Well, those of you who often read my blog know that I've moved. I'm now living in Bangkok, since my parents got jobs here. We got here about a month ago and we've found a place to live, so we're starting to feel a bit more settled.

It's so different here from home. Well, that's unsurprising, of course! For one thing, there's so much traffic all the time, and for a country girl like me, who's used to peace, it isn't easy to deal with. Well, I guess I'll get used to it, but it might take a while! Just wish someone had told me ahead of time that it would take me an hour to get from home to school every day—and an hour to get back! But I've made a decision: I'm going to use my time travelling wisely — to learn to knit (纺织), perhaps, but mainly to learn Thai. Thai has a different writing system and very difficult pronunciation, but I'm going to put my mind to it and I hope I can make some progress. It's a good thing lots of signs are in the Latin alphabet too, otherwise (不然) I'd be completely lost! One of my friends told me to try to learn some Thai before coming here— if only I'd listened to him! It'd be quite a bit easier now I guess.

One of the truly wonderful things here is the food—you may remember that I've already written about how much I love Thai food. My favourite restaurant at home is Thai, so I'm used to all those spices (调料), and I love them. But here—wow, the flavours are out of this world.

Well, that's all for now. I'll write more soon!

A 33-year-old hospital security guard in Ottawa, Janelle Niles is making her childhood dream come true by moonlighting as a stand-up comic (喜剧演员).

But she was unhappy and unsatisfied to be the only Indigenous (土著的) comic on the bill most nights — and it didn’t take long for her to grow tired of being the “token (象征性的) one.” Niles loved the comedian Kenny Robinson’s long-running, all-Black Yuk Yuk’s Toronto set, “Nubian Show”, and wondered, “Well, where’s ours?”

Then she gave her all-Indigenous show a name.“Got Land?” is a nod to the Land Back movement. And Niles found some actors to make Indigenous comics, such as Don Kelly of APTN’s “Fish Out of Water”. Last September, Niles stood up inside Eddy’s Diner, an Ottawa diner, and welcomed the people to her show. The night sold out: she had to turn people away at the door.

Melissa Lambert-Tenasco attended the first show and is now a big fan. “Laughter is big in our communities,” she says, “and it was really nice to laugh with a group of Native people.”And while the show is “for our people, with our people,” Niles also wants “Got Land?” to help increase Canadians’ general knowledge about Indigenous culture. “It’s a safe environment for us not only to get along with each other, exchange laughs and get some knowledge,” she says, “but also to tell some unpleasant truths.”

Niles says her next step is to bring Indigenous comedy into the mainstream (主流). She wants to see Indigenous comedians share the stage next to big stars like Dave Chappelle and Bill Burr. Her own comedy dream is to be featured on “Just for Laughs”. ‘With ‘Got Land?’, I’m trying to pull everyone together,”says Niles. “As I make my way through comedy, I want to bring everyone with me.”

On a bright Sunday at the Westmoreland Park pond (池塘) in Portland, Oregon, USA, boats are lining up for something special.

A loud voice comes out of the loudspeaker, welcoming everyone to the yearly Milk Carton Boat Race. The event has been part of the Portland Rose Festival, a popular event that brings Oregonians together, since 1973. Teams excitedly compete for the People’s Choice Award.

Adam Baker, whose organization supports the event each year, says that this is an important race for all of Oregon, especially Portland.

“This is a community event where we can get people to plan how to build special boats—made with used milk containers (容器), to think long-term on how to build a better boat, how to collect materials, and get everybody working together,” says Baker. “You can have single riders, grown-ups, youths, mixed ages. There's engineering. There’s teamwork.”Colton Snook has been taking part in the Milk Carton Boat Race for 10 years. “It’s our family tradition in the summer,” he says, Colton and his boat, “Chocolate Thunder,” end up winning first place in the grown-up races — and not for the first time.

When the youth teams line up, there is a boat that looks just like a beloved movie character—Lightning McQueen from Pixar, s Cars. Connor, the 8-year-old captain, rows across the pond for the first time at high speed and finishes second.

Connor and his family built the boat together, making a wood frame (框架) first and then adding milk boxes to increase its ability to float. He says that Cars inspired the building and designing of his boat: “I really like the movie.”

The event ends with a warm goodbye from Adam Baker and a promise to be back next year.

A review of present research has found evidence to suggest time spent in nature could buffer the bad influence of time spent watching TV, on computers or playing video games.

“Few studies considered screen time and green time together,” said University of Adelaide researcher Tassia Oswald，who reviewed all the published studies on the subject from the English-speaking world. “However, there is evidence that green time could reduce (减少) the harm of   high screen time.”

Ms Oswald is now planning a pilot study with the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute to further study the interplay between screen time and green time among young people. “It’s really hard to reduce young people’s screen time, as technology is really important in people’s life,” she said. “So it would be great to work out how we can lessen the harm of that and green time would be great, so we need to look into it further to strongly support that idea.”

Ms Oswald said there was a growing trend (趋势) towards prescribing (开处方) time in nature for health reasons. She said some doctors in the US and the UK offered “green prescriptions”, while “forest bathing” was popular in Japan.

However, the question of what made up good green time was still up for discussion, Ms Oswald said. Research to date suggests the answer depends on the age of the child. For preschoolers, a private garden is important. Primary school aged children need a larger place to play and for teenagers, the nature of the neighborhood is important.

Brothers Lennie, 14, and Nash, 7, love playing outdoors with their dog, Fred. Dad Pete McDonald said his sons could get a bit impatient if they were on screens too much. “We’re very lucky to have a park right outside of the gate, so if the yard gets too small, just open the gate and they’ve got a playground out there where they can run around,” he said.