La Tomatina, Spain

Tomato juice flows through the streets of Bunol on the last Wednesday of August as the world’s largest tomato fight happens. Festivities begin in the town square where there is a huge pole covered in soap and with a leg of ham at the top. Participants try to climb up the pole to get the ham as watchers throw buckets of water to them. After a gun is fired to signal the beginning of the fight, people catch the tomatoes and throw each other in the streets until the gun   sounds again, marking the end of the event.

Holi, India

This spring festival is celebrated throughout the country in late February or early March. The two-day event celebrates the legend of Prahlad, who escaped unharmed from the fire of the evil Holika Dahan. People mark the event by lighting fires and throwing colored powder on one another. Children load colored water into toy pistols called pichkari and take aim at passers-by. Holi is known as a happy celebration of the triumph of good over evil.

Burning Man, Nevada

This infamous festival began in 1986 with the burning of a large figure to mark the summer solstice(夏至). It’s since grown into a week-long annual event that draws more than 48,000 people to the Black Rock Dessert. It is held during the week before Labor Day. Participants set up camp in the desert to celebrate art.

This festival marks the Thai New Year, which is celebrated in the second week of April. This is the hottest time of the year in Thailand, so it makes sense that the biggest Songkran tradition is to throw water on people. Thais of all ages join in water fights, using buckets, hoses and water guns to celebrate the event.

Long ago, there was a rich man, who had a very big house with a lot of treasures and many servants. One day, two silver saucers were stolen from the cupboard. After a few days, another two saucers were stolen again. The rich man was very angry. He thought, “Someone must have stolen them. I must catch the thief, or another two saucers would be stolen in a few days.”

Then he had an idea. He called in all his servants and said. “Some of my silver saucers have disappeared. Someone among you must have taken them. Who has taken them?”

The servants looked at one another and kept quiet. Then the rich man said, “I shall catch the thief myself. I am giving each of you a stick. Look, all the sticks are of the same length, Keep the sticks. Bring them back tomorrow. The thief’s stick will two centimeters longer.”

That evening, Salleh, one of the servants, went home sadly. His wife asked him, “Why are you so sad this evening?”

“This stick will grow two centimeters longer tomorrow because I have taken the silver saucers,” he said.

“Oh, don’t worry. Cut off two centimeters from the stick,” his wife said. “In other words your stick will be of the same length as any of the other sticks.”

Hearing this, he was very happy. At once, he cut off two centimeters from the stick with a knife.

The next day, each of the servants brought back his stick. The rich man then measured each of the sticks. He found Salleh’s stick shorter by two centimeters. Salleh was the thief. He was caught and put in prison. The rich man got back the stolen saucers.

Scope: Recently your school board proposed moving the school start time from 7:50a.m. to 7:20 a.m. What was your reaction to this?

Jilly Dos Santos: I was getting only four to six hours of sleep a night and I was late for school a lot. With the new start time, I’d have to wake up even earlier. After we heard about the proposal, a teachers said to my class, “If you don’t like it, why don’t you do something about it?”

Scope: What did you do?

Jilly: I organized a group of students to speak to the school board.

Scope: What did you do to prepare for the meeting?

Jilly: I wanted to focus our presentation on why having an earlier start time was unhealthy. There is scientific research about teens and sleep. I learned that during your teen years, because of a change in hormones(激素), your body begins to change. You start to want to go to bed later. School starts the same time it always has, so getting enough sleep becomes difficult. I realized there wasn’t something wrong with my time management or me; the way I was feeling had a physical and biological basis.

Scope: How did it go?

Jilly: About 30 students came to support me, and the board liked that I didn’t get emotional and just provided the evidence. Two months later, an 8:55 a.m. start time became official. The board decided to make the start time later instead of earlier.

Scope: What has changed since the later start time?

Jilly: I don’t need to stay up an extra hour or two at night, because I can get work done in the morning. I’ve also been late a lot less. And this year, there are more morning clubs and more people going to them.

Michelle Yeoh also known as Yeoh Choo Kheng was born in Ipoh, Malaysia. At a very young age she dreamt of being a ballerina. Unluckily, when she was 16, she suffered a serious back injury and her professional dancing career was broken down.

Michelle would have given up her dreams and become a lawyer instead. Against her doctor’s advice, she continued going for her dream. She believed that if she can’t dance, there must be something else she can do. In 1983, at the age of 21, she won the Miss Malaysia beauty contest. Thin won the attention of Jackie Chan and the Hong Kong movie industry. In 1988 after her 5th movie, she married to retire from the silver screen. Her marriage was somehow filled with tears and loneliness. It ended in 1992 in the end.

So again, another of her life dreams was blown away. But Michelle did not think over spilled milk. Although she had been away from the movie industry for over 4 years, she had an attractive comeback. She costarred with Jackie Chan in Police Story 3 : Supercop. It was the top popular film in Asia for the year. Michelle Yeoh became the most popular and highest paid actress in Asia with a huge number of fans following throughout the world.