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Kann ja nicht alles unter einen Hut bekomme

One of our dear food nerds friend, Thomas, is getting married in Franzin Alm. The Nerdies featuring Claudia + Giovanni, Sara + Diego, Fiona, Christian will be there, what a nice Shanghai reunion <3

A little bit of history background, I knew Thomas in year 2016, we became close somewhere in 2018 with new people like Claudia & Giovanni + Sara. In 2019 the Wechat group Food Nerds was established, not long after that, Diego joined Sara in Shanghai, followed by Christian then Fiona to the group. Why food nerds? because we do nothing other than eating, especially our weekly ritual Bar Centrale every Sunday for Buy 1 Get 1 Free Pizza + happy hour Aperol Spritz. To this day, I am actually biased of what made us come often to Bar Centrale, is the Pizza that good? or the money deal is undeniable? Long story short, we knew each other for some time.

That is why when I got a text from Thomas about his wedding, I am really happy for him 🙂 I’ll make sure I’ll be there!

Prior to the wedding there are many discussions on both Wechat & WhatsApp group regarding what will we do for the couple. The core members of both groups are the same ~ meaning I only know us the Nerdies, there are some other new people too that I haven’t even met. With bigger crowds come bigger discussion, many ideas thrown out yet not a concrete one.

The classics one was always a slide show presentation about our time in Shanghai, that is why “someone” asked for a photo to be uploaded in a google link. I have a lot of photos from me and Thomas, we were friends for years. Additionally, I visited Thomas in Bolzano in 2020, obviously I have many selfies.

Had to mentioned, I have never met Janine before, so does other people. It is common some people in the group only know one side, either they are friends of Thomas or Janine. Few people actually friends with both as they first met in 2021. Some factors weigh in such as the famous Corona lockdown makes it harder for larger group to gather around.

Little did I knew, “someone / he” mistakenly took me as Janine! due to the reason, he never met neither me nor Janine! I think I’m the only one who sent a lot of selfie with Thomas on the google drive. Then, I realized he wasn’t make the classic slide show, he made a hat! for us to wear on the wedding dance floor! A hat with my selfie + a lot of hearts…it’s a funny hat for me, not sure what would the newlyweds think!

How did I found out about this hat?

During dessert time, I was talking with Thomas’ brother Philip then Rickard put something on my head. It must be a hat, what else can it be? I didn’t think it was THAT HAT! I thought a hat from PhotoBox. I utter the word “ah what kind of hat are you putting me on” Philip replied “a very nice one” took it out from my head, I WAS SHOCKED! directly hide it under the table, no no no no, you can’t do this to me, breath breath breath! Philip didn’t know the background story. I told Philip what “the hat creator” told me, according to him, he asked photos from Janine & Thomas. I misunderstand it as “please send me a photo of you with Thomas or you with Janine” Philip laughed, he said, let me see the hat, give it to me.

I really didn’t want the hat to spread around, I have never met Janine before, I don’t know how she will react. Started with Philip, it created a chain of information. Now it is to Diego, to Sara, to Claudia, to Giovanni. Giovanni said “give it to me Marlyn, I need to see it” Claudia cut it “no, not now, after the wedding. Don’t give it to him Marlyn, it’s dangerous if he has it”. When Manuel see on the ‘storage room’ there are a lot of these hats packed in a poly bag, I freaked out, ran, closed the door, put all the hat into the Koffer, no no no no this can’t be. The Nerdies were just laughing, they all said “I want to have one of it”

My hat was hid perfectly well on the pocket of my jacket, others I put it inside the Koffer. So far so good, no one needs to know other than the Food Nerds + Philip + Manuel.

The wedding party went smoothly, food after food, cakes after cakes, first dance, party started!! we were all having fun….until…. the hat reveals itself, boah I can assure you, all food nerds were flabbergasted! there was a brief moment where I locked in eyes with Claudia on the opposite side, our jaws dropped to the floor before burst into laugh. You can see on the video, Giovanni hasn’t stop laughing! The reason why I was shaken was…. how did Janine found out? who’s giving it to her?

Now the cats are out from the bag, no secret anymore! haha we all can wear the hats! Diego said “Marlyn, whoever from us married next, we will make a hat with your face and the guy’s face on it” The Nerdies hats are special, we have Thomas & Janine signed on it. Thomas has one with my name written on it. He said, when you are getting married, I don’t care if I’m invited or not, I will come with the hat and ask your guy to sign it as well, I will tell him “See, I have been there before” hahaha

After the wedding, some guess put the hat on the lobby area, hey! don’t throw it away! Luckily, the hotel receptionist approached Claudia to asked “is this belong to your party?” “Yes” “do you know the person on the hat?” “Yeeessss!” so now Claudia has two!

Sara, Diego & Fiona stayed a few days after the wedding, they did hike together with the hats! oh God! this hat really will go everywhere! They won’t let it go easily.

Perhaps we will wear it all together when we meet again, Oktoberfest hey? See you all soon nerdies! don’t forget about our hats!

FYI, now that I’m calm down, I scrolled the chat, he didn’t specifically mentioned Janine AND Thomas, not like what he told me on the wedding day. He and his wife told me because they never met Janine before that’s why they asked in the group to send a picture of both Thomas AND Janine. They said “And you send your selfie, so we print it” Nope, no prove of you saying that word ‘AND’. The whole time I thought I misunderstand them, I wasn’t! They fucked up then they wanted to throw the shit out of me, not gonna happen brother, I backed up by Janine humorous personality.

Well…. sometimes mistake must happen in order to know the real character of the person, I’m relieve Janine took it as a jokes 🙂 it could potentially be really schief gegangen, thank you for not letting it go south.

Love you Food Nerds! Happy Wedding Thomas & Janine, thank you Janine for being a fun individual!

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Wheels Keeps Turning – Part 2

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/

These are the photos they used:

Where would I see myself next? Spoiler:

Show me, Slovenia 😉

Happy to read his message, can’t wait to see it!

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Wheels Keeps Turning

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

#Ready for another call again!

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Wheels Has Turn – Revelation

Are you ready for it? #Rookie Swiftie 😉

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

Found it!

https://www.dortmund.de/dortmund-erleben/

Wonder what was my answer to the question: Fühlst du dich als Dortmunderin? -> Auf jeden Fall! 🙂

Left my Herz here <3

Blog about our photo shooting: Wheels Has Turn

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Je suis Susi – Part 4

Susi will be my niece’s nickname for a long time, it suits her well #Stay with Susi.

Their final destination is Frankfurt Airport, distance from Colmar to Frankfurt is a bit too far, too much car seat time for Susi. Therefore Sissy and Schwager spontaneously decided to stop at Baden-Baden – stay one night in Heidelberg – next morning Frankfurt Airport.

Susi woke up just in time for Schwager to make an exit from the Highway to Baden-Baden. Priority: Susi!

DM has a baby changing corner, complete with wipes and diapers sizes. From all the sizes on the below shelf available, of course Susi’s size was empty!

Credits needs to be given though, it’s my first time seeing a changing station in DM #Thumbs up.

After Susi has changed, we were more relax for sightseeing and lunch.

We walked passed one museum, making fun of the Peaky FUCKING Blinders! #Arthur’s voice. The fans would know it, the Faberge Egg’s scene.

We were very happy at Baden-Baden, not sure why? maybe just because the name is Baden-Baden 😉 we stayed there longer than we planned. Jumping on the stones, visit the church, had ice cream- I ordered Casis, don’t do it, when in doubt, chose Hazelnut #Sissy wejangan.

Suits ourselves, continue drive to Heidelberg. It was a Saturday afternoon, Heidelberg was packed, I meant packed packed PACKED PACKED!!! I still didn’t do the justice of how packed it was. People everywhere, all parking place were full so full to the point we were waiting on the line to get into the Parkhaus. One car out from the Parkhaus = one car move in from our line and so on.

What do we do while waiting? called our Hotel to ask if they have a Parking Place. The receptionist asked under which name the rsvp was made. Only for us to hear “I can’t find your name, please just come here and we will sort it out”

In the meantime Schwager check his mails, we booked the wrong date! Let’s just carry Susi with Björn, go to Hotel maybe they have free room for tonight.

All three we went, no free room. We asked her if there is something today, to this she answered, “nothings happening, it’s just normal Heidelberg on a weekend”

Me and Schwager went to few hotels & restaurants nearby asking if they have a room: zero squared. Only then we realized our attempt to stays at Heidelberg crashed in front of our eyes. It was a sea of Menschen, impossible to find a hotel here.

Let’s make a cut, quit Heidelberg, snap some pictures here as our hotel was exactly on the city center, this is the only chance we got haha so we could say we already went to Heidelberg 😉 The focus at this moment is to find a new hotel for tonight somewhere else. Get out from the Hype-Heidelberg.

Schwager kept driving on the highway direction of Frankfurt. We will passed few cities beforehand. When we read some name like Weinheim, Heppenheim, Bensheim, search on Google- Hotel.

I felt like a Detective in the movie, with 3 phones + 1 GPS looking which directions should we go, should Schwager took an Exit to any Heims-City or keep going. I said the hotel name, Schwager put it on the GPS, responded “no it’s another direction” next, next, next we were like that for def under an hour, although at that time it feels like forever. We do have Stau so Schwager can type something on the GPS.

The call was always “Hallo, wir sind 3 Erwachsene und 1 Baby. Haben Sie zufällig heute ein Zimmer frei?” always got replied “Nein, tut mir leid” fuck fuck fuck! No, don’t take exit on Weinheim as there is no hotel anyway, keep on the lane to next city, Heppenheim. Sissy entertaining Susi or keep feeding her banana. The stakes are high, we all knew the moment Susi cries it’s game over.

We kept driving directionless or we gonna end up at Ashley and Ongky’s couch haha I swear if it’s only 3 of us, without a doubt we would slept on the car, doesn’t really matter, go to a restaurant, use the facilities, we already got spot in the Parkhaus anyway, next morning go to Frankfurt Airport earlier to use their shower room. Since it’s not possible, keep focus!

Just to add some tension, the Benzin could only fit for 60km left. AHA! icing on the cake #face palm. It’s getting dark too hahaha strike after strike after strike, give it full gas to our last day. Relax? what’s that? #Hold my beer.

First priority sofar is unfruitful hotel searching, now our second priority is catching up with our first’s, which is to find the Tankstation. Took an exit, fuel some Benzin, next to it there is a McD, Sissy said “let’s sit down, we need to eat something”

We were not really a big fans of McD but at this point we were already desperado haha

We were still calling many hotels near by to no avail. We know we needed to be in big cities. It’s logic, no way in hell all hotels in big cities are full. The situation now is Susi still happy, we all are full, we are secured. The -Heims are small cities maybe the kind of hotel was family own which only have 4 rooms, that could be one of the reason.

Schwager called one last hotel in Darmstadt, hole in one! We got direction on where to go, finally! Now I look back realizing of how calm we were actually. We were just in disbelief or denial phase but not panic since we all aware there will always be a hotel for us, it’s just how far should we drive. What the hell is happening on this Saturday, is it Oktoberfest? yes it’s the very first day of Oktoberfest but we are not in Münich, why would be the reason of this full-ness?

Btw if you wonder how Susi was doing when we were unter der Druck setzen? She was soooo calm the whole damn time! didn’t scream, she even slept! that makes a loooottt easier. I was very very very proud of Susi for being so considerate as if she understood the situation.

Susi was so happy in the new, bigger hotel 🙂 Plaza Western PLUS you saved 4 asses that night! We will never forget you.

We slept so damn well, happy to have a refreshing shower in a big bathroom. Overall, this hotel is better anyway than the small hotel in Heidelberg.

Checked out is at 12, distance from Darmstadt to Frankfurt Airport was only 20 minutes. My luggage is already done, Sissy hasn’t finished hers. She can’t find her legginggggg yet it’s already time to check out. In order to not get a late check out fee, we just checked out first the re-open Sissy’s Koffer in the lobby haha! Schwager started moving Susi’s travel cot or some other Kram to the car on by one. I played with Susi, meaning: Susi is eating my handy case while in return I got Susi’s headphone. At some point I ask “why Susi only wear diapers?” “Where is her pants?” the hectic has taken all of us, here wear the yellow one! Now we all are decent.

Off to Frankfurt Airport. We were all in one toilet in Baby Room in Airport until we got a knock haha All in! It takes a village 🙂 It was amazing that I met them 3X within one month, always come and go, one weekend, next week and one full week. It was so hard to be parted with this kleine Mote since she’s very menggemazkan hhmmmm.

I witnesses the moment she articulate Papa, Dada, played “hide and seek”, peekabo, screaming, number 2, mingkem, cengegesan. So many once in my lifetime memories created and stored innerhalb der kurzen Zeit I have with small Susi. Next time I see you, you’ll be already able to walk, will be very seru!

Big big big thank you for Sissy and Schwager to include me on their trip. I’ve seen + been on tons places because of you. We had so so so much indescribable fun, I’m very happy 😀

Danke – Merci – Terimakasih – 谢谢

么么哒 Kuss

May the force be with our for our upcoming trips

#When you know, you know 😉

https://www.flaticon.com/free-icons/salami

https://www.flaticon.com/free-icons/breastfeeding

https://www.flaticon.com/free-icons/file-device-driver

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Wheels Has Turn

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!

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Marlyns Spectacles

Small Iceland bitches reunion! Why small? because the big reunion happened back in April for a Tulip festival where unfortunately I was Corona positive one day before the trip, thus I missed it. Where? In a theme park in Germany called Europa Park! One important truth in life, bitch always comes unexpectedly, one of our friend broke her legs about one week before the trip causing her not to be able to drive 🙁

Feel threatened that even this plan will fail…. I stayed silence during the whole discussion if the girls will still keep it, who will drive and so on. I am the only one that lives in Germany, obviously I still want to go, I can take the train therefore they don’t need to count me in on their car’s space. Odds are in my favor, my bold bitch Irina make sure the plan still on! yaiss girl! you rocks!

They started around 3PM from Amsterdam, picked me up in Köln Hbf around 18:30, arrived in Rust at 00:15, all done by Irina. While Me and Lina slept on the car, Tereza and her keep awake all the time, that is respect yo!

Mind you, I just came back from Milan, whole day on the way, arrived at the hotel at 00:15, they put our keys in the Briefkasten. My brain literally was no where near functioning, grabbed two envelopes, didn’t even bother to ask why there are two, opened one of them, took out the card key, saw the number, okay let’s go to room number 10.

Beep! door opened, saw two shoes, “oh girls I think they haven’t clean the room” to my surprise there is a girl at the bed! She was for sure shock as well however she still managed to politely say “Hi! I think you are in the wrong room”….. hmmm, my spirit starting to come back one by one….I couldn’t even remember what I replied her, should be somewhere along the line…. “how do you know?” “it’s not your name” heeee? she continued “it’s my name on the envelope” first I was amazed she can read her name written on the envelope from that 2 meter-ish distance, second my whole spirit were already back at my body, “oh I’m really sorry, I didn’t check the name” “can you please put the key back?” “yes, I will, good night! bye” We were laughing like wtf, how come the Germans put all the keys in one Briefkasten! Imagine if I’m a bad person! Irina was also puzzled when she said “it’s not your name?” well, how do you know my name? haha Little did I knew, Lina or who else I don’t know had the correct envelope with our name written on it, we were totally at the wrong floor at the wrong room at the wrong time haha the circle of mistakes couldn’t be more round than this #facepalm

We found where we should belong, into our family room (4 beds in one), arranged ourselves to rest, had a really long day #snooze out zzz zzz

Breakfast done, drove to Europa Park, the weather was bad at the beginning, but it gets better during our day there.

We literally just enter the park only to found out that I already dead! #dead inside

We tried the attractions that doesn’t have a long queue first, I thought we just need to sit down but nope we need to pedal the bicycles so it moves faster! we didn’t believe Irina at first when she said we need to pedal after few minutes of confirmation she said “let’s go bitch, don’t tell me you didn’t move faster when you pedal” woah what an exercise in the morning.

We did Moulin Rounge together then we got separated because Lina and Irina doesn’t want to ride Silver Star whereas on the opposite side, me and Tereza were waiting in line for first row! the feeling was amaaazzzinnggg!!!

We had lunch at a restaurant called Food Loop simply because they will deliver us our order via a roller coaster thingy, see this pictures and videos so cute eh!

From the website it’s written they closed at 18:00 near the closing time, we took the deceiving no waiting line roller coaster, yes no waiting line because we come out wet like wet! Credit to German efficiency, directly after we came out there is a dryer machine 🙂

Seeing people still walking around, we took one more attraction, not roller coaster, just the one where our job was to sit and enjoy the view. We could finally relax because at this point I already have a back pain haha #getting old, the struggle is real.

This Europa Park imo is very much interesting than Disneyland or Universal Studios because the place itself is not so big anyhow they really maximized all the usage, all attractions are close to each other, there are toilets everywhere. It’s not like Disney where you need to wait in line for each attraction followed by wait in line for the toilets. The attractions itself are more for adults, there are of course kids and family suitable roller coaster. We know the character of Disney and Universal studios more but Europa Park just like the name, we are in Spanish part, Italian part, Greece part, or the animal “character” that they used is like dinosaurs etc.

So, if you want to be in the whole Europe, go to Europa Park haha

Check out day, I was the last one who use the bathroom, ready to had breakfast… until…. where is my glasses? where my damn glasses! Texted the ladies if by chance they saw it even though my second thought was “how could they?”

Sure as hell I couldn’t find it that time, anyway, went to had breakfast while all the 3 ladies moved around my bed, their bed, checked their bags, went to the car, talk to the receptionist etc (they had breakfast before me, I’m not acting like a diva here hihi)

OK. I was made to believe that I lost it in the park pfffffff I still have my sunglasses though, it has prescriptions too. We were doing some sightseeing in a French city near the border of Germany, called Alsace-Riquewihr. As you can see from the pictures, we didn’t see the sun (aka ‘was raining), nevertheless, I’m wearing it haha!

When in France, have a pancakes….. don’t forget ciders! We versehen Cider at the drink menu, we all ordered Apfelschorle or sth like that, luckily Tereza saw it combined with Irina speaks French, so we all get our beloved ciders 🙂

After that Irina drove me back again to Köln, not a surprise DB got delayed so my arrival at home is the same as their arrival in Amsterdam haha! so severe ehhhhh. In the middle of no energy left, loaded my clothes to the washing machine when out of the sudden a booster energy erupted, there’s my glasses!!!

The trip that ended happily 🙂 just like driving back to Köln after Riquewihr, all through the rainbow.

I am really glad to see you again, yes you bitch with the addition of my new two bitchessss 😀 you’re the best!

#GGI

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Little Rascal

Nordwest has an internal magazine that published maybe only 3 to 4 times a year named TeamGeist, the purpose of it is to let us know what is happening with all employees (at least that’s what I thought), when someone get married, a baby is born they can send the picture to the redaction team, new colleagues or what Nordwest has done during that period of time.

One of the example is this Family Day in May

Somewhere in May I got an email from one of our TeamGeist’s team, asking if I’m willing to have an interview telling my story about how I get to Germany. Yaiiissss was my answer 🙂 whether there will be someone who wants to listen or in this case read my story that’s a different things but for me, I am for sure willing to do it 😉 Not to lie, I was a bit nervous. The interview went for an hour, Sophie was very professional, she pushed the record button with an announcement “the interview starts in 3…2…1”

Life goes on for some time until Sophie finished her draft then asked for my confirmation. One day, Esther came to me said “There is a full page of you with your photo in the next TeamGeist” what? where? how do you know? She’s got an access to proofread the magazine first but didn’t show it to me nor to anyone else.

By middle of September, Sophie said “I think it should be issue in September, it won’t be long”

Few minutes before Mittagspause, the email I’ve been waiting for this whole time arrived!

Being a little rascals, I bloody make sure everyone stop what they are doing to read that specific email! Scroll scroll scroll, find myself there!!!

I am become TeamGeist advertiser for sure that whole week, “have you read TeamGeist page 12-13” with an intonation which has a sounds more like a statement instead of a question 😉

I was too excited to not read the whole sentence from the email so I didn’t know they still print it until I saw it in our Cantine, ofc you know what will I do, definitely took a couple of it!

Need to spread it to my family back home yo! One I’ll put it in my Opa’s shelfs that he considered as an achievement, not his own’s rather his children and grand children. I’ll make sure this magazine stands between thesis’ collections, graduations picture, a picture where my sister shake hands with our President #yes this TeamGeist is at the same level with all of those 😉 I’m your only grandchild that made it to bloody Europe heyyy besides that magazine will be the only one that’s written in German, although it wasn’t me who wrote it…. in my opinion…. that’s something needs to be count…#still!

I mentioned I took a couple exemplar didn’t I? Well, I’ll hang it on my wall too, make sure everyone who comes to my home sees it 🙂 Yes! this is what happened when I’m the topic of it, Werbung ohne Ende haha

This TeamGeist edition is full of the people that I want! Julia and Moritz wedding picture is there plus their Baby Milo!

Thank you Sophie for choosing to write a story about me <3

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The “Nightmare” Before Christmas

HO HO HO this Santa Claus laugh almost changed to Hu Hu Hu or Hiks Hiks Hiks crying voice for me hahahaha I really need to have some drama juussttttt before Christmas to make this movie title more real in life haha 😉

It all started with the very not prepare trip from my side, me and my family will meet up in Maldives for Christmas and then we will move to Bangkok and Phuket until beginning of January. My part was buy ticket for myself, going to Maldives and return from Phuket, my sister bought the middle part which is Maldives to Bangkok and Bangkok to Phuket. She will take bus from Canberra to Sydney, and then flight from Sydney to Singapore and Singapore to Maldives. My parents will take flight from Jakarta to Singapore and Singapore to Maldives. I think both me and my sister are getting lazy to check each other so we just gooooooo and when I was otw to airport I texted her to send me the other flight ticket, but she only sends me flight ticket from Bangkok to Phuket and she send it twice so she thought she also already send me the Maldives to Bangkok one and then maybe she went to sleep right after due to she’s been travelling far enough hahaha.

And when I was waiting to check in I just suddenly think “hmmmm do I need visa to transit in Sri Lanka?” and I checked on the internet and for Indonesian they need to have the travel authorization….I’m not sure about transit though…. therefore I called AGGY! haha but she didn’t pick up the phone and the waiting line got shorter and shorter and I panicked haha she was on the Christmas Eve party so of course she won’t check her phone so I texted on the group “Aggy! Pick up the phone!” hahaha the panic side of me started to use every way to be able to reach her. But she was able to calm me down by saying as far as she knew, it was only Canada that needed visa even for transit, so fiuhhh okay. First drama finished 🙂

Second drama started when the check in counter guy didn’t let me check in because I don’t have the flight out of Maldives. And I can’t call my sister using WA so I called my mom using wechat but she didn’t pick up *nervous stage 1. Then I called Aggy again to ask if she can call my dad’s Indonesian number unfortunately her phone cannot do that but since she was on a party so I asked her “can you ask somebody from the party if anyone can do that?” and she just shout “does anyone of you can make international call?” and someone saidd yes! and that someone was Hutch! yeayyy! Then I got another report from Aggy “the number is not valid” whoaaaaa *nervous stage 2! I gave her my father’s other number and she tried again but still 0 answer.

Thorben asked me “what is going on?” sorry bro, your little sister is in the middle of something! hahaha. Then I asked Gordy to call my sister on WA but she still didn’t pick up and his phone will run out of battery soon so he cannot call my sister anymore! *nervous stage 3. In the meantime while me, Aggy and Gordy kept calling my family member, the other Indian passenger looked at me and asked am I OK and I said NO! how do I look like OK hahaha I asked him “can you do international phone call?” and he said yes! sooo….the last candidate that I called using an Indian guy’s phone was…..my sister’s boyfriend hahaha! It was maybe 2AM in Australia but yeah I’m in panic hahaha and obviously he didn’t pick up either *facepalm.

In the end it was 23:07 and there was a ticketing guy that said “maybe you can buy again the ticket” I was like duhhhh! why I didn’t think of that! hahaha so I said to the check in counter guy that I will buy a new ticket and come back to you, and he said “but you need to do it latest 11:20 otherwise you will be late” and I ran with this ticketing guy to the counter ticket and I said “please buy me the cheapest ticket as I won’t use it anyway” hahahaha and then voilaaaaa! the additional ticket was printed, and I ran through the immigration. The immigration was only 1 opened and there was 2 people infront of me I felt like rrrgghhhhh this is just like in the movie “in time” when you just keep running otherwise you’ll running out of time and then security check and gate! woghhhh I finished the security check just in time when they start boarding…fiuhhh such an exercise on Xmas Eve 😉

Time to report then to everyone hahaha I called Aggy again to say that I’m safe now and because she’s my big sister she’s also panic and she texted my father saying “Hi this is Marlyn’s friend. Please ask your first daughter to call your second daughter” hahaha thanks God she didn’t mention anything about the ticket to my father 😉 otherwise it will be a longggg lecture about how to do travel preparation blah blah blah hahaha #sorry dad! I learned from my lesson, next time I will print every flight ticket and hotel reservations! *determined emoji.

I said to Thorben that I just started a TV soap opera involving Aggy but of course he wouldn’t understand so I called him to explain haha what so not German I am. And then I texted Gordy to said that I finally boarding and I saw the Indian guy again and he was glad that I made it to the plane haha I also said thanks to him.

After that I still asked Aggy can you do me the travel authorization for Sri Lanka, I give you my passport info hahaha and she said “no it’s too late, you will arrive in the morning anyway” hahaha true though and she said “how could you…” with 3 dots haha 3 dots is the official way to say that she doesn’t have any more words to say to me anymore mwahaha sorry sister! I’m in panic 😉

On the bright side…..seems this “nightmare” only happened before Christmas because now is Christmas day wohoooo! and the flight went really well, the service from Srilankan Airlines was really good, they continuously gave me water while I watched the movie without even me asking for it, they have a very tasty small biscuits and the cutest animation of the flight 😉 and I sat on the aisle just in front of the bathroom so I don’t need to wait in the line for going to the loo…nice!!!

My university friends called me 麻烦玲 (my chinese name is 李房玲-Li Fang Ling) they said because I 经常给人家麻烦 (often bother other people) hahaha and it might be right at this point, but ONLY this point 😉

Then I arrived Sri Lanka, transit and fly to Maldives.  And while on transit, my sister replied to me saying “I’ve already sent you the ticket” and I said “both of them was from Bangkok to Phuket” and she said “F#!k me” hahaha but it’s OK now the situation is under coonnntrooollllll 😉 besides, if nothing happened the night before Xmas, I won’t have this story anyway 😉

Now, everything went well, I arrived first and in next 3 hrs my sister and parents arrive so I treat myself by relaxing on the lounge, taking shower, have some snacks and life is good again! hahaha not that it was bad before, not at all but at least I can chill now 😉

Marlyn already chill

Besides, there is no movie called Nightmare during or after Christmas right? hahaha

😉