Whether you seek culture, community, or comfort food in America, these amazing festivals prove that small towns from coast to coast know how to throw big celebration.

Tulip Time

Go: May in Holland, Michigan

There’s no better place to celebrate Michigan’s Dutch Heritage than a town called Holland, where six million tulips are planted in private fields, city parks, and other gardens around town. First introduced in 1929, Tulip Time draws a half million visitors and features eight days of events, including three parades, an arts-and-crafts show, carnival rides, fireworks, and plenty of Dutch food tastings.

Texas SandFest

Go: April in Port Aransas, Texas

Since 1997, this artistic sand festival attracts talented amateurs and master sculptors alike to beautiful beaches of Port Aransas. A three-day event typically held over a weekend in late April, SandFest features parades, live music, entertainment, food, and sand sculpting lessons.

Burlington Steamboat Days

Go: June in Burlington, Iowa

Going strong for over 55 years, the four-day Burlington Steamboat Days draws an impressive lineup of musical headliners and new artists to this small town. Over the years, attendees have been treated to performances by Louie Armstrong, Lady Antebellum, Blake Shelton, and more. In addition to music, there are carnival games and parades, as well as a golf tournament.

National Balloon Classic

Go: July-August in Indianola, Iowa

Every summer since 1976, the small town has put on one of the largest festivals in the Midwest. The weeklong National Balloon Classic features twice-daily flights of more than 100 colorful hot-air balloons, skydiving demonstrations, and balloon rides. There’s also live music, food vendors, and a kid’s play area.

When I’m in Italy, I generally only eat Italian food. I doubt whether there’s another country in Europe that has food that can keep me coming back for more.

To eat well in Italy, finding the right restaurant is essential. I appreciate personality-driven restaurants, run by people keen(热衷的) to share their love of good cooking, and places serving family recipes. Signs of a good restaurant include a low-rent location, lots of locals, and a small, handwritten menu in one language. The menu is small because they’re only selling everything they’re cooking; it’s handwritten because it’s shaped by what is fresh today in the market; and it’s in one language because they mostly serve locals.

For a fast and cheap lunch, I look for Italian food in corner delis (熟食店): either a rosticceria, specializing in roasted meats and antipasti(开胃食物), or a hot table bar — a cafeteria offering a buffet of meat and vegetables. Another option is to drop by a neighborhood grocery store to pick up some cold cuts, cheeses, and other foods for a picnic.

Italians tend to spend a long time on each course, and dinner is the evening’s entertainment. For example, when you have a full-blown Italian dinner in a restaurant, you don’t get out until midnight; a three-hour meal is common. Waiters often provide lots of drinks that seem designed to keep you from leaving. When you want the bill, you’ll have to ask for it. To “eat and run” is seen as a lost opportunity.

A couple of years ago, I sat down at my favorite place in Verona, Enoteca Can Grande, with my friend and guide Franklin. We let the chef, Giuliano bring us whatever he wanted. Just after the antipasti arrived, Franklin’s wife phoned him and said, “Don’t eat too much cheese or dessert.” Later Franklin, who was not thin, surveyed our table. Sighing, he said, “The foods are so plentiful but I can eat few.”

“That’s a pity,” I said.

I enjoyed the food for three hours and he watched me eating for three hours. Eating in Verona was really an amazing experience.

Along with soccer, basketball is a global sport. As you read this. young people somewhere in the world are happily passing, dribbling (运球) and shooting. It’s enormous fun and a joyful way to spend time with others.

Basketball is a game for everyone. Unlike golf or tennis. it doesn’t require great wealth or a lot of space to play. After all, not many people have a golf course-sized backyard, and tennis equipment is expensive. Basketball, by contrast, just needs a wall with a hoop and a ball.

So after its invention by Canadian-American physical educator James Naismith in 1891, the sport took off within US citizens, who quickly became attracted to the game because it suited their circumstances. Today, 127 years later, basketball remains one of the most popular sports in the US, and the National Basketball Association (NBA) has an increasing appeal for fans around the world.

The success of basketball as global phenomenon is undoubtedly related to the way African-Americans play the game. “The basketball court reflected some of the major cultural shifts in America, such as from forbidding African-Americans to play basketball to allowing them to play in the NBA,” the LIVESTRONG website noted.

From the 1950s onwards, segregation (隔离) rules, which had prohibited African-Americans from playing basketball in NBA games, were no longer used in the US. In 1950, when Earl Lloyd started to play for the Washington Capitols, things began to change. Since then, most of the greats of the game have been African-Americans, like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.

It’s not difficult to see that there’s a strong link between political liberation and basketball. Something of this is expressed in a quote from the US author John Edgar Wideman. He makes a connection between basketball and hope: “When it’s played the way it’s supposed to be played, basketball happens in the air; flying, floating, raised above the floor, letting the oppressed (受压制的) people of this earth imagine themselves in their dreams.”

Any foreigner who has tried to learn Chinese can tell how hard it is to master the tones required to speak and understand. And anyone who has tried to learn to play the violin or other instruments can report similar challenges.

Now researchers have found that people with musical training have an easier time learning Chinese. Writing in the online edition of Nature Neuroscience，researchers from Northwestern University say that both skills draw on the same parts of the brain that help people discover changes in pitch(音调).

One of the study's authors，Nina Kraus，said the findings suggested that studying music “actually tunes our sensory system”.This means that schools that want children to do well in languages should hesitate before cutting music programs，Dr. Kraus said. She said music training might also help children with language problems.

Mandarin(普通话)speakers have been shown to have a more complex encoding(编码) of pitch patterns in their brains than English speakers do. This is because in Mandarin and other Asian languages，pitch plays a central role. A single­syllable word can have several meanings depending on how it is intoned.

For this study，the researchers looked at 20 non­Chinese speaking volunteers，half with no musical background and half who have studied an instrument for at least six years.

As they were shown a movie，the volunteers also heard an audio tape of the Mandarin word “mi” in three of its meanings:squint，bewilder and rice. The researchers recorded activities in their brain stems to see how well they were processing the sounds. Those with a music background showed much more brain activities in response to the Chinese sounds.

The lead author of the study，Patrick C.M.Wong，said it might work both ways. It appears that native speakers of tonal languages may do better at learning instruments.