ETC x Hong Kong As I have written in the last essay, there were some guests, or should I say some volunteers coming to the ETC to help us to improve our English.Since I work in the ETC this semester, Isaac, who is the manager, told us to take them to have lunch from April 2th to 4th if we like. At first, I was afraid that we might feel embarrassed because we did not know each other. But things turned that they were friendly and easy-going. Some other workers and I took them to restaurants to have lunch and talked and played games with them at night. I learnt to play Rummikub and Dixit and a kind of HK poke cards. But there was an accident, which made me felt quite sorry. We took them to a restaurant where was a little far from our campus. And the rain that day was extremely heavy. All their shoes were wet because of the water on the ground and they had no choice but to buy slippers for changing. However, they did not blame us and still had us to be their guides to visit our campus that afternoon. We led them to see the flowers. Girls always like flowers. I will never forget the Saturday night we shared together. Since it was Easter on Sunday and the ETC closed every Sunday and Monday, it was our last night to get together. As usual, we talked and played games together. But they gave us a surprise. 3 girls performed for us to show their gratitude with 1 of them singing and the rest playing keyboard and drum. They sang a Cantonese song, Liking You（《喜欢你》）, at the end of the opening hour of the ETC. Everybody sang along, as it was a pretty popular song in the Chinese world. I felt a little sad while singing because we were going to be apart when we just became good friends for only 3 days. They may come here the next year but not for certain and meanwhile, one year is rather a long time. After the show, we hugged and took photos with each other. We said ‘goodbye’ and also ‘keep in touch’ to everyone. That was the last time I saw them but we sometimes contact on Wechat. And now, I am considering about travelling to Hong Kong!

Being Concerned by A Charity Organization I live in a capital city of an undeveloped province in China. And I am a student in an Agricultural University, which almost all students who live in city do not want to come. As a result, students of our university are consist of 90% countryside students and only 10% who from cities. (Of course I did not calculate it before, I just guess.) With the concern of a nice American family, whose members from it are Christians, they opened a coffee shop in our campus and hired some students as workers. Actually, the name of the coffee shop is ETC, which means English Training Centre. So it is a place for us students to practice English. What’s more, there is a rule in the ETC, everybody there should not speak any language except English. I ever asked the boss Shawn why he chose our university to offer help. He said because we are lack of developed resources, and this is a charity. Charity, what a word that I had never thought would come on me because I do not think we are that poor. But that is OK, it is good to be concerned. As far as I know, we have about 2 teams who speak English well from other place coming here as volunteers to talk to us and help us to improve our English during their holidays every semester, such as Easter, Christmas and...Sorry, I do not know much about western holidays. Most of those teams are from the US. However, a group of 9 Hong Kong people came here during this Easter holiday. Their English is better than Mandarin Chinese and were qualified to be our English teachers. Because of the limitation of the number of the words, I will write something about these Hong Kong guests in the next passage:)

My dream last night I dreamt that I was working in the ETC (abbreviation for English Training Centre) and Shawn said we need to have different drinks in different types of bottles. And the bottles were just like those in hospital. There were 2 floors in the ETC and I was cleaning the second floor. In the dream, I remembered that it was a game house on the 2nd floor and now changed into a cafe also. Then I found that I was in a classroom. I am sure it was not in JXAU, but I am also doubt if it was in my high school. Then Dan came in with 2 big plastic bags which were full of stuff, and said she was looking for a house to rent. I recommended the apartment beside the school, which Ying lived there when I was a freshmen in high school. Dan just put all her plastic bags at the classroom door and told me that she had something to do somewhere and went away. There were some other plots in my dream. However, I cannot remember all of them vividly. ;)