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It’s Me, Hi!

I’ve got my first visitor ever from the Hungover Games, yeay! finally can show the city I called home for the past… ehem…. 4 years 5 months 21 days #Still counting ~ till the day Dennis arrived. I really needed this day-off more than anything therefore I was genuinely happy he visited me 🙂

On his first day, I showed him what Dortmund has to offer, which are: our version of 南京西路, instead of having 外滩 at the end, we went to Ubahn Station to visit our second destination, Dortmunder U. Dennis, the U is from the Dortmunder, not from the U-Bahn 的 U.

They offer free Museum entrance, it has two floors with quiet interactive videos or “sounds” instalation if we press the very well hidden button. At first we were confused on where does the sounds come from until the security told us then we proceed with moving our asses from one button to the next haha

There is a room where they explained about one specific painting, how they transported it around Europe. While we looked around Dennis realized “oh this is the real box”.

Dennis wanted to have a magnet of Dortmund, I brought him to BVB Fanwelt. When we’re done we went back to the Ubahn Station where I almost brought him to the wrong direction. He said “Darling, we just went straight, did you already forget when I said ‘such a nice path’?” haha

Off again to our version of 南京西路 to have coffee at Maximilian. Once recharged, continued our daytrip to Phoenix See, it is always good to show the manmade lake alongs with the big houses from rich Dortmunder. Closed the day by having dinner at Mukii. We weren’t convinced if we want to have All You Can Eat, our response was: are we gonna able to eat more than 36 Euros? Dennis answered, “well, we will make sure we reach it!” It was like a fun and strategic eating, in order to reduce food waste, we can only order 8 dishes within 10 minutes.

We formulated so many strategy such as “okay maybe not all rice, let’s do some skewers” Followed by “let’s have snacks like Edammame” Done it. No matter how perfectly our plan in the brain, the executing was a bit difference. After 3 full rounds, the Ipad will be unlocked within 10 seconds, Dennis said “Darling, we need to order again” Boahhh…. were really full. In the end we can only eat full of 4,5 rounds, they did forget one menu which we were so greatful #Thanks God!

On his second day, I do HO whereas he went to Düsseldorf, only to come back ontime to see our Proud Dortmund: Signal Iduna Stadion. Hainka picked us up at my place, we went to the Schwimmbad not for schwimmen, only to gangged up with his friend before the game started. Okay, this is the moment, moving on to inside the Stadion. We were there one hour before kick off, they have the Camera shot to audiences, I realized they shot our area but I didn’t see myself. Dissappointed…. no more! the camera rolled once again. Hiiiii, it’s me! me me me me, here! 😀

We did felt the Euphoria for 3 seconds before BVB Goal was considered as Offside 🙁 Nevertheless, it was a good experience, at least I was on the screen! although it’s not for people outside the Stadion, yet it’s good enough for my existence 😉

Tausend Dank für Hainka and Kowal um Ticket zu besorgen, 谢谢 Dennis for being my guest #Till we meet again 🙂

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Cruellnah de Vil

I am a very active Instagram user which brings me to Nicolas’ story, one day he post something in die Richtung of showing his plan to visit Europe, replied “which part?” with a lingering hope it could be Germany. My wish came true, Berlin it is! Never have I ever book DB Bahn so quickly, gotta catch him there #Mission.

He arrived Thursday morning while I was on evening however we didn’t meet until Saturday lunch time. I was staying at Maria’s apartment, did home office on Friday as I only have one day-off left this year. I really don’t have any plan other than meet him 😀 To my knowledge there will only be him + Rick + Sebastian. When I arrived at Scheers Schnitzel this is the exact order of who I saw: Sebastian, Nick, Rick, Anderson, Davide? Whattttt?!?! there are more people??? I don’t mind at all, to the opposite it was a nice surprise! I knew Anderson & Davide from Shanghai but we never really talk much, I’m so glad we had this opportunity! Thank you Nick!

Turns out, there were 19 of them! haha The birthday boy Ty who played archery regularly after Covid hence I didn’t get to know him at all #Rookie vs OG a.k.a us 😉 On the table where I sit there was a new friend called Mischa. In summarize our table were Archery + Mischa, well…. Sebastian is not in Archery ~ he is Nick’s brother #Same same but different.

Then Ty came out to us, casually asking me if I would come to the party, I replied awkwardly “I do not know I was allowed to join you” Being a friendly OZ “Yes, you can come of course” Definitely I’m in. He said the theme party is Cruella de Vil. What?!?! There is a theme?!?! The guys said they would gonna wear nothing too far from black or white. I gotta be creative, had black shirt, need to mention they knew the matter for quiet some time, in addition we have Anderson, he’s always TOTAL. I must at least try to match them #FOMO.

After eating, we originally would go to the Wall Museum, until we realized they charged 14 Euro for entrance. Hell no! Sebs + Davide + me opposed to it, what could be a wall museum when the wall is literally outside and we have walked passed it? Sebs said “OK, if we are in a democracy they already lose the vote”.

Moving on to the board game cafe, apart from our Board Game King-Rick, none of us know much of it. We played Saboteur, Dopple OG + Dopple Animals which I don’t even know the name of each animal. Saboteur was really the fun game especially when we put our suspection to the wrong people. Sebs won all the game even though he barely know how to play anything, quote “it’s hard but I won so I don’t care” haha

During our game, Nick went back to his AirBnB. Nate wanted to go to some second hand shop for tonight’s ocassion. I wanted to go to Uniqlo, hearing that brand Davide was shocked “They have Uniqlo here? I miss that Brand so much!” Yes, the feeling is the same! I must buy another layer because I definitely not prepared for Berlin’s weather. Exactly on Aleksander Platz I found some property for tonight! Reported to Nick, saved for the partyyyyyyy. Doubt if I should wear the hat, had the temperature wasn’t that cold, I wouldn’t do it.

I went dinner with my friend Sunny then join them to “Süss war gestern” Club, Vicky will be there too! Yippii another Shanghai connection. Saw Nate near the entrance door, he immediately recognize my hat fits the essence of tonight’s celebration. I gave up my jacket, Nate said “take a picture of your number” doing it, Nick came out saying “hey, you stole my friend’s hat”.

We were quiet split up, don’t know where we were going. The guys keep saying “let’s go downstairs” Sebs replied “where is downstairs?” we were walking in circle, in theory we just need to look for stairs thats going down. How hard could it be? #Failed! stay where we were until close to midnight when that secret doors open, we finally went downstairs haha.

Where are the Cruella de Vil people?!?! They only wear normal black shirt and black jeans. There is no one, literrally no one with Cruella de Vil, not even Ty. Cruellnah de Vil it is! I’m the only one with the crazy hat that makes me looks like a Russian Tsar. Nick said it fits Mischa perfectly due to he was half Russian.

Davide loves my hat! Sebs commented “You’re hat is the best” Then Anderson said “I’d like to take picture of everyone with your hat”

No no, let’s say “Happy Birthday Ty” in our mother tounge with this hat. He agrees, who has a better iPhone? Nick was around us, thus he became the videographer.

Once we finished, Mischa had a brilliant idea: “we should go ask random people to do it too”. Split second to think, let’s do it, we are tourist anyway, they won’t remember us. It felt sooooo challenging to tap someone’s shoulder, asking “Hi where are you from? can you please do this for our friend?”

Then some of the groups going downstairs joining us, one girl said “it smells like a Pizza” I understood it as “do you want a Pizza?” “No I already eat” realized immediately we didn’t talk the same language, Mischa was laughing his ass off. Hey! it was a loud club of course I could get the wrong interpretation haha.

I wasn’t really planning to stay longer yet I did once they have Super Mario Bross!!!! The couple before me didn’t know how to play it gimme gimme gimme! The video didn’t do the justice 😉 I did get better after some screaming + concentrating + guidance from Rick on where to go #Efforts!

The other guys still continue, according to Nick until 5AM, hufff I need my beauty sleep, me and Rick went home perhaps at 01:00 max. Next day I went to their apartment, only Nick + Rick + Sebs were alive, the other were still sleeping, jetlag hit the OZs hard!

We played three card games, couldn’t remember what’s the game called, I prefer Rick’s card game other than the one from the Cafe. Sebs analyzed the game, asked can we only play these with 2 people? #We don’t have many friends. 100% Sebs! totally agree haha we need a board game where we can play with as less participants as possible 😉

One by one; a divers game which we do not like haha; we do like the 8 animals drinking water game, I was on fire when we weren’t played according to the house rule. On our last straw, we played monkey vs manager game where explanation regarding the meaning of “over-sell” really needed #Facepalm. Once Sebs took notes on his phone about what he thought his card is, we did the same. Rick was “guys, come on it’s not that hard” we didn’t even play the wild card where we can switch the fruits, no no no too many mathematics after a night out, we were not in our 20s anymore, our brain works differently now #Adulting.

My last day before I took my train back, we had dinner at Maximilians then walk to Tophography of Terror when I said “we need to have a picture to show exactly we were in Berlin” what else other than Check Point Charlie!

Thank you so much guys for the weekend! Keep posting so I can follow your next plan #Not a stalker! Just want to put it out there so everybody is conscious 😉

Speaking of hat, there’s always something happening between me & hat 😉 Kann ja nicht alles unter einen Hut bekomme

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Closing The Circle

Did I reach Adolphe Bridge? Still hasn’t reported that one didn’t I? Yes we did!

We saw the bridge, were walking on top of it but I want to be under the bridge, where is the entrance? crossed the road two times until Feli found some clue “I think the entrance is across this road as we can see the Zig Zag way” She was correct “see, see, not so hard to find, we did it” 😉

Right before we reach the other end of the bridge she said “let’s get out, I’m scared” I was surprised why? we were on the transparent glass tower before, in comparison, Adolphe Bridge is very robust #confused

I think if we keep walking this direction we will reach The Grund as we already at the bottom. We follow the road, find a skateboard ground, Feli pick a flower to what she claimed it’s a “wild flower” therefore it’s OK to pick, not a flower in front of Spuerkeess where she saw one lady grabbed it. Where is our lunch destination? Italian restaurant (again) hahaha! She was very dedicated to have Aperol Spritz although have to say the one she had wasn’t really the real Aperol.

We walked through the same route meaning passed a Cathedral, since it’s raining, I pay a visit. This Cathedral is famous for the paintings hanged in the wall. Continue our journey to city center, while looking a map, Feli remembered the road “oh here is right” she’s already a local after one day here.

We gathered with the guys in an Irish Pub down on the other side of the hill, to get to the bottom of Lukas’ stolen bag story #condolence. There we met with Tobias’ friend from “Ireland” Delia. We stayed until we finish watching Hurling final. After that we went for a billiard where we met Pedro and Delia’s friend from Taiwan, Daniel. The guys continuing their drinking activities while me and Feli went back to Ncim’s.

On the last day which is Monday, I had brunch with April and Leoni whereas Feli stayed in city center doing her last shopping, cafeing or caking. I spoke Mandarin to Leonie, received no reply, April said she speaks only Cantonese or Luxembourgish. Yves and his family also didn’t force Leonie to speak English, she is a real Luxembourgish in heart. April packed Leonie a lot of books, one of them is sticker books, she tear it off to stick it everywhere. This little Pizza is heavy! around 12 kg.

After brunch, it’s time for me to go back to Dortmund so we both went to Gare Centrale. April put Leonie into the stroller although Leonie can walk, she said it’s easier for her, if Yves is there then she let Leonie walk. We passed the fountain thingy, Leonie screamed 水水 we can actually stopped by to play with the water. To my suggestion, April said “I think it’s a bad idea” hahaha We saw a Boba Shop near the fountain, she missed 珍珠奶茶 so much, well… Feli is working at the Boba Tea Shop, I will get you 3* 珍珠奶茶 each day 🙂 Thank you so much April for spending the time to meet me. 珍珠奶茶 is waiting in Dortmund!

What else what else what else? Oh I also met Barbie + Ken! The marketing of this movie is so total! Hi Barbie! Hi Ken!

I’m grateful for Luxembourg weekend experience, it couldn’t have gone better if we’d planned it. Now the circle is closed 🙂

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ABCDEF (not you)

Although I didn’t mean to sing Gayle’s song, I can’t help myself 🙂 I wrote a series of Vitamin ABCD without slightest knowledge it’ll continue to the next alphabet, yet here we are!

What would be the representation of letter E?!

Eschborn!

Never heard about it? #me too. It all started at the end of April when I met Ashley and Ongky for the first time in Dortmund. We “knew” each other because my father and Ongky’s father are friends. Ongky had a Seminar in Düsseldorf then they drove to my favorite Italian restaurant 🙂

Prior to our dinner, I always texted with Ongky’s wife, Ashley. Thinking back, it was kind of our blind date as we didn’t have any video call before, I mean…. we are Asians in Dortmund, it won’t be that hard to recognize 😉

During dinner, she told me there will be an Indonesian Festival in Eschborn. The Indonesian Consulate General asked her if she’s interested to participate on selling foods. She hasn’t really confirmed at that time, however as the times goes by, I know they will have a stand, so I’ll definitely go! I already realized right there and then that she is a good cook as no one would offer her a stand if she can’t cook and it’s true! She brought me her signature PemPek TOP TOP TOP! I couldn’t sleep that night, woke up at 23:30, fried the PemPek, proceed to ate it! I slept happily after that heavenly snack!

Times get closer, let’s dig into more serious matter, where is Eschborn? its about half an hour from Frankfurt using S-Bahn. What a coincidence is my Archery photographer, Daniel Cuesta also in Frankfurt on that weekend, I told him, he’d better be free on Saturday to go with me to the Indonesian Festival 😉

We found the place! we were a bit confused with their disguise entrace. I thought it should be an outdoor event therefore I kept looking on tent or something that could represents as an event going on, na ja! it’s inside the building. OK. First mission, found them!

The building was OK, many people already sit on the chair… which not belong to them yet they treat it as if it’s generational, they won’t leave it for a seconds! We had to stand in kind of sharing table thingy. Good things we stood there though, we met another guy, precisely he was standing with us eating, I heard him saying “the sound system could be better” directly whispered to Daniel “he’s 100% German” “why?” “German stereotpye, always complaining” 😉 he was indeed completely right! the sound system, the mic, the loud Indonesian customers on behind, everything was horrible. I can’t hear anything what the speaker said. Poor man!

We started to talk to him to some point he asked “why are you speaking in English?” because this Mister right here is from Mexicooooo haha he’s not Indonesian, come on, dude, it’s written in all of his face. We asked the basic stuff until we know he came a long 2 hours S-Bahn journey only for this Indonesian fest! what an honor! thank you! what is more surprising about him is he was everywhere in Indonesia! from the most touristic place to less touristic place, he already plan for his next holiday to Indonesia, on top of everything, he had a Spotify playlist for Indonesian songs, boah! respect! Finally I know a foreigner who comes to Asia often other than the other way around #once in a blue moon!

At 18:00 there were some culture performance on the second floor. Me, Daniel and Pascal were confused (again! nope we are not dumb! the building floor plans confused us) where the damn stairs? I saw a kind of back stairs with an A4 paper stick to the door written “hausmeister” “treppe zur Bühne” guys lets go here!

We arrived, they haven’t open the official stairs yet but we were already inside. Few minutes later more crowds are filling the so-called auditorium. Opening speech, memorable ‘plakat’ were given, yeap, skip skip skip, performance please 😉

Dancers, singer, angklung performance were all out. Guess what? Ashley played Angklung! She didn’t tell me before, what a nice surprise 🙂

In the middle of the event, I was a bit worried if Daniel got bored… on the other side, he cant do nothing anyway hahaha suck it up!

A rather “old guy” (he refers himself like that) sit next to Daniel, he got some questions… so I, being an Indonesian, answered him. He came with his Philipine’s wife, he knew Bandung, from all the place?!?! turns out his ex-girlfriend was from Bandung haha. They stayed until the end, for the whole event I was sitting next to him. Until we were about to be separated, his wife wanted to take a selfie then he said “let’s ask her (read: me) to be in the camera too” I took it as if they won’t mind to have their picture here 😉

A saxophone + band act as our closing performance, they were amazing! all photos and videos about the performance comes from Pascal’s phone.

Here is the recap of Indonesian Performance

Hey! its a culture exchange thingy, they do have some performance by the Germans 🙂 The choir did sing one song from Mexican folks, La Cucaracha. Daniel was “whaaaaaatttt”

That’s our experience in Eschborn 🙂

Daniel comes with me to Dortmund, one step back on the Alphabet 🙂 we didn’t really do much… due to the reason, there is not much to do here haha here are some activities we did when he was here, the rest off to Düsseldorf + Köln by himself.

Jump to alphabet F, I had a seminar in Frankfurt from Facebook regarding finance thingy. Since the seminar is in Frankfurt meaning I went to Ashley and Ongky again yeayyy!!!! their apartment is amazing! the one you wish you could have #Genie, that’s one of my 3 wishes!

On Saturday morning we had a video call with my family so my father could see Ongky again after some decades aparts. I had PemPek as breakfast! best best best! Sister said “for sure Ashley is a good cook, otherwise Marlyn won’t come to Frankfurt” #Im sold easily by food 🙂

They drop me to my Seminar hotel, Ongky said “make sure the Seminar is really there” I was afraid it turns out as a scam or MLM that’s why I prefer to go alone. Long story short, it was actually a nice one, I might join again as a paying customer if they hold it next year 🙂 Afterwards, we went for a Korean food.

We also did some sport heyyy! run 5km! we gained calories while not burning so much haha #this is life!

Thank you beautiful people! Something as regular as eating, watching, sightseeing, even fucking running is more fun when you have friends around. Happy to be able to do it with you 🙂

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Vitamin D

May in Deutschland, what can you offer? hmmm…

There are indeed more public holiday in May compare to other months, let me take you to a city called Stuttgart 🙂 For this trip I took 2 days off + weekend + 2 days mobile work + 1 national holiday = perfekt!

Texted Binbin’s, he welcomed me to stay at their apartment, very well received! Yes I’ll stay in your big place again! Happy to be back!

I am still traumatized with my first experience taking ICE from Dortmund to Stuttgart due to more than 2 hours delay and the end result was the train not stopping at Stuttgart Hbf. Opt to take a Flixbus, it took me 7,5 hours including 3x stops at the gas station, not so bad I’d say.

Arrived their apartments on 1st of May, Binbin was still in Amsterdam only Andreas was at home. No special things planned as it was already evening. Day number 2, I do home office while Andreas went to the real office. Binbin will be back late in the evening. I had a dinner plan with Beaaaaa! Last time I saw her was in year 2017, first time I met her was in Shanghai back in year 2013 whoaaaaa so excited to meet her again!

First dinner in Stuttgart with Beatrice!

We met in front of the Stiftskirche, since I was there earlier, I took myself to visit Markethalle. Although there are many interesting food there, I didn’t buy anything as we plan to eat Korean food! my oh my, how I miss Asian food!

We doubted between two Korean places, Soban or Mandu. We both visited the places yet decided to go to Soban as it has broader variety of menu. At first we felt like we couldn’t finish it but after sitting for more than 2 hours plus kept talking, you could guess right? yep! it’s all gone! we finished it! We or let’s say correctly, our intestines just need some times to digest the food before we deliver a new one.

There is always funny story you entdeckt when you meet your friends. One example is Bea wasn’t exactly sure how to pronounce my name! ha! caught her! I said some Germans are not pronouncing my R in Marlyn, to that she commented “no, its not that they are not pronouncing the R, they are swallowing the R” hmmm… okay? using this chance, I asked her “What’s my name Bea?” she’s like “eeehhh I’m not so sure” haha!

After all of those foods and laugh, we were strolling around the city. She used to work in Stuttgart so she more or less knows the place.

Then she drove me to Binbin’s apartment, thank you lovely Bea for the evening! Good food, good conversation, what else can I ask more? Blessing to have a friend like you.

Who else lives in this city? Nora!

My food nerds friend! Told her I want to have a Chinese food, later she suggested to have a Hotpot, yaissss! it has been sooooo long since I have a Hotpot! Basically because it’s always contain lots of dishes, for me, I’m living alone so eating all at once would be impossible, doesn’t matter how long you spend the time sitting on the chair eating.

We were 3 people, meaning without at doubt we could handle it! While Nora was preparing she asked me if I know one of the dishes, I said “potato noodles” she was totally begeistert I knew it 😉 Okay Nora, it’s a revelation time, Binbin made Potato Noodles at home for lunch, that’s the only reason why I knew it haha, not so begeistert now… right?

They live in a very cozy apartment, I hope someday I can buy an apartment too, for sure it will be smaller than theirs, on top of that, I need their luck to get the one that already has floor, kitchen, bathroom and lamps! Perhaps many more apartments so I could qualified to be a 包租婆 haha if Nora can’t realize her dreams, who knows? maybe I can 🙂 Thank you Jacob and Nora the 王木木! 😀

My brother Thorben! What a pleasant surprise to know you were in Stuttgart while I was there!

How can I miss not to see you? No way in hell! Binbin, let’s gooooo! Since Thorben only have a limited amount of time, we met in the Stadtmitte SBahn to have a drink in the Cafe nearby (P.S: it didn’t make us less happy!)

Then we went to Lululemon where Thorben always says “you don’t need to wait for me, I feel bad” Oh brother, don’t worry, we do have time, this is what happen when you really have no agenda haha

Afterwards, we separated in the SBahn, Binbin got an appointment, Thorben went to the hospital and I went to Porsche Museum #Tourist!

Last day already! #schoked! I do have more time on this visit but still not enough!

After I visited Mercedes Benz Museum, I go pick up Binbin while he was walking Emil. Then he went to Edeka and I’m waiting outside with Emil. Andreas was busy with Billy.

On the evening, let’s have Paella! Me and Andreas already calculated when should we change clothes, when should we leave the apartment so we can catch the bus on time to be there at 19:30 as our RSVP.

Seconds before we left the elevator, last check, Andreas asked Binbin “do you have the DE Ticket?” dadammm! Binbin forgot where is his ticket and he said “there’s no one will check” being a German, Andreas insist him to look for it, if he is Asian for sure we will just schwarzgefahren! hihi #adrenaline high!

We three almost starve to death while waiting for our Paella, yes we knew it will takes around 45 minutes but it was more than that! The waiter, he gave us some more bread, good enough to wait until our main food arrived. At the end, we couldn’t finish it so I took it home for my lunch on the train #no food waste!

Oh Shanghai, what an amazing people you kept introduced me, thank you for all the time guys! I think I will see you soon….as Andreas said I should come more often to put some rational thinking to Binbin, exhibit a. not buying 45 kg of stone from China haha 😉

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Vitamin A

Australia, second home to so many Indonesian 🙂

How many? let’s see how many I can meet during my short stay in Sydney:

(P.S. one of them is not an Indonesian, you’ll know who #wink)

Betsy

First time I met her was really back then, on my 2nd year of primary school in Bandar Lampung, SD Xaverius Pahoman. Never will I ever miss that bloody school! So so so strict! Can’t remember how many hats I have because every Monday we had a ceremony where we must wear hat and I forget it from time to time so I need to buy it every damn time or else I’d go to detention.

Enough with that school, back to Betsy, she was my classmates, I remember she was the smart one 🙂 Last time I saw her was in year 2016, she was a newlywed. Now I met her again, she’s already have mini Betsy + mini Andy = Bethany!!!

Bethany wasn’t even chill, she can already run, thus she ran all the time. We, the grown up ones were the one who worried if she will hit something. While we had our Lemonade drink, when she’s not running, she’s eating her grape raisins and chocolate, she does have a job to keep us busy 😀

She was fast yet easily get distracted. Betsy said “this is what happened when you walk around with toddler, never really know when will you reach your destination”.

Let’s see what could Bethany do next time we meet again…. perhaps fly…. to Germany? haha you have one aunt here Bethany! Someday it’ll be your time to visit me 😉

Leyfa

Mamacita! Thank you for seeing my post on IG otherwise I wouldn’t know you’re in Sydney too! Brendan say nothing about your whereabout when I told him I’m going to Australia.

Archery has brought us together, I still keep all the clothes you gave me, both the <3 Leyfa Por Favor is Coming and Mamacita needs a Margaritha. I’ll keep wearing it, the only way I see I’m not wearing it, is if I frame it.

Her place is in Dee Why, this is the moment where I realized Sydney is big! Because Dee Why is one hour and ten minutes away from City Center and the whole time I’m in the bus, I kept asking myself, where the hell am I?? Say no more, it’s worth a travel to see you!

I’m so proud of what you’ve endured, achieved, became and will become. Wishing you and Charly a great life in Australia, you are welcome anytime in Dortmund. I know, tragic ehhh from Shanghai to Sydney then to Dortmund hahaha

Queen

My brain and beautiful influencer, Q! This girl is so damn busy you can’t really catch her, her schedule is like a jetsetter! I already texted her a long time ago that I will be from X date to Y date in AU, got not a reply from her until I’m already in Brisbane. AAAAAA need to meet her before she spread her wings elsewhere!

I thought I’ll meet her for lunch before I come to see Leyfa for dinner but I lost my glasses so I switch the plan. I met Leyfa on lunch time then her for dinner or else I can’t see the way for me to be back to City Center in the dark time without my glasses hahaha

I always a bit insecure with her because she’s so pretty, I told her to just be chill and don’t wash her hair hahaha #I know very important, anyway she violated my request. She’s appears gorgeous as always 🙂

We reserve a table, what I mean is we came and say to the waitress “a table for 3 please” so we didn’t even reserve nothing haha while waiting for her +1 to come, we went to Darling Harbour #Sydney mandatory place.

+1 came, it’s eating time at Bar Totti’s #nom nom

From all the places in the world, Shanghai’s Church Courtyard is the place that connected us. It is so weird to type it in one sentence, a church courtyard in Shanghai #yeap, still weird.

You have brain and beauty, you studied medical, you are officially a doctor for f#$k sake! entrepreneur too, what’s next? have some projects in Europe please!

Mario

My highschool friend Yoyo! Sophie need to thanks him, without him I wouldn’t find the Southern Wild Co. Candle she asked me about 😉

He showed me the highlight of Sydney other than Darling Harbour (as I went there with Q already) met in Town Hall, ate the famous cake, went to The Rock. Said to him “Yo, took pic of me that looks like I’m abroad” he understood the assignment very well.

Then went to Ibis to take my luggage thank you for carrying all my $h!t, took shower at his place, airport #tough schedule.

SMA Saint Aloysius Bandung met us up, Parahyangan Catholic University met us up again although he was in a different Fach than me, honestly even from high school we were already different, he chose science while I chose social. He and his wife are the smart couple, they met on a accounting competition, the hell was that?!?!

He visited me when I still in Shanghai I guess it was year 2017 then now I visited him, next…. you and your wife need to come to Germany!

Thank youuuu friends for all the time you spare with me, do remember to contact me if you ever go anywhere in Europe. It doesn’t have to be Germany or Dortmund precisely, I know there are much better options hahaha I can promise you that I will try my best to catch you up in any part in Europe.

Love you all and really wish you the best in each step of your life!

#Peace out

Until next time 🙂

*Btw I don’t like to show pictures of an underage children. Thanks to Flaticon, I got it covered. Grape raisins icon from Raisins icons created by Freepik – Flaticon

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The Sabotage Cycle

Well well well, Halloween is something that I should say it could be improve, I don’t really like the idea that we have to dressed up as certain characters and than that outfit will become a waste in our wardrobe, I always want to wear sth that I already have or even if I need to buy new stuff, I still could wear that after the halloween. I actually don’t have any plan and don’t know what to dressed up as, I’ve done pirates, superwoman, athena and I really have no clue what I’m gonna be next, until our German friend-Andreas asked me few months before even Halloween “If you’re a Disney pricess, what are you?” and hmmm that question really stayed in my mind for so long, I even listed who are Disney princess out there but none of them got me, not Frozen, not Rapunzel, not Snow White etc until!!! Princess Venelloppe from Wreck-It Ralph showed on my screen laptop!

Yep that girl is a Princess!
See, she has a princess dress

But I ain’t wearing that, I choose her normal green outfit because I already have green jaket and black skirt, not exactly the same but as long as the color match it won’t matter. So, even few months before Halloween, I already know what I will be 🙂

However, I didn’t wear it as a Halloween celebration. I wore the clothes though…just not on Halloween on……. #wait for it 😉

As I already forgot about Halloween and prepare that I won’t celebrate it this year, another flyer just came on the Hungover Games group chat and that is a flyer that our Russian friend-Nikita sabotage.

His real birthday is exactly on Oct 26th but since people had Halloween plan etc so he moved his party to the following week but using the same exact poster as what Cages made.

I was thinking, as my costume won’t be exactly the same like Princess Venelloppe, I need to team up with the other character so I will look like somewhat similar with her. I need to team up with Fix-It Felix Jr and Wreck-It Ralph itself!

For Fix-It Felix Jr it’s easy, we have friend named Felix so he should be it and Felix’s outfit is not that hard, only blau. The trick is to find Ralph and I had to sabotage Nikita’s original idea and asked him to be Ralph haha

Lucky me! They both were agree to be Ralph and Felix, for Felix it’s not be a problem, he just made a shirt with his name, cap with FF logo. For Ralph, Nikita was quiet frustrated as he can’t find the correct outfit and I was worried if he wasn’t Ralph then we are missing the main character so it doesn’t really work. But really thanks to Nikita, he found the similar one and he was willing to take my advise and be Ralph on his own birthday.

And here we are “Wreck-It Ralph 3” DIY version 😉

Some people are really on the other level, the amount of time they spent on make up on their face, hair style and outfit itself, just amazed me! Thorben wore his 550 RMB costume twice so yeay! now he can say that his costume price was 275 RMB and sounds more make sense 😉

Happy birthday and thank you Nikita for letting me sabotage your tarzan or fat Thor idea and chose Ralph instead. FYI people, it’s Nikita himself that said he wanted to be fat Thor, so don’t blame it on me 😉

Proof! 😉
Wreck-It Nikita 😉

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Blessed The Food… I mean THE CHEF!-Part 6

Now is already September, my fav month of the year! we just had a 3 days holiday for Mid-Autumn festival (actually it’s only 1 because the holiday was on Friday and Saturday and Sunday is weekend sooooo doesn’t count)

On this short holiday, I finally went to M50- the art district and Shanghai Jewish Museum but since I wasn’t into art or museum so it took me 6.5 years in Shanghai to go to this places. It’s good that I don’t go outside Shanghai during this short holiday otherwise I would miss the very fine dine by Chef Thorben on Sunday! On the last day of the holiday, Thorben texted me that he would like to make an early dinner, as early as 4PM… and no matter how early or how weird the time is, I’ll come to his dinner! I was actually a bit afraid that I would spread the flu because I’ve been kind of having some flu for 3 days but after doing voice test I think I should be fine and my brain already switched to the amazing food that I’ll get at Thorben’s so I’m good!

Dinner changed to 5PM and here I came! Ivy and Hai Yan already there before me but for some reason Hai Yan left before even the dinner starts…tsk tsk tsk… Hai Yan said that she left so I can enjoy the wine that she brought but I said to her that I don’t drink wine and she changed to “then I can enjoy more tea” and again I don’t drink tea and she asked me “what do you drink then?” “orange juice” and she will bring orange juice for me next time! Hai Yan, I’ll remember it 😉

Me and Ivy looked at Thorben’s niece album, scan the QR code hoping the video will works but it doesn’t, Thorben check that QR code! The next guess is my one and only handsome Freddoy and he brought us kaya toast! uhlalala!

Next thing I know is the food already on the table!

There were bread and butter, potato with secret recipe, carrots and mashed potato with not so secret recipe because it’s from the video and not from Thorben’s grandma. Boramy said that it is a really German dinner when we have 2 types of potatoes served 🙂

Whole roasted chicken that lived twice longer than it should be and a 1kg beef with the bone.

And the chicken need to be cut by the knife that Thorben made it himself. But because we let the chicken lived twice as long as it should be, it wasn’t ready yet 😉 so Thorben put it back to the oven. Grandpa chicken #Freddoy said that.

I think this is already 6 ish PM and what happen on the neighborhood? I got a text, actually it’s not a text, it’s a picture from the other Germans (read: Felix and Andy) that were on the place not far from Thorben’s (read: Felix’s place) and here’s the pictures ladies and gentleman:

  • From Felix
  • From Andy

Followed by a supposedly touching sticker “You are our only hope” from Andy

Not sure why I was their only hope tsk tsk tsk and what should I reply then? They sent me pic of beef? I sent them back pic of what I am having at Thorben’s haha See what I got here!

The big question mark is: What do you have there that I don’t have here?!?!

While Thorben, Freddoy, Ivy and Boramy already finished the meal, it means only me that haven’t finished yet and Freddoy said “let’s look at her so she’ll hurry up and we can start the dessert” huaaa handsome Freddoy sorry! I was under pressure! then I cleaned my food so Thorben can serve the dessert:

  • Fruit salad
  • Kaya toast

For some reason I thought fruit salad is a salad so… veggies in the end? and I’m not a big fan of veggies but when Thorben presented the fruit salad it’s a fruit mix! yeay! this one acceptable 😉 mwahaha! and Kaya Toast from Freddoy!

Thank you Thorben for cooking, what a nice way to end the holiday and fuel myself up for the next day!

And Felix….let me make myself clear….

You’d better keep up! 😉

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“Masterchef” In Action- Part 2

BAM! This will be the second time I (read: Thorben) will make Indonesian dish 😉 last time we made it with Aggy, this time it will be solely Thorben mwahaha… we will have additional guests, they are Cher and Aaron! Ever since Cher knew that me and Aggy will cook Indonesian dish at Thorben’s, she wanted to be invited and seems the time has arrived for them to try, also for Marina 😉

Even arranging the time for 5 people was quiet hard, we kept changing the dates like 3 times haha but then the date fixed to 4th of August! The day before I went to Carrefour and asking Thorben and Marina do they have this, do they have that and to my surprise they don’t have anything! WHOAAA! what is wrong with them?!?! they used to be like 24/7 groceries stores turns out that time their fridge was quiet empty SURPRISEEE! 😀

I came to Thorben’s before archery to prepare some dish first then went to archery and then came back from archery and continue cooking.

Thorben kept asking “OK, now what do we do?” and he moved fast like chop chop chop wush wush wush and then “OK, what do we do next?” Geezzz, I haven’t even finished reading the recipe yet and he’s already asking the next step…Germans….efficient!

  • Thor’s hammer

We also tenderize the beef using tenderizer and hammer. This time Thorben didn’t give the most expensive part of the meat because he knew that I will smashed it with hammer and tenderizer for at least 40 mins. I remember Thorben said if he is in the Avengers, he will for sure be a Thor, he even have a Thor’s hammer 😉 you are good to go for Thor!

Marina was on the phone with Sandra the whole time so she’s kind of lost on our preparation, up to the point where we almost need to leave for Archery and she made me a mango-avocado-smoothie yummyyy! and her smoothie was the fancy one with chia, coconut etc etc etc and all ingredients are from Germany!

Fancy smoothie! this will give me energy for Archery

Marina expected us to win on the game…. apparently none of us won! not the first time reality doesn’t fulfill the expectation mwahaha we probably need more bowl of that 😉

Fast forward after archery we came back and opened the door and we both “WOW” because Marina has prepared the table! amazing! but for now we need to continue our business in the kitchen with the main dish, beef!!

There was a bit of the drama on the kitchen like our small pancakes aka perkedel were tearing apart, the beef wasn’t absorb the sauce so we kept adding the ketchup, rice need to be made but not enough coconut cream so Thorben finished his coconut oil and mix it together.

Thanks that both Cher and Aaron are not Germans so when I said dinner at 7PM they won’t come at 7 sharp arp arp haha which is good because we haven’t finished cooking by that time haha! By the time Cher arrived she said “Oh, turns out Thorben’s cooking not Marlyn” #facepalm!

Even though we had the drama during the process but in the end I’m happy with the result 🙂 Thorben was saying “the beef is exactly how it suppose to be and everything is fine” Marina said “the beef was flavory” YEAY! I’m satisfied 😉 and they all like the perkedel!

Marina prepared the dessert and Cher brought us stroopwafels and I wasn’t too tired because Thorben did the cooking the most mwahaha! 😀

By the time we officially finished the dinner, we used 1L of sunflower oil and 16L of water! hahaha that’s a lot!

Btw I asked my mom to make the dish for you when you come to my home so that you could taste my fav food when I was a child…or maybe I still am 😉 Thank you Thorben and Marina! I always happy to “cook” or just crash at your place 😀

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Love Life

We had Rich’s farewell archery on Tuesday 🙁

He booked the hungover games for us, usually we will have 7 people in one team but this time there was no team formed it was whoever wants to play will play, so the number of people wasn’t really 28, it was more than 28.

He will not called Rich if he didn’t bring any weird stuff with him, he brought a banana floating things and a bow and arrow that made out of plastic haha

Rich has special power on that game, whoever shoot him, he or Rodi shout “doesn’t count” so he can play on haha and even another one shoot him right after the first shoot, it’s still “doesn’t count” 😉 there was one game where he just ran to the safe zone first and grab the bow and arrow and while we all run to the safe zone, he was ready to fire us, that was scary moment! wogh!

It was a really fun and relaxing game even though at one game Aaron tackle me while I was on the safe zone and getting my bow and arrow hahaha I didn’t expect that! And Freddoy shot me right on my left ass that requires me to put analgesic cream the day after #facepalm followed by Aaron again that shot me on my right ass, so I was kind of balanced in a weird way pffff.

Rich has the very climax way to close the game which is we played 10 against 10! We don’t even have the bow and arrow for 20 people so some people will have the bow and others will catch the arrow. I don’t think we need referee for this last game as one simple question of “How?” hahaha how to decide who got shot, who caught the arrow and who come back to the field like who who who?! Rich also had his special power where he just moved from opponent team, crossing the safe zone and go to other side and joining our team haha. It was just chaos in the most fun way #I’ll allow it 😉 At the end of the game, I was trying to catch the arrow from Tim and he was trying to do it for me so that I was able to catch it and Rodi said “If she catch it, we all go in” but then his shot was too high and I missed it arrrgghhh! Rodi said “washing machine, you almost did it!” haha

We were playing until 9:45 ish, then he has a movie that he wanted to show us! So we gathered in the bar to watch it 🙂

The movie is a memory of Rich and his disturbed family 😉 and there was a clip that I found very funny, when Rodi was asked what does disturbed family means to him but he was drunk and still on his bed, he just replied “roaaaaaaa” I think that is the perfect answer anyone could ever asked for 😉 There was also a sad clip in that movie, throughout the end when Rich had sth to say and he recorded it in his apartment that is already empty, we were “awww” because we know exactly what was the furniture that were there before 🙁

Please be assured that you’ll be missed by us #obviously, perhaps also by Missy, your apartment security, neighbors… I mean they will get less pocket money because I don’t think the new tenant will hold party as much as you did 😉 #if you know what I mean haha

Thank you for the movie and for the last archery farewell with you!

Here’s the fun farewell day on the video:

Look at how many people that was not willing to let him go by kept sending him off to the taxi. Even the traffic light agree with us by giving us the longest red light ever. When he was trying to pull up the window we were “Nooooo!” We all just stood there, holding kleenex tissue and waving at him 😉

I can say that Rich is someone that really loves life and life loves him back. I do know that Shanghai loves him and I believe so will Paris <3

Thanks Rich! XX