Who would expect that the photos from my photo shooting session with Roland will still be swirling out there?
As Dortmund will become the host city for Euro cup 2024 from 14.06 – 14.07, it is obvious they need to show what we have for the potential Zuschauer. Who else can represent Dortmund better than 4 of us? 😉
Visit the website guys, it’s very useful 🙂 https://www.uefa.com/euro2024/event-guide/dortmund/host-city/
Roland messaged me via Instagram, revealing his idea of making a video when we have Christmas market in Dortmund. Oh! I got “called” again! which took me back to an interview I watched about Tokio and Professor while they were still upcoming actress said: we were waiting for “The Call”. This is how it feels like, in a minuscule level. Yessssss!!!!
Christmas market started on 23. November….. saw his post he was barely in Dortmund hmmm will I receive “The Call” or perhaps he didn’t get the support to make this campaign? calm down, 4th of December came, received an email with title Fotoshooting Weihnachtsmarkt. This is it! Guess what? it will be with the same crew as our first photo shooting, amazing!! we were able to convinced him to re-do a shooting with us!
We met at the Selfie-Point Podium in front of the Baum at 16:30, started the photo at 16:45 ish unfortunately without Ahmed 🙁 At first we were letting people use the podium as it should be, until some point where the darkness reached the darkness that Roland wants, here comes the crew~ Lea….(I think it’s her name, sorry I forgot yours!) who shoosheddd shooshedd other people with the sentence “Entschuldigung wir machen eine Fotoshooting für die Stadt Dortmund” with a special betonung in the “für die Stadt Dortmund” or stopping everyone from getting into the podium. At some point Leo remove the step (I know his name is Leo because Roland said “Leo please move your hand” you are on the picture).
Next session is having a Christmas cup with a drink, what do we drink people? hint: we were a Sober group 😉 Originally Sascha and I wanted Kinderpunsch, after hearing Marlene wanted Chocolate, I changed my mind, on the stand, Sasha changed his mind too. “With or ohne Sahne?” Sasha and I said ohne. Marlene react: “now I need to have ohne Sahne too” #As if she doesn’t get any other option 😉 Fun facts: all 3 of us are lactose intolerant….yet we risk it for the job haha #Dedication!
Let’s assume I got her name correct, Lea asked the Verkauferin if it’s OK if she record her on the video für die Stadt Dortmund. She replied very loud + clear + rude: “Auf gar keinen Fall!” I didn’t hear the next sentence but Sascha did, he said… she said “ich bin Schalke durch und durch” ahhhh that explained!
We got back to our Podium, re-start the pictures. Felt pressure, Roland said: guys look at here, more people want to take that place too, don’t move too much, glass more down, laugh etc. We ain’t moving, we were freezing! Done with the podium, walk around the area where Roland think he could get a better light. Try here, you guys walk towards me, talk to each other, look at those stands, cheers with the glass, remember to put way below Marlyns face.
The photo session was so quick maybe only 45 minutes, before we called it a day, Leo and Lea said “now we need to take your voice!” think about an answer “why makes you comes to Dortmund Christmas Market?” with no time to prepare at all, yep lets go you first, come here so one can’t hear the answer from another. Well well here it go! spontaneous effect!
Whats really funny is after the shooting, me and Marlene being stopped with a fruit stand who says 5 Euro or any price you want to give, all of these must go, it’s for charity. She said 2 for 5, the verkaufer said yes, I followed her too. So I ended up maybe with 10 kg oranges, realized I can’t carry it all, decided to give one bag to Ali from Henki haha then one bag I have I divide it to my neighbors. Feeling Christmasy 🙂 #Feed the world!
We got the photos on 11th December, it takes about 24 hours until its on the website. Although the snow was edited, it’s pretty either way 🙂
Which photos they choose to upload? just one! the snowy one! The beginning page of https://www.dortmund.de/
How about the video? Roland got it covered too! Had to admit, it felt so weird to hear myself, on one hand I’m shaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy!!!! on the other blushingggggg 😀
Thank you for people who agrees with my Tasse opinion 😉 also massive Thank you for Roland & Crew who gives us another chance to be in the website of our beloved city~Dortmund <3
Remember the photo shooting for Stadt Dortmund I did some times ago? My Colleagues has been asking about the results which automatically leads me asked our photographer, Roland.
He said on 19th October is the relaunch from Dortmund.de and that’s when I’ll see the photos. Since I followed Stadt Dortmund Instagram plus have been on Instagram every day, I keep up with all the stories until I stumbled upon:
MYSELF!!! Actually it’s ourselves but I’m at the center of it 😀
Yess! as you can see from the first story, the question box was in front of me but on the next stories was behind me unfortunately covering the others. Aileen from office who also followed Stadt Dortmund IG said: du muss immer vorne sein oder? What can I say? they are all taller than me hahaha
Of course announcement time! The hell I’m gonna keep silent about it.
The IG stories was on beginning of October, then 19th of October came #Oh Happy Birthday Julia 😀 Roland tagged us on his post, however when I go to dortmund.de then Aktion “Herzensorte” it didn’t show the same page as what Roland’s has. I asked him where is this? He said and people please do so 😉 dortmund.de > Menü öffnen > Dortmund erleben > auf Übersicht
I saw an advertisement from Stadt Dortmund Instagram’s account, they are looking for few models to do photo shooting. Took a screenshot however didn’t apply directly, kind of forget about it a little until I saw the same advertisement again! Let’s do it. Which picture should I choose??? hmmm
Got a reply saying they still receiving many applications, will do some selections blablabla, great, I’m a master of loser, they won’t choose me, as always I’ll only get participations medal. Proudly say, that thought was wrong, got a reply from the photographer stating he wants to do a photo shooting in Skywalk Phoenix See with a thema “Tourist in Dortmund”. The place is only 1,8km away from Nordwest, shooting time is after work, gefällt mir!
Set the date! being instructed to not wear white or any obvious brand logo, got it! I wear Batik dress, I’m from Indonesia yo need to do something to promote my country so everyone who sees it will automatically knew 100% it was me! shoes from Ci Esty, checked! Hidden brand only 😉
On the day, I’m nervous mixed with excitement uwoooo feel like a superstar wannabe! informed everyone that can be informed in NW about my future model carrier haha off work earlier as I don’t want to be late.
While walking on the sidewalks, Frau Weyerstall’s car approached, asked if I want to join as she will go to BMW direction anyway (that’s where my Metro station located) nope! I’m going to that corner to have a photo shooting… so before I got famous, she was the one that brought me to my shooting place 🙂
I was waiting at the wrong place pfff after all this efforts. Sorry people! I was way more than on time only I was at the corner Eingang instead at the Haupteingang, called Roland, got picked up, alles Gut!
We are 4 people, Marlene, Sascha and Ahmed. I have done the Skywalk with Nordwest in Winter, meaning I couldn’t really see, was glad to be able to do it again in the “day time” (it was from 17-18:36).
During the photo session, they asked how many people applied, is there someone got rejected etc etc ofc I didn’t understand it all but I got the most important point, they also rejected the typical blonde as they got so many blonde application. Yaiissss!!!! the wheel has turn! all 30 years of my life I wanted to join this kind of photo shooting in Indonesia or Shanghai but always get rejected due to my face too usual, body height, they have too many Asians already, they want the white people. Finally, justice has arrived! I am the most international face they could ever had, Asian, black hair and small! real 100% Asian yooooo, Asian born in Asian, this is my time to shine!
We closed the session with running towards Roland. I’m not sure if he said it for politeness or its true, he said he got a very good pictures of all of us! We really are a great people together, we all have each other on IG and posted posted posted for sure we will 🙂
All videos are from Sascha, he made a Reel in Instagram but I can’t saved it so I combined it myself 🙂
Thank you Roland and Sissy from Stadt Dortmund! I’ll for sure do the Leonardo DiCaprio memes from Wolf of Wall Street, that’s me that’s me that’s me! when I see myself on the advertisement, very looking forward!
Move it! especially to a waaaayyyy nicer Apartment located almost in Downtown Dortmund! I don’t like to move it move it, just one time move it is enough 😉 I thought I have a minimalist style until I had to packed, only then I realized omg Marlyn what have you done?! I am dead beyond measure when I had to carry my stuff from 3rd floor to 3rd floor and this was already with a very very very big help from my squad! Stefan and Julius were the two who carried my Kallax and my Sofabed. Me, Julia and Claudia carried other small stuff like TV, boxes, table, chairs etc and we already as sweaty as a pig, can’t imagine what the guys went through!
As the phrase “Rome wasn’t build in one day” so does “Moving wasn’t finish in one day”. Before my moving day, me, Claudia and Julia went to apartment to do some paintings. Claudia were so prepared with painting equipment and ladder, we even went to Hornbach to buy additional stuff. We painted my Schlafzimmer for like 3 hours, I’m sure it’s already white enough but Claudia said “Hmmm on top is not, let me do it” and trust me it feels like I had a pull-up session, my arms almost fell off! Julia also came prepared by wearing a real painting clothes! haha so professionals! But me and Julia just do the one that so obviously different from white so we were faster and I will just hide some parts with some decorations 😉 #smart
Okay, back to my moving day. I have never feel so hungry after going back and forth carrying my stuff. To my surprise, Julius said “it was the fastest moving he’d ever done, only in less than 2 hours it’s all finished” Julia said “Marlyn, all the stuff that you have now is basically all the stuff we have in our Keller” In the middle of my process to die, I feel relieved that the Germans thought my stuff are very few #phew
One of the reason for me to move out is I’ve been one year in Germany, I felt it’s time for me to get out that tiny apartment to grow and start living. As usual Julius always have a final word “Marlyn you’d better stay, I don’t carry all the way your Kallax and Sofabed so you can just move out from Germany” haha don’t worry, I will! Thanks to all of you, my squad!
I had a bitter sweet moment with my small apartment, the place I called home for a year. My small, broken heating, broken switch, broken washing machine, crazy landlord, it’s all sounds bad but at least I had stories I can tell about my first experience living in Germany and for that memories, I thank you 🙂 However, I need to move on.
When online meet offline, what? what is this and who I’m meeting with? It’s a he and he is our Grammar-Guru when I took my online German class 🙂 Ahmed from Egypt!
Originally we supposed to meet with Leon too but due to heavy rain disruption and a rainy day, we kept postponing our trip, in the end only me and Ahmed that can do it. I’m still happy we made it!
I insist to go on Saturday because Münster have Wochenmarkt and I specifically need to eat Reibekuchen. It is nothing more than an oily potato haha! Nothing worth to mention here. But! This Wochenmarkt is located in the city center, where the main attractions are.
I really like Münster Cathedral or also called St. Paulus-Dom and Ich muss unbedingt the Astrological counter-clockwise clock and “Paradise” (a hall lined with larger than life-sized status of Jesus and the 12 Apostles) finden. Okay, church visit started! Ahmed is Muslim so he doesn’t know the story and all the characters, me on the other hand is Christian so I know it or I supposed to know.
We walk inside the church and kept counting the statues because it has to be 12! but it always either 10 or 14! rrrrrr And it is written “larger than life” statue…..so….. it should be bigger than a normal person but I only see one statue that is bigger than Ahmed with a baby on his shoulder and Ahmed ask me “is it Jesus?” I said “No, Jesus doesn’t look like that, I don’t know who is this child maybe a baby Jesus, but Jesus is in the middle” I pointed to the one in the middle of the altar and we counted the statue surrounding Him, it’s also not 12 and we tried to guess maybe the small gold statue down there? but then it’s not a larger than life sized and Ahmed pointed on a 12 circles on the back of the church and ask me if those are the Apostles? and I said “no, Apostles is a person” Hmmmmm cannot find it….
I saw in the corner a “free-tour” and I always caught the word “free” 🙂 we had a very beautiful lady from Spain named Nuria and she explained us everything about the church from the very beginning, turns out Ahmed is not all wrong!
Okay, so the paradise is the place where we just got in which is a small “hall” before the main church I’d say. Why is called a paradise? Because all the statue on the wall is representing animals and plants. And yeah indeed it is, didn’t pay attention before so this is the whole Paradise things I’ve been looking for. Yes, found it!
Next is the larger than life statue and where is it? exactly on the entrance door to the main church! I counted…. “Nuria, it’s only 10?” and she said yes because the other 2 were lost, aaaaaaaaa haha who would have known?!?! and she said no one can recognize who is who unless for one Apostle called Bartolomeus because he wore a shoes, ahaaa can’t unsee it now!
Then, we went inside the main church, we started from the back side where we have 12 circles on the wall and she said “it’s representated the 12 Apostles” ahaha Ahmed was right and she turned to the very giant statue and a baby on his shoulder, the one that I forgot his name hmm…. can’t remember it but I knew this story, anyway…
So he is a very strong Saint, the one that always help people to cross the river….any clue about his name? hmmm… okay, let’s continue, one day there is a child that want to cross the river, he hold his child on his shoulder but the child is very very very very heavy, he made it to the other side still but then he asked the child “you are so heavy” (something like that, maybe not too direct) and the child said “you just carried the weight of the world on your shoulder” and that child is a baby Jesus.
P.s Marlyn was right 😉
Moving on to the astrological clock, at 12:00 they have some “show” where the devil rang the bell 3 times and of course I forgot what happens later but I got it on a video 🙂
For some reason I really thought the clock will ticking haha! Naja… Anyway the church visit need to end now because they will start the ceremony. But both of us were so happy to get this tour from Nuria.
Then, we went to Aasee, we don’t walk around the whole Aasee but we arrived there! The distance for all main attractions here is only 15 minutes to everywhere. We also went to Schloss Münster but it is on renovation, so skip it! let’s walk again. At some point we got hungry and we decided to have a food at Frauenstrasse. The moment we sat on the chair, we got somewhat a revelation that we were Kaputt! We have been walking for 4,5 hours! I’m immediately attached to the chair. But something pushes us, we remembered Nuria said the church closed at 5PM and there is still one more church that we haven’t visit- Lamberti Kirche- it’s famous because it has cages on top of it. We really really force ourselves and we hope there will be a tour but unfortunately they don’t have it. Nevertheless, I’m glad that we haben es geschafft! instead of keep staying in the restaurant 🙂
This mark the last Sehenswürdigkeiten for us in Münster before we headed to Hbf, we need some sugar intake so we bought a doughnut which I’m sure can caused us diabetes, chocolates everywhere haha anyway, imo, Münster is good! I like it!
Our physic was dead tired but there was one more mental examination for both of us! The journey is not over yet haha. Ahmed train were 5 minutes earlier. Mine was RB 89 but the train on my Gleis is written RB 69 I thought it will move and my train will come but 3 mins prior my departure time this RB 69 still there okay so I asked the passenger inside if this train will stop at Hamm as I have to change there and take other train from Hamm to Dortmund, they said yes hmmm then the name on the screen and on my App was wrong, naja egal, this RB 69 will take me to Hamm anyway.
I reached Hamm as planned, then I saw on the screen it’s my RB to Dortmund and the train already in the Gleis. I saw den Schaffner outside but I didn’t bother to ask, I jumped right in and so was he. He asked me to show my ticket, I did it and he said that I need to buy a new ticket because this one is invalid but why? Because the train that I took was an IC train! He was so angry and said “my colleague will come and you must buy a new one, you can ask me before but you just jump in” Oh gosh relax! it’s not that I rode without a ticket yo! and I asked him if this train go to Dortmund? and he didn’t reply, damn! I didn’t see any Dortmund on the screen and I don’t want to go to meet other passenger because I was waiting for his colleague, I don’t want he to think “oh this Asian lady is a free-rider blablabla”
What makes me more nervous is my battery already 18% and I texted Ahmed to find out where this train will takes me! I felt that my train was getting slower at least 3 times but it didn’t stop! And Ahmed cannot find my IC train from the Apps, perhaps it’s gone from Berlin or somewhere so he cannot track it anymore. I was total total total nervous, I don’t want to go to other direction on Saturday and how can I find the right train without my phone und so weiter und so forth!
It was only 10 minutes but it feels like an ewigkeit! haha When the trains really getting slow and I saw people started to stand up then I got ready to go out and tell Ahmed what is the name of the station and when I saw “Dortmund Hbf” oh my all the stress were dropped hahaha! Even Ahmed was stressed too hahaha
Thank you Ahmed for not only joining my Münster Trip that broke our feet apart haha but also joining my mental panic attack 🙂
Have a good time back in Egypt and see you when you come back to Germany again! Next trip is waiting!
Next, I embraced myself to a city that took 3 hours away from Dortmund which is called Koblenz and why is that? Because Moni has a cousin there, she said “my cousin will be so happy to meet you, you will fit for each other” okay then, say no more! I’m omw 😀
Her cousin name is Aleja and she looks exactly like Moni haha! btw I’m not the only one, Moni’s boyfriends JP also said the same, he told me if I go to Mexico and meet all the relatives of Moni they all looks the same haha
The transportation in small city like Koblenz is not convenient, if I miss the bus then I will have to wait for 30 mins P.S this is for morning, in the not so evening which is after 18:00 bus will only come every hour that is why I have to walk more than 5km from Hbf to her place and I have to pass der Friedhof iiiiii spooky but I manned up! managed to reach her home and had a low connection video call with Moni and JP because they were on the beach! while we were on a rainy cold German summer >.<
I have never slept like a baby before, I think one of the reason is Ale’s curtain is the black out type that block all the sunshine haha I didn’t even realized it was raining outside so I wait until the rain is acceptable to take the bus and explore the city!
The city is so small and all tourist attractions are located next to each other, what a definition of perfectooo 🙂 I like the Alte Burg, Jesuitenplatz and churces.
And of course the main main main attractions is the Deutsches Eck! where Rhine and Mosselle river meets in the middle.
Not so far from the German Corner, there is a Biergarten, church and a cable car to one of the castle and of course I took it! On the way back I chose to sit on cable car number 17 because they have a part in the middle which made from glass so I can see what’s under me…. which is obviously the river 🙂
During my visit to the castle, rain starts to pour down but it didn’t stop me from enjoying it, I visited the museum for child. This museum is really really interesting, there are games, stamps collection station and was full of colors! Of course there’s a lot of kids but I don’t care, I have a traumatic childhood, they need to wait for me until I finish the game and collect those 8 stamps!
I had so much fun, I even don’t bother to check if it still rained or not and when it stops, this is the time for me to go out and finish my castle’s tour 🙂 The Deutsches Eck view from top of the castle is amazing! Mir gefällt es!
After my whole day tour, I reunited again with Aleja and her friends, Paula and Pamela, we had a Mexican dinner, ice cream, meet a funny statue and walk around in the city center.
Only Pamela came around one month ago while Aleja and Paula came almost the same time with me, maybe a few months earlier. So we all came during Corona time and travel was a bit hard back then but now I know they haven’t been to Dortmund yet, why not next time they stay with me 🙂 must be so much fun for us to travel together, I make sure I have my Indonesian chili sauce for Pamela 🙂
Koblenz definitely got a Marlynapproved stamp! I like it, it’s such a cute small city even they have a statue for #thumbs up! cool, eh?!
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!
Who cares about black pink when you have MarPink?! haha For one weekend, out of nowhere I got a vibe of wearing pink, it’s not that I don’t like pink colors before, I like it on a shirt or in some accessories such as bags but I never really wear a pink pants…hmmm… but ever since I arrived Germany, my pink hormones increases, I brought with me a pale pink hand bag and a backpack that I bought from Amazon.de, yes it’s .de instead of .com bitchesssss! 😉 and it was a gray-black with a soft touch of pink, so let’s do some pink colors!
First day of my pink pants, I wore it when I went to Phoenix-See, it is not a sea but it’s more like a lake and just a relax place to go. I went to Dortmund Hoerde and found the place is so beautiful, the buildings are colorful and surprise surprise it matched with my color 😉
Julia told me that behind the Phoenix-See there are a very expensive houses where famous Dortmund football player lives…well well well, now that I knew, I will come back to behind of the Phoenix-See to find out if I ever met a famous football player there!
On the weekend, I decided to go to Hohensyburg because that popped out on my google maps, the place is rather far from where I live like one hour away by bus but I have nothing to do anyway so why don’t I just explore.
On the way there, it was only 3 people left on the bus, we passed a field with horses and so on, all the bus stop before Syburg were located out of nowhere just on the side of the street, I was so sure that my bus was correct and mentioned Syburg as the end station but still a bit nervous especially when the people are getting less and less. But, I arrived anyway at Syburg and I saw a bit of a life such as many restaurants, hotels and people, then I was relief…. fiuh…
I kept walking for 450 meters up to the hill, basically where everyone was going and I found this hidden gems on top of the hill 😉
The view, the park and the weather was amazing, but my stomach were calling and there were only 2 stalls, one for sweets and the other for drinks so I ordered myself a waffle and an Apfelschorle 😉
It made me have enough energy to do one more round of this before I went to Kaisar statue which only 200 meters away haha
In between my 200 meters distance, there are a park where you can play something such as badminton, frisbee, chess whatever, I remember when I was a child me and sister went to a hotel and there was a big big chess statue, and now many years later I see it again! only this time it was smaller but still it brings back the memory 🙂
Then I arrived to the statue of the Kaisar and the view from there is amazing with the lake and stuff, good choice Kaisar!
However, I still wonder about the house of famous Dortmund player so I went there once again 🙂 it felt so good yet so weird that such a famous person will have a house that is not guarded by the police or anything like in the Beverly hills or 90210, it feels as if both me and him could walk on the same “garden” or “path” this is actually a very interesting concept.
The houses indeed are super big and beautiful…. unfortunately, I don’t meet any of them due to some reason such as exhibit a, I didn’t know any Dortmund football player and exhibit b, if they appear the crowd would go mad but they were chill so…. no famous people around 😉 but it was still a chill and relaxing weekend after all.
I wonder what my next color will be, #i’m thinking….
