Burping in Hong Kong is FINE!!

I am in the same class with a HongKonger girl, Celia. I can say she's really unbelievable. The way she behaves is just unpredictable and amazing! She could freely say whatever she wanna say without any hesitation. One day she even called me an 'Orange Monster' simply because I wore an orange t-shirt and was drawing monster during the lecture.

This day I was in the same discussion group with her. We talked much about our family background cause it was related with the topic of that day. She was eagerly telling me her story which was really interested and I couldn't stop laughing at all. Somehow it wasn't because of that she was funny, but she was somehow so innocent, she told the story not like a 20-years-old girl telling the same story. Well, I dont know how to explain, but she definitely got me killed myself with my own laugh.

The lecturer stopped the discussion and led us to class discussion. And I was trying hard to stop looking at Celia so I could stop laughing. The lecturer started to ask a group about their discussion conclusion. Everybody was in silence and put attention to the spoke person of that group, and so did I. Until...

"AAAAAAAAaaaaaa!!!!!", Celia made a sound. (with the highest and deepest volume ever)

and 2 seconds after..

"What!??!", I whispered spontaneously (with the lowest volume ever)

and suddenly everybody look at....


ME!
me the one who whispered with the lowest volume ever.
me the one who reacted spontaneously to that inappropriate thing.
me the one who was in shock for a while.
me the one who didn't believe that was actually...

A BURP!!!
A HIGH-CONCENTRATED BURP IN A FORMAL CLASS DISCUSSION!!!

and they were not only looking at me! but also laughing at me?!
can you help me to understand the situation somehow?!
so, burping is fine in Hong Kong. However reacting to the burp is not fine. Not fine at all.

Saikung

These are some pictures I took in Saikung. Saikung is a fising village in New Territories, one of the districts in North part of Hong Kong. Saikung is refered as the mecca for sea food lover, both for Hong Kong residence and tourists. The day we went there, the weather was not so good. It was a bit cloudy so we could not really see further from seashore.

What was interesting for me is the transaction there. After we finished with laying down in the beach, we visited the commercial part of Saikung. There are a lot of boats where fishermen offering their fish to people standing at the pier. Once a person has picked the fish, they will directly 'kill' them. This was the most horrible part of Saikung. I saw myself a fish was being knocked with a hammer! :( No way! I rather eat cooked fish than the fresh one! Other than that, there are also a lot of boat which are functioned as house. I think they live there. Ah, of course! I told you Saikung is a fishing village!

Well, enjoy the pics!

Mid-Autumn Festival

The Festival falls on the 15th day of the lunar month 8 in many East Asian lunisolar calendars (usually around mid- or late-September in the Gregorian Calendar). At this time, the moon is at its fullest and brightest, marking an ideal time to celebrate the abundance of the summer's harvest. The traditional food of this festival is the moon cake of which there are many different varieties.

There are many activities to celebrate the festival, especially in Hong Kong. I am not aware about other Asian countries. Here are the Hong Kong's Mid-Autumn Festival celebration thingies:

1. Family Dinner
They start the celebration with having a family dinner. I was luckily invited by my buddy, Zack, to have dinner with his family. We had hot pot which is similar with Japanese Shabu-shabu. My buddy told me Japan got the idea from China when Japan war back then. It is originally a winter dish. However since nowadays everybody has airco, they have hot pot other times all the year as well. Turn on the airco and have hot pot! Yum, lekker!

2. Mooncake

After having dinner, they eat mooncake. Typical mooncakes are either round or rectangular puck-shaped pastries, measuring about 10 cm in diameter and 4-5 cm thick. They have a relatively thin crust (2-3 mm), which surrounds a thick pasty filling and may contain yolks from salted duck eggs. Mooncakes are typically rich, heavy, and dense compared with most Western cakes and pastries. It is usually eaten in small wedges accompanied by Chinese Tea.

This cake is also pricey compared to the other cake. It costed me HK$40 for an eggy cake. I dont like this cake.

3. Children Activity
After all of gathering are over. Children are jumping around and yelling to their parents to take them to the nearest park to play with other children. During this night, there will be a lot of children in the street playing around with their lantern.


4. Lover Activity
For those who has couple already, usually they go out to see the moon. They will spend the whole night outside starring at the moon. Well, since I dont have couple here and Zack would not be mine that day, so I didnt experince this activity... hehe.. which means I dont have pics either.

5. Lantern Gala, Carnaval, and other Celebration.
There are a lot of celebration during mid-autumn festival. In my hall, there was a nice celebration where many lanterns are hung. Lantern festival is always related with wishing card and riddle card. Each lantern has a riddle, and if we can guess the answer, we will get a wishing card to be put which is believed a good luck.

Say 'Never' to stereotypical drawing

Tonite I chatted with Aryo. As usual, that was an MEANINGLESS chatting about MEANINGLESS things. Finally we ended up drawing on yahoo doodle- One of YM's IMvironment which enables you to draw in the chatting box.

So, we drew.
Something of course...
MEANINGFUL!


Jepp, we drew it! The most stereotypical drawing of Indonesian children, age of 6-10. We drew perfectly like we did! the color, the setting, everything is perfect!

I really have no clue how could every Indonesian children must have had done this. Aryo said it is the teacher's fault who gives example of that kind of drawing. This sort of drawing has created mind-set of a perfect drawing! But as long as I can remember, I don't recall that any of my teachers taught me this kind of drawing.

Tell me you'd never done this!!!
I bet that you gotta be an extraordinary Indonesian kid.

a year of Tsunami

Do you still remember what was happening right a year ago, 26th December 2004. That morning, tsunami was sweeping anything when most of the people were in their sleep, without any warning. It destroyed several countries within Asia and Africa. There were buried the biggest fear, the loudest scream, the saddest lost of all. Yes, it was a pain.

I dedicate this writing to Indonesia, my home.

Eleven countries, including Indonesia, suffered devastation. Indonesia was the hardest hit by the tsunami. The tsunami was caused of 9.0 magnitude earthquake- the largest earthquake in 40 years- occurred in the Indian Ocean, off the Indonesia island, Sumatra. The earthquake triggered as the the deadliest earthquake in the world's history. More than 283,106 people have died from the disaster, a half a million have been injured, thousands still remain missing, and millions were left homeless.

Up till now, those affected countries have been given many helps from the world. They have started to rebuild their countries and they already have their result. In Indonesia, children are coming back to school, one in ten people are going back to work and one in five in their permanent house. Indonesia plans to have Aceh ready by 2007.

Back in year 70's, when Aceh was having a controversy with the government. Do you still remember GAM-Gerakan Aceh Merdeka or translated to Free Aceh Movement. There were many efforts put by Indonesian Government to have peace between both side, starting from Soeharto era. Start from Soeharto's DOM (Daerah Operasi Militer) up till SBY's aggrement in Helsinki.

People are having their own perspective and opinion about tsunami. But for the obvious reason, many people see tsunami as the deadliest natural disaster that took their family, house and everything. They see tsunami as something that destroyed the countries without any reason. But I can say like this for My sake, Look deeper. Look deeper what is the effect deside the destroyed land. Look deeper what the people of Aceh receive from the disaster.

As a matter of fact, tsunami gave a good influence at the peace of Aceh. A 30-year-old civil war was ended by tsunami. Aceh was sort of reset by God because of the unending able civil war. GAM handed their weapons and trade them with Indonesian army. Slow but sure, the peace is already there among Acehnese. There is no more people of GAM and ordinary people, there is only Acehnese. Everyone helps each other to build Aceh like it was before the tsunami, even better. They do not have different villages, different mosques, differents infrastuctures, because there are only few left. For comparison, there was 1000 peoples before each village, now there are only 100. They are united by their own suffering, reflects to what happened behind. They deserve the peace as a trade of their misery.

Constructed plans are implementing by Government's institution. They are building permanent houses to move people living in tents and barracks. They are planning to set Aceh the earliest by 2007, not only better by infrastructure, but also the people. They are setting up people who will always look forward. Aceh will be better in every aspects of their life. This is probably the best way to stop the problem surrounded Aceh, by destroying all and starting it all over again. Acehnese do have their bad memory, but they are being ready to start their new life with new spirit and be a better land.

People are living in this big world, with their family, job, and everything which make their life happy. At the same time, God, the biggest creature who owns this life, watches us. Many happening in our life, sometimes we even do not know what we are doing or what are going to happen. We never know what is happening until it happens. We know that there will be always a reason behind everything, but not anyone can see, even after it is happening. We can always look better if we look deeper, can't we??