After Graduation

Graduation day is approaching. All classmates are excited about the day. Of course, I am no exception. The first thing I am going to do once I graduate is take a break. Enjoy the free time by sleeping. Especially I can lie in bed on Sunday morning. I expect to stay up late and sleep until lunchtime on weekends. Another thing I will do is spending more time with my parents. Honestly, I do not have spent much time with family and friends during my college, and I was absent from family party many times. Therefore, I am planning to have a family journey on July. Next, I want to watch Korean dramas and movies what I missed before. In order to do my homework and prepare exams, I do not have time to enjoy my favorite dramas. So now I can see whenever I want. The final thing is continuing to learn. Learning should not stop when we graduated. I will find something that interest me and make plan to learn more about it.

Hong Kong Tour 2011

I have been to Hong Kong with my good friend in March. This was the second time I traveled to the Hong Kong. As a whole, it was a short and enjoyable tour. The subway system was well-developed in Hong Kong. Most of time we used the convenient transportation to travel around the tourist attractions. Due to it was our second time in Hong Kong, so we do not have spent much time to visited suburban attractions. Mostly, we stayed in urban areas for shopping such as Kowloon City, Wan Chai, Tsim Sha Tsui, Yau Ma Tei and so on. We bought many clothes and bags from there. Also, I spent a lot of time buying souvenirs for my family. In addition to shipping, my friend and I both like the local foods so much. After tasting the delicious foods each time, I realized I am getting fat. Finally, I have to mention here about the most drivers really drove crazily. For example, when we took an airport shuttle to the hotel, I thought the bus is driving at a speed of hundred miles an hour. We were scared all the way. So, you must pay full attention to the cars before crossing streets. All in all, it was a fruitful and memorable journey for me. Many memories are worth saying about this trip.

Quitting Coffee

With long hours at the workplace, I used to drink at least two or three cups of coffee to stay awake each day. Coffee has become to the indispensable drink for many people in modern life. I have had the habit since I started being in college. Especially, it is important for my exams. I love drinking coffee. I feel tired if I do not drink it every morning. It is reported that drinking an appropriate amount of coffee every day is good for preventing heart disease. However, taking too much is still harmful to our health. So I decide to quit coffee when I graduated from Lunghwa. I believe it is very hard to get rid of dependency on the coffee, and it can be very difficult to wean myself from the habit. I have found some ways to stop drinking coffee. For example, try to substitute with tea, take a nap every noon, and so on. Anyway, I will do my best to quit the habit in order to have a good health.

Emotional Management

With the heavy pressure at work, people are angering easily. It goes to show that how to control emotion in workplace is important in a busy life. I have a colleague whose temperament is testy. She often gets angry about trivial things at work. Especially, she used to yell and throw things when she is angry. The behavior is really makes me uncomfortable, honestly. In the office, many colleagues are watching and hearing her. It becomes very unprofessional and she loses whatever respect people have for her, right? Besides, bad emotions will lead us to do things we might regret later on. In order to avoid any unseemly situations, I always remind myself "Whether there is another way to look at the situation that is more sensible than the way I was looking at it before?" Also, being more patient is the most important thing for what I need do now!

Zongzi

It will be the Dragon Boat Festival next month. This is the day dragon boat races are held in Taiwan. Besides, there are many traditions and special foods for the annual festival. Zongzi, the festive snack, has become very popular traditional food in nowadays. There are many stalls or shops selling all kinds of Zongzi. When Dragon Boat Festival is coming, my mother always make delicious Zhongzi by herself, I love eating it so much, we can put anything we like into it. To make Zhongzi at home is a big project, because my mother has to take more time and energy to prepare the ingredients. So I prefer to buy Zhongzi from stores now. Most convenient stores cooperate with famous restaurants to sell a variety of Zongzi, so we can easy to order different ones whatever we like. However, I believe homemade ones taste better, but I truly hope my mom can have a rest this year.

Water Shortage

It is reported that water use will be limited in some areas as average temperature continues to rise. It has not rained for a long time in Taiwan, and alarm bells have been going off for water reservoirs. Droughts usually occur during the summertime. Thus, saving water is very important for us, since this is the time of year when people have to use water frequently. We should conserve water use in order to past this water shortage crisis. There are some tips we can do during a drought. First, thinking before you turn on a tap or take a bath. For example, do not waste running water while waiting for it to get hot, you can collect it and use it to flush the toilet. Another way to conserve water is to re-use the greywater and rainwater. We can use them for flushing toilets, washing cars and watering plants. It can save us water and money efficiently.

A Celebration of My Manager's Birthday

Last Monday, we celebrated my manager's birthday at TASTy (西堤牛排) with our department members. We loved the foods and service here. Especially I like the salad with Thousand Island dressing. After lunch, we ask the waiter to bring out the birthday cake we bought. And we prepared a question mark birthday candle for our manager. Then we gave her our good wishes by loudly singing a birthday song. Everyone was looking at us. This sudden incident came as a surprise to her. Our manager really teaches and takes care of us a lot during the work, so we are happy to celebrate her birthday. I wish her many future successes and good health!

Weight Loss

It seems like most women is trying to lose weight all the time. This is an extremely difficult task to lose weight during winter. Winter provide a good excuse to eat more and sleep more. The cool weather gave me a good appetite, so I cannot lose weight easily. It is reported that this is because our body have to produce enough heat due to the cold weather. And our metabolism speeds up so we get hungry faster. This is why I got hungry quicker and eating more during the winter. It is easy to eat a lot of food when I was free. Besides, the main reason to ignore overweight is we often wear heavy overcoat, so our figure may not be visible. That is why a daily weigh in is necessary. In order to welcome the upcoming summer, the first important thing I have to do is how to lose my weight quickly!

Japan Earthquake

A huge earthquake with 8.9 magnitude occurred in Japan on March 11th, 2011. Afterward, a massive tsunami triggered by the earthquake swept over many areas of Japan. This has been the largest earthquake to hit Japan in history. I was working in office at the time while I heard about news of this event. I really couldn't believe when I saw the news and video of the disaster, it has been dreadful. Most houses, boats and cars being swept away by the tsunami, it is very incredible! Living in Taiwan along with frequent earthquakes everywhere. We don't expect something like that to happen to us. We shall treasure our own family and friends. I love Japanese culture and beauty. I hope those victims are able to reach their family smoothly, and I deeply pray that they could have power to re-build their home soon.

A Local News – Taiwan Lottery

”Did you buy a lottery ticket?” It seems that this is a popular word to say hello during Lunar New Year. I think people anytime dream about owning a lot of money. The fastest way you could win a huge amount of money through lottery.

During Chinese New Year, many people are crazy to buy lottery tickets hoping to be the next billionaire. It gives us a sliver of hope that we could turn our life around. Of course, the huge prize seduced me into spending hundreds on lottery tickets. I really couldn’t resist the temptation to play lottery. The jackpot had reached a record-high in history, and it seemed that everyone wanted to be rich. Finally, the top prize is to be shared by five luck winners.

Although I didn’t win, I still had a big dream. If I won the top prize, I would use the money to do something I dreamed to do. I would divide the money into three parts. One big part I would give my parents to thank them for everything that they done for me. The second part I would donate money to charities, and the remainder would be keep for my own use. I would use part of the money to travel around the world first. I wish this dream might come true soon.

My Best Friend

Everyone wants to have a best friend, or have a group of close friends. Friendships change over time. And as we get older, it’s harder to make new friendships. Luckily, I have some good friends in my life.

Jessie, she is one of my best friends. She is my classmate now, and we have known each other for many years. I would say she is a very considerate and sweet girl. In school, she can help me a lot when I am puzzled about the difficult homework, and she always replies to my questions patiently. After school, even our lives become very busy, we still spend some time together to make the friendship grow and become stronger. We can both trust each other with everything and don’t keep secrets. Even we would tell gossip that we have heard. We are interested in shopping, going to the movie, and traveling.

Something that is worth to be mentioned, she is getting married this year. Jessie and her boyfriend have a strong mutual understanding and attraction, they are in love with each other. I deeply wish they had a happy marriage. She has a very kind personality and a sense of sweet humor. She always cheers me up and comforts me when I am upset. It is fun to be with her. I am lucky to know her and hope that our friendship will last forever.

Lunar New Year

Chinese New Year also called the Lunar New Year. It is the most important traditional holiday in Taiwan. A massive amount of great food is served up, and people are happy to take a few days off work.

First of all, I cleared my house and washed clothes on New Year’s Eve. This tradition is founded in the belief that cleaning the house at this time of year will sweep away the bad luck that has accumulated inside over the past year. In evening, all the members of my family went to a Chinese restaurant to have a big dinner. As usual, we head to temples to pray for good luck and we visited my relatives during the New Year. I am very excited about Chinese New Year. We usually go to country every year. For some reason, it was a little different this year. I stayed in home for 4 days. Most of time I watching TV/DVD, playing cards and sleeping.

Lunar New Year is one of my favorite festivals. The holiday is full of happiness and warmness. There are many exciting things happening during the New Year. Wish all the best in 2011 for everyone.

A World News – Snowstorm in Korea

Climate change is a serious and challenging problem we face today. Some effects of extreme weather are already happening. We often hear about EI Nino(聖嬰) and La Nina(反聖嬰), both are the causes of global climate anomalies.

This winter, because of La Nina phenomenon, the average temperatures in Taiwan was lower. And there is not much rainfall last summer. Australia’s Queensland faces massive flooding in the beginning of 2011. In South Korea, the biggest snowfall blanketed the area over one week. Also, the heavy snow has fallen in parts of Japan. Most of traffic system suffered delays as heavy snowfall caused problems. These are exactly what have been happening this year all over the world.

It is reported that the recent La Nina phenomenon is the greatest in the past years, and overall global temperatures have been increasing. That means melting at the poles, and more extreme weather conditions will happen. However, as more climate changes have emerged over the years, we have to take action against the problems, otherwise, our climate will change forever.

Book Review – Can You Keep a Secret?

Can You Keep a Secret is a book by Sophie Kinsella. Her books are true to every modern woman. One day, I have seen a movie “Confessions of A Shopaholic” from HBO channel. This is the author Sophie’s another production. It is an interesting film for woman. I like to see the movies of this type. That is why I would find this book to read.

This book explores the ups and downs of the modern girl life. Through the main character Emma points out, she has not huge secrets, just little secrets. But what would happen when she told her secrets to a stranger? And whether the stranger will turn out to be an important figure in her life? Those are what the book is describing about.

The entire story was funny and it was written in a very simply way. The author’s writing is brilliant and clearly that makes the book easy to read. For my thought, the book is worth reading. I could relax my mind by reading it. This story was fantastic from beginning to end. It really touched me for the characters. I will definitely check out this author’s other books in my free time.