you had a good weekend?

On my side, most of Chinese companies have finished their National Holiday and re-started to work since Oct 8 or Oct 11.

I was looking for the holiday to be finished for I was looking forward to see my doctors for I had felt the pain on my bones and joints was extended along with the time and weather.

Oct 8, I went back to see Dr. Yu Liu who is the director of her department and she was back from USA with her PhD in Beijing University Shenzhen Hospital. She thought that two kinds of problems were hurting my bones and joints and she made her first treatment plan for me for 2 weeks and she will see the result of the first phase, then to decide the work next step.

Then on Oct 11, this morning, I went to see Dr. Qiujuan Zhang who is the vice-president of a Hong Kong Hospital in Shenzhen and a famous expert in her field. She would like to remove the sick part that led my first biopsy in person. The pity is that my health does not support me to accept the operation right now yet.

Anyway, since there are 2 kinds of different opinions on the diagnosis of my backbone and joints in the 6 City Hospitals in the past 10 months, the experts have different treatment plans, too. She would like to send my data to some more experts in other cities of China, to make a long distance consultation for me soon.

I am lucky enough for I have no any deadly problem. I need time to recover. So, even though I feel a big pity that I cannot be in China Center Academy of Fine Art in Beijing yet, I do not feel too bad since resolving my health problems are No 1 duty of mine now. After all, the temporary stop, is for going further away. After all, except studying painting in the art college, I do have many the other things to do at home, since I do not only want to be a Pure Painter, but also, I want to become a Comprehensive Artist of Painting, Music, Language and Management.

So, I do enjoy my current life at home. I do feel maybe it is really a wonderful style to work at home. :-)

Can you imagine? In the short 7 days' National Holidays, I have created 4 paintings; Re-reading the Analects by Confucius and Tao Te Ching by Laotzu; Keeping hearing the English Channel of CCTV when I was painting. Meanwhile, I have learned how to look after my own food and studied what and how to eat. :-)

This afternoon, on the road went back home from the hospital, I went to the Shenzhen Cable TV Company and I have opened 4 English channels from the USA, such as CNN, Cinemax and Hallmark, plus they offered me another 2 free English channels to encourage me to be their customers with cost, and the Chinese Painting and Calligraphy channel that I had ordered months ago, now, except over 80 free Chinese TV channels, I can see at least 6 English Channels and 1 Art Channel.

I could not help smiling when I re-saw Lurry King's Live program in CNN and I re-listened to the English dialogues from the original American Movies, so that I could not help imitating their English and paying more attention to they expression styles.

I am touched by the progress of the modern technology. It has made the world so small; the information is so fast and so cheap. Just paying for about 8 USD monthly, I have gotten the service of 4 English channels with cost and 2 free English channels. Of course, they have a serious requirement to ask us to offer ID, the Number of the STB Set Top Box and so on. :-)

I would really like to improve my English by listening to the original English news and movies as much as possible, by creating an English environment for myself since I have been accustomed to listen to TV during I am painting. I do hope that next time, when I go to the USA or Australia, my friends, professors and my son will smile for my progress on English. :-)

The bad thing in the week is that I almost dropped into a trick and lost 3 of my best paintings and some money, my photo and resume.

Someone made an advertisement on some web sites to organize a Chinese Entrepreneurs' Art and Calligraphy Contest, every one who wants to join it should pay some fee, 3 paintings, 1 photo and a resume and they will hold a reward ceremony in Beijing in the end of Oct. :-)

I found the information in the holiday and I decided to take part in it. So, last night, I worked until 2:30am and I would like to send my data and paintings to them this morning.

On the road to see Dr. Qiujuan Zhang, I stopped at the post station and I would like to send the money and the paintings to Beijing. Since the post station opens at 9:00am, it was just 8:35am, I made a telephone call to make sure where the place is. Instead calling the cell phone on the advertisement, I called the stable telephone in Beijing. Then I found it was an empty number and it made me question the facticity of the contest and the organization. At once, I called my art professor and a friend in Beijing and asked them to help me. Soon, the result from them was that there was no this telephone in Beijing at all and the answers of the cell phone showed it is a trick indeed. :-)

Can you imagine my feeling at this time? One hand, I do feel luck enough for I have gotten the good looking after of God one more. Just for the appointment between Dr. Zhang and I was after 8:30am, just for the post station opens at 9:00am, then I had a time to made a telephone call and I did not drop into a trick. :-) The other hand, I do feel that I should remember the lesson, to be on guard against the trick online and offline. If I made a phone call earlier, then I would not work so hard for a trick during I am sickness, too.

Have you had any similar experience? Do you have any experience to prevent this kind of tricks?

I am just a learner on art of painting, music and English, 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 Culture Exchange, Chinese Language Learning & Friendship making. To help the others while to improve myself.

I would like to appreciate your understanding, directions, supports and hope to get your friendly direction and help.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, you are welcome to write to shirley@ebridge.cn or shirley004@yahoo.com, or to publish your opinions in the forum.

Shirley Yiping Zhang
Sunday, Oct 10, 2010