My National Holiday - Shawn Add me on skype if you want to practise with me ^_^ How the time flies! The National Holiday has already ended even before I stop and appreciate the scenary along the way. Where have I been? What have I done? It might not be a fancy answer as some people might imagine. I thought I would have plan on going on a trip and visit the northeastern part of China but I didn't. I just did the following things above. 1. Talk to friends on skype reguarly to practise English and Japanese. It's not easy to keep up doing one thing for a long time because people might be busy with work, life and other things. We try to have some practise every week as long as we have time and we can also communicate with each other on wechat or other platforms. 2. Get prepared for an English speech contest. There has been a yearly contest in my city but I have not heard of it before. I would like to challenge myself and see how far I can go this time. Even though I might not be able to get into the final one, I still appreciate all the things I could learn from it because I want to improve my public speaking skills. I also joked with my father the other day when we were on the way home after swimming. I told him that my family should be proud of me many years later when I became an old man standing on the stage becoming the winner in that speech contest. I wish that day will not be too long for me to wait for. ^_^ 3. Attend a couchsurfing meeting in my city. It is actually the first time for me to join the meeting to meet travellers from different parts of the world. We had a great time talking about interesting people and stories we have met or heard on the journey and we discussed about the culture shocks you have experienced travelling in China. 4. Learn a lesson: Sometimes I just worry too much about what people might think about me while for them it might be something so small. Now I think I am more confident when I meet strangers or new friends and give an introduction about myself. 5. Watch game of throns and how to get away with murder. Wish you also have a good time. Hi It's Shawn here. I'm a native Chinese speaker with two years online English hosting experiences in English corners. Hopefully we can help each other to improve language learning together. You can contact me via msg in the forum. You can get to know more about me by looking at my essays on italki.