Massive Chinese New Year Homecoming

Okay...now i understand the importance of Chinese New Year for Taiwanese. 9-day holiday for this occasion! How could i say it's not important?! No doubt. Compare to the same important occasion back in my lovely country Indonesia called Lebaran, which is only 2-day holiday, Chinese New Year seems way bigger. Even for university students, like most of my friends. But i'm still flabbergasted with their tremendous efforts in preparing their homecoming. I took this picture at Chiayi Train Station :

Seems like they really emptying their cupboards in the dormitory/apartment and bring those stuff along with them #shaking head

But, the one who doesn't "coming home" like me has to "suffered" because of those 9-day holiday. WHY? Because almost all the stores and shops are closed, even 7-eleven inside the campus #shocked! As a result, i must stockpiling to earnestly continue my life #a bit exaggerating here; as always. This picture below was taken after a crazy-frenzy shopping in order to stockpile foods :

"Bunga, I'm tired. I bought too many things", said Li Huei (my roommate) #ROFL

Btw, international students like me were also "celebrating" an early Chinese New Year with having dinner together (on the rooftop one of the departments in my campus; a week ago) and exchanging gifts. For that exchanging gifts part, i have my own story. So, I didn't know why, but that time, when i saw a pile of gifts on the table, my eyes stuck on MASHIMARO stuffed toy. Hahaha...since when i started to like stuffed toy?!  Seriously, I was praying hard to get it. But yeah, i didn't get it (directly). I got a white-furry-pillow, instead. The one who got that Mashimaro was Mas Away and he gave it to Eti. Finally, after seeing my puppy-WANT-THAT-MASHIMARO-BADLY eyes, Eti agreed to exchange that Mashimaro with my furry pillow. Ahahaaa..AWESOME!!!

Mashimaro, say hi to the new owner :D!

Final Performances in Chinese Class

Hihihi...just found this article from the university webpage^^.

Here's the story behind that article :

On the 5th January 2009, all Chinese Class's members have to do some performances in front of the President of Chiayi University (*too much pressure here -------> *deep sigh). The performances were more like showing some conversations related to the topics that we've been studied this past four months. But besides that, we also played some games and sang two songs (titled 朋友 (read : peng2you3 means friend) and 寶貝 (In The Night) (read : bao3bei4 means baby or darling). (Almost forget), there's also three (-unbelievably crazy) Thailand' students who performed a "fighting-for-a boy-butt-dance" (*don't ask me to explain it even further ;p).

My group, consists of four members : me, Wahid, Eti and Li Huei. We performed an irregular-bargain-shopping-transaction-thingy. Why irregular ? Because the transaction's setting is SOGO Dept. Store (*gyahahahaaa...since when we can "bargain" stuff at SOGO ;p). Well, since we have Wahid as an ambitious-money lover-衣服 老闆 (read : yi1fu5 lao3ban3; yi1fu5 means clothes; lao3ban3 means boss) and Li Huei as a cute-shy-little-McD-laoban, we're successfully caught Mr. President's attention^^. And errr...btw, before performance, we heard from our Chinese Teacher that Mr. President couldn't come. But later...he came just EXACLTY BEFORE OUR GROUP's performance! (*OMG...OMG...we were a bit freaked out back then). But thank God we were able to handle it (*yeay!). Check out our drama performance here.

"gerombolan Indonesia berfoto bersama President Li sesaat stlh acara berakhir"

Brrrrr...Samuiiiiiii !

This past few days, the weather in Chiayi is damned COLD (*clenching_teeth_MODE_STILL_ON). Don't ask me whether i'm still take a shower twice a day or not (*because the answer is XXX. Ehehehe...). Gosh, i really did come to the lowest point (read : coldest place) in Taiwan (*sigh). Plus, my Taiwanese friend told me that this winter IS THE COLDEST EVER (*Huaaaaaa.....)! Anyway, this article i've found before is quite interesting :

"With the winter winds just over the horizon, three popular hot drinks (=coffee, hot cocoa and chamomile tea) will not only warm you up, but could also heat up your immune system and possibly help prevent certain ailments"

OK, then...i will just stop my addiction to the cold bùdīng nǎilǜchá (布丁奶綠茶) (*pudding+milk+green tea), at least until the winter gone. Drink something warm surely better (and fits well) with the cold weather^^.

"Chemists have found that coffee is the number one source of antioxidants in the U.S. diet; hot cocoa contains more antioxidants per cup than tea or red wine, which provide substantial doses; and chamomile tea, the popular herbal drink, may actually help relieve a wide range of health ailments, including colds and menstrual cramps"

(REALLY ? Coffee is the no. 1 source of antioxidants (*even in U.S. diet ????) -----> *wondering+questioning. Check out this link for further infos about "Coffee as an antioxidants".

Conclusions (from the article i've linked above):

1. The actual amount needed to be consumed in order to receive the anti-cancer benefits by humans is unknown. In the other words, the truth is it is still unknown just how beneficial coffee antioxidants are for humans.

2. Roasting and heating the coffee changes the total antioxidant output.

3. Too much of anything is not a good thing (-all things in moderation).

Last but not least, the articles here (1 & 2) about the relation between antioxidants and cancer are also worth to read.

"Cold" regards (read : Salam kedinginan T-T)

Prof. Chiou...You're The Best^^!

v(^_^)v (*victory)...today's Trends of Food Technology and Chronic Disease (ToFT&CD) presentation was a total success^^. OK, it didn't end up perfectly as i dream of. 為什麼 ? Because...my presentation-time was being "robbed" by someone (*semi-angry).

Here's the story:

Mr. R-a-t-t-a-p-h-o-n-g (-my Thailand' classmate), who's definitely ignoring Prof. Chiou's command (read : instead of presenting something related to ToFT&CD, his presentation was about Bhumibol Adulyadej + his governance policies ------> *yawning). Even worse, he did the presentation for...25 minutes (~almost 30, actually), from 10-15 minutes provided time! (*impatience_MODE_ON).

As a result, when it comes to my turn, i just speed up and speak so fast to explain my 26-power point-slides titled Molecular Targets of Dietary Agents for Prevention and Theraphy of Cancer (-i finished it in 13 min-40 sec^^). Prof. Chiou end up gave this comments : "Hmmm...interesting topic" and "You speak so fast...your tongue must be "flippy"". Gyahahahaaaa (*laughing hard). And then, all of the sudden, he started to say something like "mouth-tongue structure" related to the dialects, pronunciation and ability in doing "flippy"-stuff. Hehehe...

The BEST part was...when he told us that there will be no FINAL TEST for this course (*\(^o^)/).

老師, 我喜歡你 ~~~~~ (*Ehehehee...klo giliran ga ujian aja...;p)

Podcasting-Postcard (???)

Poor "Bunga no iPOD"! It's only used by its owner to play J-Pop, K-Pop, R&B and 90's Pop songs. Oh yeah, and also to watch what's the owner called "scientific videos" (namely : Super Junior Exploring Human Body, how cells can go apoptosis, immunoblotting, metastasis, etc ^^).

But today (yes...T.O.D.A.Y! :p), i start to "peek" on and scroll around "Bunga no iPOD" another "ability". Yes, PODCASTING. That word sounds familiar to my ear. Yet, i never do the podcasting stuff. As a result, i end up googling and found some Postcasting Tidbits, start from its history, what is it, how it works, and also some podcasting directories (1, 2, 3). YEAY (^o^)! I have a new "thing" to play with, start from today.

Wow, FINALLY, after almost two months, Sunett's Edinburgh postcard was arrived (*thanks a bunch, Sun^^. Yes, Edinburgh is BEAUTIFUL:)). But...it was mistakenly sent to room no. 2302 (*the room next door). Ehehehe, Pak Satpam, later on please remember that i live in room no. 2303, OK ;)?!

2 Vacations on 2 New Year Holidays (Hijriyah-Masehi)

OK, i can say this two are "quite" amazing vacations i've ever had.

Verse 1. ALISHAN a.k.a Alishan National Scenic Area (阿里山國家風景區)

Finally, after lived in Chiayi for almost 4 months, i had a chance to go to this famous (scenic) park in Taiwan. Well, let's just forget that the journey to Alishan was a little bit "rocky", not to mention that i also have to babysit my Vietnamese friend who was feel motion sickness (to be specified : bus-sickness) all the way. Hehehe, peace, Li Huei^^.

Here's some infos about Alishan : 1 ; 2 ; 3.

Honestly, i would be enjoying my vacation there if....it wasn't a WINTER (*gyahahahaa...i HATE COLD WEATHER the most). So, instead of feeling refreshed nor relaxed, i was too busy to think whether i can survive from this 8-centigrade-damned-cold-Alishan weather or not. Luckily, there's a place called Fenchihu (奮起湖), a small village down the hill, where I can satisfy my souvenirs-hunger for (-read : postcards^^) -------> a perfect weather distraction ;). I also found a cool eagle-shaped blade for my brother there (*Geme'...i bet you'll love it^^). All in all, i hope when the SPRING comes, i can go to that beautiful mountain again (*can't hardly wait to see the "legendary" cherry blossoms).

Verse 2. Taibao City (太保市), Chiayi County

This unpredictable vacation ended up perfectly to me^^. OK, imagine you knew someone only for two weeks and then he/she asked you to join their family vacation. This woman named Mbak Afong is the one who really did that. So, on Masehi New Year Holiday, i went to Taibao City (to The Animal Farm and Fisherman Villages) with Mbak Afong, Mbak Afong's hubby (*dunno his name ;p), and Mbak Afong's three-cute-little daughters and son. Not enough to bring me to those places, she also took me to her house and cooked INDONESIAN DISHES (*Subhanalloooohhh^^). Before that, she treated me Minsyong's special dish called duck noodles (鴨子 麵條). Yummy^^! At the end, she invites me to spend some nights in her house again later on Chinese New Year holiday (*Huaaaaaa...(burst into tears)...thanks a heap, Mbak Afong^^).

*Speaking of cuisines, I put this interesting blog link so I can check on it whenever i want to go to the nightmarket^^.