{No.18}Journal 9 : Winter Plane & Spring classes

It's near the winter break, now. In this winter break, will go to San Francisco and Los Angeles. It will take me about two weeks. This is the first time that I book ticket by meself and plane the trip. I am so excited about the trip. I hope it will be fun.

Besides, I will choose ESL3502 which is Academic Listening and Speaking. I hope I will enjoy that class and I also choose the skiing class. Since I came to Minneasota, I have to do something about snow. So, I choose the skiing class. However, I heard that there are many broke their legs during skiing. I hope I will not break my legs.

By the way, it is time near the Christmas. I hope everyone see this blog will have a good Christmas and a happy winter break. : ]

{No. 17} Snowing

It is snowing. The temperature is almost below zero degree. The cumulation of snow is about 6 inches.

This is a picture I took in front of the house which is near my apartment. It seems that many people hates cold. However, I like it. Since I have never seen snow before, I am so excited when it is snowing. When there is snowing outside, I want to go out and feel the snow falling down on my body. It is so beautiful. I like the scene when it is snowing. It is so fantasy.

However, I know it is very easy to get frostbite when your nose, ears and fingers are not covered. So, I bought gloves and hat to keep them warm when I go outside.

I don't know how to describe my thoughts when I see the snow. It is so amazing!!! I like snow in winter. And you? : )

{No.16} December

WOW, it is December, now. Time goes so fast. This semester is going to the end. I never think about that because everyday is so exciting to me. I am so happy to study here. The semester is going to over. I am so sad. I cannot experience more things in school.

However, there are many exams and homeworks waiting for me at the end of this semester. I have to study harder to conquer them or I will be failed when I finish this semester.

Besides, Christmas is coming, too. I am so happy that I will have Christmas with snow. This is impossible when I spent Christmas in Taiwan. It will be very different to me because I spend Christmas alone in America. These are all new things to me. I hope I will do well on the final exam so that I can have good mood to celebrate Christmas. : )

{No.15} Thanksgiving

Today, everyone should get together with their family. Since I am an exange student here, I have no family here. So, I and some international students went to an American family and spent Thanksgiving with them. The name of the host is Kay who is a writer and a nice person. She was very nice. When I went to her house, she gave me a big hug. It made me feel very warm.

Absolutely, we had turckey and pumpkin pie. They were so delicious. After we finished our meal, we sat together and Kay told us the story about Thanksgiving. Then, we also told her our holiday for family to get together. It was very nice.

This is a very special experience for me to spend Thanksgiving with an American family. I hope the people who saw this blog will have a good Thanksgiving with your family, too. : ]

{No.14} 2012

Today, I went to see the movie 2012. It is so famouse. So, I had to go to see what was in this movie. It talked about the world was going to the end. Some of the senses in the movie is amazing because it looked so real. It made me think about how terrible it is if the earth wants to pounce on human, we can not do anything. It was so terrible.

However, I think this movie is perfect. It has many amazing senses and impress me a lot. If you have time, you can go and watch this movie. : )

{No. 13} The coffee I made...

I always drink a cup of coffee before I go to school. It is very hard to make a good cup of coffee. Sometimes, it will a little bitter and sometimes it will a little too sweet. The coffee I made at the morning will decide my mood in the whole day. If I make a good drink, I will be happy and it makes me feel I can do everything good. If I make a not so good coffee, I will feel like I can not do things well.

It is really strange.

When I have a bad day, I will go into a good coffee house and buy a good cup of coffee. Then, I will become happy. It seems that coffee will bring me good mood. Is it same to you? : )

{No.12} The success of Starbucks(Compar and Contrast)

http://tw.knowledge.yahoo.com/question/question?qid=1004122400001

This is a website talking about the success of Starbucks. The article says the key of Starbucks' success if build on innovation. It makes coffee everywhere and modernize the meaning of coffee. Howard Schultz, who is the present of Starbucks said " We love to break the rule and do things that is impossible to others." He made Starbucks different after he traveled to Milan. He created a oasis in lonely society. Starbucks makes people relax and enjoy anything but coffee. People go to Starbucks for meeting, chatting and relaxing. It makes customers feel happy. He also said that the success also built on the relationship between company and employees. He trains employees by many basic classes and he gives "bean stock" to every employees. These are the reasons why Starbucks will succeed.

http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol144/starbucks.htm

This website tell us 10 lenssons for small business learing from Starbucks.


They both talk about that

1. Think outside of the box means that you have to break the rule and do things that others cannot do. You will succeed.
2. Think dip. You have to observe that what is the customers really want. The president makes Starbucks become a place for relaxing and chatting because he realizes that other coffee house did not care about what the customers' needs. He did it first. So, he can succeed.
3. Make customers happy.
   

They are different in these things

1. The first article said the success is built on the relationship between the company and employees. In the second article, it talks about how to manage a company well. It did not talk about how to take care of employees.
2. The second article teach people how to earn money from customers but the first article did not talk about it.
3. The second also talks about the important of partners but the first did not talk about it.
   

{No. 11} Today is Halloween!!

Today is Hallween which is the second big holiday in United States(the No.1 is Christmas). I went to the party held by ISSS at Nolte Hall. When I got there, there was not so many people. Later, people came and I saw many people wear costumes. I saw hunter, Vampire, angel, etc. It was fun to see people wear costumes. It seldom happened in Taiwan. At night, I went out with friends and I saw I lot different customes on the street. I saw Joker, Marrio, chicken, Sponge Bob, banana, bateman, cowboy, etc. I laughed out loud becuase it was really fun to see the sence. It was really different from my hometown. I had a good time on Halloween. I hope you, too.

Happy Halloween !! : )

{No. 10} Bagles

After I ate the bagel at Einstein Bros, I found that bagel was very delicious and it also mathed coffee a lot. So, I will introduce bagel today. XD

A bagel is a bread product which shapes like a doughnut. Accroding to Wikipedia, the bagel was not created in the shape of a stirrup to commemorate the victory of Poland’s King Jan Sobieski over the Ottoman Turks in 1683. It was actually invented much earlier in Kraków, Poland, as a competitor to the obwarzanek, a lean bread of wheat flour designed for Lent.

That the name originated from beugal (old spelling of Bügel, meaning bail/bow or bale) is considered plausible by many, both from the similarities of the word and because traditional handmade bagels are not perfectly circular but rather slightly stirrup-shaped.

Bagels were brought to the United States by immigrant Jews, with a thriving business developing in New York City that was controlled for decades by Bagel Bakers Local 338, which had contracts with nearly all bagel bakeries in and around the city for its workers who prepared all the bagels by hand.

Nowadays, there are many kinds of bagel, such as, blueberry, sesame, plane, egg, onion, raisin, chocklate chip, cheese, etc.

I have tried blueberry and it is very delicious. I will try other kinds of bagels in the future. Maybe chocklate will be a good choice. XD

I hope you like this post and find it helps you. : )

{No.9} I bought bagel at Eintstin Bros

I bought a bagel and a cup of coffee at Einstein Bros in Coffman. The bagel I bought was blueberry bagel with strawberry cream cheess. I bought it to be my snake because I had class on 7PM at that day. When I ate the bagel, it was too delicious to describe. Eating bagel with drinking coffee was the perfect thing in the world. XD

No wonder Einstein Bros is the restaurant selling bagels. It was very delicious. You should try it if you have time. XD

I hope you will like it!!

{No. 8} Coffee beans

According to Wikipedia, a coffee bean is the seed of the coffeeplant(the pit inside the red or purple fruit). The fruits, coffee cherries or coffee berries, most commonly contain two stones with their flat sides together. Coffee beans consist mostly of endosperm that contains 0.8 ~ 2.5% caffeine, which is one of the main reasons the plants are cultivated.

There are many types of coffee beans. Species of coffee plant include Coffea arabica, Coffea benghalensis, Coffea canephora, Coffea congensis, Coffea excelsa, Coffea gallienii, Coffea bonnieri, Coffea mogeneti, Coffea liberica, and Coffea stenophylla. The seeds of different species produce coffee with slightly different characteristics.

Different coffee beans will provide different flavors. Maybe it is slightly different but it is quite different to a professional of tasting coffee. I hope I will be the person like that someday. XD

I hope this will help you to know more about coffee. : )

{No. 7} Play with coffee (II) !!

It is amazing to draw on the surface of a cup of coffee. Let's watch an amazing film from YouTube.



It's really amazing!! I think I will learn it someday because it is really an enjoyment when you serve a special coffee to others. I know it is very hard to learn and I will try it if I am free. If someone is good at it, maybe you can teach me. : ]

{No. 6} Play with coffee (I) !!

It is an art to do the pattern on the surface on a cup of cooffee. It is very hard to do patterns on coffee. As you see, you can see the beautiful patterns before you drink a good cup of coffee. You can have two things at the same time. How good it is!!

At the beginnig, these patterns only used on the Cappuccino & Latee. The source of doing coffee patterns is hard to find. Nowadays, some coffee shops do coffee patterns but some do not. So, when you go to a coffee shop, you can find out wheather it has coffee patterns by yourself and enjoy it then. : )

{No.5} Nine

Last week, I went to see a movie whose name is "9," This is the first time I see a movie in USA. So I am very excited. It is a movie talking about a world which is destroied by robots. A professer invent a way to transfer his soul into toys. The number "9" is the last one that the professer made. After he made it, he died. An advanture of toys begins. Number 9 activate the evil robot by accidentally. The robot makes other robots to destory these toys. I can not tell you too much. If you want to get more information, go to the theater and watch it. I hope you will like it. : )

{No. 4} Coffee style

There are a lot of kinds of coffee. Here I introduce some kinds of coffee that I like.

Latee: In Italian latte means milk. What in English-speaking countries is now called a latte is shorthand for "caffelatte" or "caffellatte" ("caffè e latte"). The Italian form means "coffee and milk," In Italy, caffè latte is almost always prepared at home, for breakfast only. Outside Italy, a caffè latte is typically prepared with approximately 1/3 espresso and 2/3 steamed milk.

I like it the most because it contains lots of milk and it tastes very good.

Cappuccino: The name Cappuccino comes from the Capuchin friars, who traditionally wore habits of similar colours. It is an Italian coffee drink prepared with espresso, hot milk, and steamed-milk foam. A cappuccino as such differs from a caffè latte in that it is prepared with much less steamed or textured milk than the caffè latte. A cappuccino is traditionally served in a porcelain cup, which has far better heat-retention characteristics than glass or paper. The foam on top of the cappuccino acts as an insulator and helps retain the heat of the liquid, allowing it to stay hotter longer.

I like cappuccino because of its foam. It is a very special feeling when you drink coffee with foam. You can try it. : )


These two types of coffee are good to test for people who have not drunk coffee before. You can try these someday. :]

{No.3} Coffee shops

The link below is the store list of UMN.
http://www1.umn.edu/dining/cdining.html
There are two coffee stores I have been to.

This is how I get coffee to drink coffee now in Minnesota. Sometimes I go to the famous coffee shop "Starbucks" to buy coffee.

http://www.starbucks.com/

The link above is where I get the latest news of starbucks. Starbucks launch instant coffee recently. I have got some examples to try and find it is good. I think I will go to buy some because it is very convenient.


The other store I usuallu go is Einstein Bros which is in Coffman. This is my first time to drink the coffee from this store. I haven't saw it when I was in Taiwan. I have tasted some kinds of flavor in this store, such as, vanilla, neighborhood brew, etc.

http://www.einsteinbros.com/

Here is more imformation about Einstein Bros. Actually, it is a bagel store. There are many kinds of bagels in the store. I hope I can try some bagels in the store someday. Afterall, it is a bagel store.

Imformation I post is really helpful to me. I hope this will help you, too. :]

{No.2} About coffee...

I love coffee very much. So, I will put something about the history about coffee.

As Wikipedia says, "It is supposed that the Ethiopians, the ancestors of today's Oromo people, were the first to have discovered and recognized the energizing effect of the coffee bean plant." Coffee was initially used for spiritual reasons. At first, the Arabians made wine from the pulp of the fermented coffee berries. This beverage was known as qishr (kisher in modern usage) and was used during religious ceremonies.

{No.1} About ME!!

This my first English blog!! :D

Hello, my name is Kai-Ming Chou and I am from Taiwan .I will use Kevin Chou instead of my name.

Now I study in University of Minnesota being an exchange student at here and my major is computer science.

I love listening to musics, watching movies and eat delicious foods. When I am free, I will go swimming and playing volleyball.

I will post many things about coffee in this blog.

If you like this blog, please give me a respond. Thanks a lot!! :]