1 . Four Best Christmas Markets in Italy

Bolzano market is one of the largest in Italy and one of the first markets in the country. It is the ideal place to join the festive activities. You’ll find a large Christmas tree decorated with lights. Besides, there are little wooden houses filled with traditional gifts, candles, crafts and so much more which can give a medieval (中世纪的) feeling.

The market in Turin is a traditional Italian Christmas market and one of the first markets in the country. It is decorated with Christmas lights and decorations. Here you’ll find hand-made goods in a typical Piedmontese style as well as famous chocolates from Turin.

Piazza San Marco is home to Venice’s Christmas market. During this time the city turns into a small Christmas village with unique decoration, lights and lots of cheers. There are dozens of Christmas trees as well as little wooden shops and visitors from all around the world. Shops offer the best treats you’ll ever taste, traditional street food and hand-made goods.

One of the longest running Christmas markets in Milan, is a sight worth seeing. The market dates back to the 1500s when it was once an event to allow locals to pay their respects to Sant’ Ambrogio. Today, there are over 300 stalls (货摊) decorated with lights and selling hand-made goods.

There are so many Christmas markets to enjoy. Start planning your Italy escape today. Are you ready to get into the festive spirit?

4 . When Arsh was a young boy, his parents, Divya Pal and Sanjeev, signed him up for extracurricular activities such as piano, karate (空手道) and gymnastics, but he preferred art. When Arsh turned 8, he received a watercolor paint set as a birthday gift. He spent all his spare time painting. That’s how he started painting.

Around the same time, Arsh often visited a local nursing home, where his mother works. Spending time there inspired him to start selling his art for a good cause. “I want to help people in need through my paintings,” he said.

And so began his fundraising (筹款) program, which he called “Art by Arsh”. He sold his paintings at local art shows, restaurants and libraries, as well as on his Instagram account and Facebook page. He donated his first $1,000 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in 2018, and has since reached various other charities.

Arsh, now 12, mostly makes commissioned (委托创作的) pieces, and several of his customers have come back wanting more. That includes his neighbor, Jolene Schaver, who has five of Arsh’s creations hanging in her home and has bought many more for friends and family. “I was amazed at how talented he was at such a young age, without any formal training,” said Schaver.

Along with selling his paintings to benefit nonprofit organizations, Arsh now also teaches art lessons at the local nursing home. And he thought about accessibility, and realized not all people have the resources (资源) to make art—which has the capacity to comfort and heal (治愈). “One of my future goals is to make art accessible for kids who want to express themselves,” Arsh said. He has already started offering free art lessons to local children, and he hopes to expand (扩展) his classes further in the future.

5 . For as long as I can remember, music has been a special part of my life. Throughout my _________, my family constantly had music playing in our house. I _________ the music that my parents liked, from The Beatles to John Denver to the Irish music that everyone in my family loved. As I grew older, music remained something that was _________ to me. It became more and more meaningful to me as I began to _________ my own taste in music. I started finding songs that I _________ over others, and I found singers that I admired. Taylor Swift was my favorite; I loved her poetic lyrics and I looked up to her as a person. As an idealistic child who loved to daydream, I loved all of Taylor Swift’s passionate _________ about love and the beauty of life.

As I grew older, I began to develop a unique taste in music. I saw the world of music as a place to _________, a place where I could discover who I was and express myself. I loved listening to different types of music and finding my own bands that I liked. My _________ were like a collection to me; I could keep adding more to enjoy and to show to other people. Listening to music was a hobby for me. It allowed me to feel as if I was free to do _________ I wanted to do. I felt happiest when I was listening to music because it was, and _________ is, my favorite thing to do.

I felt a sense of _________ and independence when I could choose whatever I was in the mood to hear, and I loved feeling as if I could use music to _________ myself and my personality. I was a shy and _________ child, but music gave me the ability to be someone else. When I listened to music, I could be whoever I wanted to be. Whenever I felt _________ or afraid, I listened to my favorite music and immediately felt _________ alone. Music has brought me so much joy in my life that I would not trade for anything.

9 . Sun Yi finally received an email she had long been waiting for, which contained her final wedding plan. The plan, which had been revised nearly ten times, offered the 29-year-old girl a “new Chinese-style” wedding in March. She described it as “traditional but old-fashioned” and “ritualistic (仪式的) but stylish.”

In recent years, traditional Chinese weddings have won popularity again among the country's newly-married. Many of them no longer consider western-style dresses and words of “I do” as important parts of weddings. Instead, they now prefer wearing Tang Dynasty-style clothes and performing traditional rituals at weddings the same way their ancestors did hundreds, even thousands of years ago.

In traditional Chinese weddings, couples usually wear red. Red is always a symbol of fortune in Chinese culture, and the hall of the ceremony is also richly decorated in red. Couples will perform a three-step ritual, namely to heaven and earth, to their parents and to each other.

In Lanzhou, several wedding planning companies are sparing no effort to promote their “Chinese-style wedding packages”, which offer a wide range of choices for wedding plans. Chinese-style weddings make up nearly 40 percent of our orders. Customers often need to make reservations six months in advance, said Zhang, a wedding planner.

Wang Yiru, another wedding planner in Lanzhou, Xinxin Wedding Service Company, said the preparation for a Chinese-style wedding is usually very time-consuming and costly.

“Wedding ceremonies reflect social and cultural changes. With people’s living standards improved, they go for more individual choices,” said Wang Zongli, a professor at Northwest Normal University.

10 . The summer job is common for many kids,who are encouraged by their parents to get out of their hair,go and learn valuable lessons about responsibility,the value of money and hard work.Whether you were saving for a bike,your first car,a dress or whatever,you all went in with high expectations of independence and felt like proper adults.However,those expectations are not always met!

Jimmy Fallon did us all a service by asking people to share their worst summer job experiences in one of his challenges.There are some absolute classics there! Check out a list of your favorites below！

I was 10 and went to my grandfather's farm. He gave me $10 and I kept an eye on the farm. I stood there in the sun until my mom came an hour later.

I was hired at an elderly people's home for patients with dementia (痴呆). On my first day, I accidentally pressed the door button,and the old people escaped.We had to run through the town rounding them.

I was babysitting two kids.One ran out of the front door,and the other went out the back. When I ran around the house to find them,they ran back inside and locked me out.

I earned $30 working construction for an agency one day in college.When I finished,there was a $35 parking ticket on my car.I refer to it as the day I paid to work.