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.