1 . I had an opportunity to teach at a five-star hotel in Nevis, a small island in the Caribbean Sea. After that, my friend Clayton and I flew into Panama City for a surfing outing at a surfing camp in the bay of Chiriqui, whose tourism is booming. To get there, we had to take my tennis bags on and off several buses and boats. After eight hours of travel we finally arrived. The camp was perfect, and the accommodations were not bad. We had an unbelievable week there!

On our return trip, when we got to the bus station, we learned that our bus had been delayed for 2. 5 hours. The sun was beating down on us.

As we walked over to the shaded area, a couple of kids started throwing rocks at me. I opened a can of tennis balls. They stopped and took an interest in the balls. I had a special racket (球拍) with me. I had the strings cut out and replaced them with a net, which is prefect for hotel teaching. I got them to throw the balls into the net. They seemed to enjoy that. Then an older boy got interested, to whom I gave another racket to hit the ball into the net of the catching racket. I showed him how to position and hold the racket. Soon, their bus arrived, and they were on their way.

But families from across the street came over and wanted their 10-minute tennis lesson，too. The other passengers waiting for the bus each got a lesson. Eventually, restaurant workers next door and the bus terminal clerk invited me to give them a lesson, too. They learnt well and were having a great time. And so was I. In what seemed like no time, our bus arrived. Satisfied with what I did, I changed my shirt, and made it back to Panama City.

2 . I am on holiday here in Switzerland with my parents and I am having a fantastic time.     1     It is the first time I have ever been to the mountains and I love it.     2     My father isn’t very happy though. He isn’t allowed to smoke in the hotel so he has to go outside!

We have been on lots of walks in the mountains but we always go with a guide.     3     You can easily get lost—it’s so remote.

Yesterday we went for a boat trip around the lake but we had to go back to the hotel early.     4     It was fun but a bit frightening.

    5     The worst thing is that I can’t go out at night. Not because my parents won’t let me but because there’s nowhere to go.

4 . How to Volunteer Abroad and Actually Help People

Fear of “voluntourism” shouldn’t stop you from doing something great. We’ve all heard it. Those “voluntourists” going to Africa think they’re helping, but they’re actually going for a holiday, wasting money, and strengthening dangerous stereotypes (刻板印象). I am, though, against the idea that we shouldn’t volunteer abroad at all. How would the world be a better place without people devoting their time and resources to help others who need it?

I chose my organization well. As a student, there are so many options for volunteering abroad. I travelled with Cambridge Development Initiative, a student-run project that works on sustainable development projects in Tanzania. There were four branches and I was on the business team. We were trained on the dangers of voluntourism and on best volunteer practices. We learned about the culture and even learned some basic Swahili, the local language, before travelling. When we were in Tanzania, we stayed in the same accommodation alongside our Tanzanian team members, ate the same food, and spent our free time in the same places.

When I told my friend I was travelling to Tanzania to volunteer for the summer, he said, “Oh, you’re going to have one of those summers where you go away for a couple of months and it totally changes your profile (头像) picture.”

I didn’t change my profile picture, but I did help 23 young people start their own companies. They brainstormed ideas, surveyed target communities, improved their designs, came up with business plans, and collected seed capital for their startups. They came up with creative ideas, such as a “mini-grid” (微型电网) providing electricity to an off-grid village and a plastic-waste recycling company.

Before I went to Tanzania, I was “this close” to taking an internship in a company instead because I worried I would be contributing to the negative practice of voluntourism. Here’s how I made sure that didn’t happen, and why I think the benefits of volunteering abroad far outweigh the benefits of taking some questionable moral high reasons back home.

6 . The number of people in my house has grown from six to seven recently. A young man from Spain has come to spend six weeks with us. He is no ordinary young man; he’s actually my second cousin, and is here to spend time with this side of the family, and of course, to learn English.

Thankfully, he is the same age as my youngest son, and is very fun-loving. I’m sure that he will learn a lot of English while he plays with my kids. That was actually how I picked up a lot of Spanish when I was a child. My mother would take me to Mallorca in Spain, to spend about a month in the summers. Because children play so much, and are more active than adults, they absorb language like little sponges(海绵). Well, that’s what happened to me, and I’m very thankful for the experience.

So far, we have taken my cousin to Seattle for a couple of days, and down to a local river to look for gold. Today, I plan on taking him to the museum in the town of Cashmere which is excellent. He will get his first view of Native American life, and be able to walk through some of the original pioneer houses of this area. Like most boys who are thirteen, he is very curious and constantly asks questions. Of course, I don’t always have the answers! Coming to the US is a big step for him, especially being so young. Mind you, he is a world traveller. His mother is an air hostess and is able to get cheap airline tickets, so they travel internationally all the time. So he is extremely comfortable in airports, and understands the routines of getting from one place to another. I hope that his being here will encourage my children to spend time in Spain, and also become international travelers.

7 . After years of touring the world, in 2019, Tutankhamun began his final world tour before resting forever in the new Grand Egyptian Museum. His journey, which began in California and received great welcome in Paris, will take him as far from home as Japan, Sydey and South Korea.

From now until May 2020, he stops off at London' s Saatchi Gallery. Here’s a glimpse of some treasures you’ll witness.

This life-sized guardian statue is one of a set of two that watched over the entrance to Tut's burial chamber (墓室), and was one of the first things Carter saw upon entering the tomb. It's their eyes that immediately draw your attention. They never seem to be looking directly at you, because the statues were made for the afterlife, meaning they need to be looking farther than our world. It's one of the objects that have left Cairo for the first time and one that the exhibition's organizers refer to as "a big win".

You might be surprised to learn that organs were dealt with separately during the process of making mummies in ancient Egypt. Each organ had a specially designated case in order to protect it on the way to the next world.King Tut was no different and this beautiful, gold coffinette was designed to store the young Pharaoh’s liver.

One of the most mysterious objects discovered in Tutankhamun’s tomb and on display at the Saatchi, is this gilded wooden naos. Never before a description of the relationship between a king and his queen been discovered with this level of detail-it shows that King Tut and his wife (and half-sister), were extremely close. Inside the naos, Carter found a stand for a statue, but no statue itself, only footprints on the base of the stand. Many explanations as to its meaning have been offered over the years, but the most convincing one was a stand for a statue of the god Amun, whose name means "the hidden one”.

8 . At first look, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore seems familiar to kids. The slowly moving sand, seabirds and miles of greenish-blue water all add up to one thing — the sea. But then, somewhere — maybe on the pile (堆) of sand called Dune Run — the kids stop, realize this is Michigan, a landlocked state in the US, and ask,“How did the sea get here?"

It didn't. This is Lake Michigan.It's a lake — a great one — and the water is fresh, not salty, says Lisa Myers, chief of interpretation (讲解) and visitor services at Sleeping Bear.

“When my family comes here from New England in the north-eastern US, they all have to taste the water", she says. “The area looks like Cape Cod in my home town. You can't believe this isn't the coast."

“Playing on the Dune Run is like being in a huge sandbox,"says Myers. But there's so much more. Help kids see the park through a wider lens (镜片) by walking along the sandy Lake Michigan beach.

“With their feet on the sand and in the water,kids can see there are waves (波浪),” says Myers,"They can watch fish,otters and beavers swimming in the lake."

July and August are best for water play, but winter is magical for kids, adds Myers."They can walk the beaches to see all the ice formations (形态) and crashing waves,”she says.“We offer snowshoe walks in January and February,when kids can look for marks left by animals. And when it' s windy, they can stand on the Dune Run and feel the forces of nature.The kids can run or roll down the hill, too, which is a whole lot of fun."