Last night I attended an online English course. It lasted for an hour and a half. However to pick up my son after night class, I had to drop out half the way. What a pity. This course is like an online English Corner, with a topic to discussion on and a teacher to organize. As I have said, I had some difficulties in speaking English. I had been to English corner several times, but most of time I was just a listener, and I had never volunteered to speak out my opinion in such situations. But this time, I decided to make some changes.  I clicked “raise your hand” bottom from the very beginning and determined not to give me any chance to change my mind.

Fortunately, or unfortunately I was the second one to answer the question. I could almost hear my heart pounding hardly in my chest.

The topic is about travelling.  And the first question is “What is your hobby?” I heard myself answered: “I love travelling and I also love reading. And sometimes I like to combine them both. I mean, the world is like a huge book. To better understand that book, we need to do both onsite explorations—like travelling and offsite research---like reading. So before every trip, I would do some reading in advance, to know better about the place I’m going to visit.” I believed I stammered once or twice, and I was not sure I pronounced “exploration” correctly. But at least, I did it. I made myself understood. That’s a step forward, isn’t it? After that Susan, the teacher, exchanged a few words with me. This success gave me some confidence to go on. However, before I got another chance to answer the question, I got to go.

Travelling happens to one of my favorite topic. If it was about sports or politics, I would  have nothing to say except: “No comment”.

I remember the next question is “Do you like travelling. Either your answer is Yes or No, please give out the reasons.”

Of course, I love travelling. For me travelling is about to break the routines. Every day we spend our life pretty much in the same way: We get up in the morning, we take care our kids, we do laundry, clean and cook, we work, we come back home, we learn English, and we go to sleep. Such life is not bad on the whole. It has created our comfort zone. But once in a while, you just need to break it, to get out of it, to escape from it. Travelling is different. Everything you see, everything you hear, everything you feel is different. It’s brand new experience. Sometimes, we just need excitements like that.

And the last question I believe is “what’s the advantage and disadvantage of the travelling?”

The advantage of travelling is the same reason why I like it. As for the disadvantage of it, I believe that the first one is it certainly can burn a hole in your pocket. Second, planning a travel is a terrible but must-do job. You have to take everything into considerations, especially when you plan a travel for a large group. It’s almost impossible to satisfy everyone’s need and expectation.

So, my dear friend, what’s your answers to the above questions?