Most people who move to a foreign country may experience a period of time when they have a lot of stress in the new culture. This feeling is often called “culture shock” and it is important to learn how to deal with culture shock. First of all, you should know that everyone in a new situation will go through some form of culture shock. There are four general stages of cultural adjustment(适应).

    The first stage is usually referred to as the honeymoon stage. Upon arriving in a new environment, you'll be interested in the new culture. Everything will seem exciting, and everyone will seem friendly and helpful.

    The second stage is called the withdrawal stage. The excitement that you felt before changes to frustration(沮丧) as you find it difficult to deal with new problems. The language is hard to learn; friends are hard to make; simple things like shopping and going to the bank are challenges. It is at this stage that you are likely to feel anxious and homesick.

If you are one of those who manage to stick it out (坚持下来), you will enter the third stage—- the recovery stage. At this point, you'll feel more confident in the new culture. You'll start to understand and accept the way things are done and the way people behave in your new environment.

The last stage is the stability stage—- this is the point when people start to feel at home in the new culture. At this stage, you will behave well in the new culture, and prefer some aspects(方面) of the new culture to your own culture.

    There is, in a sense, a fifth stage to this process. If you decide to return home after a long period in a new culture, you may experience what is called “reverse culture shock”. This means that you may find aspects of your own culture “foreign”, because you're so used to the new culture. Reverse culture shock is usually pretty mild(温和的) and doesn't last for very long.

    The value-packed, all-inclusive sight-seeing package that combines the best of Sydney's harbor, city, bay and beach highlights.

    A SydneyPass gives you unlimited and flexible travel on the Explorer Buses: the ‘red' Sydney Explorer shows you around our exciting city sights while the ‘blue' Bondi Explorer visits Sydney Harbour bays and famous beaches. Take to the water on one of three magnificent daily harbor cruises (游船). You can also travel free on regular Sydney Buses, Sydney Ferries or CityRail services (limited area), so you can go to every corner of this beautiful city.

    Imagine browsing at Darling Harbour, tasting the famous seafood at Watsons Bay or enjoying the city lights on an evening ferry cruise. The possibilities and plans are endless with a SydneyPass. Wherever you decide to go, remember that bookings are not required on any of our services so tickets are treated on a first in, first seated basis.

    SydneyPasses are available for 3, 5 or 7 days for use over a 7-calendar-day period. With a 3 or 5-day pass you choose on which days out of the 7 you want to use it. All SydneyPasses include a free Airport Express inward trip before starting your 3, 5 or 7 days, and the return trip is valid  for 2 months from the first day your ticket was used.

    SydneyPass Fares

*A child is defined as anyone from the ages of 4 years to under 16 years. Children under 4 years travel free.

**A family is defined as 2 adults and any number of children from 4 to under 16 years of age from the same family.

Top attractions

    Amsterdam is most famous for its artistic heritage. This tradition is proudly on display in the Rijksmuseum (translates as State Museum). Once you've taken in all that has to offer, artists, history fans, and families shouldn't pass up the chance to visit the Van Gogh Museum-containing around 700 paintings and drawings by Vincent and his contemporaries, including Gauguin, Monet, and Toulouse-Lautrec.

    Amsterdam is also home to the Anne Frank Museum, where Anne hid with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. On a lighter note, taking a canal cruise through its extensive waterways is a rewarding way to see the Dutch capital.

    Art lovers get their kicks at:

     The Van Gogh Museum Rijksmuseum Museum het Rembrandthuis

    Food and drink

    Cheese lovers love Amsterdam. You can find an excuse to eat cheese at any time of the day here. Gouda is Holland's favorite, developing a more intense flavor the longer it's aged. Find a selection at the markets, try a cheeseboard at dinner time, or just order cubes with mustard for dipping to accompany a drink.

    When you're hungry for non-cheese food groups, you'll find Michelin-starred restaurants, vegetarian, and organic restaurants that accompany an array of global cuisine. For old-fashioned and modern Dutch food, try these Amsterdam restaurants: Moeders, Haesje Claes, Loetje, Greetje, and De Silveren Spiegel.

    Don't leave without tasting:

     Patat (hot chips with toppings) Stroopwafel (waffle cookie) Chocomel (chocolate milk)

    Amsterdam Fast Facts

    Approximate flight times:

     NYC/Newark 7 hours, 20 minutes Philadelphia 8 hours Boston 7 hours

     Miami 9 hours, 45 minutes Los Angeles 10 hours, 15 minutes

    Entry requirements: Passport must be valid for at least 3 months beyond your planned departure from the Schengen area and have 2 blank pages for entry stamp.

    Buttons are found on all sorts of clothing. They are usually small and round and made of metal or plastic. They fasten, or connect, one piece of clothing to another. They make sure your clothes don't fall off. When we are speaking or writing m English, buttons can be just as useful.

    Men or women often wear button-down clothes to the office. Button-down as an adjective means to be conservative（保守的）or traditional. People who are described as buttoned-down stay close as possible to the normal way of dressing and behaving. They don't wear crazy clothing or do unusual things. People and events can both be described as buttoned-down.

    If someone is buttoned-up, he or she seems very business-like. In personal relationships, a buttoned-up person is cold and standoffish, meaning they physically and emotionally keep away from others. Buttoned-up people are not warm or friendly. And they do not share their inner thoughts and feelings with others.

    In the expression “button up”, button is a verb. It means to stop talking. Now, let's say you find yourself buttonholed in a conversation at a party. The person just keeps talking and talking and talking! Finally, you can't take it any longer. You tell the person to button it! This is a direct, but unacceptable way of saying “stop talking”. Button you lip is another equally rude but effective to stop a person who talks too much.

    Another kind of difficult person is someone who pushes your buttons. To push someone's buttons means to know exactly how to get that person angry or upset. People who like to push other people s buttons usually do it for selfish reasons. First they find a person's weak point. Then they use it to upset him.

    It is not always a good thing to praise children because "empty" words may make them unhappy. Words such as "well done" may make them doubt their own abilities, a leading psychologist (心理学家) Stephen Grosz has warned. He says that words such as "you're so clever" or "you're such an artist" could also hinder their future development at school. He says that such empty praise causes children to be unhappy as they may say they can't live up to these expectations.

    Instead he advises parents and teachers to praise children less frequently and use words like "trying really hard," Mr. Grosz said, "Empty praise is as bad as thoughtless criticism (批评). People often pay no attention to children's feelings and thoughts." He also mentions research showing that children who are heavily praised probably perform worse at school.

    Some psychologists from Columbia University asked 128 pupils aged 10 and 11 to work out a number of math problems. Afterwards, some were told, "You did really well­—you're so clever." But the researchers told the other group, "You did really well­—you must have tried really hard." Both groups of children were then given more difficult questions and those who had been told they were clever did not do as well as the others.

    He says that when collecting his daughter from a school near their home in North London, he heard a teacher tell her, "You have drawn the most beautiful tree. Well done," Later, after she had done another drawing, the same teacher said, "Wow, you are really an artist." In his book, Mr. Grosz writes, "How could I explain to the teacher that I would prefer it if she did not praise my daughter?"

    As a parent of two children, I strongly agree with Mr. Grosz. I praise them when praising is proven right. I want them to know if I praise them, they have done something beyond my expectation, beyond what they are able to do.

Standing on the South Pole at the start of the year with the wind blowing across the Antarctic, travel blogger Johnny Ward felt a wave of relief.

Just a week before, in early January 2024, he'd struggled through snow and ice to climb to the top of the Vinson Massif, Antarctica's highest peak. Years before, in 2017, he'd become the first Irish person to visit every country in the world.

Now, after decades of traveling and mountaineering, Ward could claim another world first—the Ultimate Explorer's Grand Slam (大满贯), which involves reaching the highest peak on every continent, and visiting both the North and South Poles in addition to visiting every country.

"I feel relieved," Ward recalled as he slowly made his way back to his home in Thailand after climbing to the top of the Vinson Massif and then setting foot on the South Pole. "But also I'm aware I'm a normal guy, not a world-class athlete, so I guess it was more about resilience and determination more than any ability. Although I met with lots of barriers, I overcame them one by one."

Ward had previously devoted a decade of his life, between 2007 and 2017, to visiting every country in the world. The incredible journey saw him hitchhike (搭便车) a ride on a container ship from Oman to Socotra in Yemen, travel overland from Cairo to Cape Town and travel from South Korea to Australia by bus and boat.

"It had been a huge life goal, over a decade of my life, and then when I finished that I was aimless and had no idea what to do next," he said. "I started eating badly, drinking too much, putting on weight and I ignored my business."

Ward decided that the best way to overcome this was to challenge himself again. He began running ultramarathons (超级马拉松) and climbing mountains, and soon found that with extreme purpose and direction, he was back to loving life again.

So where will Ward go next? Space? The bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point of the ocean? "All good things come after suffering, and I want to share that with people. So that's the next plan," he said.