Today is the big day when I travel to Suzhou to deliver a lecture. It's also the first time I have left Shanghai in more than a year.
When I woke up around 5 a.m., a shocking idea suddenly occurred to me: I had forgotten to have my nucleic acid test done yesterday, which would result in my nucleic acid test record surpassing 48 hours. Consequently, I would not be allowed to enter the training centre in Suzhou. This realization immediately startled me out of bed. A quick search on Baidu helped me locate a 24-hour testing site. The next moment saw myself driving there.
Unfortunately, the 24-hour testing station was closed temporarily for sterilization when I got there around 5:30. It would not reopen until 6:00. So I had to wait. Fortunately, by noon, the result would be available, which would not stand in the way of my entering the training centre.
Still, this experience sent me on high alert: you can never put too much emphasis on being well prepared. List the important tasks and do them one by one. Random memory is never reliable!
After that little shock, the rest of the day went smoothly.
My lecture proved to be a huge success! During the three-hour afternoon class, I kept refreshing trainees' perceptions and understanding of intercultural competence with numerous new cases, practical analysis tools, interactive activities and generous sharing of rich resources.
After class, loud applause rang out in the large lecture hall, acknowledging me. Some students came to me for further guidance and to show their gratitude. Some even added me as a WeChat friend. Below is one of the students' compliments, which gives me much appreciation and encouragement. Thank you very much, my dear students！
After work, I had a wonderful time with my dear cousin at the beautiful Tai Lake, tasting delicious local fish and shrimp and having a long and warm conversation.
By 9:30 pm., a dark and humid night saw me arriving home safe and sound. The successful performance in teaching was due to hours of preparation and repeated updating of the ppt. Even an hour before the lecture started, an idea came to me and I added a new page which proved to be very effective. One dangerous incident was that the USB memory disk could not be recognized by the computer. Fortunately, I had prepared two, and the second one turned out to be fine. Actually, I was not worried at all, because my laptop was in my car, waiting to back up at any time in case of an emergency.
In short, the most important lesson for today is still the old but always useful golden rule: sufficient preparation is the prerequisite for success.
