When Hollywood produced “Me Before You”, Marlynshood produce and keep producing “Me After You” me after who? who is you? is me after my vaccine 🙂 The rule in here is from the date of my second shot + 14 days later then I belongs to the category of fully vaccinated and are allowed to travel without PCR or Rapid test.
However, I am still not confidence to go outside of Germany because the list of “dangerous country” from Germans Authority keeps changing every day and I don’t want to risk it. Therefore I decided to start small by taking a one hour train to a neighbor city, Düsseldorf 🙂
I stayed over the night there haha when I told the Germans that I am staying in a hotel in Düs they all were laughing because the distance between Düs and Dortmund is soooooo close, yes I don’t want to go back on the train the same day, I’d rather chill a bit there, I have all the time in the world 😀
It’s all really big compare to Dortmund, Königsalle shopping district (not that I’m shopping btw), Old Town and Rhine Promenade seems to be the highlight of this city. It is so big that leads me to a confusion… like where am I? I am already in the area? Seems so, let’s walk around.
The city itself is not so interesting imo, it’s a big city with many options, nichts besonders…. at least until I went to Kaiserswerth area. It is like their own small city and I like it more 😀
It’s basically a ruined castle, so the main attraction is only it but it’s located in such a quiet and peaceful area. I met a very nice lady with her dog, I think she knows I’m a bit confused about the place and she told me there is a very very very small alley and they have trees next to each other, it sounds very normal but the alley is indeed small and to me it looks cute!
I am not a big fan of visiting a museum, but I will be when it’s rain 🙂 I visit Neanderthal Museum, it’s a museum about human evolution, located I think in the far end of Düs because it took me almost one hour to get there. It is interesting though and a good place to be when you are waiting for the rain to pass 🙂
I also went to a Castle that unfortunately closed but I like the building it’s pink!! Then I went to Hofgarten where I found out there are more ducks than people and I don’t even dare to cross them so I went back mwahaha.
All in all, Düs is just OK, good for an “execursion” outside Dortmund but what I really like about it is the FOOD! oopps I meant the Japanese Food there! Yes, Düs got another name and it’s “The Little Tokyo” Immermanstraße and Carl Platz are just amazing!! Next time if I want to eat Japanese food, I’d rather to take a train and go to Düs other than eat in Dortmund 🙂 it is just that good! #drooling!
Thanks, Düsseldorf, time to move on to the next one!
I noticed some bunnies and eggs chocolate in supermarket and my mind directly know “oh Easter is coming” but I never really remember what date is that as my feelings towards Easter is different from my feelings towards Christmas, not that I don’t know what Easter is, I exactly knew but… yeah
Few days before Easter, Moeke posted in one of my Fb group.
Hmm… I didn’t know that people give other people gift on Easter, this is totally new for me. I remembered that I was searching for eggs or decorated it when I was a kid but not really having chocolate or do any celebrations. Ofc Im one of the girls that commented hihihi…..
I directly forget again that Easter is real holiday until my colleague asked “What will you do on Easter?” hmm…. working? and she said “it’s a public holiday Marlyn” really?! so people don’t go to work? No! #mind blowing! This was the first time that I know, as in Shanghai we don’t have Easter and in Indonesia…. I can’t remember it… Im away from home for too long. So we will have a good long holiday! too bad it’s corona time otherwise I already go somewhere and explore, well at least now I know when to plan my holiday next year #schlau
I met with Moeke to get my first ever Easter gift! So happy there are still strangers that cares about other strangers and brought joy to my life, just one simple gesture of care in Fb group was able to restored my faith in humanity 🙂
Thank you girl, maybe it’s common for you to do that in Netherlands but little did you know that it’s my first ever Easter gift after almost 30 years living in this planet Earth 🙂
Since its a long weekend, Julia asked me to come over and have a BBQ together, why should I say no to that? Hell yeah! Took a train to Schwelm and found a “decoration” in my room 🙂
Another bunny and eggs! so it’s really a big deal yeah for the European country 🙂 We were sitting in Julia’s balcony to enjoy a bit of the sun with Decke on our body because it’s kalt! while Moritz prepare the BBQ, what a good combination.
This is also my first BBQ not only in 2021 but also since hmmm….. 2020 I’m not sure maybe also 2019! haha times fly so fast yet so slow in this special pandemic time. The next day which is on Friday, we aren’t supposed to eat meat but…. what can we do with the sausages? we can’t just throw it or leave it for the next day? Bring it to the table please!! Together with the colorful eggs and bunny Brötchen. Is it a front or back side of the bunny? Let you guess 🙂
Then I’m back to Dortmund and on Saturday I met with my ex-classmates when I learn German but since we had online class so this also my first time seeing her in real life, Silvia! and she’s just exactly crazy as what I had on my mind #Marlyn’s feeling is correct!
There are so many first things happening to me in this Easter time. Not only know what I already known that Easter is a holiday but most important is I finally get the feeling of it!
Beginning of March, there was an email from our board saying that NW will have an event called “Autokino” which means you watch a movie inside your car and they projected it on a big screen. I really think this is a very good idea because cinemas were and still closed until this moment. Actually this Autokino ist ganz alte Schule! existed since my parents generation mwahaha but no harm on bringing it back on 🙂 good stuff does exist longer!
Julia directly called me and asked if I wanted to join because…… I don’t have a car, I can’t just come and standing in front of the screen, if that’s the case then it will be hmmmm Stehenkino haha obviously I said yes to her. This will be my first Autokino experience!
We chose the Wednesday 24th March and the film that we watched called Nightlife. Since I am not in home office period so I could see their preparation before! they put the big screen in our parking lot, bin so aufgeregt!
Behind the screen 🙂
The film started at 20Uhr German (on) Time but we were advised to be there since 18Uhr. When we entering the parking lot, they gave us plastic with wet towel and flag hmmmm ok flag… Then we passed through a drinking station and to our parking spot. Our cantine provide us with nachos, popcorn, currywurst and ice cream! and the good thing is all kostenlos! do I need to tell you what did I have? auf jeden Fall, alles! nyam nyam nyam 😉
When the time getting near to 8PM the sky is getting darker and the atmosphere really suit for watching movie on a big screen.
Before the movie start, we saw our board standing in a “stand-thingy” holding a mikrofon and gave us some speech. I thought it will be just “welcome and now we will start” but nope nope, mistaken! He did a presentation about NW, I was quiet shock when he said ” Präsentation” heee? did I mishear? there was not on the email that you will do presentation! haha its quiet funny when I see a slide with an “agenda” for today event. #very German :p
Btw there was one important slide which is the increasing number of employee last year, the number is +7 and Julia said “Marlyn you are one of the +7” yes! I made a “contribution” to the ppt 🙂
After that, the movie began! it was no subtitles but to my surprise I can understand it! not all words but approximate and this is good enough for me. The most impressive things is during the movie if we want to eat something we don’t need to come out from the car, we just…..raise our flag! that is whyyy…. and when we finished we all drove out and there were 3 people standing holding a garbage can. My comment was “wow this is very organize! they did a very good preparation!” soooo German! 😉
I really like when Mr. Simon gave the speech and there was a slide about Corona, he said “please not only see the negative side from corona and just waiting this to end because we can still do our best during this bad time” and this Autokino is one of the good thing that can happened in a bad situation as for sure no-one will bring this event back when we can einfach go to a real Kino.
Overall, I am very happy and did very impressed with the preparation for Autokino event. I am so proud to be part of Nordwest employee, thank you for coming up with this idea. Nevertheless, thank you Julia and Moritz for inviting me to join your car 🙂
FYI, there’s nothing to do with Justin Bieber’ song or tribute for Belieber 😉
At first, I always say “Never take an online class, I will have zero motivation, it won’t be good and I will not like it, ever!” But the fact say otherwise, Covid case is not showing any sign of going down and they prolong the home-schooling time therefore a language institute is not allowed to have a student in their school, so my second German class is online as well pfff. I was hesitate at first but compare to doing nothing, in addition that it was still winter time in Germany, staying indoor and keep myself sane by doing online class seems not a bad option.
Okay so my class starts on 7th Januar until 25th Februar, still have a hope that they will lower the restrictions maybe by Feb and change to Präsenz class? Yes of course, keep positive and optimistic!
Yes people I keep doing a screenshot, it is important for me just to keep some memories. Hope you don’t mind!
Leon, Saurabh, Ramina and Ava were my classmates in my previous class but the others are new to me. On my previous class all of us are living in Germany, but for this we have Emily that is living in England, Silvia in France (but later in Dortmund), Firdaouss in Morocco and Ahmed in….. for the whole time I thought he is in Dortmund but I only knew he wasn’t up to the end of the class and I still vergessen of where he is haha! And the rest of the classmates like Ramina, Saurabh, Marina, Nenad, Andrez, Rachana are in Dortmund only Leon in Dülmen and Ava in Wuppertal.
Nevertheless, these people give me like some kind of “inspiration” or “motivation” or whatever words that fits for that (Emily you are the only native speaker, help me in this haha) to keep learning wherever you are, now we are more and more borderless. They really open my minds to show that the benefits of online is people outside one country can learn if they really want to. I know it sounds very not important but for some reason when I know where they wohnen it’s really inspiring and something inside of me was triggered to also keep learning and don’t let the place limited yourself. Turns out online class is not that bad after all.
We had a little bit of “drama” for this class, due to some organizational stuff, Frau Ziyadli asked if it’s possible to have a class on Friday? I mean, it’s that even a question? No way in hell I’m gonna study on Friday, I’m not a machine, I need to relax or else I would explode! But my answer wasn’t satisfying for the institute, of course I can it’s just I don’t want too, therefore I really thank to Nenad and Ramina as someone who has a child it is really hard to have a class on Friday so we keep our class the way it is unfortunately we need to let her go and Julia come to substitute her. Its hard for us to suddenly have a new teacher, we were very dramatic but on the other hand I believe it must be so hard for her too to suddenly get involved in the middle of the class but she is doing a really good job! I think she fits perfectly to us and to me it doesn’t seems that she’s a substitute teacher, seems like she knows us from the start and her method of teaching is really fits us… well, not sure about us but fits me for sure 🙂
The class keep rolling with our first teacher Frau Brzezina for Montag und Donnerstag and with Julia for Dienstag und Mittwoch… until the exam! None of us realize that exam is just around the corner, we are far and I meant faaarrrr from being ready for exam and yet we have a very good “drama” (spoiler: it’s really not a drama at all that’s why I have the quotes) with the coming back of Silvia! Our crazy Krankenschwester! she went for a week of class in the beginning and goneee for the rest of the class until one fine day on the weekend she texted us in the group.
We got our senior Krankenschwester back! I never met her in real life but you don’t need to do that to know that she’s such a crazy person 🙂 I know I will love her to death but I won’t give myself up to be treated with her haha there are many people in the class that have Krankenschwester as their Traumberuf, zum Beispiel Leon, Firdaouss, Emily and Ava and for some reason I feel safer to know they will be my Krankenschwester just in case I’m sick haha my trust issue is high, with Silvia I think she will make a “salad” for me “hmmm… yes ein bisschen this Medikamente, ein bisschen das, oh with this liquid, that must be good!” haha I’m more looking forward to meet you though 😉
Ok back to the exam, we have writing on Montag and speaking on Dienstag. For speaking I was with Leon. I need to have with my laptop and my Handy because my camera on Laptop is broken! I am so glad that the writing exam is over! and then we have another proper picture it was such an anstrenged 3 hours time of my life! Here we are after the exam 🙂
Andrez added a short comment about our group picture and it was really funny!
One thing I took for myself after this class is I will never be an online teacher! haha I know I said never say never but this I know it for sure, I have zero patient if I have student like Andrez that keep asking “which page?” thank you so much that we have Frau Brzezina and Julia that has the patient as long as Nil river if it’s up to me I would rather say “pay the Goddamn attention! it’s UNO UNO NUEVE!” haha
Fortunately we all passed! So here we all again on our online-certification day, this time we have Julia with us.
I like my classmates though, Ahmed the King of Grammar luckily he’s not frustrated because all of us not strong at it, Ava die Wahrsagerin that makes me want to go to Wuppertal and have my Kaffeesatz lessen, maybe you should pursue it 🙂 Andrez the architektur, Nenad the sporty father, Saurabh is always the one that surprise me sometimes he’s there and sometimes he’s not, Ramina and Rachana the one that keep motivating me to do homework, Marina the wonderful mom that homeschooled her two sons #crazy! Silvia, the one that I could feel she is larger than life, Firdaouss the amazing 18 years of age that is already fluent and somehow I thought when she read something it almost like a native German speaker! Leon, the same with Firdaouss amazing 19 years of age that’s very independent and strong, I know you two will be a good Krankenschwester, I’m glad I’m 10 years older than you so I will be safe when I’m old and sick to have you as my Krankenschwester 🙂 And Emily! the future Queen of England not because she’s drinking tee every afternoon but because of her voice is so soft and always so nice when for one day I got my camera back she said “Marlyn, du bist zuruck” and that voice is so soothing and calming the kind of voice that I would never have, bow to the queen! I am happy with my ex or no ex teacher, Frau Ziyadli, Frau Brzezina and Julia thank you for all the lessons, I know online class is hard for you as teachers too. Nevertheless, you successfully transfer all knowledge that we need, now is time for us.
Here are us once again in one edited picture 🙂
Thank you for all, hope you all healthy and wish you all the best in whatever things you pursue. Good luck in our German language journey and hope to see you in person when the circumstances allow to do so.
I was so happy that I can spend NYE with Julia regardless corona regulations that Germany had. After our Silvester-lauf, we had a very faul afternoon of doing nothing because we definitely deserved ausruhen 🙂 Then around hmmm late afternoon Tina came and Julia prepared some new years decorations and our Raclette! No one sleeping hungry tonight! I repeat: no one!
Oh, i’m not in the picture! excuse moi! we need to re-do 😉 we tried with my phone but meh, then Tina has a new Samsung phone, the camera is wider, take it from her side then move to Julia’s, selfie, non-selfie, Moritz was a bit tired already but in the end we got das Foto that we satisfied, so, dinner officially started!
Still few hours before midnight, what did we do? we played game ofcourse! this house has every games but not on NYE haha so ironic! Julia’s sister borrowed one of the board game but we never lose sight, so we do our own DIY board game 😉
After our DIY board game, Julia introduced me to the NYE tradition, das Bleigiessen! We have to melt the metal and put it into the water then the chemical reaction of who knows what will shape that melted metal into a figure. We need to see that figure from an uncommon angle to find out what is it. On the back of the package it is written the meaning of any figure that might come out, this will be the “future” for ourselves.
I was so shocked when my figure came out, I was directly said it was Corona haha! but there is no Corona or virus behind the package of the Bleigiessen so in the end we chose it’s a nest 🙂 thanks God it has a nice meaning, haeusliches Glueck! Game-played, future-predicted, what’s missing? Alcohol!
With alcohol being getrunken, it is the signed that countdown is just around the corner! We were all very excited for the famous countdown from Berlin Brandenburg Gate!
And our countdown from 20 seconds then suddenly dropped to 13 then really countdown 🙂
Arrghh 2021, already a disappointment right after the clock strikes twelve haha not ready for this >.< however, no need to worry, Julia has another back up confetti, we put a big hope it will works.
And yes it does! With this, it is rightful to say that we welcome 2021 with open arms, big Umarmung for 2021 🙂
Me and Tina sleep over in Julia’s apartment and by the first January we had a very nice breakfast.
Life is good 🙂
Happy new year everyone! Sending you all virtual hugs 😉
Backwards, I meant way backwards like really backwards, yes that far back to 1st January 2020 where most of the people, myself included make their version of resolutions for 2020. Some people really working towards their resolution and some…don’t #ehem, you know who 😉
One of my resolutions was to do more sports so I can be an active individual, ha! it is very realistic, only require not more than self-discipline and 12 months ahead to fulfill it… piece of cake! #at least that what I thought. Unfortunately or fortunately, the Universe has his own mind, the moment I wanted to be more active, Corona came and all studios shut down #and followed by another bunch of excuses!
Long story short, fast forward to 11 months later, I had done zero sports >.< being not so proud of myself of course as this is the promise I give to myself, I shall not break it. But life keep goes on, still strolling on my Instagram where they had many challenges of running, I kept looking at them but all of them were too long for example a run for 10km, 15km or half marathon, yo chill out! can’t they have something for Anfänger? Until…. the advertisement from lauf-weiter.de appeared! the Universe has heard me! I registered for a 5km lauf and guess when? on Silvester! haha! last day on year 2020, thank you for giving me a chance to fulfill my own promise 🙂
Okay, so I registered and I thought yeah 5km easy! I’ve done that before but when I tried it the first time I think I only made 1km and I almost dead! I asked myself, why oh why Marlyn you do this? However, I still determined to do that Silvester lauf, just need some practice! There was still 7 more days before Silvester so my plan to run 2km every day, do not forget to mention that the temperature is never warmer than 4 degree.
I took a practice day off on 30th to have a rest before our big day #exactly how athletes do haha I’ve told Julia about my running plan on Silvester and she interested to do that too! so we can run together, yeay! running alone is really hard as you focus too much on the run and felt tired or cold easily. Julia asked Tina if she wanted to join and she agreed too! cool! so 3 of us will run together!
She picked me up in Dortmund, drove to Wuppertal and why is that? because they have an ex-train rail that they built as a running track so it’s total flat, a very good medium for me!
We got ourselves ready by putting our running number up!
The view there was really good actually but I don’t have time to stop by and took some snaps because yo I have goals to do!
Someone said to me that I need to finish 5km in under 1 hour so #challenge accepted! honestly, logically thinking, of course I will finish it under an hour, if not…. its called walking! 😉
Wogh! I directly stopped when my mi-fit said “you run 5km bla bla bla” Im done! by all means, done done done! Julia and Tina ran more than 5km because they kept coming back to “pick me up” so I won’t get too far away from them haha
I just ticked my checkbox of being more sporty, I deserved some treats 😉 Julia went to the bakery, thanks God one still opened consider it’s almost 12:00 she bought me “sweets” for Silvester, the lucky pig and the cleaning chimney guy.
Then I submitted my timing and my GPS to lauf-weiter.de and they will analyze which position I am in but who cares which position, I ticked my checkbox, that’s more important 😉 btw mind you the weather was 2 degree!
Someone said to me that I should continue my running habit in 2021 and when I asked him warum? he told me “because you will feel good about yourself after sports” no way! mir ist kalt everytime! never ever I feel good after my run! haha I do feel “good” knowing that I’ve done something useful though 😉
Anyway, with this Silvester lauf that I did on 31st December 2020, the 366th day out of 366th day, I am officially closed my weird yet magical year of 2020 and officially able to shout: WE SURVIVED 2020 🙂
My sister sent me a birthday present from faaaaarrrrr away (read: Australia) to Germany, mind you that my bday is on September but due to Covid, the numbers of plane reduced a lot so she told me that the package might arrived up to 3 weeks. It’s not a big deal anyway, I’m not a believer of “only open my presents on my birthday date” so I am up if anyone wants to give me something prior, on or after my birthday 😉
Package sent via Australian Post and after 3 weeks it arrived Germany, yeay! however… it’s not that simple, I have been waiting and checking it every day but it shows no movement, still in custom, no one calls me and I can’t call them because its from AU post and who knows which courier that will take care my package and sent it to me… waiting… waiting…and it got sent back to Australia haha!
However, my sister is a fighter, she tried once again directly from the store in Korea and let them sent it to Germany using DHL. Now we both have confidence in it and just like we thought, DHL handled it very fast, they already called me 3 times and with my broken German I tried to say some sentences. I’ve been told that I need to fulfill the custom code etc so I asked my sister about “what is exactly in this package? how much is it? they need an invoice” and it’s close to Christmas so for sure they also have holiday, they want to finish it before and we want to receive the presents too! me and my sister both “works” as fast as we can by asking the sellers “do you provide the invoice on the package?” and guess what? the invoice is there but inside the package which DHL guy won’t just opened it.
Also okay, few more days then, my sister kept asking “can you call again?” no! no way! it’s giving me enough headache to reply them in German, I can’t volunteer myself to call them and ask mwahaha. Nevertheless, Christmas passed, they should back to work again before Silvester holiday, I asked Julia to help me call them and good thing is they have all info ready and just wait for the custom which is out of DHL control. I was already skeptical if I can receive it in year 2020, worst case scenario I’ll receive it by new years but you can’t be really patient when you know the stuff is just right in front of your eyes!
On 30th of December! I got an SMS that DHL will deliver the package, the time limit is until end of the day but I told my sister to wrote company address instead of my home address because for sure someone will be at the office and can help me to take it other than at home and the last working day at the office is on 30th! So I sent email to our facility management guy and told them if any package came from Korea for me, please call me! and he did! wohoooooo, informed my sister directly, prepared myself to go to office, picked it up, done! Indeed, a little bit of faith is just what we need 🙂
Theeennn….. we have our video call 🙂 about how and what to do with the new skin care!! #luph luph <3
Very happy! unboxing and showing it one by one 🙂
our happy face
but im happier 🙂
My sister is soooo nice! she got everything covered! I got all complete product from Korea, she knew I don’t have any skin care with me and she felt ärgern by it, so directly she sent it out. Another good thing is my cream face etc was almost used up so yeay! got new supplies 🙂 the problem now is…. where to put it? haha she got a strict condition to not put it near the window and not inside the bathroom, she said I need to put it in a basket next to my bed, yes sister! I follow your advise.
Morning
Evening
Weekly or monthly
Full box!
I am so glad that I am the little sister of her 🙂 If our position is switch, I am the bigger sister and my little sister doesn’t have proper skin care…. sucks for you! hahaha 😉
She told me to stop using my cream or whatever things I used and try her skin care. Yuhuuuu that what I’ll do, I got the supplies anyway!
What is this double-double, is it a shopping deal? double 11 double 12? double date? yes, it is! but the literal meaning of double date which is double the date, not the people, just the date and that happened few days ago 12.12.2020 see! how many double is that? double-double 😉 what is so special about that date anyway, not because it won’t happen again, more important is because that is the day that my best friend for 12+ years (and still counting) got married!
Whether I am in Germany or not I still cannot come because of Corona the church only limited guest to 30 people and Indonesian people are a lot! 30 people won’t enough to cover one side of the family, you’re missing one 0 behind yo! haha so in the wedding it was only family of bride (my besties) and groom. Family here was literally father-mother and siblings and that’s it! because the rest was pastor, people who works for church, cameraman etc and 30 people filled up pretty quickly. So how do we watch it? via live-streaming! you’re wedding is like a celebrity that being live-streamed so whole normal non-guess people could witness it haha
I was really happy and close to cry the moment I knew she’s getting married and once I got the message via WA it’s all getting real, people! What can I do from my part is set the alarm, put it on calendar and make sure I got the time difference right!
Since I got myself a new TV so I need to test it and what is the best way to test a TV other than by watching my bestfriend got married in a big screen! I tested it the day before to make sure the link works.
AAAAA! So nervous… eh? why should I?
But just like every technical things can go wrong, right on the day I mistyped some words and it said “the video was unavailable” and I was like wtf! I saw it myself it was working yesterday so for few minutes I watched it from my phone while I re-entered the link and just the moment where she entered the church I got it on TV 🙂
Novi told me that she wanted to get married and got blessed by her favorite Pastor and that is the Pastor? he’s so young yo! are you sure you’re qualified to be a Pastor at that young age? haha 😉 The Pastor was funny he told how both of them started from friends then in a relationship and got married, he’s such an up-to-date Pastor huh.
Of course the moment I waited in a whole wedding was when they have their wedding promise, I could hear Novi’s voice break out and me- being on the other side of the world- was touched by it. You’d better keep your promise to her, Ricky! Just remember she’s got a psychopath 8!tch- on the other side of the world- ready to come and get you if you don’t #devil’s laugh haha
The second most touching moment was when (I’d like to say both of them but nope, only Novi) she went to her parents and ask for a blessing. I like that they didn’t give Novi or Ricky a microphone while they were talking to both parents. Seriously, in some wedding I saw how bride talk to her parents thank you bla bla bla on a microphone and of course what do you expect, both of them cried lalala but this is such personal things, no need to let everyone hears and who wants to hear you sobbing voice anyway #dunno OMG I sounded like a crazy 8!tch haha
With the mask, I’m not sure which one is your mother but yeah here is both of the pictures 😉
Then, the ceremony was almost finished, I think it took about 1.5 to 2 hours.
Last and not least is the photo session but since you’re watching it online so you can’t really see them closely because there were always a photographer’s standing in front of your screen. Here you can see the Pastor on and off his duty.
It was really like watching a movie, they had a “thank you note” and an “extra” and what is on the “extra” ? it was their pre-wedding pictures. In my opinion, it was a beautiful wedding, really simple but organized very neatly 🙂
Novi, my best friend, I am very lucky to have met you back then when we were only 17+ years old through thick and thin of our University life and still besties till now maybe I should also say “till death do us apart” <3 you are a beautiful person and look so beautiful in white, love you!
We have a German sentence that is “zu jedem Topf gibt es einen Deckel” the literal translation is something like “every pot has its own lid” I know it’s not very sentimental but its very make sense, Germans… what can you expect 😉 bottom line is “everyone will find their own person” and on this double-double, I am very happy that you found your other half. I am excited that you embark on a new journey, I wish you a happy life going forward, you deserve it.
P.S Ricky: you’d better love her, she’s my besties, biatch! haha 😉 Congratz on you, you just hit a jackpot.
Since there is no sign of Covid-19 going down in Germany, more restrictions has been applied, but the ground has always been “avoid crowds”, every meeting professionally or casually are shifting to online. To me it seems like when you try to call customer service and the machine is the one who pick it up and you just want to scream “Operator, operator, I need to talk to a human!” It is really hard to get a human contact for the past 2 months, apart from my workplace, I still need to see another human being so I enrolled to a German class at night after work. I was carefully look for the one that is not online because I”m just sick of it. And I’m glad I found one!
My class runs from Monday to Thursday from 17:15-20:15 this is pretty something especially I always come after work, there are some moments where I completely dysfunctional but my classmates are the one who motivates me to keep going. Who are they? We have 9 real persons mwahaha (including me) and 3 online students. Ramina and Fateemah from Iran; Saurabh, Vishnu, Reddy (not ready), Kovid (not Covid), Prasana, Tiramdasu (not Tiramisu) Varun from India; Tatsiana from White Russia; Leon from Zambia and Onur from Turkey.
They are all really funny, Onur-the smartest guy in class, he always leave at 8PM due to he need to catch his train to Bochum. Saurabh never came on-time and Frau Petra always ask where he is. Fateemah always not-on, she talks when she’s not supposed to but yeah maybe because she’s online so it’s hard to keep up what we are doing. Vishnu, my first friend, my table mates, never get his $h!t together 😉 haha but in the end he got his $h!t better than mine, I was very dilligent in front but towards the end I’m a bit loose. Tatsiana and I are the only students who are working in the day time so we don’t really know or do some efforts of the homework. Varun is a crazy Indian that always wear short-sleeves, what is wrong with you? it’s like 2 degree man! Prasanna the coin guy who always have 50 Cents that I need to wash my clothes, Kovid surprisingly understand Genitiv really good, Reddy always laugh whenever Frau Petra corrected our pronunciation about “Welche”, “Zeit” anything that has W or Z because we all sucks in it. Seems the only students that consistent with our homework is Leon and Ramina.
They are very unified too, I had an idea to give our teachers a small Christmas gift as I like them so much and my classmates also willing to participate. It is funny when Onur write on the card “Danke fuer seine hilfe” and Reddy realized it “Man, who are you thanking to? It’s thank you for his help? who’s helping you?” haha Onur, the smartest guy in class can also make mistake 😉 Of course the teacher will know that we are using google translate to write this long sentence because no way in hell we came up with these sentence all by ourselves.
One teacher, Frau Petra was really like her presents, she knows by 8PM Onur will leave the class so before it, she ask to have a picture with us. And the best phone we have so far is Onur’s, he’s having iPhone 12! Man, you are so update!
These people make me feel that my weekday is very productive with studying and and without my consent, it’s already Pruefung time, seems I don’t even learn anything! haha This is we when we are waiting our turns for our speaking test.
Of course I don’t believe a language institute would failed you. For me the real Pruefung is not the score that is written on a piece of paper but rather the daily speaking in German so I don’t really stressed myself so much. Just like Vishnu “No man, I never stressed, I always ready” read: he’s not even prepared haha
The second day is our writing test and the day after is our Certificate day haha our lovely teacher Frau Marina and Frau Petra brought some cakes and chocolates and some Christmas decorations just for the purpose of the pictures. But we can’t do selfie this time so Kovid asked one of his friends to help us take the picture…but… he only got one job! which is take the whole pics of us including the online students, I guess this was too hard for him haha see how many times we tried, he always doesn’t get a full pictures groarr!
In the end, here is the more or less acceptable picture 🙂
There it is, the day is over. Me and Tatsiana will go to the next class starting in January, perhaps Leon too, but the others will go on March. Thank you all, it was a really fun time to be your classmates and hopefully we all can have our metamorphosis to have a German level that a German could understand #no need to be fluent, I’m a realistic person 😉
Since I’m going to the next class without Vishnu and Onur, well… at least I got their pen with me 😉
I’ve been a tourist for my time in Munich and let’s have a feeling of a German family life to wrap up my holiday. And how to get a feeling of a German family life? By visiting Thorben’s family! His sister- Katharina has two kids, a daughter (Baby A) and a son (Baby J). What Baby J does is only smiling and drooling haha he’s having a blast! Baby A is shy and took her time to understand everything but she is vveeerryyyy sweet! These two emojis really presents their current situation that Baby A is a very lovely kid and Baby J is… doing his best at his age 😉
thanks flat icon!
for the funny icons 🙂
Rina picked me up in train station, we went straight to her home to prepare a picnic after we pick Baby A from kindergarten. Baby J was so calm the whole time, he didn’t cry just sitting on his car seat and perhaps wonder who is this Asian lady??? you can see his head is tilt to my direction instead of to camera haha
Rina said that it is a park fits for family that we can feed animals there, in my opinion it is more than a park! There are many animals that you can see named a few deer, pig, rooster, rabbit, they also have a playground in the middle with all things like swings, slides etc.
This place is amazing to spend some family time, not only for kids, I like it too! Well… I’m Thorben’s (adopted) kid….maybe that’s how I like it but Rina also likes it so it is confirmed that the park fits for everyone haha 😉
Baby A was tired after some time and she cried huhuhu but
Rina calmed her down by opening our picnic so she fed herself and she was ready
again! Haha love her!
It is very hard to take picture with her- maybe too many people want to take her picture because she’s just so cute! we had to tricked her by getting ready first and called her name then click! With baby J we didn’t have difficulties at all, he is the center of attention because he kept drooling and putting everything into his mouth oh boy, I hope he has a strong immune to any bacteria 😀
But after some time she’s more willing to be in the picture, yais!
We finished all the food for the animals, then Rina dropped me off to Thorben’s parents house but by the time we arrived, baby A was sleeping in the car and Rina left the door open and brought baby J and me to her parents home, I was so worried because in Asia you don’t left kid at the car sleeping with door open, it’s an invitation for kidnapping! But yeah realistically, the car wasn’t park that far haha and I always forget that this is Germany! Still need to get used to that 😉
I had nice Swebian dinner made by Thorben’s
mother-Edeltraut. The way they prepared dinner is the same way as Thorben and
Marina does in Shanghai, they put the napkins, I think this is very typical
German. Thorben’s father-Heino is very funny he said “this is just to protect
the table” haha
And what did we do after dinner? Again, just like Thorben and Marina would do, we played game!!! No wonder why Thorben always have many game boards in his apartment, it runs in the family! I was leading at first, Heino called it beginners luck but in the end Edeltraut caught me up 🙁
And again, Edeltraut and Heino come up with the idea of doing free walking tour in Stuttgart, they are very active and always plan for sth to do on the weekend, like their son. We went there on time but we didn’t see any sign of the guy that could be a tourguide, the area that we supposed to gather together is quiet nice, here are few snaps.
After we waited for 10 mins, finally we decided to quit, it is so weird but it didn’t stop us! so what did we do? We went to tourist information center to see what can we do about it and there is a hop on-hop off bus coming up soon, unfortunately the moment we sat on the bus, the rain started to pour in and it was a crazy rain….do you want to see what can we see from the bus? Hahaha!
I think it took us 100 minutes to be on the bus so it was
more like a knowledge about Stuttgart, definitely I want to go to a pig museum!
Haha followed by Mercedez museum but the pig is the most important one 😉
I heard about Swebian dish from the audio tour on the bus
and good thing is Edeltraut found a Swebian restaurant for us to eat there and
I ordered complete mix of Swebian food.
Then the weather was perfect again! Right after we finished our lunch, the sun came out, oh no! where were you before?? It was a bright blue sky and Heino said “we should do the bus tour again” haha Heino wanted to show me Schloss Solitude but the road to go there was closed so he just stopped by a nice church for us to see and this was such a good idea! I don’t see a Schloss but I see something that also nice 🙂
They also had some practice, pretty nice hey!
Then we drove back to Rina’s home and had dinner there and play again with both babies! and when did we go back home? When baby A starts to cry again huaaaa or maybe she cried because I joined her game like who is this Asian lady that suddenly interrupted my game with my father and my grandpa? Haha! Maybe she’s scared of me, oh noooo!
And what did I do at Edeltraut and Heino’s home? We played
the same game again! And who won this time?
Unbelievable, the record always hold by Edeltraut!
The next day is the day that I should go back to Dortmund, they prepared breakfast and send me to Stuttgart main station.
This is such a relaxing way to close my holiday thank you Familie Hoepke for hosting me! But since there are many things to do in Stuttgart…. I have to come back 😉 so Familie Hoepke, be ready 😀
