The winter break is just about to end. Soon we will be back at school. It’s with both happiness and sadness. I look very much forward to seeing my friends and starting practice again, but it also means I’m officially(正式地) half way through the exchange year. With school starting there are new things to try out and experience. For example? I’m starting a new sport, Track. It’s similar to Cross Country, which I did from August till November.

Being here for half a year now? I can easily tell the differences between my two schools. The hardest or most different part for me was to have the same schedule every day here. Honestly, I prefer to have different classes every day, as I did in my home country. However, I have fallen in love with the Friday football games. Football is one of my favorite sports now. Before I came, I knew nothing about it. Now I love it, especially to watch it with my host parents. I have also been so lucky to go to two college football games.

Before I left school in December, I had a couple of tests called Mid-term Test. They all went pretty smooth, mostly because I didn’t have too many hard classes. My favorite class was English, and also my hardest. Personally I really liked English, where I could write essays(文章), challenge writing skills and improve English talking.

Only four days of winter break is left. A part of me wants to be on a break forever, and the other part expects to get started again, start a new sport and see my friends and classmates.

She turned up at the doorstep of my house in Cornwall. No way could I have sent her away. No way, not me anyway. Maybe someone had kicked her out of their car the night before. "We're moving house.” "No space for her any more with the baby coming." "We never really wanted her, but what could we have done? She was a present." People find all sorts of excuses for abandoning an animal. And she was one of the most beautiful dogs I had ever seen.

I called her Goldie. If I had known what was going to happen I would have given her a more creative name. She was so unsettled during those first few days. She hardly ate anything and had such an air of sadness about her. There was nothing I could do to make her happy, it seemed. Heaven knows what had happened to her at her former owner's. But eventually at the end of the first week she calmed down. Always by my side, whether we were out on one of our long walks or sitting by the fire.

That's why it was such a shock when she pulled away from me one day when we were out for a walk. We were a long way from home, when she started barking and getting very restless. Eventually I couldn't hold her any longer and she raced off down the road towards a farmhouse in the distance as fast as she could.

By the time I reached the farm I was very tired and upset with Goldie. But when I saw her licking (舔) the four puppies (幼犬) I started to feel sympathy towards them. "We didn't know what had happened to her," said the woman at the door. "I took her for a walk one day, soon after the puppies were born, and she just disappeared." "She must have tried to come back to them and got lost," added a boy from behind her.

I must admit I do miss Goldie, but I've got Nugget now, and she looks just like her mother. And I've learnt a good lesson: not to judge people.

One morning more than thirty years ago. I entered the Track Kitehen, a restaurant where everyone from the humblest(卑微的) to the most powerful came for breakfast. I noticed an empty chair next to an elderly. Unshaven man, who looked somewhat disheveled. He was wearing a worn-out hat and was alone, I asked if I might join him. He agreed quietly and I sat down to have my breakfast.

We cautiously began a conversation and spoke about a wide range of things. We never introduced ourselves. I was concerned that he might have no money and not be able to afford something to eat. So as I rose to go back to the counter and buy a second cup of coffee, I asked.

“ May I get you something ? ”

“ A coffee would be nice . ”

Then I bought him a cup of coffee. We talked more, and he accepted another cup of coffee. Finally, I rose to leave, wished him well, and headed for the exit. At the door I met one of my friends. He asked.

“How did you get to know Mr.Galbreath? ”

“Who? ”

“The man you were sitting with. He is chairman of the Board of Churchill Downs. ”

I could hardly believe it . I was buying, offering a free breakfast, and feeling pity for one of the world’s richest and most powerful men ! ”

My few minutes with Mr. Galbreath changed my life. Now I try to treat everyone with respect, no matter who I think they are, and to meet another human being with kindness and sincerity.