Andy was still traveling in Spain when he realized he had to confirm (确认) his flight home with the airline company (航空公司). He was visiting Spain in order to improve his Spanish. When he was speaking to people face to face, he had no difficulty understanding what they said. However, when he was speaking on the phone, he still had a problem. Andy called the airline. And the clerk confirmed that his plane was leaving at nine o'clock three days from that day. She also told Andy to be at the airport two hours earlier in order to check in his luggage and get a seat.

    Since he was leaving in three days, Andy didn't lose any time. He visited as many places as he could. He thought that it would probably be a while before he had enough money again. He wished he could come back and spend a year in Spain.

    Too quickly, the final day arrived. Andy left early for the airport to arrive two hours before take-off. He hated to rush. He went to the clerk to show his ticket. The clerk looked at the ticket in surprise. "Why, sir, but your flight was at nine o'clock in the morning, and now it is eight in the evening." "But I confirmed my flight," insisted Andy. "Will I have to pay for another ticket?"

    "No, sir. However, the next flight out will be three days from now."

    Andy's look of shock turned to pleasure as he realized that now he could continue his vacation.

    People in South Korea who feel they can no longer bear the stress of everyday life now can choose to stay in a prison to relax and think deeply.

    In a society where pressure to do well in school and find highly-paid jobs is intense, a former lawyer came up with an extreme relaxation idea. Kwon Yong-seok created the "Prison Inside Me" —a stress-reduction center with a punishment theme. People come here to cut themselves off from the outside world and pay to be kept in 60-square-foot (5.6-square-meter) cells (囚室).

    Located on the outskirts of Hongcheon, about 58 miles (93 km) northeast of Seoul," Prison Inside Me" came to life after Mr. Kwon voluntarily asked to spend time behind bars for" healing reasons," but his request was turned down." I didn't know how to stop working back then," he said." I felt like I was being swept away against my will, and it seemed I couldn't control my own life." So, Kwon and his wife Roh Ji-hyang decided to take matters into their own hands, and designed and built a prison-like spiritual center. The construction was completed in June last year and cost about 2 billion won ($19 million).

    The facility includes 28 cells, furnished with only a toilet, a sink and a small table, where guests can spend time alone, thinking about life and enjoying private thinking periods. Moreover, guests can also join group thinking periods in the hall, where they are given instructions on how to free themselves from what Mr. Kwon calls the "inner prison" to find inner peace.

    According to the Wall Street Journal, hundreds of stressed South Koreans are checking in at the stress-reduction facility to think about their lives and regain control of it. A two-night stay at" Prison Inside Me" costs 150,000 won ($146).

    Mr. Kwon and his wife explained that at the beginning they had a different plan for the" relaxation center," and imagined a longer stay for their guests, but, given that people weren't able to take more time off, they had to reduce the length of stays to just two days.

    Park Woo-sub, a guest at" Prison Inside Me," said the experience helped him a lot." This is my third time in prison. Being kept in a prison makes me hard to breathe, but it also offers time to focus only on me and spend some quiet time with myself."

    Others said the experience would have been more helpful if the conditions had been poorer, like in a real prison.

    In the online world, it's very difficult to talk to Chinese people without using emojis. However, did you know that people in different age groups have totally different preferences for choosing their emojis? The result is based on a report released by Tencent's WeChat, China's most popular messaging app, on its official weibo account on Wednesday.

    Specifically, for users who were born in the 2000s, their favorite WeChat emoji would probably be the widely used "facepalm", rumored to be based on the famous Hong Kong movie star Stephen Chow. They also may be a night owl without much sleep, while iced beverages and desserts are their cup of tea.

    For China's post-90s WeChat users, they are likely to get out of bed later in the morning compared with other groups, and the emoji "face with tears of joy" may rule their online social life. Also, their reading materials have shifted from entertainment and gossip three years ago to the current relationship and lifestyle pieces.

    For those born in the 1980s, their tastes have remained the same, as they are still fond of reading news on national affairs. And "smiling widely" is their emoji of the year.

    WeChat users born in the 1970s are called the optimistic group, who like to use the emoji "laughing quietly" and go through their moments frequently every day. Their bed time usually takes place around 11:30 pm.

    Users over 55 are the early-bird group with rich entertainment activities in WeChat platforms, such as looking through moments, reading and shopping. They like to cheer up other age groups, so their favorite emoji is "giving a thumbs-up".

    The report also indicates that WeChat boasts more than 1.08 billion active users with 45 billion messages being sent and 410 million calls getting through the app each day in 2018. In addition to covering users' socializing, WeChat has gradually come into our daily lives. Compared to the year before, people used WeChat 4.7 times more to purchase public transport tickets, and 2.9 times more to pay for medical expenses. Also, the app was used 1.5 times more over the previous year to pay for meals, with Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen ranked as the top three cities in dining purchases through WeChat.

    LaVonn was helping out in her dad's store when a little boy, about five or six years old, came in. He was wearing a brown and oversized coat with dirty, old clothes beneath it. His shoes were broken, and only one had lace (鞋带). The boy looked around the store, picked up several items, examined them one by one and then carefully put them back on the shelf.

    LaVonn's dad walked over to the child and asked if he could help. The little boy said, "I'm looking for a gift for my brother." After 20 minutes, the child picked up a toy airplane. He held it carefully in his hands as if it were made of glass and carried it to LaVonn's father.

    "How much is this?" he asked. "My brother loves airplanes." LaVonn's dad answered, "How much money do you have?" The little boy reached into his coat and pulled out some small change (零钱). He spread his money out on the table and began to count. "I have twenty-seven cents," he answered. Her dad picked up the coins and said, "The airplane costs exactly twenty-seven cents! Wait here and I'll pack it up for you."

    The little boy walked out of the store with the gift and a smile of total satisfaction on his face. LaVonn made her way back to the shelf and she found the plane was priced at $11.98.She never mentioned it to her father. Her father didn't say anything more about it either, but she realized later, "My best gift that Christmas was seeing my dad's love in action."

    I can't remember the first time one of my children told me, "I hate you." I can, however, tell you that it still happens occasionally, but it doesn't bother me. As their father, I often say things that are unpopular. If they hate me once in a while, I know I'm doing a good job.

    There are three other words that I won't allow in my house, however. Last week, I was watching my older son play with a paper airplane. After he accidentally threw it into a wall and it came apart, his eyes welled up with tears.

    "I hate myself," he said. It wasn't the first time he'd said it, and I was concerned that he'd started to actually believe it.

    I knelt down next to him and made him look into my eyes. I told him that I never wanted to hear those words again, and that he needed to respect himself.

    The difference between your kid telling you they hate you and them saying they hate themselves is that, five minutes later, they've already forgotten they "hate you". Self-hate is much more potentially poisonous and for young people, it can linger into the rest of their life.

    Kids who start to believe they hate themselves sometimes struggle to form new friendships. As teenagers, they avoid the chance to connect with a potential love interest, because they assume they'll be rejected. And as adults, they might choose not to apply for the dream job because they assume it won't work out.

    I know this is true, because I didn't have a high opinion of myself as a child. I found myself struggling in many areas, and I'd hate to see my children suffer the same fate.

    Sometimes, words are just words. But some words can make the kind of impact I'd very much like to avoid for my children. I don't fear strong language; I fear language that makes us weak.