TIPS

This week theme is tips. I was thinking what kind of tips that I can give you all. I don’t want just ordinary tips that people already know. So, I decided to write tips for rabbit lover.

My girlfriend and I really love animals, especially rabbit and dog. I do have pets, 1 rabbit in Malaysia and 1 rabbit at my hometown. Taking care of rabbit is not as easy as you think. My girlfriend just lost her rabbit because of diarrhea and since that, she has been reading on books about rabbit. She told me and taught me about it. There are few points that you have to take note if you want to have one.

                                                                This is my Hurley :)

Water is a must for your rabbit

Many people, especially the seller say that rabbit doesn’t need water. Sometimes they even say that if we give water, the rabbit will be dead. The truth is rabbit needs water. Rabbit is like the other living creatures, same like human. Human can survive without eating, but cannot survive without drinking. The reasons why some people don’t give their rabbit drink are they don’t want the rabbit pee and they don’t know. Mostly the seller wants to keep their place neat and clean, without rabbit’s pee. However, some pet shop (usually the good one) give drink to the rabbit.

Keep your rabbit in the correct place

What is the ‘correct place’ category? It means you have to put in the right temperature and right humidity. Rabbit doesn’t like hot and dry place. You cannot let the sunlight come to the rabbit directly. Sunlight can make the rabbit stress and affect their eating habit. Other than that, it can make stunted hair growth and declining quality of sperm. However, it doesn’t mean that you can let the rain and wind attached. Based on my girlfriend experience, if you let it happen, the rabbit will flatulence. Flatulence will cause diarrhea, even can cause death.

                                                                        Darwin :)
Give the right food

Lots of people say that don’t let the food or vegetable wet, it is correct. But it doesn’t mean that you cannot wash the vegetable. Based on my experience, washing the vegetable is a must, in order to clean the pesticide.  After washing, we put the veggie under the sun, so it will dry. Dried veggie contains higher fiber than the normal one.

Beside veggie, we have to give pellet / rabbit food. It contains all the fiber and vitamin that rabbit needed, because it is processed.

One more tips, don’t give your rabbit too much carrot, it is not good. They need more fiber. You can combine it with timothy hay (for adults) and alfalfa hay (for bunny). Dried veggie and grass is the best for rabbit.

That’s wrap for today, I will give more tips tomorrow. I hope the tips are useful for all of you. 

HARI RAYA

Huff..finally I got my internet connection back, after 2 weeks lived without it. \(´▽`)/

I cannot write it in detail because I am not a moslem. So, I will write it in general.

Now I will talk about Hari Raya Day in Indonesia. 

Before that, I want to say

"Selamat Hari Raya 1431 H. Mohon Maaf Lahir dan Batin" 

to all the people who celebrate it. (I know it's little bit late, but better late than never :P)

After fasting for the whole month (Ramadhan month), moslem will celebrate Hari Raya. In Indonesia, we usually called it Lebaran or Idul Fitri.

I always love to stay in big city when Hari Raya comes, such as Jakarta. Jakarta is known for the traffic jam, but when it comes to Hari Raya, it is unbelievable. No traffic jam at all, you can reach your destination in minutes. All the people go back to their hometown / balik kampong (mudik in Indonesian) to celebrate Hari Raya with their family. This ‘peacefulness’ can be seen in 2 weeks, a week before and a week after Hari Raya.

Though I don’t celebrate Hari Raya, I always have a chance to enjoy Hari Raya’s menu. \(´▽`)/

Each family will have family visit and they will have ‘sungkeman’. Sungkeman is a must, they will say sorry and forgive each other. That is the reason why each family will cook and provide tons of food and cookies. The ‘must have’ menus for Hari Raya in Indonesia are Ketupat & Lontong, Daging Rendang, Opor Ayam, Sambal Goreng Ati, Tumis Buncis, etc. Beside that, they also have cookies such as Nastar, Kastengel, Putri Salju, etc.

To celebrate Hari Raya, usually they buy new clothes (especially women :P, they love new clothes).

On Hari Raya, the working adults will receive THR --> Tunjangan Hari Raya from the company they worked. For children, the adults will share and distribute it for children. Not only for their own children, but also the one who come to visit. This tradition almost the same like Chinese, which will distribute angpao on Chinese New Year.

On the other hand, there are things that I don’t really like it on Hari Raya, such as, lots of shops & restaurant are closed, and bank & the other services are closed. The saddest thing for Indonesian on Hari Raya is their maid going back to hometown. Suddenly the daughter becomes Cinderella and the son also helping / become driver.

I think enough for today.. Hoaahmmm.. I am going to sleep now..Good Nite all !! 

Happy Sunday :)

Colors o f Malaysia (part2)

This is “Colors of Malaysia” part 2. In this part 2, I am going to talk about Malaysian Food and Malaysian signature drink, Teh Tarik.

In my opinion, when we talk about some country’s culture, it cannot be far from their traditional food.

There are lots of controversies about Malaysian food too (between Malaysia and Singapore, between Malaysia and Indonesia). I think the reason is their location adjacent. So it is easy to influence each other and it is easy for the nomad to bring their original tradition (food) to their new place.

To be honest, I thought that Malaysia ‘steal’ from other countries such as Indonesia, Singapore, China, Thailand, etc. Malaysia doesn’t have their own traditional food.  

But since I live here and I got to know Malaysian, I changed my mind. I think Malaysia is very unique because they can adapt from other countries’ food, to their own way.

For example is satay, satay is from Indonesia, but Malaysia can make it to satay celup. Still using ‘satay’ word, but it is totally different from Indonesian’s satay. Indonesian’s satay is grilled, satay celup is using semi-cooked ingredients, which, are dunked, into a boiling pot of diluted satay sauce.

Chicken rice is one of the controversial foods. Malaysia and Singapore were fighting about where this food came from. Some people said it is Malaysian food and some people said it is Singaporean food.  Some day, I heard my friend (local) said that chicken rice might be from Singapore, but chicken rice ball is pure from Malaysia.

There are still lots of Malaysian food that I haven’t tried before, such as Baba-Nyonya food, Nasi Kerabu, Mi Kolok, Sarawak Laksa, etc. I hope in this 2 years period of time, I get a chance to try all the Malaysian unique food, that I cannot find it in other country. And some of the food, they can improve and make it adaptable, such as the famous nasi lemak. Chinese-Malay can make it adaptable in their own way, they match it with pork curry (the normal nasi lemak is halal).

On top of that, Malaysia has one famous drink, if you hear someone mention it, straight away will remain you to Malaysia. This drink is called Teh Tarik. This drink is a mixture from black tea and condensed milk. This drink becomes unique because of the pulling process during preparation. We can see that, there is showmanship in this preparation. We can find this drink anywhere in Mamak Stall, even in fine-dining restaurants, because this is signature drink in Malaysia.

Besides food and drink, Malaysia still has another ‘color’ that we can find it in other places than Kuala Lumpur area.  Such as Malaysian traditional house, every state has different Rumah Melayu (Rumah Meayu Melaka, Rumah Melayu Perak, etc.) And I believe that Malaysia has some building that influenced by British, since British had colonized Malaysia. Same like Indonesia that had colonized by Dutch, Indonesia also has building / museum with Dutch influenced.

Colors o f Malaysia (part1)

For my 2^nd and 3^rd post, I am going to talk about Colors of Malaysia.

This 1^st part, I am going to focus on Malaysian People and Culture.

First time, I thought that Malaysia would not have much so much difference from Indonesia, since our language is similar, the food almost the same, same wayang kulit and batik, even the national song. I heard so many controversy about it.

But when I started my life here, it’s totally different from my thought.

Malaysia has various types of people with different cultures and religion. The ‘big three’ are Melayu, Chinese and Indians. Other than that, they still have ibans, baba-nyonya, etc. Each races has different cultures, religion and food.

On top of that, there is one thing that surprises me a lot, the mix-marriage. It is so obvious when I stroll-ing around. India with Chinese, Melayu with Chinese, etc. And they are not just dating couple, but lots of them are married couple. Their kid also mixed.

This thing somehow makes me shocked, because with different races and different religion. In Indonesia, this mix-marriage thingy, we can consider it still taboo.  Usually Indonesian will give a strange look to a mix couple, so do I. But as time goes by, I am get used to it, they just like normal couple now.

Furthermore, since Visit Malaysia, many tourist and student come to Malaysia, such as Korean, Japanese, Iranian, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Burmese, etc. They blend together with Malaysians and this thing makes Malaysia more colorful.

Other than that, I think there is one more thing that makes Malaysia unique but on the other hand also makes me pissed. It is the taxi driver, especially around Ridzuan, Suriamas, E-Tiara (student place) and Taylor’s Lakeside. They don’t use meter, if we want to use meter, we have to use called-taxi (such as Public Cab, Sunlight etc).

One day I saw a note on campus’ lift, it was written that Suriamas – Lakeside RM 4-6 (if I am not mistaken) and it was soooooo not true! The actual price is RM 12. And sorry to say, they don’t have good attitude, especially Indians (no heart feeling). They will use any way to get many, for example the first day of fasting I went to Pyramid by taxi. When I asked the Indian guy, how much is the fare, they said RM 10 (usually RM 8) because it was fasting day. It was so unreasonable, because as far as I known, most of the Indians are not Muslim. --“

I heard many complaints about the taxi driver in here. But that’s still okay, because other good thing, such as the culture and food, covers it. 

Hmmm.. I still have much time to learn about it, especially the food. >.<

There are still lots of places that I haven’t been there and I believe there are lots of hidden germs.

COLLEGE LIFE

Actually this is my second year as a student in Malaysia. The first year I spent my time as a Hospitality student, but finally I realized that my heart was not there. So, I decided to join Mass-Communication program this July 2010. Lots of people said that this course will make me suffer because of the assignments, but my curiosity was conquering my fear. And I remembered Indonesian saying “Tak kenal maka tak sayang”, so I think I will never fall in love and enjoy this course if I don’t try it. So far I don’t feel any regret and I hope I can finish my study on time. Since it was not my first time seeing Taylor's Lakeside Campus, I was not surprise to see huge campus. But still, I cannot remember exactly where is the classroom and sometimes I got lost and as a result, I came late..hahahaha.. As time goes by, I feel that Taylor's like a shopping mall with big spaces to park and the outlet like Subway and Starbucks, etc. But the my favorite is Don Don Sushi :P I hope Taylor's keep opening new food stall >.<


26th of July was the first day of orientation and to be honest, it was kinda boring. And I still remember that I had to queue for almost 2 hours only for student ID photo taking. It gave me bad feeling about this course, I thought that I would have nightmare. 
The first time I entered the class I was thinking that I would be alone like I always be. And to make it worse, tons of assignments have been given. I was so stress because I never imagined that this course would be like this. I thought that it would kill me softly. But surprisingly, because of this assignment I got to know my classmates. Thanks God, He also gave me tons of friends. I remembered the time when we made advertisement project even though it made me didn’t sleep for 4 days and stole my weekend!! But the moment we made the assignment is more precious and priceless than the feeling when I submitted the assignment. And once again I remembered old saying, I don’t remember exactly but the point is, when we want to go to somewhere, it is better to travel than to arrive.


These are my craziness during doing assignment with my classmates.

From left to right (Fadlin, Me, Shafiq)


Assignments really drive me crazy.

I love taking pictures and I heart polaroid.

Overall, I can say that college life is amazing. I cannot stop say thank you to the Lord for all the things He gave me. Everyday is a gift from Him. When I wake up in the morning, I cannot wait for the college life. I cannot wait for the surprising things. I cannot wait to see my friends. I cannot wait to see my lectures. Oh such a happy life! ☺