Cold and windy
Cold and windy! That's what I felt when the first time came to York. This is because York is located near the beach, in the north of UK. When the wind blows..wusss, you will feel it is like a wind-storm in Taiwan (read: typhoon). The wind and cold weather are two couples that fit each other. It makes me feel not comfort sometimes. I do not like it either since I need to wear many clothes and thick jacket. Imagine if the rain is coming. You cannot use any umbrellas with you because the wind blows strongly. It can damage your umbrella and even make it fly away go with the wind. So, you need to prepare a cover (it is like a cap, from a wool) to protect your head from rain and make your head warm.
Binge Drinking
Binge drinking is the habit of drinking beer. Most youngsters in UK like to do it. They will buy cheap beer and get drunk with their friends. Most are done in bar or pub. Lately, the government made a rule to anyone who wants to buy alcohol, they need to show their ID card. To whom whose age under 16, they are not allowed to buy alcohol. This rule seems good to manage the bad habit of drinking alcohol or getting drunk. I think this is the time to change the habit of binge drinking among youngsters. Binge drinking is actually not good for health. Besides, it can make laziness among youngsters. What I have seen here is that UK has no future because most youngsters are lazy. Most workers in UK are old people now. I do not know where the youngsters are hiding now. The industry in UK also is not as advance as other European country such as German. So poor..
Autumn in UK
Before:
After:
The leaves are falling down to the earth. The trees have no leaves nor flowers. They look bold now, but looks unique.
Guilt free shopping
Have you ever (never?) felt guilt free when you are shopping? Or perhaps you have watched one of TV show called 'Shop til drop'? I know cz you are shop-alcholic..
Daffodil
When spring is coming, a lot of daffodils are blooming. A thousand flowers bloom, including my heart..D.
I will be very happy if there is someone giving me a bunch of flower and say 'I love you'. So sweet.. haha..It is just my imagination. Oh no, how pity I am..
Sandwich
British people like to eat sandwich. Breakfast or lunch is sandwich. They will eat rice when it is dinner. But, they eat rice seldom, unlike Indonesian people, who eat rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Although Indonesian people have stayed many years abroad (like me), they still cannot change their habits of eating rice..hehe
It's old York
New York is in United States. Old York is in United Kingdom. Most buildings here are too old. They look unique. You will feel that you were living in few decades ago since every time you see around, you just find ancient buildings.
Not all British are tall
I found that not all British are tall. Some of them are short, like me (happy..hehe). But, their faces are not similar with me, of course (sad..hikss)..
Cheese
I have just found there are a lot of kind of cheese and colours when I was walking around the city. There was a weekend market last time. There were a lot of foods sold last time, including many kinds of cheese.
Snow
I know it is snow, finally. It is soft, white, and of course cold. It is beautiful when it is falling down, especially when the first time it is falling down to the earth. You open the window and finally you found the snow is falling. Woww, it is so cool..!
The first time I saw the snow was in last winter. Actually, it was surprising because actually, it is not falling during the winter in York. It is falling in Spring, around March, people says. But, all UK was covered by snow last winter. It was the heavy snow in last decades..
By the way, there are kinds of snow actually.
This is not snow. It is ice. It is not soft like snow. It is often falling before snow.
Duck is the mascot
What makes York different from other cities in UK? Duck.
If you visit my university, The University of York, you will find ducks everywhere. Yes, duck is the mascot of my lovely university. The duck with the green colour in his head is the mascot. The picture is put in the student's card, including in university brochures.
There are a lof of kinds of ducks (and also birds) you can find here. They are beautiful and sometimes make me jealous because they like to play in the water while I am feeling cold, even it is in winter. Huhhh..
They are very beautiful, but sometimes make me and my friend does not feel comfort because of their 'dunk'..hehe..
"It makes me hate to walk on the grass or this pavement", said my friend every time we pass the street. She needs to hold her trousers to get rid of the dirty 'dunk'.
Every afternoon they will fly to find some food in another place. They will fly in group with V formation, which one of them will lead the mission (leader). If they will find a suitable place fit with what they need, they will stop and try to search the food for their lives, of course.
Don't ever steal or kill any ducks in York, especially in university because it is protected under the law (unwritten). There is a true story about it happened few years ago. One day, a team of security found a dead-duck found lying on the ground. Then, they tried to do some identification like CIA to find out who the killer was. Finally, they knew and got the killer who was identified as a man-Chinese-student. Since a duck is a mascot of the university, finally, the student should leave the university. He was kicked-out just because he killed a very valuable bird in this university. I think a duck is a kind of history of the university. If you come to visit The University of York, you will find a lot of ducks swimming in the lake or playing around the schools as if they wanted to join us studying or doing some research..D. No one can disturb the ducks. Even if the ducks disturb the students by shouting out loudly with their friends or coming into the classroom (perhaps) or passing out their 'dunk'.
Do you think it is fair if the ducks disturb you and you cannot disturb the ducks, even just a little? I do not know the answer. But actually, the ducks make another colour of our university different from others in UK.
House in UK
If you come to visit UK, you may wonder about the house building here. It is different, of course, from Indonesia or Taiwan. The house looks small but nice. You know why? This is because of the weather, especially in winter. In order to make the house warmer inside, people design it with short even though most British people are tall. You will find that every house does not have the gate. And if you look the house, you can see what furniture they have inside. This is because of the transparent-window made from mirror. It is like 'aquarium'. The style of the house is like Holland's.
I'm back
After going to a long journey and hiding myself from all you guys, now I am coming back to visit my 'home' again. Really mz it so much..
Since I moved to UK because of some rational reasons, so I will tell you guys about UK and things that I have experienced here. Hope you are still enjoying my blog and stories..
Hard-work and discipline
Most of Taiwanese people are hard-work. They can work over hours and be discipline to their work. They never move from their table if it is their working time because they are very responsible on their jobs. They will start on time and will stop their work if it is break time or time to go home. Everyday will be done the same by them following the routines in their company or organizations.
No spicy food and pork
If you go to the restaurant to eat some foods, you cannot find spicy food there since most of Taiwanese foods are not spicy at all. They just put garlic and onion to the food or vegetables. If you are moslems, you need to be careful to eat in Taiwanese restaurant. You have to ask them first before eating because most of them will use pork or pork oil into the food to make the food more delicious. If you want to avoid them, you can go to vegetarian shops. There are a lot of vegetarian restaurants in Taiwan. I think it will be safer for you to eat.
Labels: food
Two names
Most of Taiwanese people will have two names, both in Chinese and in English. I think it is because sometimes people get confuse or difficult to call their names in Chinese. I have also experience that I got difficulties in calling and memorizing them. I could not even mention or remember one of my friends' name at first time. They are so proud when they mention their English names. Actually, I like to call them in their Chinese names rather than in their English names. If I call them, I feel I can learn Chinese pronouncation at least. And it makes me familiar with their names, too.
Labels: names
Balloons
I just wonder why Taiwanese always use balloons when they have activities or events for the decoration. They always put balloons as the decoration in the gate and in the building. I do not know why. Perhaps, they think that balloons show about happiness because they are doing good activities. I never ask my friend about it. I will tell you if I get the answers.
Labels: balloon
The mistery of red
Taiwanese people likes red color so much. According to them, red is the symbol of luck. That is why if you get wedding invitations from your Taiwanese friends, the invitations will be in red colors. If they send you a wish, the letters will be in red colors, too. When they have any events, the ornaments will be in red, too. When they are getting married, the gowns will be in red, too. Everything and everywhere will be in red if they have good events. They think that if they are using red, so they will get a lot of lucks in their whole lives.
Labels: luck, red
Chopsticks
Most of people in Taiwan always use chopsticks when they are eating something. They never use spoons or forks, except in international events. In Chinese culture (the same as Taiwanese), there are some taboos govern the use of chopsticks. I knew them from my friend. When you are using chopsticks, do not grasp in one fist or laid across a bowl. It is also not polite if you stab food with them, to lick the tips, or to beat on a plate or bowl with the sticks in order to call someone or to get their attention.
Labels: chopsticks
Gifts, which are forbidden to give
One day my friend told me that, there were some gifts that Taiwanese people cannot give to others. That is because they have meaning behind the gifts. First, clock. Don't ever give this thing when your friends' birthday. Clock is the symbol of bomb. Bomb means death. So, if you give this clock to others, it means that you want them to die soon. Second, shoes. Shoes are something that are putting on our feet. They are making our feet become comforts when we are walking or running. Since shoes are putting on our feet, so shoes are not good enough to give to others. You step with your shoes, but you do not bring your shoes. That is why shoes are not polite to give to your friends. Third, umbrella. Umbrella is a thing to protect and cover people from sun-shine and rains. In Chinese, umbrella is the symbol of sadness. If you give umbrella to them, it means that you say good bye to them.
Labels: gift
Cute things
I think Taiwanese, especially lady likes cute things so much. When I noticed everything, it seems cute to me. For example, Hello Kitty with pink colors. I found many things with this picture, such as books, pens, pins, clothes, etc. Another thing is shoes. It seems to me most of the shoes are colorful and cute models, different from we have in Indonesia.
Those things can describe the pictures of people's characteristic and personality, I think.
Labels: things
House
When I first came to Taiwan, I looked around and wondered about the style of houses here. Actually, they are very simple, but they do not have good designs of architecture. The shape of the houses are always square and high. You cannot find houses with Europe styles or any other styles of houses. The houses are not large since the land here is so expensive. The lands here belong to government. Taiwanese will get some difficulties in finding a very large area to build their houses. Their house will not have any yards for children to play. Actually, they will have a yard upstair, on the highest levels of their houses.
Can you imagine it? How boring people will stay inside?!!
Labels: house
Glasses
Most of Taiwanese people using glasses. So, they will have two more eyes besides their real eyes. If you come here, you must be curious why most of them using it even they are still small kids.
There are many assumptions to analyze it. First, Taiwanese people have unique eyes, small and slanting. Perhaps, it makes them difficult to look something well. Second, Taiwan is not a large country. Taiwan is smaller than Indonesia if we consider about the area and islands. Perhaps, it causes Taiwanese people has no a very large sight so that it makes them usually see a narrow sight. Third, Taiwanese people likes to read a lot, especially comics. Since they were young, they are customed with reading many books. It causes they have narrow sight, too. Four, television can be the reason for it. If people always watch television without a good distance, it can also damage their eyes. Five, Taiwanese people likes to face with their computers a lot. They can stand to see the screen of the computer the whole day every day. This habbit can be influenced to their eyes, I think, since computers have some effects to someone's eyes.
What do you think?
Labels: glasses
Baseball
Taiwanese people like baseball a lot better than any other sports. I do not know the reasons why they like it so much. If there is a competition about softball, every newspaper will make headlines about it and every channel of television will show it, too. . Moreover, every people will give their supports for it.
It was ever happened during the last World Cup of Football. Most of Taiwanese did not care about the competition. There are no crowded of people watching together or even talking about the games. Do not ever hope that Taiwanese will give their supports to one of the football teams in the world, although they are very famous.
They favourite player is Wang. He is the most famous softball player in Taiwan. If you ask to Taiwanese people, they really recognize this guy, including the kids.
Unlike Indonesia, most of Indonesian people likes soccer a lot. You can meet people- kids, adult or old people- play soccer everywhere and everyplace. This game was taught to them since they were very young. It is very common if you meet very little kids play this game in front of or sometimes inside their house. Perhaps, we could analyze why people like this game so much. First, this game was from the previous collonial (Dutch and England) that came to Indonesian many years ago and made it popular until now. Second, Indonesia is very large. It is easy to find a field or a large area to play since when people play soccers, they need a large space to play. Third, Indonesia has a lot of population. A team in a soccer game will need at least eleven persons to play. So, if there are two teams to play, at least there should be 22 persons to play.
In Taiwan, it is very difficult to find a field or a yard, even in someone's house. So, it is really difficult for kids or adult to play soccer. If they want to play on the street, it is not easy, either, since the street here are crowded with many vehicles.
Labels: baseball
Solving Traffic Jam
An interesting thing I found when I joined the trip to Hoalian is during the traffic jam on the street to go upstream. There is only one way direction to pass by since the street is not so large. It is impossible for two buses from different direction to pass.
But, it happened during that day. There was a mistake in communication between the driver and the traffic sign. Here, if vehicles want to pass, especially bus, there will be an announcement sent to the driver telling whether it is available or not for them to go. A misscommunication happened that time. Finally, there were some buses from different direction meet in the middle of the street, in a cave. Terrible!
So, how the drivers solve this problem? Each driver has a communication tool so it makes easy for them to communicate each other. They were communicating and discussing to solve it. All the passangers are still inside the bus. None of them go out from bus. There were no quarrels among the drivers or the passengers. They tried so hard to solve it without being angry.
Finally, one of Professor, he is one of members of Traffic Bureau, he tried to help in solving this problem. The driver still used the communication tool to give some suggestion or asking something. The driver in the front will transfer the idea to the next driver behind them. They communicated one another and tried to move slowly by slowly with the command from Professor Wang. At last, the buses can pass without any accident happened.
Professor Wang explained that a street is always designed for two cars. It must be have 3 cm distance left. So, it can make the two buses pass. But, of course, it needs to be very carefull and also excellent drivers to drive. Otherwise, the accident cannot be hindranced.
Labels: traffic jam
