As a gesture of friendship，Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo，Japan gave Washington, D.C a gift of more than 3,000 Japanese cherry trees on March 17,1912.Every spring, the cherry trees in Washington，D.C. take bloom(开花)，beginning one of the country's loveliest celebrations, the National Cherry Blossom Festival (March 17-April 15). Book your trip now to see this vibrant display of pink and white in this city full of history!

    Washington, D.C. Cherry Blossom In-Depth Tour

    Priee: $45/person

    Available: Mar.25-Apr.15

    Duration: 1 Day

    Highlights: Visit Washington， D.C.; experience the peak period of cherry blossom(April 8-12)

    Itinerary: Guests will start to celebrate the National Cherry Blossom Festival and discover the beauty of cherry blossoms. Next,we will begin our sightseeing city tour including Lincoln Memorial, White House, US Capitol, Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, Washington Monument and International Spy Museum. Then visit the next tourist spot, the Jefferson Memorial. It's the best location to view the cherry blossoms. Finally, guests may board a Potomac River cruise to see the city from the water. Then tour ends.

    Price Includes: Ground Transportation

    Admission Fees:

    Note: If you would like to join in the optional activities, please pay the fee in cash to the tour guide. You cannot buy the tickets on your own or use City Pass. The tour guide will arrange the tickets for the group.

Introduction of Holi

    Holi is an ancient festival of colours and love. It is celebrated in India and many parts of South Asia. There are lots of Holi celebrations. It is becoming more and more popular.

The festival of colour

Holi means the beginning of spring. It is a time to give thanks for the good harvest. The dates change each year according to the full moon, but it is usually in March and sometimes in late February. People go outside and throw coloured paint powder(粉) at each other. It does not matter whether you are rich or poor, old or young—everyone can throw colours. It is a time to forgive people and repair broken relationships, as well as meet other people, play and have fun.

    Traditional Holi

    Traditional Holi celebrations start the night before the throwing of colours. People meet around a bonfire(篝火) and hope that the bad will be destroyed. The next day is the festival of colours. There is music playing, and people run and laugh in the streets and parks. Holi is celebrated outside.

    Other Holi events in the UK

    Holi celebrations began as early as the fourth century. It is thousands of years old! But recently, Holi-themed events have become popular with a new generation in Europe and North America. Every year, many people go to Holi events in London and all over the UK. They dress in white T-shirts and return covered in bright colours. There are paint-throwing parties at music festivals and races like the five-kilometre 'Colour Run'. In the UK, restaurants and cultural organizations also offer their own Holi celebrations, with special dishes, Indian music and dance.

    Netgear Wi-Fi Range Extender

    Est. Price: $30 | Buy it on Amazon

    Why We Love It: This is a great device to increase your wi-fi signal and get the fastest streaming power. It's also useful to set up separate wi-fi networks for guests.

    External Phone Charger

    Est. Price: $30 | Buy it on B&H Photo

    Why We Love It: Charge your phone anywhere while also extending its battery life. This particular model can also be used with the iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, and iPad. It has a standard USB drive so users can charge e-readers as well.

    Pop Sockets Smartphone Stand

    Est. Price: $10 | Buy it on Amazon

    Why We Love It: It may look silly, but this gripper is actually really useful for taking pictures or watching videos. It also folds down flat when not in use for a more separate look.

    Fitbit

    Est. Price: $401 Buy it on Bed Bath & Beyond

    Why We Love It: Track steps and monitor sleep cycles to improve your health. It also records workouts, and receives call, text, or calendar notifications.

    While staring out of the window during a flight, not everyone will think carefully about the question why airplanes have rounded windows rather than square ones.

    Over the years, aerospace engineering has made huge steps in airplane technology, meaning planes can carry more passengers and go faster. The planes have also changed shape to increase safety—including the windows. As commercial air travel took off in the mid－20th century, airline companies began to fly at higher altitudes to lower their cost—the air density(密度) is lower up there, creating less drag(阻力)for airplanes. However, higher altitudes came with problems, like the fact human beings can't really survive at 30，000 feet. To make that possible, the cabin was changed to a cylindrical(圆柱体) shape to support the pressure inside. But at first, plane builders left in the standard square windows and this expansion meant disaster. The de Havilland Comet came into fashion in the 1950s. With a closed cabin, it was able to go higher and faster than other aircraft.

    However, where there's a corner, there's a weak spot. Windows, having four corners, have four potential weak spots, making them likely to crash under stress—such as air pressure. By curving the window, the stress that would eventually break the window corner is distributed and the chance of it breaking is reduced. Rounded shapes are also stronger and resist deformation(变形), and can thus survive the extreme differences in pressure between the inside and outside of the aircraft.

    Fortunately, designers figured out the lack of design pretty quick. Now we have nice, rounded airplane windows that can resist the pressure of traveling altitude. It gives being able to gaze out of your window to the world from 35，000 feet a whole new outlook, doesn't it?

    All of us spend a large part of our lives at home — eating, sleeping, relaxing and communicating with our family members. Our home is a shelter for us, away from the noisy, busy, and polluted world outside — a place where we can let down our hair and dress casually. Eco­friendliness (环保) is a hot word today and we all know we should make our environment as eco­friendly as possible. This is not only good for our health, but also good for the outward environment. Here are some easy and helpful tips to make your home eco­friendly.

    Kitchen

    Plan the kitchen to be bright and airy so that you don't have to turn on the lights at daytime. Don't make wasteful use of the gas. Keep all ingredients for cooking ready before lighting the gas. Turn it to low when not required — always using it on "high" burns a lot of gas.

    Indoor plants

    Plants are extremely eco­friendly and can be used to make your home look lively. Apart from adding life to home, they give out O_2, thus making the air inside fresh. You can keep plants in your home, but be sure to show them some sunlight regularly. Also, if they are kept outside, clean their leaves with a wet cloth, as dust may be added to them. A home decorated (装饰) with plants looks attractive. Plants are a natural home decorating gift that shows concern about the environment. A green plant is a wonderful gift which will protect the earth and is sure to be appreciated.

    Saving water

    Most of the time, we take water for granted — we keep water running while brushing our teeth or washing clothes. Needless to say, this is a huge waste of natural resources (资源). Try to recycle water. For example, the water used for washing vegetables can be used for watering plants; the soapy water used for washing clothes can be used to clean the bathroom and kitchen.

    A story posted by The New York Post Monday tells the tale of Katrina Holte, a Hillsboro woman who quit her job to cosplay a 1950s housewife.

    Let me start by expressing admiration to Holte for using her 2019 freedoms to follow her 1950s dreams. Everyone should be so lucky as to get to decide what they wear and how they spend their time. That's the future our foremothers fought for.

    But as much fun as I am sure she is having living a vintage (复古的) life, which literally includes watching shows like "I Love Lucy" and listening to vinyl recordings (刻录碟片), I think it's important to remember that being a 1950s housewife was actually totally awful, and something our grandmothers and mothers fought against.

    For example, once I called my grandma and asked her for her recipe for Cloud Biscuits, these delicious biscuits she used to make that we would cover with butter and homemade raspberry jam on Thanksgiving.

    "Why would you want that?" she said. "Go to the store. Go to the freezer section. Buy some pre-made biscuits and put them in the oven."

    She straight-up refused to give me the recipe, because it was hard and took a long time to make. In her mind, it was a waste of time.

    Getting off the phone, it occurred to me that spending every day of your life serving a husband and five children wasn't fun at all. And then there are the grandchildren who eventually come along demanding Cloud Biscuits, a whole new expanded set of people to feed.

    She was basically a slave to those hungry mouths, cooking scratch meals three times a day.

    When she wasn't trapped in the kitchen, she had to keep the house clean, make sure she looked good enough to be socially acceptable, and make sure her kids and husband looked good enough to be socially acceptable. And she had no days off.

    I know my grandma loves her kids and her grandkids, her husband and the life she led, but man, it must have been a lot of thankless, mindless labor.

    No wonder everyone went all-in on processed foods when they came around. Imagine the nice break something like a microwave dinner would give a woman working, unpaid, for her family every single day?

    I also had another grandma. She was a scholar who helped found the Center for the Study of Women in Society at University of Oregon. She was a pioneering second-wave feminist who wrote books, gave lectures and traveled the world.

    But, she did all of that after divorcing my grandpa, when most of her kids were out of the house. Back then, in the 1950s and the 1960s, there was no illusion about women "having it all". How could that even possibly happen? If you were taking care of a family, waiting on your husband, you had no time to follow your dreams, unless you made that your dream.

    A lot of women took that approach. We call it Stockholm Syndrome now.

    And of course, these women I am talking about are upper-middle-class white women. Romanticizing the 1950s is especially disgusting when you think about how women of color and poor women were treated back then, and the lack of education and choices available to them.

    Because the women in this country demanded something approaching equality, Holte has the chance to live out her fantasy. Not every woman in America is so lucky.

    We still don't have pay equality and in many states, we still don't have autonomy over our own bodies. Poor women and women of color still lack the opportunities of their wealthy and white peers.

    And while it's getting better, women are still expected to be responsible for the emotional labor of running a household and raising the children.

    But at least we can get jobs. At least we don't have to sew our own clothes, wear a full face of makeup every day and spend hours making Cloud Biscuits some ungrateful kid will wolf down, barely remembering to say thank you.