When you travel in other countries, you'll have to get yourself well prepared to ensure your safety and handle emergencies.

Before you leave, you'd better:

1). Take out medical insurance policy and learn what the plan covers and whether departure or return to the hometown is covered. Figure out payment choices, such as whether you have to speak directly with the insurance company, before or after treatment, whether you have to pay first and get compensation later.

2). Keep up to date on all required vaccinations (接种疫苗) .

3). Learn about the city or area where you are going to travel. Know how to say street names and landmarks in the local language. Figure out unique climate issues such as altitude, seasonal changes, potentially risky animals and insects.

4). Visit some local hospitals and write down addresses in the local language along with emergency entrance locations; do the same for dental/pediatric (小儿科的) services. Get first aid equipment with necessary medications. Take enough prescribed medication from the home country.

5). Carry a card or note written in both English and the local language listing your emergency contact numbers, name, basic medical information such as blood type and allergies (过敏) .

6). Ensure a reliable means of communication is available and carry an extra phone battery and a charger. Ensure that housemaids, drivers, office assistants, those who work or travel know how to call for medical assistance since they may be the only ones available in an emergency.

7). Make sure to bring all documents and visas along with you. Plan your journey carefully and carry copies of documents (ID, insurance policy records, medical records) and keep in a place where someone else could access them in an emergency.

    Last year, I was on a plane with my friend, waiting for it to take off. The pilot's voice was heard throughout the plane: “Sorry for the delay, ladies and gentlemen. Our engines don't work. We are going to jump-start them. Once we get them going, we'll get up in the air and see what happens.”

    That was all he said. “See what happens? Shouldn't we have had a better plan than that?” At that point, I could only laugh nervously. One woman started crying: “Oh, no! We are going to crash!” There are sighs of desperation and anxiety, and we hadn't even taken off yet.

    The pilot even seemed unhappy. He told us one engine was working double time, and his plan was to get up in the air and see what happens! Then we did. We got up in the air, and what happened? Nothing. We arrived in Norfolk, and no sooner had the wheels touched down than applause burst out as everyone on the airplane breathed a sigh of relief.

    All too often, people stop achieving their goals just because they don't have a guaranteed result. But success will never be guaranteed. The best thing that you can do is to just get up in the air, and see what happens.

    If your aim is to build a business, then get up in the air and see what happens! Don't give yourself all the reasons why you can't. Do not wait until you have everything you need. You never will.

    If your goal is to start a friendship, say “Hello”, get up in the air and see what happens! The results could be very rewarding. If your goal is to learn a new skill, get up in the air and see what happens! It might not be as difficult as you think. It could be fun!

    Toronto is reminding citizens this month what exactly can and can't go into the blue bins an you may be surprised at what can't be recycled. As it turns out the takeout coffee cups you've been throwing into the recycling actually have to go in the garbage.

    The city's “recycle right” web explains that food left after a meal, woven (编织的) cloth, old VHS tapes and other things have been turning up in blue bins, where they don't belong.

    According to the city, about 45,000 tunes of garbage was mistakenly put into recycling bins last year alone.

    Among those things are the takeout coffee and tea cups we get while were on the go. The city says that because those paper cups are lined with plastic or wax they can't be recycled. The black plastic coffee lids (盖子) also can't go in the blue bin, although non-black plastic lids can be recycled.

    Emily Alfred, senior campaigner with the Toronto Environmental Alliance, said, “Millions of cups are used in Toronto every year and people are taking these out and putting them in the wrong bin.”

    When paper coffee cups are thrown in with the recycling. Alfred said, they produce a harmful effect on the system.

    “They can't separate the plastic and paper in a typical paper recycling center,” Alfred said, “so it just causes pollution of the recycling process, and it causes lower-quality paper if it does get recycled.”

    “New regulations passed last month call for changes to be rolled out over the next few years regarding what products companies can sell,” Alfred said. Her organization will be pushing for more producer responsibility laws, which call on companies that design and make products to take on the responsibility of recycling them.

    For now, consumers can consider carrying their own reusable coffee cups while they are on the go, ask for a ceramic mug (陶瓷杯) if they plan to consume their drink in the cafe, and support their local government officials if they have put efforts into changing recycling or producer responsibility laws.

    Alfred said, “I think people can change their habits easily if they understand what to do.”

    Congratulations on having been offered, and accepting, a place to study at Cambridge! This page offers some tips that will hopefully make your arrival at Cambridge as stress-free as possible.

    Before you arrive

    Your College or Department will send you all the information you need to prepare yourself for your time in Cambridge, including College information, for example, accommodation, course information, and similar related details. You will be sent an email asking you to complete the University's Student Registration exercise. It will only take a few minutes.

    Pre-arrival Freshers' Events this summer

    Around the world in August and September, Cambridge Alumni（毕业生）Groups will be hosting pre-arrival Freshers' Events for new students coming to Cambridge this autumn. These events are a great opportunity to prepare for university and make some friends before you arrive. There will be the chance to meet current students and alumni from whom you can get tips and advice for living and studying in Cambridge.

    Arrival and registration

    Most courses start in October. The term between October and December is known as Michaelmas Term in Cambridge. Officially, the first day of the Michaelmas Term is 1 October and this date will be shown on your offer letter. Your College or your Department will advise you about when to arrive. Ceremony activities begin around 1 October for most students. When you arrive in Cambridge, you should go first to your College. They will be glad to know that you have arrived safely and will advise you on what to do next.

    Matriculation

    Matriculation marks the formal admission of a student to membership of the University, and a College may not normally allow an unmatriculatied student to be a resident member of the College. Every freshman for matriculation must agree with the following belief by signing the Matriculation Registration Form:

    I promise to observe the Statutes and Ordinances of the University as far as they concern me, and to pay due respect and obedience to the Chancellor and other officers of the University.

    I was having a great morning until I sat down in front of my office computer. "Your password has expired(过期)," a server message flashed on my screen, with instructions for changing it.

    Coming up with a new code doesn't seem like a big deal, unless you work at my company, where we have to change it monthly, using at least one uppercase character, one lowercase character, one symbol, and one numeral. Oh, and the whole darn thing can't be fewer than eight characters. And I can't use any of the same passwords I've used in the past three months.

    Suddenly I was furious. What didn't make it any better was that I was deeply depressed after my recent divorce. Disbelief over what she had done to me was all I thought about. Every day.

    My anger didn't mean anything to the empty input field with a pulsating cursor (闪动的光标), waiting for me to type a password that I'd have to re-enter — many times — for the next 30 days. I remembered a tip I'd heard from my former boss. He'd said, "I'm going to use a password to change my life."

    I couldn't focus on getting things done in my current mood. There were clear indicators of what I needed to do to regain control of my life, but I couldn't notice them.

    My password became the indicator. My password reminded me that I shouldn't let myself be a victim of my recent breakup and that I was strong enough to do something about it.

    I made my password Forgive@h3r.

    I had to type this statement several times a day. Each time my computer would lock. Each time my screen saver with her photo would appear. Each time I would come back from eating lunch alone. In my mind, I wrote Forgive her every day.

    The simple action changed the way I looked at my ex-wife. That constant reminder of reconciliation led me to accept the way things had happened at the end of my marriage and embrace a new way of dealing with my depression. As the month wore on, I felt a slow healing begin to take place. By the time my server prompted me to reset my password the following month, I felt free.

    One month later, my dear Exchange server asked me yet again to reset my password. I thought about the next thing that I had to get done.

    My password became Quit@smoking4ever.

    I quit smoking overnight. This password was a painful one to type during that month, but doing it helped me to yell at myself in my mind as I typed that statement. It motivated me to follow my monthly goal.

    One month later, my password became Save4trip@thailand.

    Guess where I went three months later: Thailand.

    Seeing how these reminders helped to materialize my goals kept me motivated and excited. While it's sometimes difficult to come up with your next goal, keeping at it brings great results.

    Here is a simplified extract of what some of my passwords have been in the past two years, so you get an idea of how my life has changed, thanks to this method:

    Forgive@h3r To my ex-wife, who started it all.

    Quit@smoking4ever it worked.

    Save4trip@thailand it worked.

    Eat2times@day it never worked, still fat.

    Sleep@before12 it worked.

    Ask@her4date it worked. I fell in love again.

    No@drinking2months it worked. I feel better.

    Get@c4t! It worked. I have a beautiful cat.

    MovE@togeth3r it worked.

    Facetime2mom@sunday it worked. I talk with Mom every week.

    And the one for last month: Save4@ring Yep. Life is gonna change again soon.

The Alexander technique

    Until earlier this year, I didn't know anything about the Alexander technique—and saw no reason to think I should. One day, the backache I regularly suffered was more painful. I was brought up to think that the preferred way of dealing with aches is to do nothing and hope they'll go away, but I eventually went to the doctor. After examining me, he said, "You actually have bad posture (姿势). Go off and learn the Alexander technique." Three months later I could walk straighter and sit better.

    The Alexander technique is a way of learning how you can get rid of harmful tension in your body. The teaching focuses on the neck, head and back. It trains you to use your body less severely and carry out the movements that we do all the time with less effort. There is little effort in the lessons themselves, which sets apart the Alexander technique from yoga or pilates, which are exercise-based. A typical lesson involves standing in front of a chair and learning to sit and stand with minimum effort. You spend some time lying on a bench with your knees bent to straighten the spine (脊椎) and relax your body while the teacher moves your arms and legs to train you to move them correctly.

    The technique helps to break the bad habits accumulated over years. Try folding your arms the opposite way to normal. This is an example of a habit the body has formed which can be hard to break. Many of us carry our heads too far back. The head weighs four to six kilos, so any inappropriate posture can cause problems for the body. The technique teaches you to let go of the muscles holding the head back, allowing it to go back to its natural place on the top of our spines.

    So who was Alexander and how did he come up with the technique? Frederick Alexander, an Australian actor born in 1869, found in his youth that he had vocal (声音的) problems during performances. He analyzed himself and realized his posture was bad. He worked on improving it, with excellent results. He brought his technique to London and opened a teacher-training school, which is still successful today.

    So if you're walking along the road one day with shoulders bent forward, feeling weighed down by your troubles, give a thought to the Alexander technique. It will help you walk tall again.