When I was little, I always wanted a luxurious house. That was my idea to be successful. I took all the classes with full carefulness and tried to do well in the exams with my mind set on going to a key school. I just knew that I would somehow become famous and be able to afford the dream house. All the way through junior years, my mind was planning this wonderful future.

    Then in the tenth grade, many losses changed my mind. First, one of my friends died at 16. Soon after, my great-grandmother passed away, followed by my beloved fourth-grade teacher. These events left me not knowing what to do or where to go. Death had never touched me so closely.

    After a long period of emptiness, it finally struck me: Life is not promised and neither is future success. Though I was attempting to achieve material success, I was not enjoying my daily life. I realized that finding inner peace, purpose and happiness will stick with me forever and that is real success.

    Enjoying life's precious quirks(偶发事件) makes an ordinary person more successful than a wealthy person who isn't content and takes everything for granted. The summer before senior years, my attitude changed greatly. Instead of memorizing facts, I began learning skills. Instead of focusing on the future, I focused on today and the many blessings and successes that came with it.

    I still get excellent grades, but now I devote weeks to studying instead of struggling for exams, and I think about the future with a deeper sense of meaning. For me, being successful means truly living life each day.

    Revolutionary TV Ears

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    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.

    The first day my new teacher walked into our school in Spanish Harlem, I burst out laughing. Ron Clark was this young white guy from North Carolina who talked with a funny Southern accent(口音). He said he used to be a singing waiter. I thought, who is this guy? He's a complete joke.

    It was 1999 and I was in the fifth grade at New York City's P.S. 83. I guessed I'd spend most of the year in the headmaster's office. I'd always been a troublemaker. I'd get shouted at, and then the teachers would give up on me. I thought that's what would happen with Ron Clark.

    I was wrong. That first week, I kept laughing at him. He pulled me out to the hallway and said I'd better shape up(表现好). "Tamara," he said, "you're a smart kid. You can do better."

    He told me I was a natural leader and that I'd go far in life if I started studying hard. I was mad at first, but then something happened: I began to respect him. There were 29 students in our class, and it didn't take long for us to realize that Ron Clark was no ordinary teacher.

    Like most teachers, he had lots of rules: Treat each other like family. Don't cut in line. But the real difference was how concerned he was. Mr. Clark ate with us in the lunchroom instead of going to the teachers' day-room. At first, my friends and I were thinking. What is he doing?

    He asked us what was going on in our lives. Between classes, he came outside with us, and we taught him how to jump rope. When it snowed, Mr. Clark, who'd never seen snow before, threw us with snowballs, and we threw him back.

    Before coming to P.S. 83, he taught at Snowden Elementary in his hometown, Belhaven, North Carolina. His parents were DJs(流行音乐节目主持人)at dance clubs, so he grew up with music and energy. He wanted a life of adventure, he told me, but his mom encouraged him to ask for a position at Snowden when one of the teachers passed away. Mr. Clark ended up loving it. He came to Harlem because he'd seen a TV show about our troubled schools and the lack of qualified teachers. He wanted a challenge. Boy, did he get one.

    It is commonly believed that in medieval France, New Year was celebrated on 1 April. Then in 1562, Pope Gregory introduced a new calendar for the Christian world, changing New Year to 1 January. With no modern communications, news travelled slowly and new ideas were often questioned. Many people did not hear of the change, some merely forgot, and others chose to ignore it. These people were called fools. Invitations to non-existent "New Year" parties were sent and other practical jokes were played. Over time playing tricks on 1 April became a tradition. The custom eventually spread to England and Scotland, and it was later transported across the Atlantic to the American colonies (殖民地) of the English and the French. April Fools' Day has now developed into an international festival of fun, with different nationalities celebrating the day in special ways.

    France and Italy

    In France and Italy, if someone plays a trick on you, you are the "fish of April". By the month of April fish have only just hatched and are therefore easy to catch. Children stick paper fish to their Friends' backs and chocolate fish are found in the shops.

    America and Britain

    Today, Americans and the British play small tricks on friends and strangers alike on 1 April. A common trick is to point to a friend's shoe and say "Your shoelace (鞋带) is untied." When they look down, they are laughed at. Schoolchildren might tell a friend that school has been cancelled. Sometimes the media get involved. Once, a British short film was shown on April Fools' Day about spaghetti farmers and how they harvest their crop from spaghetti trees!

    Scotland

    In Scotland, April Fools' Day lasts for two days! The second day is called "Taily Day" and tricks on this day involve the bottom (or the "tail", in informal speech). Often a sign saying ‘kick me' is stuck onto someone's back without them knowing.

What better way to experience the history of a site than to have a hand in actually preserving it? This was the thought behind the founding of Adventures in Preservation (AIP) in 2001. The nonprofit's founders. Judith Broeker and Jamie Donahoe, were both long time preservationists and world travelers. They had seen a great many buildings in poor condition, as well as buildings that had been "restored" without the benefit of conservation expertise.

Twelve years on, they are still involved in the day-to-day management of the organization, supported by a volunteer staff located around the world, Judith's favorite projects have long been the ones in Eastern Europe, and she enjoys opportunity to travel there each year. She, along with anyone else who's joined an adventure, always quotes their fellow jammers, as they're called, as the highlight of each project. The groups are made up of people from all different ages, occupations, and cultures. Yet each time, they form a strong bond and work so well together that the work becomes fun. Which, after all, is the point of a working vacation, no?

Raising understanding of people's own heritage(遗迹) is another part of AIP projects. In many places, there is so much focus on the news that not only are heritage buildings being lost but so are the traditional building skills needed to keep them. By providing training and raising awareness of the importance of their heritage, AIP is helping keep both alive.

Next year, AIP has projects in Europe and the US. There will be even more projects the following year as projects currently under development in Ghana, Armenia, Ukraine and the US come on line. Each project is also an opportunity for travel, adventure, and personal growth, and AIP welcomes people from around the world to join a project and" "jam" with them.