作者：Tammy Tan

Two weeks ago, I planned to write an entry daily during my holiday in Quanzhou.

However, I was too busy and tired to do that.

Quanzhou is such a wonderful city that I couldn’t help but continue exploring it every day than I expected. We even got up earlier than we would have on a workday and got back to the hotel very late.

I’ll try to share some pictures and videos with you in the coming week.

I got up so early to take the train to Quanzhou this morning that I felt tired and sleepy during the train ride.

I’m currently sitting in the hotel room, waiting for my friends to arrive. Maybe due to the delicious local food, I feel refreshed again.

The hotel we’re staying at tonight is part of the IHG. It was booked by one of my friends. Her husband likes international brands. I think she shares the same preference, even though she doesn’t agree.

I personally prefer local hotels with a good reputation, which are mostly new and with some special local decoration or food.

I’m not in the right state of mind for work today due to the upcoming holiday.

Our national holiday is approaching, and it starts from October 1st to October 8th. In addition, I will start my holiday four days before the national holiday, which means I will have a long holiday of 12 days.

I’ll meet two of my best friends in Quanzhou and spend 11 days there. I know it will be very crowded during the national holiday, but this foreseen situation can’t stop my excitement.

I bought two avocados last night and planned to make breakfast with them this morning. I ordered them on a takeaway platform from a big supermarket, which I trusted very much.

However, when I opened the box this morning, I found that the quality of the avocados was much worse than before. They were fully ripe but somewhat firm, and lacking the soft, creamy texture of butter.

I’m a little disappointed and decided to buy avocados from the physical fruit store in our neighborhood next time.

I’m a little curious about the English idiom “dog days of summer”. I know it means 三伏天 in Chinese.

The Chinese character “伏” has a human on the left and a dog on the right, indicating that dogs can protect humans. This is the original meaning of the 伏 period.

So, is it a coincidence between the English idiom and the Chinese idiom? Or it is a translation from Chinese, which dates back approximately 2700 years.