From the moment you walk in you're surrounded by history. Buildings of many shapes and size with various backgrounds will welcome you to learn about life in early 19th century rural New England.

My first trip to this living history museum was in the 5th grade. An assistant teacher styled the girls hair in 1830's fashions and we piled into the big yellow bus and watched in excitement as we pulled into the parking lot. We got the chance to try on clothing, make marbled paper, and tour the village.

Now over ten years later I am now a volunteer and dancer at Old Sturbridge Village. I started out as a greeter smiling warmly and offering directions to locations within the village. After becoming costumed in 1830's attire including reproduction dresses, petticoats and bonnets, I was able to become a docent and work in the Towne House.

This house has an interesting history. Its owner, Salem Towne Sr. came from a poor family. His father died during the French and Indian war. His mother eventually remarried to a lonely farmer and later would follow in his step-fathers footsteps. At the rough age of 20, Salem purchased ten acres of land and taking on the position as a land surveyor. He later would purchase and sell pieces of land making a profit and acquiring more land as time went on.

In 1796, three years after he married his third wife, Salem had the Greek revival home built in Charlton, Massachusetts. After his death 1925 the house would be passed down to his son Salem Towne Jr., Salem Jr.'s wife Sally and their ten children. By 1830 the family owned 400 acre's of land was considered the wealthiest family around gaining this status by progressive farming. Their wealth can be shown by the hallway that extends the entire length of the house that is fully carpeted. Another tell-tale sign of wealth is the elaborate sideboard placed in the hall. The house has three floor, a cast iron stove (the newest amenity in those days) and a pleasure garden.

As and Old Sturbridge Village dancer I am able to participate in 1790's to late 1830's style dancing. With skirts twirling and white gloves on you can imagine how elegant it must be to cast off in Jefferson and Liberty or circle six hands round in White Cockade. Dancing in those days was sometimes seen as scandalous but was also romantic as this was possibly the only chance you might have to touch the hand of the person you fancied.

Within the village you can also see three different mills (Saw, Carding, and Grist) that are run off of water power and are the start of the industrial revolution in this country. There is a tavern, tin shop, shoe shop, district school, pottery shop, bank, parsonage, and several farms with cattle and other animals native to this country during the 19th century. You can also grab an ice cream, watch as sheep are sheared, or taste freshly made butter.

So, if you every find yourself in search of experiencing history in a different way then Old Sturbridge Village is the place to go. You won't be disappointed.

A great option if you want to go jogging is to go to a local school and jog on the track. A standard track is 400 meters or a quarter of a mile. You can easily figure out how far you have gone on a track. Also most schools in the area have all weather tracks. High Schools are not the only schools that you can go to use the track. Middle schools also may have tracks. Some good schools that often have joggers and runners at them include the Belmont high and the Water Town high schools track. When running on a track remember that the inside lanes are for the faster runners and the outside is for slower runners or joggers and walkers.

Also you really should only visit when school is out though public schools are held in common trust which means when not in use by the school anyone can use them. Besides schools some of the local colleges have tracks that are accessible to the general public. One college that is easily accessible is the Harvard track. The Harvard track is located in Boston not Cambridge on JFK and is across from the Harvard Business school. The Harvard trick is not the best track to run on it fills like running on cement instead of a nice new all weather track like you can find at Belmont High School, it also is a big circle instead of an oval possibly because it is not on the outside of a football field but there are hardly any people on the field and even the Harvard team trains mainly in the indoor facilities which are not available to the public.

Along most of the Charles you can find good jogging paths that also offer great scenery. However you will want to go on the Cambridge side, as the Boston side does not have as much in the way of paths for bikers and joggers. To figure the distance you go you can mapquest the streets you ran between but the paths tend to wind a bit and are mapquesting will not give you the most accurate distance.

If you are willing to go out to Concord there are plenty of trails and many of them have distances marked so you can decide which trail to go. The trails from Concord go all the way into Cambridge so you can get on a trail in Cambridge and jog out to Concord. Some of the Concord paths take you around the famous Walden pond. Many of the paths connecting Cambridge and Walden are by lakes and offer great scenery while you jog. Even from the Cambridge side distances are clearly given so you can know how far you went.

During the harsh summer and winter you might want to jog indoors. Most places require some kind of membership. Even local cities have places for the residents even if you do not live in their city but live in the greater Boston area. The Roxbury Community College has the Reggie Lewis Center, which has an indoor track and other gym facilities available to the local public for a small fee, which is less, then you pay for a professional gym membership.

Remember most places in the Boston area do have jogging trails but some have better jogging trails then others. If you are not fortunate to live between Cambridge and Concord or on the north side of the Charles then a local school track might be a good option for you.

For the majority of China's history and even late into the 20th century, the government had closed off its borders to foreigners - especially to foreigners from the Western World. Now, with its fast growing economy, the Chinese are realizing that English is a necessity in order to become the global power she once was.

Luckily, for people who can speak English, this allows for greater opportunities for teaching English and for picking and choosing the kind of educational environment they wish to work in and their price. This is the easiest way to find a job in China because whoever your employer is, that person will bend over backwards to make sure you get the proper immigration documents to allow you to legally stay in the country for longer than the 30 - 90 days that a tourist is usually allotted.

If you wish to be paid a U.S. salary, but live on a Chinese budget, then apply for the U.S. State Department. There is a written and oral exam. During the oral exam, note that your first preference is to work in China, ask to work in the Admin Section of the Consulate and do not show any emotion during the oral interview phase of the examination. You'll be checking visas for the first two years of your stay, but you will surely have a job in China and a nice place to stay on U.S. soil in mainland China.

If you can get a job with a major U.S. newspaper with a branch in Beijing or Shanghai, I suggest you try going that path as well. Since China is like the Wild West of the 1800s right now, it is always changing and there is always so much news that is happening.

You can also go to any of the tourist cities and find the areas where all the backpackers stay. Talk and hang out with them. They are a wealth of information.

There are seventy large buildings established here with over 2,000 rooms of various sizes that can accommodate up to 20,000 persons. Tall street lamps and trees over a hundred years old lined along the road. The entrance to the City, Mountain Gate was marked with yellow roof tiles and red brick walls.

Mountain Gate, the entrance to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas

Inside the City, many cottages are engulfed with green trees. The air here is fresh, inspiring and refreshing. All the flowers, grasses, trees, peacocks, squirrels, deer and other animals create a peace and tranquility atmosphere. Just like a saying by Venerable Master, “Don't come to the mountain treasures and return empty-handed.”

A twenty feet high Thousand-Handed, Thousand-Eyed Guanshiyin Bodhisattva, with thousand hands in the front and back, each with a compassionate eye in its palm is a distinctive feature in the hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas. There are more than one thousand large and small Buddha images adorned the interior walls of the Jeweled Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas. Another interesting place is the corners of the Buddha Hall. It is adorned with four twenty-foot high Murals of Great Heavenly King. They are Heavenly King Virupaksha (“broad eyes”) of the West, Heavenly King Dhrtarastra (“one who upholds the country”) of the East, Heavenly King Virudhaka (“increasing”) of the South and Heavenly King Vaishravana (“widely learned”) of the North. When you walk into the Ordination Platform Hall, there are four sides covered with mirrors which resulting in endless reflections.

In the City, there are elementary and secondary schools for boys and girls teaching them to respect elders, parents and teachers. The establishment of a university also aims at educating students to become wise and virtuous leaders in the world. A course of Chinese brush calligraphy is also offered to members of the local community in the university. Besides that, there is also a big library providing students, teachers, and the residents of the City with lots of publication in English and Chinese. For the elders, a Tower of Blessings is a home for them. Virtuous elders are honored in the celebration of Respecting Elders Day each fall.

There are many interesting sites to visit at the City. You may experience yourself by spending your time at the City.