World Culture Day 2011

Hunan Normal University held a world culture day 世界文化日 a few weeks ago. A lot of countries participate at this event, Indonesia, Japan, Congo, Thailand, France, Russia, Vietnam, South Korea, etc. We prepared few Indonesian songs for the show and a night before we prepare a 'mading'. 

Every country needed to perform a 5-minute-show. We, Indonesian played Angklung, Indonesian traditional music instrument, and sang some songs. We played "Ibu Kita Kartini" and "Mama Hao" with angklung, after that we sang "Indonesia Pusaka", "Gebyar, Gebyar", and "Ampar-ampar pisang". It was so much fun! We really enjoyed the day!

We also prepared some food for the visitors, we cooked "Nasi Kuning" (Yellow rice, 黄饭） and "Bubur Kacang Ijo" (Mung bean soup, 绿豆粥). A lot of Chinese students like it, maybe because it's tasty. More tastier than their 绿豆粥，we put coconut milk and brown sugar when we boil the mung bean. Well, of course, higher fat content :p

We didn't really have much time to visit other countries booth. But all the show were great. The Koreans sang songs, the Thais danced their traditional dance, the French lady danced with her Changsha's husband ;) , and the Japanese sang and danced. I couldn't remember what other countries did that day.

 We are proud to be Indonesians.

In Changsha, the Indonesian and the Thai really hang out together! :)

Enjoy the pictures!

Different people, different country, different culture, but one world, one creator!

Blessings!

1 Nov'2011 Master Kong & Dynasty Wine factory visits

Today we visited Master Kong instant noodle factory. It's huge! They have really few workers, everything is done by machine.

 Too bad, we cannot get the picture for the line production. But for the basic the procedure is as following:

material handling -> continuous mixing -> dough sheet combining, continuous pressing -> steaming -> 

sauce spraying -> cutting -> frying -> cooling - accumulate -> packing with sauce -> metal detecting 

-> barcode printing -> automatic wrap-around packing ->robotic pallet.

They also have a museum, "instant noodle impression museum". What a name!

In the afternoon we visited Dynasty Wine company. 

 We didn't go to the production line due to sanitation issue. We only went to the storage room. They first store their wine in the oak barrel for 3 years in maximum and after that transfer it to bottles.

  Asta la vista!

Give thanks_24 Nov'11

Colossians 3:15-17

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Today is Thanksgiving day for Americans. When Europeans first arrived to the Americas, they celebrated thanksgiving to give thanks to God for guiding them safely to the New World, while the Native Americans at that time also celebrated the end of harvest season. 

Me? I'm not an American, but I took a chance to think about my life and give thanks, because it's what God wants us to do.

...in good times and bad times, give thanks to God....

I can share some of things I'm giving thanks to:

I thank God that he sent me to China, instead of other country.

I thank God for encouraging parents.

I thank God for giving me supportive teachers, Li laoshi and Wang laoshi. I know that they are the best one for me.

I am so blessed with my classmates, I give thanks for them, Zhang Juan, Zhang Lili, Xiao Rong, Guo Jiajing, Fan Yubing, Wang Huiran, Li Lu and others, also other laboratories classmates, Mr. Xia's students, Mr. Wu's students, Mrs. Yi's students. Thank God for everyone of them.

I thank God to know Lv Yuan and having her as my best friend. You are a true friend!

I thank God for friends back in Indonesia who keep contact with me, updating me with news and praying for me. Thank you Nadya, Sheila, Jo, Gope, Erine, Tine, Herlina, Tere! Best friends are the family you find outside.

I also thank God for Caur....yang dalam ketengilannya selalu brings joy and laughter in my bad days.

I give thanks for the seasons in Changsha, though it gets so hot in summer and so cold in winter, I give thanks

I thank God for all the parts of research I've done and doing right now. Though the results were not satisfying, but give thanks that it's done. In all things, give thanks!

Thank God for a funny-helpful-understanding Sunisa! 

Thank God for all Indonesian liuxuesheng in Changsha, esp. Mogu2, Jojo, Stacy! Indeed, no matter what, the most comfortable language to chat is your mother language!

Thank God also for..... a warm dormitory (though sometimes I complain about the stairs, thank God I have a place to stay)....., fast internet access....., books..., Indonesian foods I have left here..., guitar.... laptop.... 

etc....

And above all, I thank God for your love and forgiveness. It's so true that without your grace, I'm nothing but broken and wretched.

si Erine ke Changsha :)

Sebenernya blog ini uda pernah di post di QQ Space blog gua bulan lalu. Memang gua selalu re-post blog gua di blogspot dan disana.. Jujur sebenernya mengingat koneksi QQ di Cina lebih bagus,dan buka blogspot di Cina musti pake proxy tunnel (yg sangat lemot ini) gua lebih suka nge-blog disana. Tapi gua pengen juga keep blog yg ini terus jalan, karena yg ini yg lebih mungkin dipake terus. :)

Blog ini di post di QQ in Chinese. Tapi karena hari ini lagi pengen ngoceh2 pake bahasa jadi instead of copy paste like I always do, mau tulis ulang in bahasa aja. Enjoy!

Erine, salah satu sahabat terbaik dalam hidup gua. Kita bedua sama2 demen jalan2.. cuma emang klo urusan jalan2 ke negara orang, dia lebih banyak pengalamannya... kita sama2 suka ngeliat budaya2 di tempat2 yang kita kunjungin.
Si Erine ini udah sering banget bilang mau maen ke Changsha, 'menjenguk' gua...tapi ga dateng2... hihi.. akhirnya Oktober kemaren dia berhasil juga dateng kesini. Menikmati Changsha selama 4 hari 3 malem. Terakhirnya dia bilang, "Gua suka maen ke Changsha, laen kali maen lagi!" hehe..

Untung airport Changsha uda bagus, gua aja sampe takjub dengan perubahan drastisnya airport Changsha, jadi mayan lah ga malu2in..hihi.. airportnya asli jadi bagus banget, percaya deh ini international airport. ga kaya pas pertama kali gua dateng, jalan dikit uda mentok ke ujung, pake acara diusir lagi pas malem karena airportnya mau tutup. hihi... gua ma Jo pergi ngejemput si neng Erine yang masih bebawa cabin crew luggage.. selama Erine di Changsha, mengingat Nongda terlalu jauh kemana2, alias dusun, akhirnya kita memutuskan nginep di Shida aja.

Hari kedua, kita pergi deh ke danau buatan di Shida. Gua juga baru pertama kali kesini nih....hihi.. bagus juga!

 Siangnya kita ke Nongda, ketemuan sama anak2 Thai, Kathi, Tookta, Sa. Mereka kenal Erine soalnya kita pernah ke Hong Kong dan maen bareng, terus lvxing bareng juga ke Suzhou Hangzhou summer kemaren. Qin ai de Changsha ren juga ikut. 

Sebenernya Erine baru pertama kali ketemu sama si Sa. Cuma udah sering denger cerita2 konyolnya dia. Si Sa ini bener2 mirip ma temen kita, Sela.. serasa dihantui ma Sela deh...

  

Sorenya karena gua musti presentasi thesis report, si Erine ma Lv Yuan jadi ikut2 gua ke kelas seminar deh. Sampe ditanyain si Laoshi, itu siapa ya? ga kenal.. hahahaha... asal ga disuruh ikutan research aja yah...

Malemnya karena Jo dll pada ada kelas, akhirnya kita mutusin untuk makan di Hedong aja, ga ke Hexi. Kita bawa deh ni anak makan lobster, 'kou wei xia', pedes boo!! tapi dia doyan tuh.... memang klo urusan makanan, Hunan food itu dijamin lah lebih masuk ke taste kita drpd Chinese food lainnya. Abis itu baru donk dilanjutkan dengan DQ!

Besok harinya kita memutuskan untuk mendaki gunung. Nih memang pengecualian..... 2 taon di Cina belon pernah deh nemuin anak Indo yang demen naek gunung. Akhirnya kita jadi juga sih be-6 ngedaki Yue Lu Mountain. Hi hi hi!

 

Istirahat dulu ah, makan coklat dulu ah....... tuh liat aja tuh steps di atas masih uncountable...

Kita salah jalan, alhasil ga berhasil mpe di puncak. Tapi udah lah, nih uda bagus banget nih... udah jinbu banget.. hahaha.. Terus kita juga menemukan mantis, belalang sembah. Si mantis ini abis kekenyangan makan lebah. Ternyata ya dia kanibal...

Pada akhirnya kita pelihara deh dia...dan kita kasih nama Lissy...

Abis itu kita makan siang deh di Renmin Gongshi...Nyam!! 

Abis pulang dan istirahat bentar di rumah, kita ke Bu Xing Jie.. si Erine nyobain ChouDoufu, dan snack2 khas Changsha... lagi2, ini memang pengecualian, si Erine suka Chou Doufu... memang tolerance level nya ni anak tinggi yah... hahaha... sorenya kita makan Mc D dan menggila di KTV..

cross-cultural friendship :)

 

Masih betah jalan2 kita ngiterin Taiping Jie, beli maenan, nongkrong deh di Daylight Donuts maen game abis itu...

The day ended up with balloon shooting! Diem2 ternyata si Erine ada bakat ya jadi assassin! hahaha..

Erine, makasih yah uda maen dan spent time di Changsha! :)

31 Oct'2011 Ice cream & tofu making

Today we went to visit Tianjin University of Science and Technology. They have 2 campuses, the main campus is in Hexi and the new campus is in Tanggu. We went to the one in Tanggu because the Food Science College is located here. We went around seeing the library. And then we met Prof. WANG Jianming again. She and some other professor expertise in cheese making, together with her students, taught us how to make ice cream and tofu. 

We had a lot of fun during the lab work. We were divided into 4 groups. We made different flavor of soft ice cream, but it was too soft due to not enough cooling. Only Masoud's group was successful enough, they cooled down the ice cream along lunch time.

These are the processes: 

 1. Mixing

2. Take a look at the total milk fat and protein content

3. Homogenizing

4. Pasteurizing

5. Cooling

6. Adding flavor agent, we went for strawberry. 

7. Ice cream machine

These were our lunch! Finally, something good!

 In the afternoon we made tofu. First, we grind 1kg of overnight-soaked-soybeans with 3L of 65-70C hot water.

Second, cook it at 95-98C for 2 minutes.

 Third, after it was cooled down to 70--80C, pour it this way to a container filled 

with 12g CaSO4 (diluted in small amount of water). 

You should pour it like this to make it mixed, but DO NOT MIX/STIR IT ANYMORE!

After 10 minutes, this was our curd. It looked good at first.

We pressed it. But what we got was dried tofu. Reason was we over-mixed our curd, disrupt the coagulation process. The other groups' tofu were much better!

We also made a Japanese tofu, put GDL in soy milk, 

heat it for 10 minutes, and there you go! 

Put some sugar in it, cool it down, yeah, it is soy pudding! 

 At night, we went to a barbeque buffet restaurant! 
If I gained weight,.....blame them!