**みなさん、こんにちは！** 今から、新しいたんごをつかって、れんしゅうしましょう！✨ Today's words are: **うち (house/home), たばこ (cigarette), エスカレーター (escalator), くに (country), くつ (shoes), へや (room).** まず、わたしがいくつかのぶんをつくりました： 1. **うちはおおきいです。** _(My house is big.)_ 2. **たばこをすいません。** _(I don’t smoke cigarettes.)_ 3. **エスカレーターがうごいていません。** _(The escalator is not moving.)_ 4. **くにはにほんです。** _(My country is Japan.)_ 5. **くつをぬいでください。** _(Please take off your shoes.)_ 6. **へやはきれいです。** _(The room is clean.)_ Now it's your turn! 💡 Try to make your own sentences using these words.

an artist wanted to go to the 798 Art Zone, So we went there after work. It was the first time that I went there at night. I modeled there when I was young. I still remember, the workshop didn’t have money to pay me, so the designer just made a Cheongsam for me. So this time it became a little bit unfamiliar, Especially my eyesight is not very good at night. I said “I'm very sorry. You asked me to show you around but I don't know many places except the place that I work and the place that I live.” Same as Zhou Bangyan, I call myself “tired and weary visitor in the capital”. We arrived there eventually. Of course it was not as astounding and cool as before. But she still took pictures. At the end, she took a picture of both of us. I sent the photo to my mother, she asked many questions, then I started to understand Hong Yi’s “At the brink of the sky, at the corners of the earth, my familiar friends wander in loneliness and far from home, One more ladle of wine to conclude the little happiness that remains; tonight my dreams of parting leave me cold.”

Thank you so much for finding the learners! Maybe I can meet the learners on Monday and Tuesday (One on Monday, one on Tuesday). When would you like to schedule a Zoom meeting? What about tomorrow or the day after tomorrow?

It was sunny today. Since tomorrow is the Lantern Festival, we had a banquet with our relatives tonight. The recent influenza has been really bad—my uncle was sick and feverish, and my maternal grandmother was lethargic and barely ate anything. We used separate, neutral utensils to serve the food to each one, which is something we rarely do. I also avoided any physical contact with them. A big virus is spreading!

I think the biggest change in payment trends over the last 10 years in China is cashlessness. Nowadays, we have had more than 5 e-payment platforms people can choose from, they are all convenient to use and differ in different financial service they can provide. Cashlessness has many good points: decrease the crime rate; decrease the disease transmission through hands; decrease the counterfeit money transmission... Considering the benefits a cashless society has brought to us, I appreciate the change a lot. It just makes life easier for most people. It also causes inconvenience for the elderly, the biggest problem would be the difficulties for they to adapt to the new technology, even it seems simple for everyone. I think we should still keep the tradition way a space for someone who don't embrace changes, the best is to give people choices.

In my opinion, a true friend is someone who would be there in any of our situation. Someone who is caring and loving, always supports and gives advice when we might have done something wrong. A true friend is not about how long we have known her/him. It's about how we respect each other.