A

    My name is Peter. I was born in Paris. When I was three, my family moved to London. We stayed there for one year then my dad had to move to New York. We spent about two years there. I moved to Shanghai last May and I like the new country very much.

    I study at an international school in Shanghai. There are people from nearly all parts of the world. I like my school very much and I can learn many things. I love learning Chinese and keep practising it with my classmates. After school, my favourite sport is football. I like drawing and painting, too.

    Shanghai has four seasons and I like spring best here, because I can go out in the evening and play with my friends. In my hometown, the summers are hotter than Shanghai but the winters are not so cold as t hey are here.

    Shanghai is like a small world where all kinds of people and food can be seen. I like being part of it and I am very happy to stay here.

    Today, after 10 days of medical treatment, for the first time, I went out alone to meet a motherly lady who I had met during my stay in a program. She had been unwell recently and I lived alone. Her sons live in foreign countries.

    After I called her and told about my plan to visit her, she started becoming excited and happily planning food at once. Nowadays, she has a lady cook coming by to help her but she does part of the work herself with her bandaged leg.

    I reached her home alone after being guided a couple of times by her before. I carried little things (snacks, books etc.) for her. She had been waiting for some time when I arrived. We talked about different things from health to her life and mine, from past to future, from food to travel etc. During the discussion, her care for me became clear when she made warm suggestions or supported me.

    During the last few months, she had struggled with health and housework. She had got over those difficulties and here she was telling me how all of us must face some problems. She had seen a few people facing worse problems in the hospital and mentioned about their cases and was grateful for her present condition which was manageable.

    She wanted to gift me something—she kept thinking of a dress, watch, footwear etc. whatever was new and great in her home. I kept refusing but finally took the footwear out of politeness.

    She loved the snacks I had brought and wanted to eat them with her tea. I was quite happy to see the child like interest.

    While I was spending time with my motherly friend, the following thought kept coming back to me-probably this is why I have lived through the 10 days in this city. The time I spent with her seemed so much needed. I felt the deep peace it could bring to me and that brought such a big joy!

    In a town there lived a little, beautiful and smart girl. Her name was Rose. Everyone in the town liked her. She was very brave, but she was scared of the doctor. One day, one of her teeth was moving. Her mom saw it. She said, "One of your teeth is moving, and you need to visit Doctor Tim."

    Rose said, "No! I'm not going to the doctor." Mom said, "Don't worry. It's not so wobbly(摆动的) now, we needn't go to the doctor at once." That made Rose feel better.

    After five weeks, Rose forgot about her tooth but her mom didn't. She checked her tooth again and it was more wobbly, so she said, "It's time to see the doctor."

    Rose was scared but she had to do what her mom told her, so they went to see Doctor Tim.

    They had to wait in the waiting room.

    When it was her turn, her heart was beating very fast. She went into Doctor Tim's room. He was smiling. She sat on the chair.

    Doctor Tim said," Close your eyes."

    Rose closed her eyes, but just before Doctor Tim started, tears started coming down from her eyes. When she opened her eyes, she saw Doctor Tim holding her tooth, smiling.

    Rose smiled. Then Doctor Tim gave her a teddy bear. From that time Rose wasn't scared of doctors anymore.

    Last week, I visited the Badaling Great Wall with my friend Peter.

    We set off early in the morning. We took the subway first and then a bus. Reaching the foot of the Great Wall, Peter was attracted by the landscape at once. "How wonderful it is!" he said repeatedly and pulled me into the cable car (缆车) at once. We got a view of the beautiful scenery.

    After a while, we got to the Great Wall. Peter was very excited. He touched the bricks. I told him when and how we Chinese built the wall.

    He listened with great interest. When we entered a turret (炮塔), Peter was more curious. I told him what the turret was and what it was built for "It was really an amazing achievement (成就)!

    Peter said with admiration (钦佩) and took several photos.

    Then, we reached the Stele (石碑) of brave Man, the symbol (象征) of the great Wall. A lot of visitors gathered (聚集) around it and took photos. I translated the words on the stele for Peter. "Only the one who can reach the great Wall is a brave man." "Rell?" Peter asked joking. We both laughed.