“Croeso I Gymru!,” If you don't know what this means, read on to find out more.

    When you cross over the border from England into Wales, you don't have to show your passport but you do notice a difference immediately. All the road markings and signs are shown in two languages — English and Welsh (威尔士语）. Not all visitors to Britain know that other languages are spoken here. There's the Gaelic (盖尔语) language in Scotland and a few people speak Cornish (康沃尔语）in the southwest of England, but the most widely spoken language in the UK besides English is Welsh.

    Perhaps the first Welsh word you^'ll see on the road into Wales is ARAF. There's a helpful English translation next to it — SLOW. As you can see, Welsh looks quite different from English. It sounds very different, too. Welsh looks and sounds so different from English because it's a Celtic language. Celtic cultures still exist around the edges of the UK — in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and also in parts of France. For hundreds of years, almost everyone in Wales spoke Welsh, but nowadays there are about 600 thousand Welsh speakers — around 20% of the population.

    So is Welsh dying out? Not at all! Nowadays, all school children in Wales study Welsh and many choose to go to an all Welsh-speaking school. You can get public information in Welsh, speak Welsh in court or take a course at university in Welsh. People surf the Internet in Welsh, keep up with friends on Facebook and write blogs in Welsh.

    By the way, ^“Croeso I Gymru!" means “Welcome to Wales!” 一 I hope you'll be able to visit it one day.

    Farah was sitting in the kitchen going over the party list with her mother. The exams were over and Farah wanted to invite her friends for a party.

    "Farah, aren't you going to invite Hafsa?" her mother asked. Hafsa had been her best friend since childhood.

    "Mother, you know I am now a part of Purple Girls Club and we have some rules about people we can be friends with," Farah answered.

    "Really? And what are the rules?" her mother asked.

    "Well, only very pretty girls can be part of our group. And Hafsa is so...you know...dark."

    "I cannot believe it," her mother said angrily.

    As Farah left the kitchen, her father called her from the living room. Farah went to her father and paled when she saw the exam report in his hands. "Farah, what has happened to your grades? You have failed in Mathematics," her father said. Farah had no answer. The truth was that the activities of Purple Girls Club left her with very little time for studies. "Farah, it says that you can take part in supplementary exams(补考). If your grades don't improve then, I'll cancel(取消) your trip to Spain." Farah went to her room and called Gina, the leader of Purple Girls Club, "Gina, can you help me to complete my notes before the exams?" Gina laughed. "Exams? Who cares about exams?"

    One by one, she called her friends in the club but no one seemed to care or wanted to help. Farah knew Hafsa would help her. Farah also knew Hafsa had been hurt by her, but Hafsa said, "If you need any help, just let me know. We can study together till your exams." Next Monday, as two friends entered the school together, Gina called out. "Farah, you know our rules. You cannot be friends with those who do not belong to our club."

    "Gina, I have a new rule about friendship," Farah replied.

Chanukah Festival

    Activities for kids of all ages

    Sunday, December 17   9: 00 a. m.-4: 00 p. m.

    Join us on December 17th, 2017 (2nd day of Hanukkah) for our annual Hanukkah Family Fun Fest for an exciting day of fun activities for the whole family. The Hazimir Choir will provide holiday musical entertainment. Drum Tales will present "The Hearty Story of Hanukkah" show. There will be ceramic (陶瓷) painting of dreidels. Menorahs (烛台), and other Hanukkah items for the kids. And fun foods, crafts and activities will be happening throughout the day. Bring the whole family and enjoy a fun—filled day!

    11: 30-Jolly Follies puppet show Ages 2-12

    A fun Muppet (提线木偶) style musical holiday story followed by a Hanukkah sing a song featuring the "Chipmunks" and other favorite characters. Adult: $7 Child $5

    1: 30-Hazamir Teen Choir

    Sponsored by the Berman and Lerner families in memory of Cantor Moses L. Snyder

    3: 15-Drum Tales presents The Hearty Story of Hanukkah

    Drum Tales is fun, interactive percussive (打击乐) and musical. It is much like the traditional drum circle concept. It combines story telling, musical instrumentation and song. Each participant is given a percussive instrument which becomes their media of transportation to far away lands and exotic (异国情调的) places, to ride the waves of mystery of an unfolding plot, and into the deep realm of imagination and the colorful beyond. Drumming, rhyming, rapping, clinking, shaking and clapping, this performance will leave you feeling refreshed after having returned from a journey through these stories! Adult $7 Child $5

    Plus food and fun for the entire family

    Crafts with BBYO and Young Judea

    Ceramic painting with Jack and Jill

    T-Shirt fun with Computer Adventures

    Fun with Cyber—Connection

    Vendors

    Special visit by "Chanukah Bubby"

We can create learning moments that students remember forever if we open up our classrooms to awe and wonder. 

Toward the end of my high school year, our Spanish teacher organized a trip to see an Andean band perform in Philadelphia. My classmates and I egged one another on ironically（讽刺地）:Who could enjoy the show? The performers' clothing seemed odd. The instruments, strange. But then the performers kicked in, dancing to their bombo and wancara drums around the stage and the panpipes and quena announced a kind of sound—new to us. 

We had spent too little time discussing the culture of the Inca in social studies but its traditions came alive for us that evening. Once the wonderful performance lit up the stage and the hall filled up with music, my teenage cynicism disappeared. I rose out of my chair to dance with honest joy. 

I have spent the last seven years living and working in South America. But my thirst for cultural exploration and a desire to understand the world outside my language and country has been alive longer than that. Sometimes I think that night dancing to those ancient rhythms unlocked this fascination. Why do I remember it so clearly decades later?

In his recent book Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, psychology professor Dacher Keltner explains that "brief moments of awe are as good for your mind and body as anything you might do." Besides being a memorable emotion, awe boosts curiosity, builds humility, helps with critical thinking, and makes people feel more connected. It even makes us happier. "Twenty years into teaching happiness, "Keltner writes about how to find deep happiness, "I have an answer: FIND AWF."

Moving forward, let's do our best to build instances of awe into our curriculum（课程）. So when our former students approach us on the subway years later, they will recall the magical moments from their days spent in our classes. 

Rolland and Adeline are proud parents to nine beautiful children. Their youngest two, daughter Lanto, and son, Rindra, were both born with cleft lip（唇裂） conditions. In Madagascar, many families have never seen a cleft lip before, so it's a condition often greeted with fear and misfortune in some rural communities.

However, the news of Lanto and Rindra's cleft lip wasn't much of a shock for Rolland and Adeline because Rolland's cousin—a man in his fifties—had lived his entire adult life with an untreated cleft lip. Although seeing a relative with a cleft lip meant the family weren't fearful of the condition, they knew the negative impact an untreated cleft lip can have on a person's health and life. As any loving parents would, Rolland and Adeline wanted a better future for their children.

Rolland heard an advertisement on the radio about an Operation Smile surgical programme in Antsirabe, Madagascar. Finding out that Rindra and Lanto could have the cleft lip surgery they needed, for free, was a dream for the family. Unlike here in the UK, health services aren't free in many parts of the world, and the costs of treatment—or even travelling to reach medical facilities—are out of reach for most families.

When Rolland and his children arrived at the patient village, they were surprised to see so many other families in the same position. After a thorough medical evaluation by medical volunteers, Lanto was found to be fit enough for surgery, and later got the new smile her parents had dreamed of for her. But, for younger brother Rindra, the journey to a new smile would take a little longer.

Operation Smile has provided hundreds of thousands of safe surgeries for children withc left lip conditions worldwide. For more information about our work or to find out how you can help, visitwww.operationsmile.org .