It has been almost 2 weeks since the new trimester started. I went back to Malacca on November 8 and stayed over night at my grandaunt’s place at Banting. There is always a lot of food in her house. We had chicken rice for breakfast the next morning before heading to Malacca. We reached Malacca on November 9 and were busy packing, moving and buying some necessities after that.
The new trimester started on November 14 and it was nice to see my friends, lecturers and tutors again. We have not seen each other for about 6 months. Many of them change their hairstyle or image. I felt a bit weird about attending lectures and tutorials again. But, I am able to get use to it. After all, I have been attending lectures for the past 3.5 years. It is not a very long period, but not too short as well to forget about everything. I attended my first Japanese class of the trimester on Friday and it is great to see everyone again. There is around 3 weeks before the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) and everyone is anxious about it. I will be taking my Level 2 this year. But, I do not feel much tension as I did not have high hopes for this year’s exam. I have not being attending classes for the past 6 months; things must have been a bit rusty. I am glad that I am still able to read “hiragana” and “katakana” fluently and understand my sensei’s lessons. In addition, Level 2 test is quite difficult. I will just have to try my best for this one.
(p/s: “hiragana” and “katakana” are the Japanese characters. “sensei” means teacher in Japanese.)
Week 2 is not very relaxing but not very busy as well. I was doing some work for my final year project, doing some research, revising my notes etc. I was not very keen on doing my more than 50 pages of homework for my Japanese class but did some in the end as practice. Grammar sure is something tough for any language.
Today, Kevin, my Japanese class’s classmate passed me the photos that they took during their stay in Japan for a week. I was not able to attend that homestay because of my industrial training in Korea. I would not have enough money to spend for both trips.
The venue of the expo that they attended caught my attention. It was a really huge area with each country having their own buildings for exhibitions. The architecture and decorations for each building varies, but they were all very grand and artistic. I like the 2 green mascots for the “AiChi” EXPO. It is an exhibition to promote love to the environment. Their homestay took place in Nagoya. Nagoya is a state in Japan, famous for its ancient castles.
What attracts me more were the beautiful flowers and the shrines. It was spring when they visited Japan. The gardens were all decorated beautifully by the flowers and trees. The shrines in Japan sure are different from those in Korea and Malaysia, even though they all share some similarities. I like the way how the Japanese make their wishes at the shrines. It's special and cute. The temples that they visited during the homestay were located in Kyoto. Kyoto is the previous capital of Japan. Many of the traditional customs are still practice here. It is possible to see girls in “yukata” or “kimono” around.
(p/s: “yukata” and “kimono” are the Japanese traditional clothes. “yukata” is the thinner version of “kimono”, normally wear during summer because it is very hot. “kimono” consists of a few layers and it is much thicker than “yukata”.)
Saturday, November 26, 2005
Friday, November 04, 2005
Festive Season
It’s a season of festivals in Malaysia now.
October 15, Saturday – Malaysian-German Society, Penang organized their annual event, Oktoberfest. It is a festival celebrated during the summer by the Germans. It is a traditional festival in Germany, a happy gathering of cheerful beer drinkers. This festival is completed with dancing, bands and contests. The event started from 6.45pm. The highlight of this year was the performance by a band from Germany, “Inntaler Musikanten”. It was their 14th performance in Malaysia this year. A lot of Malaysians and Germans attended the event this year. Both German and Malaysian food was served. I got to eat the huge pork sausage. It was a bit expensive, but the sausage alone was enough to fill my empty stomach. These huge sausages are actually daily food in Germany.
October 31, Monday – It’s Happy Halloween! But, there’s not much celebration on it in Malaysia. There’s a small party at my house for my dad’s birthday. We only invited our relatives to have steamboat and mini barbeque (using the steamboat set). We bought 3 medium size tubes of ice-cream from 31 Baskin Robins with 6 flavors (2 flavors in each box). There’s 31% discount on this day, so each tube cost around RM27 after tax. Of course, I did order my favorite “Cream of Pralines”. In addition, we bought a 0.5kg chocolate mocha cake from Cosmart bakery as the birthday cake. My mum prepared quite a number of seafood but I was not eating much as I don’t like steamboat seafood that much.
November 1, Tuesday – It’s Deepavali and public holiday in Malaysia. It’s a festival celebrated by the Indian community in Malaysia. It’s their New Year. There is some Indian food that we always look forward to on this day, such as “murukku”. “murukku” is a type of snack originated from South India. We were supposed to go to Butterworth to visit my mum’s professor but he was not free. So, we went shopping at Makro, near USM instead. There’s nothing much to buy actually, just for sight-seeing. Then, we went to Tesco. It was very crowded there. Both levels of the carpark were full. Luckily we managed to get a parking space. Again, it’s just for sight-seeing. I managed to get 2 original cassettes at RM3.90 each from Artist Gallery – one is the best collection from Kinki Kids (a Japanese band) and another one is the best collection from Zhou Hui. I was quite happy with it ^^ My mum forced me to go make ear holes on this day. She thought that the earrings that I bought from Korea will go to waste if I did not wear them (I can just admire the earrings instead of wearing them). It was really painful and feels weird to have something on my ears… -__-|| Too bad I did not get to taste some nice “murukku” this year. I visited my neighbor’s house later at night but they were not preparing much food because they are renovating their kitchen.
November 3, Thursday – It’s the first day of Hari Raya. Hari Raya is the New Year for the Malays. Malays is the major population in Malaysia. It’s a misconception that Malaysians are Malay. It always happened when we tell people that we are Malaysians in overseas. Before Hari Raya is Bulan Ramadhan, the fasting month. The Malays cannot eat during certain hours throughout the month. There were many places setting stalls to sell food in the evening during this month. A variety of Malay, mostly with curry, can be found. The parliament EXCOs or head of village normally will have Open House (Rumah Terbuka) on this day. Open House means that anyone can visit the host’s house and celebrate the festival together. A variety of Malay food will be served.
I visited my mum’s friend at Genting, Penang around 12pm and have our lunch there. As usual, a variety of curry was served. It is different from the curry in Korea which is sweet. Then, we enjoyed ourselves with a variety of biscuits. We departed to Ipoh, Perak at around 3pm to attend a relative’s wedding. It’s been around 7 years since I last went to there for a visit. It’s more developing now. Many roads in the town have change to one way street. The place was very crowded as there were a few restaurants there and all of them were full. It’s really hard to find a parking place. It must be a good day for wedding. The wedding was held at the second floor of East Sea Seafood Restaurant. 2 different weddings were sharing the same hall without any divider. It was very noisy with all the people talking, music blasting and people singing. I could hardly hear anything from my relative’s corner, the 3 level cakes was blocking all the view and there was no emcee to organize the whole event. The other wedding was monopolizing the whole place. There were 9 dishes in total. Each dish was served in large amount - double the amount served in restaurants in Penang. Overall, the food was okay. Some of the dishes such as the fried fish and kaya biscuit were very delicious.
Festivals like Deepavali and Hari Raya are something very common to us. Like every year, we will stuff like watching the television, going out with family/friends or shopping etc. However, when I was in Korea, the feeling is very different. I would miss home, recalling what I did for the past few years during this day. Even for celebrations that I think that it is insignificant when I am in Malaysia (like the National Day), I was looking forward to it when I was in Korea. Do appreciate what you have when you have it ^^
October 15, Saturday – Malaysian-German Society, Penang organized their annual event, Oktoberfest. It is a festival celebrated during the summer by the Germans. It is a traditional festival in Germany, a happy gathering of cheerful beer drinkers. This festival is completed with dancing, bands and contests. The event started from 6.45pm. The highlight of this year was the performance by a band from Germany, “Inntaler Musikanten”. It was their 14th performance in Malaysia this year. A lot of Malaysians and Germans attended the event this year. Both German and Malaysian food was served. I got to eat the huge pork sausage. It was a bit expensive, but the sausage alone was enough to fill my empty stomach. These huge sausages are actually daily food in Germany.
October 31, Monday – It’s Happy Halloween! But, there’s not much celebration on it in Malaysia. There’s a small party at my house for my dad’s birthday. We only invited our relatives to have steamboat and mini barbeque (using the steamboat set). We bought 3 medium size tubes of ice-cream from 31 Baskin Robins with 6 flavors (2 flavors in each box). There’s 31% discount on this day, so each tube cost around RM27 after tax. Of course, I did order my favorite “Cream of Pralines”. In addition, we bought a 0.5kg chocolate mocha cake from Cosmart bakery as the birthday cake. My mum prepared quite a number of seafood but I was not eating much as I don’t like steamboat seafood that much.
November 1, Tuesday – It’s Deepavali and public holiday in Malaysia. It’s a festival celebrated by the Indian community in Malaysia. It’s their New Year. There is some Indian food that we always look forward to on this day, such as “murukku”. “murukku” is a type of snack originated from South India. We were supposed to go to Butterworth to visit my mum’s professor but he was not free. So, we went shopping at Makro, near USM instead. There’s nothing much to buy actually, just for sight-seeing. Then, we went to Tesco. It was very crowded there. Both levels of the carpark were full. Luckily we managed to get a parking space. Again, it’s just for sight-seeing. I managed to get 2 original cassettes at RM3.90 each from Artist Gallery – one is the best collection from Kinki Kids (a Japanese band) and another one is the best collection from Zhou Hui. I was quite happy with it ^^ My mum forced me to go make ear holes on this day. She thought that the earrings that I bought from Korea will go to waste if I did not wear them (I can just admire the earrings instead of wearing them). It was really painful and feels weird to have something on my ears… -__-|| Too bad I did not get to taste some nice “murukku” this year. I visited my neighbor’s house later at night but they were not preparing much food because they are renovating their kitchen.
November 3, Thursday – It’s the first day of Hari Raya. Hari Raya is the New Year for the Malays. Malays is the major population in Malaysia. It’s a misconception that Malaysians are Malay. It always happened when we tell people that we are Malaysians in overseas. Before Hari Raya is Bulan Ramadhan, the fasting month. The Malays cannot eat during certain hours throughout the month. There were many places setting stalls to sell food in the evening during this month. A variety of Malay, mostly with curry, can be found. The parliament EXCOs or head of village normally will have Open House (Rumah Terbuka) on this day. Open House means that anyone can visit the host’s house and celebrate the festival together. A variety of Malay food will be served.
I visited my mum’s friend at Genting, Penang around 12pm and have our lunch there. As usual, a variety of curry was served. It is different from the curry in Korea which is sweet. Then, we enjoyed ourselves with a variety of biscuits. We departed to Ipoh, Perak at around 3pm to attend a relative’s wedding. It’s been around 7 years since I last went to there for a visit. It’s more developing now. Many roads in the town have change to one way street. The place was very crowded as there were a few restaurants there and all of them were full. It’s really hard to find a parking place. It must be a good day for wedding. The wedding was held at the second floor of East Sea Seafood Restaurant. 2 different weddings were sharing the same hall without any divider. It was very noisy with all the people talking, music blasting and people singing. I could hardly hear anything from my relative’s corner, the 3 level cakes was blocking all the view and there was no emcee to organize the whole event. The other wedding was monopolizing the whole place. There were 9 dishes in total. Each dish was served in large amount - double the amount served in restaurants in Penang. Overall, the food was okay. Some of the dishes such as the fried fish and kaya biscuit were very delicious.
Festivals like Deepavali and Hari Raya are something very common to us. Like every year, we will stuff like watching the television, going out with family/friends or shopping etc. However, when I was in Korea, the feeling is very different. I would miss home, recalling what I did for the past few years during this day. Even for celebrations that I think that it is insignificant when I am in Malaysia (like the National Day), I was looking forward to it when I was in Korea. Do appreciate what you have when you have it ^^
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