10.3
On the Road
I’m traveling on the road but feel a little tired.
The trees stand on the mountains near and far, growing colorful because of the season.
So many people are traveling on this national holiday that it took us an extra hour and a half on the highway.
10.9
A Random Thought
I recently hiked to three mountain villages and stayed overnight in two of them.
All of these villages were beautiful and unique, and I liked them very much, but I noticed a small difference, and I’ve been thinking a lot about it over the last few days.
It’s about the people living in the villages, their attitudes, and the general atmosphere there.
In the first village, I had a conversation with the owner of a hostel and talked to the owner of a cafe. Both of them negatively discussed the tasks they needed to complete for the business. For example, they disliked that they had to stay at home and work during the holidays.
In the second village, I chatted with the lady who owned the homestay where we were staying. She was so proud of her clean house, nice food, and even the fresh vegetables she planted. When we told her that the dinner she and her husband had made for us was amazing and delicious, she was happy though a bit quiet.
In the third village, we stayed in an old house built in the Qing dynasty. The family running the bed & breakfast consisted of four people. The older woman prepared delicious local food for us and she was constantly busy from the moment we arrived until we departed. The other three just hung out. I could see the fatigue on her face and feel it when we chatted, and my hike friends also complained about the B&B being a little dirty.
The fun thing was that the conversations I had matched the comments I had heard about the three villages: the first one was nice but a little too commercial, the second one was great and clients like to go again, the third one had beautiful views but was a little messy.
I think there is Fengshui in business, family, and even individual people. It’s all about one’s attitude and relationships between people and their surroundings.
- There’s a thing called [parallelism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallelism_(grammar)) and it’s important to English writing. Normally, if we make a list, we try to keep all the “parts” of the list in the same style. Here, since item #1 and item #2 are about the village, it feels a bit strange when item #3 is about your perspective.
10.10
How to maintain good habits?
I’ve noticed that I tend to get bored when I regularly do the same thing, even if it’s a good habit that I enjoyed at first.
Fortunately, I found two ways to get over this kind of situation.
The first method is to upgrade my current habits. I have a personal vocabulary book on an app which I use to review the words from time to time. Suddenly, one day I didn’t feel like memorizing those words. A few days later, I opened that app again and became aware of my interest in a word’s etymology. So then I upgraded my vocabulary routine to include reading the origin of the words.
Secondly, I set some rewards for the habits that I have to finish. As you may know, I rewarded myself with an action camera in light of my fifteenth hike.
Do you have any other strategies to help maintain good habits? Feel free to share with me.
- Luckily is used more when you find something or come across something. It has more of a “chance” feel compared to fortunately.