Embedded with the discourse of monolingualism are strong beliefs about (a) the dangers of early bilingualism, (b) the negative effects of ‘unbalanced’ bilingualism on individuals, and (c) the __33__ that the ‘true’ or ‘real’ bilingualism will be identical to native speakers in both their languages.

  A monolingual view leads many teachers, administrators and politicians to treat the two languages of a bilingual as separate distinct systems, __34__ students are two monolinguals in one. Such a view leads to overly-simplistic notions of languages simply being added or subtracted from the mind of the bilingual. The monolingual view is __35__ associated with the language-as-a-problem orientation, leading to education programs that either restrict the use of the home language or to only use it temporarily to transition students as quickly as possible to the dominant school language. (Baker and Wright, 2017)

        It wasn’t the first machine on the market. To some people, it’s now just part of office furniture. But whichever way you look at it, IBM’s personal computer has completely revolutionized the way we live, work and play, and a quarter of a century after its debut, its power has radically increased in more ways than one. It was 1981, also the year IBM unveiled the 5150, the world’s first personal computer for the mainstream consumer. Now, with just 16 kilobytes of memory, the IBM 5150 was obviously limited. Some critics said it wasn’t nearly as good as other computers on the market, but the 5150 triggered a wave of excitement. It made the business world sit up and notice that the PC was not just for geeks.

        Rebel territory, western Nepal, is one of the most remote regions on earth. We came here to meet the insurgents who are fighting to topple the government of the Himalayan kingdom. Soon there are no roads, no bridges. The only way to cross this river to enter the rebel heartland is this box, suspended from a cable, the bridge blown up a long time ago in the fighting. 

        Here we were approached by a girl in her school uniform. It quickly becomes clear she and two friends have been hiding in the jungle since the previous day from the rebels, they say, notorious for abducting children to become insurgents.

        For the past 10 years, these Maoist rebels, among the last in the world, have been fighting to overthrow the monarchy here and establish a socialist state. More than 12,000 people have died in the fighting, but even more disturbing are the children targeted by both sides, according to human rights group --- thousands of them, by some estimates, abducted, tortured, and killed. The government says the rebels kidnap children to recruit and indoctrinate. 

        The rebels deny it, calling it slanders spread by the government, but the story of these children says otherwise. She is 16 and scared, Ganga says she thought the rebels would kill her. She worries her parents don’t know where she is. She herself doesn’t know where she is. They have no money and no food. They stay the night at the villager’s house. Khum is 15. He says that rebels beat students at his school with sticks and stones when some try to escape. Shobba says she worries about her exams, and worries that rebels will kill her.

        The children are in desperate need for help. We abandon our plans to try and meet the rebels to try to get the children home.

        We suspect there may be some rebels among the villagers here who might want to take the kids away. That’s why we have to get out of here very quickly, and this is how we are going to do it.

        But we may have already been too late. The woman in pink acts in a suspicious way, leading us to think she may be a rebel. She appeared from nowhere and has already been in deep conversation with the children, and tried to convince them to go with her. She claims to be a cousin and says she will take them home through a shortcut in the rebel territory. Out of hope or more likely out of fear, Shobha and Khum decide to go with her. But Ganga joins us in the precarious journey to safety across the river, where the government is in control. Here at the roadside café, Ganga has her first food in two days. We put her on a bus for home, a two-hour drive and then two more hours’ walk. It’s been a terrible ordeal for Ganga and she’s far from alone. Increasingly on the battlefield in Nepal between the government and the rebels are this country’s children.

        For a really odd adventure, visitors can stay in the Hamster Hotel in Nantes, France. In the cage-like rooms, guests run in a giant wheel, eat seeds, and sleep in a bed of hay. If they so choose, people can even dress up in a hamster costume. This experience costs about US$ 150 per night. 

        The uniqueness of hotels puts them in a special category known as destination hotels. That is, people decide to visit a location because of the hotel itself. The popularity of such destination hotels is a sign that many travelers are truly searching for something different.