One morning it was shining brightly when I woke up. I looked at the alarm clock. It said 3:45! It had stopped! What time was it? I climbed out of bed and went downstairs to the kitchen. The kitchen clock said 8:30—I was late! My parents were away. My aunt had gone to work without checking if I was up. The school bus went at 8:00. I had missed it. I rang my friend Tony on his mobile phone.
    “Tell the teacher I'll be in as soon as I can!”I said.
    “Come on your rollerblades,” Tony said. “It will be faster than the bus.”
    I washed and dressed in a hurry. I grabbed an apple to eat on the way. That was my breakfast! Then I put on my rollerblades and set off for school. It took half an hour to get to the school. I took all the shortcuts I knew. I went across the park — even through some backyards! When I got to school, I was very hot and my legs ached. I had missed math, our first lesson of the morning. But I made it just in time for history, our second lesson. I was very happy because history is my favorite subject.

    Mr. Hunt came from a poor family. He had three brothers and two sisters. His father worked hard but wasn't paid much. And his mother did all the housework at home. They were both able but they couldn't get enough money for their family.

    Mr. Hunt was in school for only three years and he had to stop to help his parents though he was good at his lessons. When he was sixteen, he came to the city and began to work in a small factory. He learned from an old worker and became a skilled worker. The old worker liked him and married his daughter to him. The young man did not have his own house and had to live with his parents-in-law(岳父母). His mother-in-law always thought he was poor and often chattered(唠叨). So the young man tried to save everything and hoped to have his own house.

    It was one fine Sunday. The old woman wanted to have a picnic on the top of the hill. She told Mr. Hunt to drive her car. But sometimes she told him to turn left and sometimes to turn right. The young man had to listen to her. At a crossing the lights were red but she made him turn left. The policeman stopped them and told the young man to give his license to him.

    “If I did wrong, sir,” said Mr. Hunt, “It was my mother-in-law's fault(过错). She was driving the car though she sat behind me!”

    A little girl's interest in wanting to talk about Chinese food put her on a path to study the language.

    Isabelle first became interested in Chinese when she was 5. “We were at a Chinese restaurant . She was watching a man making noodles. She was so excited that she wanted to talk with him. Unfortunately, he didn't speak English. On the way home, she said she wanted to learn Chinese,” said Isabelle's father.

    “I totally fell in love with the language. It's so beautiful and unlike anything I've ever heard before,” said Isabelle, whose Chinese name is Bao Ling. she is now 12 and very good at Chinese, she can even watch movies and TV from China without subtitles. Some of her favorite Chinese cartoons are Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, Big Head Son and Small Head Dad, which are very popular in China.

    Isabelle studies at the Confucius Institute (孔子学院) near her home, the William & Mary Confucius Institute. “It is just the beginning of a fantastic ongoing adventure, all thanks to the Confucius Institute,” she said.

    The WMCI offers courses on many aspects (方面) of Chinese culture, from travel tips to calligraphy(书法), to tai chi, cooking and music. The first course that Isabelle took was a cooking class. She then tried tai chi and kung fu through the WMCI.

    Next year, through the WMCI, Isabelle will join the JNCLNCLIS (languagepolicy.org) to ask for more aid for language instruction in public schools.

    “I want to thank the Confucius Institute for sharing the wonderful language and culture of China to the world,” she said. “It has been a wonderful journey for all of us,” said her mother.

    In 1997,12-year-old American girl Caitlin and 14-year-old Zimbabwean (津巴布韦人) Martin became pen friends through their schools. They didn't realize at that time how their handwritten letters would change their lives.

    It all began as a school task. Everyone in Caitlin's class was supposed to choose a pen friend from another country. All the other kids picked countries like France or Germany, but Caitlin chose Zimbabwe because the name sounded exotic(异国的) and cool.

    Martin lived with his family in one of Zimbabwe's worst slums(贫民窟) where they shared one room with another family. And a bed was their only piece of furniture.

    When Caitlin's first letters reached Martin, they were simple and general. The two kids wrote about their favorite music and what they liked to do. But as Martin gradually revealed more about his life and his letters started arriving written on pieces of trash, Caitlin realized what the living conditions were like for Martin. Without telling her parents, she began sending money with her letters—$ 20 at a time. While the money was not much to Caitlin, it meant more food for Martin's family and enabled him to pay his school fees.

    It lasted six years from their first exchange of letters to Martin's arrival in the United States. With the help of the money from Caitlin's parents later on, Martin finished his university and got his MBA from Duke University.

    Today, Caitlin and Martin aren't only best friends, but they also share their story in a book called I Will Always Write Back. They want to encourage readers to look beyond their own lives and do something kind for others, which might greatly influence their lives.