#41

     Shishir shared a lot of Indian movies with me, and he is so sweet to send me the files and subtitles at the same time. He made a group on telegram for movies, and also sent a brief introduction for every movie. Last week, I finished watching the movie The Lunchbox. It's a very nice movie, and I like it so much. It's very different from my impression about Indian movies, no singing and dancing parts in this movie.

     It's a story about how two strangers got connected with each other through the lunchbox. They wrote letters and shared their own life through everyday lunchbox. It's cool for me to know how Indians workers have lunch. The carriers will go to each worker's house to get his lunchbox, and send to his workplace. After lunch, they will go take the lunchbox, and help him send it home.

     It's hard for me to remember Indian names, so I forget the main characters' names already. I love the ending of the movie because it doesn't have an ending. The director gave the audience the right to make our own endings. For me, I think in the end, the lady won't send the last letter out, and the man won't get her last letter. But some day, they'll meet in Bhutan. The man will see her there, and say hello to her. I believe so.

     Recently, our group came in an Indian, and he is so talkative. A little bit too talkative. He is so young and to my surprise, his major is computer science, but he is also a writer. He writes poems and novels. He made me rethink of myself: It's been a long time since I last talked to myself through writing. Therefore, I am here now. I should spend more time writing and reading and it can make my brain more active.

     Yesterday, Moja asked me to send him some pictures of Mr. Ugly, but I didn't know what he was going to do. Well, I still sent him some. Later, he sent me stickers of Mr. Ugly!!!! OMG!!! What a big surprise to me!!! If I knew that he was going to make stickers of Mr. Ugly, I would have sent him more pictures of him. That's really cool to make one's own stickers, but I don't know how he made it.

     Ahmed and Ibrahim sent me messages again, and I felt so surprised that both of them are civil engineers like Jahangir. Why? Do all civil engineers talk with people on speaky? But I am glad that we restart to keep in touch. Though, to be honest, I don't quite remember Ibrahim. I meant, of course I remember him, but ... where is he from? What are his hobbies? Is he talkative or not? What's his favorite? I almost forget everything about him.

#40

     Students have an oral test for the final exam, so I chose one of my English classes to give them the test. However, several students were absent for doing a project. The project seems about a website, not very sure. So, I went to school early this morning for giving them an oral test. It was the first time that I went to school before 7:20 since I am just a substitute teacher in this school.

     On the way to school, I saw a layer of orange light covering the sky and the mountains. It was such an amazing view -- I went to school with the sun rising.

     It is still very cold today. I guess maybe I catch a cold. These days, I felt very uncomfortable for such coldness but I should have been strong enough to bear it since I am a winter lover. My hands and feet were always icy, and the day before yesterday, I couldn't fall asleep until I used four pieces of comforters while sleeping. I put two on the floor and two for covering my body.

     After the oral test, I went to a breakfast shop in front of my school. I usually just eat a steamed bun for breakfast at home, so I expected today's breakfast so much. I ordered a bacon toast and a hot coffee. I really drank much hot coffee recently for keeping my body warm.

     Oh, my goodness!!!!! I won't go to that breakfast shop again!!!! Never ever. The coffee was awful, and it was even worse than instant coffee. Furthermore, it was not hot at all. I felt much colder after drinking it... What a sad story.

     Fortunately, the coffee didn't ruin my good mood. I enjoyed today's sunrise and being alone in the office (though only for a short time). It's not bad to get up early in the morning I think.

#39

     Becky, Patty, Jenny and I, we planned a trip for three-day holidays to celebrate New Year. I had waited for it for ages! I love holidays!

     On the first day of our trip, we had lunch together in a Malaysian restaurant, Mamak. Hasan lives in Malaysia, so I asked him if Mamak is a Malaysian word, and he said that Mamak literally means a restaurant for Indian and Malaysian Muslims. Wow! For Muslims! No wonder I saw Indian beef rolls on the menu. I heard that most Indians don't eat beef, so I was confused in the beginning.

     This was my second time to play a game of room escaping. The topic of the game this time was Noah's Ark. It had a riddle about math, so my friends felt annoyed. Haha, their reactions were so funny. They shouted,

     "Why should we have to deal with MATH!!!???? My major is English!!!!"

They gave up thinking and waited for me solving the riddle. Luckily, we passed and escaped the room successfully! Hurray! But, we spent more than one hour. What a pity.

     Becky loves alcoholic drinks, so she insisted that we should count down for New Year in a bar.

     We passed by a street vendor selling fruit beer in a park, and Becky was attracted by it. A girl told us that their bar was on Gongyi Road and she invited us to enjoy more different flavors of fruit beer. So, we went there at night to have dinner and count down to celebrate New Year.

     We played an interesting game "Who is the spy?" there. It was so exciting, and we had to find who our partners were from the information other people gave.

     When the time was near 12:00, everyone in the bar counted, "10, 9 ... 3, 2, 1 ... Happy New Year!!!!" What a sweet moment! It seemed that we were friends, not strangers at that moment.

     On Jan. 1st, we went karaoke singing. We spent 5 hours singing, and luckily, my throat was in the best condition. I sang so many songs, but I didn't feel tired at all.

     I felt I was full of energy when I was with friends. I was happy to be with them. Hope that we can meet next time soon.

     Happy New Year for all!!! :D

#38

     This morning, I had only one class, so I could just get to school before 11 o'clock. I woke up at 6, and checked my phone. Moja asked me if I could take responsibility for their grammar training. Well, I didn't know why he had such confidence about my grammars, hahahaha, but I was glad to accept the responsibility and glad that I could do something for the group. Moja shared a grammar book with me -- English Grammar in Use -- and he said that the book is the best grammar book he had ever seen. I searched it from an online bookstore right away, and it was a little expensive. However, I think I don't have a grammar book, so I decide to buy it. I can't wait to read the book!

     Last night, my mom took me to the hospital because my right foot hurt for around a month. The doctor said that it was plantar fasciitis, and since I was a teacher, she guessed the reason why I suffered from it was that I stood and walked in class for a long time, and I didn't let my foot have enough rest. It sounds a little horrible. Maybe I should start to do other kinds of sports from now on. I usually went to the stadium to jog or walk with Becky after work.

     Yesterday was Dec. 6, the day to give Jahangir my weight report, and he asked me to give him the report through the app LINE. I don't like to make him disappointed but my weight had no big difference. I still told him the truth and he started to murmur and said that he hoped that I could be slim like other girls, and then I could be more beautiful. He asked me "Don't you feel afraid of fat belly?" (I changed his words because his sentence has some grammatical errors.) I felt a little sad hearing he talking like that. My right foot pain made me a little sensitive and my brain started to paraphrase Jahangir's words, "You are too fat, so you should lose your weight to become beautiful because now you are too ugly! You are fat and ugly!"

     This was the first time that I didn't want to talk to him.

     Last night, Shishir added me in his friend list through Facebook, and it really surprised me. How could he find my Facebook page? It seems not so good because I don't like to be found so easily.

#37

     This morning, when I woke up, I checked my phone and found that it was only 13°c today. It was so difficult for me to get up.

     Today, we had homework of English listening. Moja sent an audio message and asked us to try to understand every word. It was interesting, so when I checked the message, I took my pencil and started to write down the message right away. The speaker used British English, "I'm unfamiliar with this accent, so it's good for me to practice," I thought.

     My mom said, our President Cai came to the stadium in Lukang, but when I got off work, I didn't see her or police officers, so I thought she had left. Then, I took a walk and chatted with Becky around the stadium last night.

     My friend, Ahmed, said that he was going to join a job interview. He shared his resume with me before, and it looked very nice. Best wishes to him!

#36

     It's been a long time for me to come here to write something about my life. I started to apply for job interviews this July, and started to work from the end of August. After I started to work, I had less time keeping those good habits before, like exercising every day, keeping a diary in English, taking online English classes, etc.

     Recently, I met a man from Iran through speaky, and he invited me to join his English learning group. It was very interesting for me to talk with foreigners and know about different cultures. Just last Saturday night, we talked about the topic: phone addiction through Skype.

     Then, it made me think that maybe I should restart to keep my diary to keep improving my English writing skill, so that's why I am here now.

     Nowadays, I almost use English every day because I made some foreign friends on speaky, and if I wanna talk with them, I can only talk in English, or we can't understand one another.

     My best friend, Jahangir, said that he camps and lives in the mountain where the Internet connection is very weak, and he is there for a project of road construction. He seems like a commander because he is responsible for arranging and telling those workers what to do. It's very cool for me since it's a field which I am unfamiliar with.

     I forgot the exact time but before I told Jahangir that I joined a TOEIC test and I told him that I felt good to join it, and maybe I could try to join an oral test next time. As usual, he supported my idea, but I said I have no confidence about my English speaking, so I should practice hard first.  It was so nice of him!!! He said I can practice speaking with him.

     At the night, he called me through the app LINE. It was the first time for me to talk with Jahangir on the phone although we've known each other for more than half year. I felt excited and a little nervous talking with him, and then I couldn't stop laughing on the phone. I felt happy that I had no difficulties understanding what he said. It was a very interesting experience!

#35

Dear Cecilia,

     I am not devoted into any religion, so I know nothing about your recent life. These two days, my dad felt very uncomfortable because of a lung infection, so I stayed in the hospital with him. I dreamed about you this morning, OMG! I feel so happy to see you again! In my dream, you look more beautiful, and you laugh so much. It seems that you are very happy and you look energetic and very healthy.

     Unfortunately, I am a too unlucky person, so when you were alive, I didn't have enough time to make good friends with you, and you were gone. I was too shy, so it was so hard for me to make new friends. Kaohsiung was a new city for me then. New place and new people made me nervous about my new life there. But you were a cute and patient girl, you talked to me and invited me to be your partner in table tennis class.

     I had a great time in Kaohsiung, and made many good friends afterwards. I experienced many good memories with my friends, and you must know how I wish you were also part of these memories. But it's okay, I am not blaming you, so don't worry.

     That's the first time and the only time you broke the promise. You invited me to choose the same tennis class, and then we could be partners again, but you were absent. I was sad, but I wasn't angry with you. I know you didn't mean to make me sad.

     Hey, is everything okay? I even don't know what your religion is, but I hope your God is kind and won't punish you for your death.

     Best wishes.
                                                                                                                                  Jamie  2017/08/24