Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Christmas

Today I went to a farm to cut the christmas tree with my host family. Around 3pm, my host dad come to pick me and my host sister from tower, then we went to pick up my host mum. After that, we took about 15 to 20 minutes to reach the farm.
When we reach the farm, the worker in that farm come to us and ask what kind of tree are we looking for. Then we ride on a track to go to the farm. We get to chose the size of the tree we want and cut it off our selve.
It's a new experience for me as the people in Malaysia never celebrate Christmas and I had never have a chance to cut Christmas tree and decorating it before. It's a fun trip to the farm although it is freezing out there.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Chicago Trip

Last thursday I went to Chicago. It is a four days three nights trip. We went there in thursday morning and come back sunday evening.
Chicago is a big city, the most thing I like about Chicago is that Chicago got a lot of beautiful building. All of these buldings are very unique and you hard to see it in another town.
I went to the art museum on the third day of the trip. Altough I'm not an art student, but still I can see how great are the pictures, and how great are the artist who can make such incredible works.
I'm having fun in these 4 days trip and I really want to thanks my parent for made my dream come true, which is study oversea.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Parents should pay atention to their child

Today I read about a news that was really freaking me out in CCTV.com. The news was about there are two elementary school's teachers in China had sexually assault few ten female students.Can you believe that? This is so horrable...
Teachers suppose to be the person that teach children to be good and teach them new things about the world. Accordingly, children usually spent one third of their time in schools; therefore, schools should be healthy and a place that parents trust is the best place for their kids to learn something.
However, these two FXXKing ShXX animal like men were breaking those child's life. They would never know how it would deeply hurt the child, and the child will psychologically hurt forever. What would happen to them when they grow up? How do they suppose to face their life? How are they going to trust other people anymore? Those girls were just only 7 to 8 years old! I saw their parents crying and so angry about the teachers, but do they really realise that they also should be responsible for this incident? If they were giving enough attention to their children, they would have already stop these teachers, and they might had already save other children from this.
Other than this, I saw another news about a 12 years old girl being raped in an old folk house and this had continuously for 3 years. The girl's aunt was the one that found out the story behind when she feels the girl had something different when she visited them. Her aunt her if she was sick and she told her aunt that she got a "bag" in her body. When her aunt found out that she was pregnant, she didn't even know what is that mean! What the hell is happen to these old men? The girl was so young, and she is just 15 years old that year!!! Now, she's already 18 years old.
Hmm... I'm completely pissed off after I watch these news. How can people be so meant to others? How can these people never think what would happen to these child after those incident? I'm feeling bad for those kids. These were only a small part of the truth, and nobody know how many children are being hurt everyday... How sad it is...

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

ALONE??? No way!

Last monday, my roommate had withdraw from school. She's getting marry soon and plan to move to another state with her future husband.
After she moved out, I owned the whole room by myself. That's the great things I had wish for. Now, I can had a queen size bed, a lot of space to put my stuff, and most important is, my friends can now come to my room to have party and not worry about disturbed other people.
I really hope next semester I can also owned this room myself. Haha...

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Election

Last tuesday was the election day in America. First, I saw a lot of signs were hung at the both side of the sidewalks in lower campus. Some for supporting the Republican and some for supporting the Democratic Party. Then I saw few counters were set up at the clock tower area, and those were the counter for students to register for vote.
At first, I don't really care about the politics, this is because Malaysia's politic really pissed me off and since then I don't really like to involve in any politic's issued. However, when I saw the candidates that ran for the president in America, it started to change my view of politics in America.
It's amazing that a black and a women can ran for president and vice president. This shows that blacks and woman can be treated as equal as the others, and not being discriminated anymore.In Malaysia, it is impossible for a minority races (Chinese, Indian, and others) to ran for the Prime Minister. In fact, woman are still being stereotyped and discriminated in Malaysia. From my previous experience of visiting the "House of Representative" in Malaysia, I saw how a female politician was treated in one of the debate in the "House". The female politician don't even have 5 minutes to talk and her conversation was cut by another male politician and she was asked to "shut up". That scene still fresh in my mind and really pissed me off.
Racism and sexism are the issues that the whole world concern about, it is incredible that America can be the first country to break all of these discrimination and has a black as their President. I'm really happy that I'm here in America and be part of the America history.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Halloween

Last friday was a craziest day I had never have before. First, I saw my classmate dressed up when I walked in my class. The first things that come to my mind was that:"Wow, he is so brave." but after a while when I started to see two to three others classmate also walked in with dreesing up, I know it was a common things in America.
Friday night my friend and I went to Mutita's host family house for Halloween party. We get to be part of the American culture in their house. We join Mutita's host family in giving our the candys to the kids when they came for "trick or treat". That night was the crazy night for all the students in UWEC. We saw many people dressed up and walked around the dorm and it was a party night for all of the people.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

International Folk Fair

Last Sunday, the International Folk Fair was going on in the Davies Center. All of the International students were ask to prepare something about their country and present it on the day. Some prepare their cultural food, some selling products from their home country, and some have some cultural games.
I'm in the group of South East Asia, which is the combination of Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. This was a good combination because three of these countires where next to each other.
On the day, we prepared some cultural foods, information(slide show & information board) about our country, and some cultural performance. Meanwhile, we are selling some key chains that we brought from Malaysia too. Not only that, we had made the Petronas Twin Tower by using the cans.
Although the preparation for the event was so tiring, but we enjoyed the whole process in preparing for the event. The night before, we were cooked and made some decoration until 3 in the morning, some continues until 6 in the morning, and we had to wake up and prepared everything on the location early 8 in the morning. Everybody were so tired, but still we are so excited for everything.
The event last for 4 hours, in between, I was manage to walk out and visited others counter. I learn some of the cultural history from the other counter. I love this event so much, because I can eat a lot of my home countries food, and make me feel like I'm home.

Monday, October 20, 2008

My Birthday

16 of October is my birthday. This year's birthday quite special, because for the very first time I celebrate my birthday without my family. But, I enjoyed my first birthday in U.S.
I received a lot of wishes from my friends. Some send me a message through cell phone, some send their wishes through internet messenger, and others leave me birthday wishes through facebook and frienster web.
On thursday night, my "floor mate" have an ice-cream social gathering. One of my "floor mate" make a cake for me. Although I have to celebrate my birthday without my family, but I have a lot of new friends celebrating my birthday.
On Saturday's night, some of my friends treat me a meal in one of the restaurant near by. I was quite suprise because they ask me to go out for dinner, but I didn't expect that they will pay for me.
However, I very thanks for the people that wish me and celebrate my birthday with me, because these people make me feel warms and happy.

Monday, October 13, 2008

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Leinenkugels Brewery & Cook Rutledge Mansion Trip

I visited the Leinenkugels Brewery and Cook-Rutledge Mansion last Saturday. It was fun and exciting because I had never visited any bear factory and I had never know how the bear was made. This was a good experience for me. The Leinenkugels Brewery and Cook Rutledge Mansion is actually in Chippewa Falls, so we need to take bus to go there.
First we visited the Leinenkugels Brewery, we had been told how the bear was made and what are the materials or ingredients that used in making the bear. It takes 30 days to make the bears, and we get to see all the tank that full with the bears and some mechine that used in making bears.
After that, we went to the Cook-Rutledge Mansion. It was a National register of historical places. It is one of the finest examples of High Victorian-Italianate architecture in the Midwest. The whole building was so amazing and so awesome. I got to see some of the cloths and the tools that used in 100 years ago, which make me feel like I'm visiting the museum and back to the old time.
I had learned so much during this half day trip. I hope that UWEC can offer more trips like this so that we can learn more about America.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

My Roommate

My roommate is an American. She is from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and her name is Jessica Hokanson. I first know her was when I received an email from the university that informed me which dorm I will be staying and who is my roommate. During that time, I only knew her name but nothing else. I was so happy to get an American roommate because this could be a chance for me to learn more about America.
However, when I know that there won't be any of the local students in my floor during the first week I'm here, I was so disapointed and a bit worry. (Why worry? Maybe because it's too quite and I'm scare of being alone. Hahahaha...) My new home doesn't look bad as I first open my door. I get a room that facing the front, which I can see the others dorm opposite to mine.
Few days after that, I started to saw people moving in, and I'm so excited again because finally I can meet with my new roommate. But, once again I'm getting disapointed because my roommate is not a freshman, and she will not be moving in till friday or saturday.
It's friday evening; I remember that when I came back from the orientation, I saw a lot of stuff that's not belong to me in my room. I knew that my new roommate is here already. I thought I'll meet her on friday night, but... she's not here the whole night! She's not here even the saturday. Until the sunday night, she just appear in front of the door and she walk in. I was happy that finally I get my new roommate.
After we introduce ourself, I keep doing my stuff because she just came back from work. She need to arrage her stuff and get rest, so I have to let her alone. Our relationship doesn't go nicer or bad, it just that she's always busy with her works, and she's going to meet her fiance during the weekend. (Yes, she engage just 2 weeks before the school reopen.) It means that she always not in, and I feel like this room is just for me. I don't feel that it's a bad things, because most of the time I'll be online and chat with my family in Malaysia. Note that Malaysia's time zorn and America's time zorn is totally opposite, it's 13 hours differents. So, whenever I need to talk to my family I have to be wake up early and talk to them. If she's here in room, I may disturb her. Therefore, I think this is one of the things that I like when she's not in. I can chat to my family or friends that are in Malaysia anytimes I wan by not disturbing her.
I'm satisfy and happy to have her to be my roommate. I hope that in next semester I could stay in the same room with her again.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

A GrEaT wEekEnD~

I went to visit my host family last weekend. It is such a great experience as I learn more about the American culture. The first night, we went to Menomonie, which my host family have a cabin beside a lake. We went swimming on friday evening; although the weather was warm enough for us to go outside but the water was so cool. None of us can stay in this cool water for very long. However, this might be the last time for us to swim in the lake for this year, so we don't care about the cool water and swim for quite a while. In fact, I'm having so much fun with this kind of activities; ride on boat, swim in lake, having a soda drink in hand... It's so RELAX~
One of the reason I chose to visit my host family during last weekend is because my host sister is leaving soon. Her name is Jilly, who from Malaysia too. I'm so glad to be her host sister, because she's such a caring person and she share a lot of experience to me. She is even give me a lot of advices and teach me a lot of things. However, she was graduate in UWEC in summer, so she has to go back to Malaysia after all. She will be leaving in this week, so we chose to have a farewell for her.
We came back to Eau Claire on saturday noon. Jilly brough me and Mayumi (My another host sister, who came from Japan) to an Asian food shop, where we can get a lot of Asian food over there. Food was my biggest problem when I first arrived here, and she's the one that understood a lot about our(me and Mayumi) feeling. She even cook us some rice during the first weekend she's here. I love her so much~
After visiting the Asian food shop, we sent Mayumi back to her dorm because she need to catch up with some activities on saturday night. After went back to my host family's house, Jilly and I started to cook. We had make a special dinner for the family. That night, we went to Karaoke, I learn something new during that night...
When we're in the Karaoke, we meet two group of people that came for the "bridal shower" party. "Bridal shower"??? It's a new term for me... I had never heard of this in my entire life in Malaysia. It's actually an party for the people who are getting marry soon, usually happened a month before the wedding. The bridal and the "gang" usually have a theme on that night, they dress up with same color, or even the same shirt. Usually the bridal will have a "crazy" night, which according to them this might be the "last" night for her to meet and flirting around with the other guys. The first group of people that came, all dress in black. The first thing I saw when they came in was the big pexxxx that one of them carry on her hand. I was first wondering what she's carrying, but after a few second, I realised of it. The bridal always the one with something special either on her shirt or her head that people can easily recognize that she is the bridal. The first bridal was dress in black (I guess "black" is their dressing code on that night) but she have a crown on her head and a pink shirt that "specially" made, which they stick some candy on the shirt. According to them, they will walk around to grap some guy to "take" down the candy, mostly using their mouth; but you have to pay before you do so. This is one of the way they can gain some money for their wedding. Not only that, they also sell some lollipop.
The second group all dress up the same t-shirt. Of course, the bridal would look different from the other. She was wearing veils on her head, and she was carrying a "man"(plastic one which need to blow up with air), and the "man" was just wearing an underwear with pexxxx outside of the underwear. My host family keep asking me not to look at that, but my curiousity had overcome my host family's advice. I even took some picture with the "man" after some times. It was fun to watch how crazy these people are and learn the American culture.
My last day in my host family's house was quite fun also, because I can finally experience how's the American react when dealing with American football. They sat on a big screen tv, and scream when their supporting team won. They usually having a lot of family members together to watch the game, and they usually will have a lot of nice snacks while watching the game.
I love to join my host family and spend some quality times with them. They are such a great person. I learned a lot of American culture from them. I really feel lucky to have them to be my host family after all. I think UWEC is really my best choice...

Saturday, September 20, 2008

在美国的新生活

不知不觉来了美国已一个月了。这一个月以来,感觉一切都过得好快。除了刚开始的两个星期都还在适应这里的以外,接下来的日子都过得还好。从一开始不太适应这里的食物到如今的接受一切,甚至于开始学会享受这一切一切与我活了二十几年都没碰处过的东西,觉得自己真的很幸运。

嗯…现在才发现原来坐长途飞机真的不是好玩的,想起一个月前搭飞机的经验真的让我马上打起冷汗来了。尤其是飞长达十一小时的飞机…被夹在中间的我真的好难受噢,不但不能常常站起来走动,也非常的难入睡…真不敢想像我们是如何熬过来的…也让我一想起要回马来西亚的时候还要受同样的痛苦…唉…

其实我觉得自己还蛮幸运的啦。因为自己被分派到一个非常不错的host family…他们真的很热情,也很好人。是他们在凌晨一点多到我们到达的地方接我们。刚开始的那几天都是在他们的家里过。主人家还带我及另外一位从日本来的女生到他们的度假屋玩。由于男主人真的很多话说,所以都让我们没什么时间想家。一直到回到了宿舍,当一切都静了下来以后,顿时让我非常的想家。但这一切很快就过去了,因为我开始认识许多的新朋友。日子也过得非常的充实…
这几个礼拜都在忙于功课,这里的教授都好勤劳,每一天都有做不晚的功课。唉…让我想偷懒一下下都不行…
昨天下午我和朋友去了这个城市的一个盛会,真的非常不一样,也是一个非常新的体验。今天,我还去了学跳舞。今天学的是本地的一个舞蹈。觉得还蛮好玩的,我决定了每个日都要去学,也顺便可以减肥嘛…呵呵…

My first event in USA...

Today I went to the International Fall Festival, and its really suprise me with all the different cultures in United States of America(USA). The event was took place in the Barstow Street, downtown of Eau Claire. When I first walked in the Barstow Street I saw two people were "fighting" with sword in their hands. This two people was dress up like the war time soldier, which I usually only saw in the movies. This is the first time I see people playing fencing right in front of me, and this is also the first time I see it in real. It really suprise me. Then me and my other two friends keep "discovering". As we walked down the street, we saw a lot of stalls at two side of the street. Not only that, there is a stage where people are playing and singing the country music, and I love the music they play very much. We also saw the place where there are a lot of animals and people can feed the animals by paying some money to buy the food for the animals. After that, we saw a lot of native people selling their cultural stuff, such as cloth, and jewelry. Not only that, there are a lot of stalls selling foods, drinks, and etc. There was something that catch my attention while we on the way "hunt" for our lunch. It were two cars; two cars that I only saw in the animation. I can't remember whats the tittle of the animation but my friend and I took a picture of it. Not long after that, I meet my host family. I was so happy to see them around cos I got few weeks didn't meet them already, and I missed them so much. After some talked with my host fmily, we keep discovering, we each bought some foods, drinks, ice-creams, and Sushi. When we finished our meal, we found that it was almost the time for the parade. Once again we meet up with my host family, and we sat beside the street to wait for the parade. We were getting so excited when we saw our home country's flag, and we cheer so loud for it. The people in parade keep threwing some candies to the people that watching the parade. There were few kids around us, and they were getting so "crazy" while the people were threwing the candies, and this scenes make us laugh a lots. Finally, when the parade finished, we were get ready to come back to our university. After I say goodbye to my host family, my friends and I walked back to our dorm. We each bought something in this event. I bought myself some bookmarks, and a necklace. Although the whole event is quite similar to what we called "night market" in my country, but still I saw someting different in it. This was the first event after a month I'm here in USA and I enjoyed a lots for learning some of the culturals here.