Emma and Hui: The Year of 2016 Review
Hello
everyone, Christmas and New Year’s are right around the corner, so it’s time to
look back and reflect on the events of 2016. Wow! The two of us had quite a
year filled with ups and downs. Many exciting things happened, so it’s hard to
know where to begin.
Emma
I have
spent a large part of this year reconnecting with old friends and traveling
around China. I would say, out of all the things that happened this year, there
were three major, life changing events which I will discuss in chronological
order.
I’ll be
giving you the good news before the bad this year. I got engaged! Hui and I are
very excited to announce that we will be getting married next December in
Muncie, and again in his hometown at a to be determined date. Hui was received
well by my family during our trip to America in July, so he very happily asked
my father the big question. I am very excited to welcome Hui into my family in
the new year!
Second,
I have started a new job. I ended my contract early due to unfair treatment,
and I am now working as a professional English tutor at Hampson English in
Hangzhou. I am mostly teaching one on one students, and I am really enjoying
teaching children. Though my old job ended in personal threats and insults, I
am looking forward to my future in this new job where I feel more professional
and more needed.
Third,
just this month Hui’s grandmother has passed away. Though it hasn’t been a week
yet as of the time I am writing this, there has already been a lasting impact
on the family. We both took the news very badly, and it will take some time to
heal.
I can’t
end this on such a sad note. To finish, I would like to talk about some
awesome, non-life changing events that made this year awesome. To start off,
shortly after our big trip to America, Hui and I visited his hometown in Anhui,
where we climbed a massive, honest to goodness, mountain! I was scared to
death, but it was so beautiful, and I felt so empowered after we finished. We
spent more than eight hours climbing, and I was sore for the rest of the week,
but it was so great.
I have been to Disneyland three times this year, twice in Shanghai, and once in Hong Kong. Hui and I had the pleasure of going to Shanghai Disneyland for a discounted price a week before it officially opened to the public. It was a wonderful experience. During our second visit to Shanghai Disney during the G20 vacation, I took Hui to the fancy restaurant inside Enchanted Storybook Castle, and that was just an amazing experience well worth the money. In Hong Kong, I joined my dear classmate, Yi, for Mickey’s Not so Scary Halloween Party. We had the great luck of perfect weather and five minute lines for every ride due to a typhoon coming the next day. Anyway, I think as of this year Disney has made a super fan out of me!
Finally,
my dear friend, Judy, has moved back to China, which is also a super awesome
thing. Though she is all the way up in Nanjing, I will now have many chances to
go and see her. Recently Hui and I are having more and more family living close
to us. I can feel our lives starting to come together.
Pikachu
Squeal squeak squeal
Hui
This year, at first, I changed my department. I don’t want
to change, but I changed, and I was so sad at first and so stressful. Every day
I work until 11 o’clock. Every day I’m worried I will lose my job, and every
day I can’t sleep well. I always want to go to America, because I don’t want to
waste my time in a building. I want to enjoy my life, because every day when I
go to sleep I think I want to have a good experience, but every day I complain
to my fiancé, but she just ignores me. She says don’t be stupid. So, every day
has been like that for about half a year.
I had some big events double 11 and double 12, and every day
I needed to work until 2 o’clock. I feel very tired and very bad. The good
thing is they both passed very peacefully, and I feel like I have improved
myself. In July something very big happened. Many people could not use alipay
for a few hours. It had a big impact on my department. My boss left, and
everyone was very stressful about this accident. We decided to rebuild our
system, which must be online before the New Year. I need to keep working on the
weekend. So, this year, I have three different bosses in almost half a year.
Then, the day before double 11, another accident happened. The project I did made
my company lose a lot of money. It made me understand in a financial company,
every code you write has a very high risk. You must do it very seriously, and
think about it a lot. Maybe it wasn’t your fault, maybe it was another
department’s fault, but you need to take responsibility for it.
I went to America with my fiancé and got engaged. I met my fiancé’s family and they were very nice.
I had a great food that I never had before, especially turkey, I didn’t like
the turkey so much, but I love the skin very much. I like Muncie’s environment.
There aren’t very many people, and there isn’t much pollution. It let me
understand one thing. Life is not just work. I hope one day I can enjoy my
life, and not just work.
Recently, my grandma just passed away. It made me feel very
useless and so small, because I didn’t talk to my grandma for a long time. I
didn’t go back before she got sick, because I had to work very late. After I
was back home, she had usually gone to sleep, so I feel we should treasure the
members of our family.
I have friends nearby, so I decided in my heart. If I need
to work late every day, I want to change my job in the future when I have
children. I complain a lot about my job, but I still feel that it is very
meaningful, and I learned a lot of things. It has been a very tough year like I
have never had before. I always felt stressful.
This year, another thing happened, the apartment price went
up this year. The apartments nearby now
cost about 3 million RMB. They are so small, and I feel it is ridiculous. I
haven’t complained enough in this thing yet, so I needed to complain some more.
There you go.
This year, I feel great, because I don’t need to go to
Haining every week. My fiancé is in Hangzhou. I met a foreign guy named David,
and I really liked him. He likes to complain too, and he makes me feel
positive. We like to make a lot of jokes about David.
Ok, this is all complaining. From that you know I like
complaining, but I’m just kidding. I just want to say that half of my year has
been really difficult. I felt very happy about Emma moving to Hangzhou. For the
first few months every weekend we usually went to Zhejiang University to run.
We used to climb mountains together every Saturday morning. It was the happiest
time for me.
Then, she find a job nearby my company. She just needs to
walk 20 minutes to Hampson. At first, I felt so happy that she could get some
good experience, and not just play games at a stupid school, but she needs to
work on the weekends. We don’t have too much time together. It made me feel
that it is quite a pity, but we are working together for a good future.
We went to Disney together two times, and I really liked the
pirate ride. It was amazing. I also loved the turkey legs.
Ok, I’m finished. This is my whole year. I have
a target for next year. I would like to get a promotion, buy an apartment,
understand church things, and learn how to enjoy life. I will also get married
on the very last day of the new year. I am so excited.
