An old man buying the breakfast asked the woman at the stall, “ Did you watch TV last night? What do you think about it?” “Great! Great! We watched it till midnight. It is wonderful!” the woman exclaimed.

On the way to the playground, our neighbours saw Coco and asked, “Didn’t you watch TV last night?” and we answered with pride, “Yes!”

And when we went to visit my parents afterwards, the opening ceremony was again the focus of our conversation…

All these make me relive the wonderful night on August 8, 2008. I watched the rebroadcast of the Olympic Opening Ceremony again and again today. It is the most spectacular one I have ever seen, what is more, the miracle is created by Chinese people. I am so proud of being a Chinese.

It is unnecessary to describe the stunning scenes last night since almost all Chinese stayed at home and enjoyed it. And it is also impossible to do so since my words will be too dry to describe the wonders Chinese people had shown to the world.

What impressed me most is the show of Fou at the very beginning. It is so powerful and breathtaking. I am completely captured by the uniformed strikes of Fou by 2008 artists and the innovative ways of countdown to the opening ceremony. How much efforts should be made in order to give such a stunning show? I really admire and appreciate those artists!

And a traditional scroll, is highlighted through the whole opening ceremony. Chinese culture is presented to the world in a magically beautiful way.

And don't forget the amazing firework display!

Wow! I am sure the wonder last night will stay in my mind for a very, very long time, and the new China will stay strong in the world.

Wonderful as it is, in my opinion, the theme song and the way to light the Olympic fire can be improved. What do you think about the opening ceremony, my friend?

Time flies. One month has passed and I have enjoyed my summer vacation for more than 30 days.   

It is the most relaxed and enjoyable summer vacation I have ever had, with no tiring assignments, no extra teaching in scorching weather, though well-planned.   

I spend my mornings   with Coco. I take her to morning exercise, help her to have the breakfast, then teach her English. She shows great enthusiasm in learning English. Everytime I say: “Coco, Let’s learn English together.” She will jumped up with joy and say happily: “OK!”   

I know that her interests in learning partly comes from the materials I downloaded from the internet. They are animated and interesting, including an children English teaching program for learning  , some English children songs for entertaining  , and an interesting cartoon “Make Way for Noddy” for listening  . Coco learns very fast. It is said that the age bracket of 3-5 is the prime time for learning language. I do agree. Coco shows great memory for what she has learned everyday. She is good at listening, too. When shown the English cartoons, although she doesn't understand the whole story, she can pick up the words and phrases she has learned, repeat them and say the meaning of the words and phrases quickly and correctly.   I am so proud of her.  

I spend the afternoons totally for myself. After taking the nap, I get up and go to practice piano   . At the very beginning of the summer vacation, I make a wise decision to learn piano. I pay money for it, so I have to persist in doing it. I want to force myself out of the house and learn something new. And paying high fees will make my lazy-self more active.   I won’t waste money, anyway. I make progress day by day, indulging myself in the luxury periods of music and privacy. You won’t understand the importance of privacy for a woman if you don’t have a baby. I feel myself refreshed every afternoon when I come back home after playing the piano, so that I will have enough patience and courage to become a mother again.

For the evening, I am quite busy, feeding Coco, bathing her, taking her to bed, playing games with her, telling bedtime story…     now she is in sound sleep. Here I am. I can enjoy my time again, writing my own blog…  

That is my July, with something very routine, and something interesting and challenging…   

Now here comes the August.   

What is my plan?   

The Olympic Games, of course.   

And the routine,   

and the piano,   

and hopefully an academic writing…   

I practise my piano lessons every day in different roomettes of the music store. Everytime I enter a new room, the graffiti on the wall shock me.

Most of the pictures I see on the wall is crying boys and girls. And the sentences are even more shocking…

Room No. 1: “I hate mummy very much!”   

Room No. 2: “Daddy is an bad egg!”  

Room No. 3: “ I want to commit suicide!”   And this sentence is doddled on the wall with a picture in which a crying girl hangs herself on a tree.   

…

My mouth went dry when I saw the graffiti and the pictures.

Everyone knows who wrote the sentences and drew the pictures. The little boys and the little girls are forced to come to the music store and spend their “happy” childhood in the small cell with a piano. I know how dull it is since I am a begginer here. They have no weekends. (Weekends is the time when the music store is the busiest. I waited an hour yesterday before I have my turn to practise.)  

Those children buried their childhood here just to, in their parents’ eyes, possibly become a musician in the future. They are so small and weak that they can not say no. Or they did say no to piano, but were still forced to learn. What those little ones can do is to give vent to their anger and despair on the wall...   

Those mums and dads are “good” parents. They are willing to pay a large amount of money for the lessons and escort their children to learn piano every day with high expectation. They smile when they see the hands of their sons or daughters dancing on the keyboard. They frown when they see their children make mistakes. They care a lot about their children. The only things they don’t care is the children’s feelings and hobbies.   

Piano is a magical musical instrument. I like it very much and don’t think it is a punishment or agony when I have to go practising everyday. But for those who don’t like it, it will become a dull and painful devil.   

Looking at the desperate cries on the wall, my heart is aching.   

I say to myself that I will not make my Coco a unhappy girl like this in the future. I will take her to the piano lessons for she likes music so much. But I will not force her to learn it if she really don’t like it. A happy childhood for her is the most important exprience and the best gift I can give her.   

And I hope Chinese parents will set free their children and give back their happy childhood.     

I have been busy learning piano for about two weeks and found it very difficult and boring at first. But somehow I am fasinated by the black-and-white keyboards, the beautiful sound, and the hopefully the wonderful melody afterwards. So I will persist no matter how difficult it is.   

I have been practising my finger position for the past two weeks and made great progress. Ms Sun praised me for my diligence and quickness in learning from time to time during the lessons.   Now what I have to do is to familiar myself with the Staff, the note and the pitch and their position in the keyboards, the whole note/half note/quarter note…   

Sometimes I have a dream that one day, my fingers will be dancing on the piano keyboards and play my favorite music to the family.     

so when i found that they were back last night, i was very excited. i spent the whole night reviewing my photo albums again and again till midnight  . here i choose this one to share with you.   

When my husband goes travelling, he always can resist the temptation of being a compulsive buyers and comes back home with only a few things with pratical use. But I can never do this…  

I travelled with my colleagues a few days ago, most of whom are females.

Whenever we went to the scenic spots, we would swarm before the souvenirs counters and buy gifts for our friends and relatives. At first I didn’t want to buy anything. However, if I found something suitable as a gift for my mother, then I would think that it would be unfair to my father if I didn’t buy him anything. So I started to hunt something for my Dad. Then my husband, then Coco, then… Finally my colleagues and I came back to the hotel with heavy bags and empty purses…  

The businessmen behind the stall were overwhelmed with excitement with their eyes sparkling,   mouths babbling   and their hands being busy packaging  . They must be very excited to see a group of women coming, which means the women will buy a lot and they will earn a lot.   

And for those women who are more rational? Would they buy something? Yes, they would. Peer pressure, as I call it. When they see all the colleauges are buying the souvenirs as presents, they will think it is a pity if they don’t do the same thing. And if they see their colleagues are buying the same product, they will think the product must be of super quality and they are suffering losses if they don’t buy it. So they buy something more or less…   

Does that mean that women are more irrational and less cool-headed than men? Maybe.   

But I prefer to think that women are more human and considerate than men.   

Any evidence?

Besides the presents to everyone, I also brought three heavy bottles of sand from that clean beach for Coco to play at home. Coco is very happy and she have been playing the sand together with her beach toys these two days.    

Here I want to express my thanks to my good friend Jo, who kindly helped me all the way through the jouney. She always gave me helps me when I needed them, the plastic bags, the paper towel, the menthocamphorate, the carrying of the luggage and what was the most important, the encouragement. With her kind help, I felt much better during the trip and had a good time. Thank you, Jo.   

After days of agony in grading final papers, our teaching group decided to take a trip to the beach for a big relaxation and also for celebrating the coming of summer vacation. It was scorchingly hot   during the trip and everybody got brown and red sun-tanned skin  . However, we enjoyed ourselves so much.  

It was the first time that our teaching group had ever organized such trip. We used to go travelling with teachers who taught English majors. (I don’t know much about the Foreign Language Departments in other universities. But in our department, the teachers who teach the majors and the teachers who teach the non-majors are complete different and seem to be a little incompatible to each other.) So this trip to the beach was the happiest one for me since there are not any people I don’t like. Most of my colleagues are young and energetic, friendly and kind, sharing much in common with me.   

We went to the tea museum on the morning of July 3^rd. Although I have been there several times, I was also very joyful since I went there with those whom I enjoy accompany with. We were lost ourselves in the Korean/Japanese/Tibetan tea ceremony shows, the classic folk music softly playing in the air and the fragrance of teas in the museum.   

Then we continued our jouney to the small island. For me, every trip to the sea is a wonder. I wouldn’t say no whenever I have a chance to be close to the sea. I liked the feeling of the wave flapping my feet and the smell of the salty and fresh air by the beach. I also witness something special by the sea.   

A group of fishermen showed me their happiness and contentment from hard work.

I saw an octopus! It was small, soft and transparent. When we tried to help him back to the sea, he squeezed himself into the sand and disappeared!

And then a starfish! It was caught by two boys and taken away.

A seahorse! It was also taken away by a fisherman, maybe would be sold for money.

We tried to persuade the people to set free the starfish and the sea horse, but in vain. I sighed when I thought of their destiny. They are lovey creatures and belong to the sea. But they are so small and vulnerable, being unable to protect themselves.   

At night, we had a barbecue in the gentle breeze of the beach.   

The next day, we climbed up a moutain to enjoy the grand bird’s eye view of the sea scenery. What a wonderful experience! Suddenly I felt myself so small and humble before the wide and wild sea…   

The trip itself also promote the communication among the members of our teaching group. The barbecue, the chatting during the trip, the bedtime talk till midnight… we know each other more and understand more. The whole trip was filled with smiles, laughters and songs. You see, it is such a united, enthusiastic and invincible team with so many beautiful girls.