I love eating barbecue, especially pork/beef/sausages etc...

A teacher asked me if I would go back to work at that place. I said I wouldn't work there anymore, actually. she said it was good, because the last time she had seen me I looked really tired and sleepy. I didn't even open my eyes properly. She even thought that I might be going through depression or something like that. Indeed, when I was stressed and threatened last year, I met a musician who played piano for different churches who said that she would pray for me. I said maybe they just had sympathy for me, but really encouraged me and helped me survive in darkness. she said, no, not only they had sympathy for you, but God guided you into that situation. then she gave me the example of Balaam and His Donkey. then I realized losing that job was a blessing in disguise. 12 Years a Slave; enough was enough. working is good, but trying to do something that is too difficult or too much is not necessary.

Because the job is in progress at the moment of speech and it is not finished.

Yes, they are both fine. The first seems more informal, so better for conversation. The second is a bit more formal so better for writing.

My teammate asked me today if something was wrong as I was too quiet. I told her the truth, nothing was wrong. Her question took me by surprise, although she insisted and I replied in the same way - everything was fine. On the walk back home, I kept thinking about it. Maybe it was the dull weather, or maybe it was just one of those days when I didn’t feel like talking too much. A day for wandering in solitude. Maybe this quiet day just didn’t match the way I usually engage with her.

This afternoon, my daughter and I read the story about the fisherman and the goldfish. Of course, the main character was neither the fisherman nor the fish, it was the woman, the fisherman's greedy wife who was asking for too much without doing anything. All of us know the result of the story. The woman went back to her poor life due to her greed. This story told us that everyone has to be thankful for the people who helped us. The goldfish kept his promise to make one of the couple's wishes come true. The woman should have thanked the fish for its help, but she didn't and wanted to rule the whole world. This reminds me of the famous Chinese saying that goes a snake dreamed about swallowing a whole elephant, but died of being stuffed. Greed is something we should fight against throughout our life. It looks like a sugar-coated bomb. If we finish the sweet coat, it will explode and swallow us in a second. If we always consider thanking others who help us and just get what we are supposed to get, our life can be full of energy. When the flowers smell nice, the bees will come over without invitation.

They are synonyms.

A musician played and sang Jiang Kui's An Xiang for me, it was the first time that I had listened to it being played on a guitar. I almost shed tears. I think Jiang Kui would have been surprised and delighted that an Italian musician, nearly a thousand years after his time, played this timeless melody. Some things can only be understood by experiencing them yourself. When I was young, I heard someone playing the slower tune of “Lament in the Pavilion” and liked it very much, so I enrolled in a guqin class, but it was too far away and I had a lot of pressure in my life and was forced to quit. And I move often. Perhaps only people who move frequently can understand the traveling in Jiang Kui's middle and late life. “He Xun now is gradually aging, And entirely forgets the lyric brush inspired by the spring wind.”