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“It’s like getting a new life, I mean, living with the Tragers.

Being the oldest kid in Rosario Landing isn’t something you’d be proud of. People who go there usually want younger kids, babies even, because babies remember little about their real parents, and it’s easier for them to become close to their new parents. I felt happy for those who left with their new families. I really did. But it got harder to be happy for them when you were never the one to go.

I never thought Nicole and Thomas would pick me. They said they felt like they had known me for many years. After spending a few afternoons with me, they decided to take me home.

It’s never easy to have a stranger in your life. Lori is nice, but she’s too polite, like I was just one of her parents’ friends. We talk, but not very warmly. Sean deals with it better than his older sister. I slept in his room before I had my own, and we got to play tricks on each other three nights later, like real brothers.

If there’s anything I can do to make them feel easier with me. I’ll try. I Want to, because, for the first time in my life, I feel that I belong somewhere.”

What kind of place do you usually choose to stay for the night during a trip? Expensive hotels that may make you feel like you don’t get what you pay for? Or cheap hostels that put you and five other strangers in the same bedroom? If both choices sound terrible to you, here’s something new: holiday apartments.

In a holiday apartment, you have more space than what a hotel room can give you. Everything in the apartment is at your disposal. The living room, the kitchen, the study, and, of course, the bedrooms are all for your own use. Some apartments even have a lovely garden or a game room. You’ll feel at home in the holiday apartment. The best thing is, a holiday apartment is not expensive. The price for a holiday apartment is for two people, and the apartment is often cheaper than a hotel room for two. You only need to pay a little more for a third or fourth person. If you travel with friends or your family, a holiday apartment will be your best choice!

See You in India

India is a country with a 31 of more than 5,000 years, a country where East meets West. A trip to India is an experience both your body and your mind will enjoy.

India has many colorful festivals all year round. It is home to the world-famous Taj Mahal, the beautiful Amritsar's Golden Temple, the holy Ganges River, and the great Himalayas. It also has jungles 32 you can ride an elephant and look for tigers.

Come to the wonderful land 33 India!

Flower Town in July

Summer is the most beautiful season in Flower Town. In the morning, take a walk in Vendo Park between First Street and Third Street. If you enjoy reading, there is a bookstore in the park.

For lunch, have delicious Hamburger Special in Googie’s. You can walk there from the park. It is just on the corner of Mension Road and Third Street.

When the weather gets hotter in the afternoon, go to the swimming pool on Fourth Street. It is next to Cage’s Café.

In the evening, movie fans move to Second Street. David Stone Theater has all kinds of movies!

In Darayya, a city in Syria, there’s a library, and it has 15,000 books on almost every subject you can think of. However, it is different from any libraries you know: It is a secret underground library, and only people in Darayya know where it is.

Over the years, war has shaken Darayya badly. Every day, houses are bombed and people are killed. Stores are closed one after another, and so are schools. To help the kids in Darayya with their learning, Anas Ahmad, a 19-year-old student, and his friends decided to build a library. They built the library under the ground to keep it safe from bombing. But it is dangerous to collect books for the library. Often, Ahmad and his friends look for books in houses that were bombed. They need to be careful because they may be killed in another bombing.

You may ask, “In a place like Darayya, would people be interested in books?” “Just like the body needs food, the mind needs books,” says one library user. In the library, people enjoy their time of reading and forget about the terrible world above, so their life doesn’t seem so hard. Through reading, they are able to dream of a better life after war.

Many years ago, Dan Ariely bought a cabinet from IKEA. IKEA is a famous furniture store that sells boxes of furniture parts. People who buy them have to put all the parts together themselves. It took Ariely hours to build his cabinet. Ariely didn’t really enjoy himself when he was trying to put all the parts together. However, after he finished, he felt quite good about himself and his cabinet. Later, he found that he loved his cabinet more than any of his other furniture.

Ariely wanted to know if anyone shared his feelings, so he did a fun origami study. He invited two groups of people to join his study. He called one group “builders” and the other group “buyers.” Builders were told to make origami, like paper frogs or paper birds. When they finished, they were asked how much they would spend on their works. Ariely then showed the origami to buyers and asked them how much they would pay for them. The two groups gave very different answers. Though buyers would pay only five cents for builders’ origami, builders would spend 25 cents! Interestingly, builders believed others would think their works were good enough to cost that much money!

Ariely’s study showed that he was not alone in his IKEA experience — we just love things more, sometimes blindly, when we make them ourselves. Ariely called it “the IKEA effect.”