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Mission: Half Accomplished

On my second day in Munich, I was the only one who still on holiday, don’t want to disturb the Home Officinas, I went back to die Wiesn. Gio gave me some tips such as Teufelsrad + Tobogan + Käfer Zelt where all Promis located, Kaiserschmann for sweets, Old Wiesn~ have to pay 4 Euro entrance ticket. This time when I re-enter die Wiesn, I really take it all in, looking at all the stands, row by row.

Had to had some snacks wie Bretzel, Mais, hot chocolate because it was still considered early, the attractions hasn’t really started yet. I made some note in mind about where is what, what’s here that are not on Kirmes, what would I do. I was always outside, which means later on it’s (read: I) kind of getting cold.

I went to watch Floh Circus with zero expectation what is all about, didn’t even know what Floh means. The guy explained in German yet it was Bayern German, have 0 understanding whatsoever, all other people seems to got it. What I know is the Flea are somehow tight into a “cable” thingy, their movement combined with other tiny stuffs result into some “performance” named it kicking a ball or other things like what people on Circus do. Thank you for the ticket lady who gave me Student price haha you made my day <3

Being inside the circus for 10 minutes inspires me to go to another insiders, proceed to the Teufeulsrad! spent almost an hour there chilling, watching how the same kids keep holding his position as last man sitting! The MC divide the participants by saying, now is the age from 1-8, 9-14, 14-17, all the seniors or so. Some kids really good at it, when the round need to change but the last kid still there, come the Lasso! I would like to join however when they said “Erwachsene ab 18” all the guys as big as rugby player just jump in, I was like whatttt???? they said “we need some ladies” no way in hell I’m gonna compete against those guys, #Intimidated 🙁

Usually the Reihenfolge always from younger to oldest, not-usually, it will depends on the MC’s mood. He had special round for paramedics, then special guest from Australia. Ich so hääää, am I hearing it correctly? Australia is….far….? it knocked my concentration out. Doch the MC said it again! “Here is our special guest, we are doing live show from Münich for Australia, hope the Übertragung works, we need lady with Dirndl”. That’s me!!!! my bad I wasn’t ready at all, was busy drinking water from Claudias foldable Wasserflasche, wasn’t fast enough to drop everything then join them. One of the German lady was so excited she managed to snapped some pictures, make an eye contact with her colleague to record a video with him. I thought these two Ozies guy must be something, lets have a selfie with the Promi, this is my Ziel anyway! Nervous, started slowly, getting closer to them, whatever! tapped one of them, got it! Wohooo Proudly send it to Sissy only to get a “Huh?” comment.

Second special guest, which are Youtuber, meh he looks like a normal German. Literally how my colleague looks like, selfie’s not needed. I already forget their Youtube name, Zauber? Zabeer? something with Z. He did spelled it to me, in a hurry…. porque?

After my encounter with the Promis or so I thought haha they inspires me to keep my eyes open for another Promis just like the first week of Oktoberfest where my Instagram were full of Bayern Fußballspieler wearing Lederhose, posting picture with one mas Beer, hoping I will see one of them.

Mission hopping around from Tent to Tent, searching some subtle signs, looking for someone who being interviewed or followed by cameras. Result: don’t see any Promis 🙁 Those two were the one I kind of managed #Right place at the right time. Approaching 16:30 I wasn’t allowed to get into the Tent anymore as they are only for RSVP.

As the final act I wanted to try the Tobogan escalator, obviously holding the guy’s hand. I mean… if I fell down hahaha there are thousands of people watching at the bottom. Them, myself included laughed at some people who fell down, as a believer of Karma, they would do the same to me. Therefore I decided to get his help from the beginning.

Not only it was very fast also the surface wasn’t really smooth, consist of connecting Holz, not one long Holz, in between you will fell the separation that’s the moment where some people lose their balance.

Closing the day in the Wiesn with seeing the view from Tobogan “Tower” is top hey, tomatoes tomatoes with sunset on the beach hahaha. I will for sure come back with the same program: one day with table RSVP, second day without! Had to be honest, you are tempted to spend your money here, every Mitbringsel are eye catching. I was looking at Oktoberfest shirt cost 30 Euro, I came to my sense, meh! my Dirndl cost 200 Euro, this is the real Oktoberfest outfit! #Willpower vs Running out of money already, depends on which sides of coins you are looking at 😉

Since I only had snacks at the Wiesn, stomach is calling for real food! We three had dinner in an Arabic? Lebanese? oh my, now I sounds racist. Regardless, it was a very good one, all people that were eating there were considered authentic, we got no tourist from the Wiesn 🙂 have many meat dinner!

Oh, don’t forget to mention how me & Claudia somehow matchy matchyyyy like sister from another mother, Gio needs to be out from the picture hihihi

On my third day~ the so called departure day back to Dortmund, I met QQ #unbedingt, I always informed him if I go to South part of Germany and Krisma a.k.a my neighbor in Karawang when we were toddler, we never met again up until now!

I craved for Asian Noodle, Gio said Max Beef Noodle is the place to be, that’s where we go #nomnom. Afterwards QQ went to Wiesn whereas we continued with having Kaiserschmann 🙂

Thank you my friends, Claudia & Giovanni for sowohl hosting als auch dinner invitation, QQ & Krisma for having the time to meet me. We will see us again, I still have to make my half accomplished mission to full accomplished 😉 until then….auf Wiedersehen Wiesn! You’d been spectacular #wowed

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In der Badewanne

Esperar Leute….

My colleagues are very curious bezüglich my first Oktoberfest experience, everyone said be careful, the beer there has more % of alcohol, there are only betrunkene Leute.

I took train to Thomas & Janine then we three drove together to Munich. Stopping by at Thailanese Restaurant Khanittha on Werksviertel for lunch. Thomas’ colleague said this place is pretty authentic one, yeah, including the service, they slightly ignoring us although it wasn’t really full, you need maintain strong eye contact if you want to request something.

We ordered 3 dishes, I mean every Asian should know that it was meant for sharing. I know we were also 3 people, could be the German way of eating 1 dish each…. imo still no, the logic ain’t logicing. Since they didn’t give us some plates, we decided to just hau rein while waiting if we could grab their attentione.

There was some Werbung on the table to scan our bill for winning a trip to Thailand. Had never expected Thomas has never been to Thailand considering he’s the diver King. Hope one of us will win it!

Continue driving to our main purpose of the day: Claudia & Giovanni’s apartment which is directly in front of Theresienwiese. We parked 2 stations away, walked with our luggage + bags only for the security guy to stopped us. Thomas said “wir wollen darüber gehen” he doesn’t care, detour we must.

Made it, there are several homeworks to do in their place: Thomas manually pumped my Luftmatratze ~ secure my sleeping place for tonight or else I’ll have to sleep in the Badewanne 😉 , Freya arrived, Giovanni distributed our entrance + voucher. Claudia still have to work a bit, that’s why we headed first!

My first feeling entering die Wiesn was WOW! Marina said it’s a Kirmes, like any other Volksfest except much much much bigger! Had to say Jein: Ja ~ can see the Kirmes style Achterbahn, snacks und co. Nein ~ not only all of them are on Jumbo size, the atmosphere were just different on every level, everyone wears Dirndl & Lederhose, it’s like Alice entering Wonderland. Good I went to Canstatter Wasen with Andreas before hence I know the tent wasn’t made of circus tent haha this is not #This is the greatest show oo oo oo oo, it involves woods, bricks and his friends.

Our tent Pschorr Bräurosl located in the middle. My colleague Sabrinchen also there, she and her partner – Manuel came to visit me for one Mas! We work together in Dortmund yet had to go to Munich to meet outside the office hours 😀

The waiter came, Manuel ordered 6 Mas. I was confused at first because in Wasen there are more type of beer options, in here, in our tent there is only one: Bräurosl Beer! The mas! the 1 Liter Beer, it’s heavy! Can’t hold still, reached my Maximale Belastung! hahaha Giovanni asked if I already trained “Mas Heben” #facepalm.

After some time, Claudia finished her work, yeay! We are still waiting for the other 4. I had to say Claudia & Giovanni are the profi, they brought Müllsacke to put our jacket protecting it from the dirt, foldable Waserflasche, tag for their beer. I might follow all of their tips for next year.

Thomas and Giovanni, they both really excited to see me drunk, not happening bro. Thomas said “If you drunk no problem, we can carry you home, if you feel sick, there is the Badewanne.” Gio kept prost-ing my Mas, prost prost prost…. stop, waitttt!

Some hour later I really mean some, at least 1,5 hour… my Mas is finished! I have to ask Claudia for bullet proof documentation. Stephan came late yet he finished his Mas before me. He asked “what do you usually drink?” “I don’t! That’s the whole point. The reason why they always “Marlyn, come on 加油加油” Leute, it is not about the 油 that’s need to be 加 😉

It helps to know some songs in German….or in English…. or in Italian haha Music in general. There are some songs which was played more often than the other called Ein Prosit. The crowd hype out of nowhere on “Hey Baby, I wanna know, if you’d be my girl” Followed by Hulapalu, Cordula Grün, Atemlos durch die Nacht, Skandal im Sperrbezirk, 99 Luftballons. Overjoyed they include Bella Ciao on the list too! Bella Ciao Ciao Ciao. What’s else? Gimme Gimme Gimme the man after midnight, then I can sleep in Badewanne. Claudia cut “in his Badewanne, not ours” 😉 On the Mamamia song, Thomas said “Marlyn, stand here, pointing at the bar / separator between the tables” Aye Aye! Going there! You can see from the video how by then I lost my balance. The final song in every tent #Gio’s word is forever and always Angels von Robbie William.

Kai + Coco + Elena + Stephan need to leave earlier, the last man standing was….. the Food Nerds people! hahaha as always 😉 plus Freya!

During his 2,5 Mas Thomas realized he lost his wallet! Oh no! Even though I was tipsy, my brain still can work. Asked the waiter if he saw a wallet maybe on the floor. Me, Janine, Claudia, Freya looked on the floor with our flashlight. Damn! Whats inside? at this point, money is the less concern, it is more like bank card, ID, things you need to go to office, make some report pfff too many Aufwand. Of course we didn’t find it, they told us to go to the office downstairs.

Me and Claudia went to the Büro while Thomas and Janine search elsewhere. Guess what? His wallet was safe and sound on the Schublade! Phew!

Once we out from the office, Thomas was walking on our way to the Büro, we stopped him.

He couldn’t believe it!

I am on cloud nine for my first Oktoberfest with all of these people. Of course I don’t talk much with all the 4 who went earlier, however I got the impressions they are all nice. Elena was so creative she was the snow white from Innsbruck 🙂 #What a memory, Innsbruck, love it. Stephan who I thought at first has some family connections with Andrea due to his ring is kind of similar with Andrea’s #They’re not distant family. The cool Freya, we hold umbrella side by side actually she was holding it, because of that she got free umbrella on the street haha.

Undoubtedly my food nerds! Grateful we have been friend for a looonnngg time, almost a decade! With Thomas since 2016 who introduced me later to Claudia & Giovanni, had I not met him I wouldn’t know them! Giovanni who always relaxed and welcoming “Ah your friend Sabrina can also join us, we still have place on the table, let’s meet in the Tent” Claudia the queen of Dirndl ~ perfect from top to bottom, who calm Thomas & Gio when they unstoppable hyping me up with my Mas! Thomas & Janine who I finally have a picture of you as a couple ~ only you two, just in case someone will ask again! 😉

What a happy ending, it’s all work out in the end, I don’t sleep in Badewanne + Thomas got his complete wallet back!

Would be very excited to be with the same people on the table again hopefully next year I could get more chance to speak with the fantastic-four 😉

Def not the last Oktoberfest! Repeat please!
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Lebensversicherung

Claudia asked me to join Gevelsberg Kirmes, it’s a yearly fun fair where they have a lot of food stands like in Christmas market only on summer, I have been there before in 2022 and would like to be there again 🙂

Our program: always gathered at Alina’s home ~ her place is exactly where the entrance of Kirmes which also become our Pipi Box #Save money! There I met new people, Karen and Jens.

Gevelsberg Kirmes’ located on a hill, once you reach the “top” there is a Ferris wheel. Claudia & Alina established a ritual, every Kirmes day they will ride it. We also have it in Christmas market Dortmund yet for whatever reason it never attracts me #perhaps someday it will. Now I’m at Kirmes, let’s follow their ritual. Leute I’m not gonna lie, I was scared! shit man! getting old’s never become realer!

As I mentioned before, you will see Mandel, Cotton Candy, Ice Cream, Langos etc. I ate Kartoffel Twister, once I paid, I moved to the other lady who will pour which spice I want. The lady was “Wo ist die Dame?” “Bin here!” did she missed me while I’m right in front of the Theke? pfffff. Besides eating, we must have shots Rhabarber + Himbeere at the middle stand #Always.

Around 22:00 where it was dark, Claudia & Alina afraid I will lose in crowd of people, they bought me my Lebensversicherung. Both of them were “I will buy Marlyn Balloon, let’s do it” The seller wants to give me Peppa Pig, it wasn’t so good, Claudia choose die Katze as a representatives of HB who is sitting at home with Julius. Neither do they know, that Balloon costed 13 Euro! Damn! ~ Long time ago it was 2 DM hahaha. Too late to cancel, I’m proudly walk with it! it is very convenient for them, they know exactly where I am 😀

We are sure we will meet some NW people, we did! Sabrina, Melanie, Claudia (other), Carsten. Apart from Arbeitsleute, we met with Claudia’s Bootcamp people, Markus & his wife Kathrin. Yeah, forgot to mentioned on a Saturday they always do sport which means I am also doing that #Gruppenzwang. I was participated on their Bootcamp before so I knew Markus as Mario guy because he was dressed up with hat + hoodie like Super Mario color. One of the guy, Alex asked me what do I think about the workout? Eww Brother, I’d rather sleep! Valentine’s training plan was better than before…however #No offense, I still don’t like Bootcamp training haha. TSC Eintract Dortmund, why oh why you cancel my Yoga class during EM!

Back to Kirmes Topic 🙂 On a Saturday we rode das Riesenrad for the second time #Ritual. Honestly, I have less Angst than yesterday. Claudia believe “Höheangst kann man überwinden” you only need to do it more often. Apropos, we have a Gevelsberger 2024 Pin! Alina took it for us, she has a sharp eye to see where the bucket is! #Ess dä Kiärmis inne Gänge, schmeet ek mie inne Menge.

I went back to Dortmund on that Saturday kurz vor Europameisterschaft as DE vs Dänemark plays in BVB Stadion, it’s die Hölle los für Dortmund! I need to get myself a seat or at least able to Bewegung because I will bring my balloon to NW! Therefore I must survive the crowd!

Did I? Half! until Unwetter greeted me right on my Ubahn Station. Blitz, Donner, Hagel usw. FYI, Feli informed me the game stops for 15 minutes. I always bring umbrella but I have to protect my Balloon, took shelter for a while at Dogewo21 before decided to just hit the rain, made it home! ballons saved! can’t wait to show it to NW!

Almost 4 years in Germany, even though I don’t have a lot of friends here, my friend does 🙂 I’m lucky enough to have her who introduces me to all of her friends, love you Freundin! Oh wait, how about my friend? Julius is not a big fans of Kirmes, still he picked us up, no matter what time, thank you my Freund. Now I know what I’m gonna do every last weekend in June 🙂

First Gevelsberg Kirmes experience in year 2022 http://marlynpraseli.com/2022/07/03/german-full-part-2/

Tips: prepare about 35-40 Euro cash for each day you visit Kirmes, just to be on the safe side 🙂

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One Too Many

It is not about drinking, I have Histamine Intolerance remember? haha it is about what was happening on 10th of February? Three things: Indonesian Election Day, Karneval and CNY.

Felicia really want to have Hot Pot in Düsseldorf on CNY, even though it was on a Karneval day, translates too, it might be very full which was true! the RE Bahn was very very Klebig, however nothing could stop us!

Andrea joined the Hot Pot as I knew she always willing to try new food! I wore Cheongsam from Claudia, Feli wore something red #In the CNY mood!

It is an all you can eat hot pot & grill ~excluding drink~ for 29,80 Euro. I took FLEISCH!!!!! every damn time!!! They do have a range of collection though I kept taking the same type. For drink, I had Plum 酸梅汤, love it!

We went from 19:30 – 21:30 my suggestion probably it will be better to finish at around 19:30 which means starts 2 hours earlier. Why? Because at some point when we finished the dinner, they don’t refill the dessert anymore hahaha Other than that, all good! I can imagine, I’ll come this place again: Hot One ~ hot-one.eatbu.com

Don’t forget about fortune cookies! it is a must everytime you go to Asian / Chinese Restaurant. Mine says: Toll, dass Sie sich von Problemen nicht irritieren lassen!

Meanwhile, 龙年快乐！

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The Last Man Standing Crew

Last working day in year 2023, Friday the 29th of December. Rise and Shine, no-sunny-day in Germany.

Look at how empty the Bahn ist, were only 3 including me in the wagon O.O Arrived office at 08:18 greeted by an empty park place and a happy Gery 🙂

Set an alarm in 05:45:21 I shall leave the office. Until then, meet the last man standing crew from 2. Flügel 2 featuring Bernd, Christin, PV und meine neue Tasche, Marcel, last but not least Sebhil #Work work work work work

We are the fittest amongst the fittest or maybe the one that should’ve planned their holiday better haha #Always 2 ways to see it.

Alarm ring, packed up, see you all next week bzw. next year, Tschüsiiiii 😀

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The Moment I Knew

Andreas is kind of Kirmes’ fans, me on the other hand was only OK, apart from the public knowledge such as the biggest Kirmes is in Soest, I don’t know any ‘property’ of Kirmes: when its starts, where to get what from which stands etc therefore when he asked if I want to come to Kirmes Soest on the first day it started on 08.11.2023, my answer was yes!

We took Eurobahn from Dortmund Hörde to Soest. After several attempt to ask our colleague Maik or hoping Mike ~ yes thats 2 different person 😉 if he can drive us to Hörde failed, took the matter on our hand ~ take Bus instead. Lena joined us in some stations before arriving Soest.

Wiiiii! it’s indeed bigger, the location is direct on Soest’s Altstadt, surrounding by many old Fachwerkhäuser, makes the atmosphere even more beautiful! Like a Christmas Market minus the Glühwein + Christmas Baum.

As an introduction to Soest Kirmes, we had the rote Ampeln-Schnapps! It’s literally the translation of traffic lights ~ meaning 3 schnapps in one go with color red-yellow-green. I shared it with Lena, according to her we need to drink from the least favorite to the most, starts with Green. Had to agree with her, I do find green is the less tasty than the yellow & red. I like them both!

Moving to Langos, not this one, the Langos that parked near the Honig-Schnapps-Laden. Wokei, follow you! On the way there Andreas showed me Mr. Honig guy ~ he’s pretty famous in Kirmes area, owing to his singing ability that attract people to drink Schnapps with him, not all Schnapps, it has to be his Honig-Schnapps in his Laden.

I saw a girl holding a microphone in front of the Honig-Schnapps-Laden, playfully said “hello” to it, she proceeds with “oh do you want to say something to our DJ? you can say let’s come to Kirmes here is all great” during which Lena already on the way to the Laden, grabbed her arm, pull her to me as my morale Unterstützung. OK let me say some few words, after me it went to Lena then Andreas. I mean yo, you can’t just leave me #all by myselffff 😉

Wait, we haven’t even bought the Schnapps haha after our Radio-intermission, we had our Honig-Schnapps. What can I say? it’s sticky….the glass is cute which made from ice cream cone where we can eat, have to be honest, this Schnapps….gefällt mir überhaupt nicht iyeeeeyyyy -_- Anyway, the song! gefällt mir, something with cuk ku cuk ku cuk haha

Once we were out from his Laden, Lena met a famous 1Live DJ aka Daniel Danger, asked for a selfie, of course I also involved!

Besides food, there were some games, we played Frog. It’s 5 Euro for 12 frogs or so, I counted it was only 11 frogs! hey we are missing one! #Good job Marlyn. If we are able to put the frog to the bucket, we will get a gift, what could it be? a frog doll 🙂 did we get it? nope! there were some hits that was closed enough haha.

Even though the frog was not in our favor, we received a pleasant surprise when I found out the hammer we were using was a Promat hammer coming from one of my order!

Enough with the play, moving on to the carousel slash Achterbahn. Lena didn’t want to ride it, I was tempted simply because I don’t have this kind of carousel when I was younger. Before I became too scared or not interested anymore, it’s time to tried it. You can see how we ~ I meant me, still innocent before it starts.

I didn’t fell down except I got “kicked” from the girl next to me as we were all kind of jammed to each other and her legs were kicking my leg etc. We kept sliding over and over.

In comparison when I’m dropped dead afterwards. I felt soooo shitty not sure what could be the reason…. maybe I went after I eat Langos? Should I went before I had anything? hmmmm… not willing to test this theory #definitely.

I always carry an umbrella together with a plastic bag to put back the wet umbrellas into the bag. I told them I felt bad yet still walking until I can’t anymore…. I need to sit somewhere, on an Eingang of the Geschäft, me don’t care! I have my own Geschäft going on on my Belly right now. Andreas said “are you really want to do it?” Yes! we need to go to the dark alley since here is many people hin und her. I managed to do it, very little but it was good for the start! #facepalm

Walked around again, I do feel slightly better but there was still some unfinished business. Told them I think having a tea would helps, went to Kühbar and there is where I did quiet a number on the toilet, I was all out! Came out totally healthy again 😀 We closed our trip with finding a Bobatea-Doll! even as big as me! Life sized Boba!

Next year = no carousel! Not gonna ruin the Kirmes experience. Told QQ about it he replied “Remember your age, we can’t do that anymore” Yes! this conclude the moment I knew pffff not again! I had to stop or else it stopped me!

Oh remember I said few words on the microphone from 1Live? it got aired on Saturday, the Chef from our Kantine recognize my voice he said “I was listening to Radio on Samstag and suddenly Liebe Grüße aus Soest!” he said to his wife “this voice, I knew her” I don’t need to listen you say your name, I knew it immediately hahaha.

Insgesamt, it was a good outcome coming to Soester Allerheiligenkirmes 😀 Vielen lieben Dank Lena & Andreas!

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Unplanned La Bamba

One week before the due day, that’s when it hits me, my Marniversary is around the corner! #Panicked, what will I do this year? At the same time, my sister is currently in Germany so the thought of celebrate it with her + Dominic + Kaiya appears naturally. My original idea was like this, I went to their place on 25th of August for the weekend, work from home on Monday-the Marniversary.

Shortly before the weekend comes, I decided to cancel it as they are having family time while me… busy with my own event. I’d be back to Dortmund on Sunday instead. What, where, who? Haven’t plan any of it!

One by one, email the Cupcakes store, texted the 3 friends I gained in Dortmund haha definitely in the thema! 3 Years in DE = 3 friends. Hmmm… what could be the decoration for the photo purposes? let me bastelt something 🙂 #DIY

My family always says when you have a birthday you need to eat noodle as it represents long life usw. I couldn’t think of other place other than Ippin Ramen. Few reasons: Located in the city center, Silvia for sure will be lost if the restaurant is not in the center. Felicia works there, it’s easier to request something like “can you please put this cake on the fridge”. Andrea loves Ramen. OK! the where is safe.

One important detail is missing, MY CAKE!!! I called the cupcake store, wrote to other places, receiving no reply. Googled the cake shop that opens on Monday…only to receive… so many closed! Damn!

However, I’m not despair, near my home there’s a place called Oma Rosa. I could come on Sunday right before they closed. One of their Menu interest me, it’s called Törtchen Tapas. It’s a small portion of a cake, precisely 1/4 portion from a 12cm diameter cake. There were 6 different cakes left on the Theke so I took all of it.

Fiuhhh! Planning took quite a toll on me or Felicia haha as I consulted her many times about it but everything is manageable in the end 😉 Cakes + Decorations + Place are all gesichert.

What next? Feli asked if there will be a dress code, yaissss! Let’s do this! Totally! Informed the group the night before only if they want they should dress in any color that exists on a German Flag. Silvia suggested a red lipstick, acceptable too! I have all colors on me, they do too! all come with a German color-ish. Andrea wore red + black + blonde hair + German accent haha she’s a complete package. Silvia had a yellow shoulder bag #on point! Feli wore red top. Me so Happy!!!!

We started before Felicia arrived otherwise we all be Hangry, not good to start Marniversary #wink

She arrived when we were on the middle of our Ramen eating 🙂 cakes + picture time!

Won’t be a Marniversary without a Marniversary thing 🙂 I really called it like this, it has a name in my own dictionarlyn 😉

After we finished with the food and cakes, we went to Hbf. Why?!?! as long as my face still there, it’ll be a tourist spot!

Thank you Girls for spending my 3 years birthday in Germany! See you in my 4 years 🙂 yes girls! we will do it every year now, it’s always something to celebrate. Adding one more beautiful day in a year is not bad heyyyy.

P.S: the Sombrero from Andrea now serve the purpose als one of my wall decorations 🙂

Viva La Bamba!
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The Feeling Of Know What Is Already Known

I noticed some bunnies and eggs chocolate in supermarket and my mind directly know “oh Easter is coming” but I never really remember what date is that as my feelings towards Easter is different from my feelings towards Christmas, not that I don’t know what Easter is, I exactly knew but… yeah

Few days before Easter, Moeke posted in one of my Fb group.

Hmm… I didn’t know that people give other people gift on Easter, this is totally new for me. I remembered that I was searching for eggs or decorated it when I was a kid but not really having chocolate or do any celebrations. Ofc Im one of the girls that commented hihihi…..

I directly forget again that Easter is real holiday until my colleague asked “What will you do on Easter?” hmm…. working? and she said “it’s a public holiday Marlyn” really?! so people don’t go to work? No! #mind blowing! This was the first time that I know, as in Shanghai we don’t have Easter and in Indonesia…. I can’t remember it… Im away from home for too long. So we will have a good long holiday! too bad it’s corona time otherwise I already go somewhere and explore, well at least now I know when to plan my holiday next year #schlau

I met with Moeke to get my first ever Easter gift! So happy there are still strangers that cares about other strangers and brought joy to my life, just one simple gesture of care in Fb group was able to restored my faith in humanity 🙂

Thank you girl, maybe it’s common for you to do that in Netherlands but little did you know that it’s my first ever Easter gift after almost 30 years living in this planet Earth 🙂

Since its a long weekend, Julia asked me to come over and have a BBQ together, why should I say no to that? Hell yeah! Took a train to Schwelm and found a “decoration” in my room 🙂

Another bunny and eggs! so it’s really a big deal yeah for the European country 🙂 We were sitting in Julia’s balcony to enjoy a bit of the sun with Decke on our body because it’s kalt! while Moritz prepare the BBQ, what a good combination.

This is also my first BBQ not only in 2021 but also since hmmm….. 2020 I’m not sure maybe also 2019! haha times fly so fast yet so slow in this special pandemic time. The next day which is on Friday, we aren’t supposed to eat meat but…. what can we do with the sausages? we can’t just throw it or leave it for the next day? Bring it to the table please!! Together with the colorful eggs and bunny Brötchen. Is it a front or back side of the bunny? Let you guess 🙂

Then I’m back to Dortmund and on Saturday I met with my ex-classmates when I learn German but since we had online class so this also my first time seeing her in real life, Silvia! and she’s just exactly crazy as what I had on my mind #Marlyn’s feeling is correct!

There are so many first things happening to me in this Easter time. Not only know what I already known that Easter is a holiday but most important is I finally get the feeling of it!

Marlyn ist einfach glücklich.

Thank you und Bis zum nächsten Mal 🙂

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The Clueless Night

I always like Christmas, the atmosphere, decoration, carols, the gifts, not all I want for Christmas is you song and so on and so on. The gift is not necessarily important it’s just a feeling of getting a gift and opening it that is so wow to me. And while most people are away during Christmas, make sense, it’s a holiday season after all, I had the privileged to spent Christmas with Elle magazine and Wesley Bear on their Shire 😉 I am so happy that they are staying here during Christmas and they invited me to celebrate it with them. Up until now I have no idea what is Shire haha

The menu was listed like two weeks before Christmas and I was a bit of a complicated person as I don’t eat lamb, fish, fatty pork so I messaged her privately about food restrictions that I can’t eat but I totally clueless that she still need some help on the option 1, 2 and 3 haha yeah I forget the word assist is the synonym of help # excuse my clueless, not native speaker here 🙂 overall, FYI I don’t read between the lines, either tell me exactly what to do or else I won’t feel it haha

Turns out it wasn’t only me that was clueless as Tash and Ira wasn’t responsive as well mwahaha I’m getting some groupies here 😉 but Elle, for sure you know that we didn’t mean that because on the D-day it turns out well! 😉

Then fast forward to less than one week before our dinner plan, Elle herself posted a bunch of restaurant that do Christmas deal like really? I thought we all set and since we all are clueless so we had to put into a vote of where to eat etc, even the votes went to second round really people? Presidency votes only went once and to choose a restaurant we need to vote two times?! I see the priority here and in the end the result was stick to the Shrine wohooo! #now you know what my vote was 😉

From the first time I met Elle and Wesley I always know they stayed at Lou Shan Guan Lu metro station so I was just chill as it wasn’t far from where I live so I asked her again what is the exact address and she said it was on the flyer and they moved to near Shanghai South Railway and I was like “Whaattt???” good that I asked otherwise I will go to a completely wrong direction.

It was a rainy day on Christmas but I like it because I had the chance to wear my rainy boots for the first time ever! I arrived in front of their gate, I was clueless on how to ring a bell for sure I pressed the right number but the intercom didn’t want to call her room, I thought she heard my frustration and opened the door for me, when I arrived Tash was already there. I got welcomed by the very amazing blueberry cheese, bread, ham, chips, champagne and the gift! #thumbs up

Then Wesley arrived, followed by Ira that only stay with us for less than one hour due to she need to catch her flight to Beijing.

Wesley noticed that my front camera wasn’t so bright and both of us are iphone 10 user and we did comparison test but I think my iphone was still brighter than his and Elle said my Huawei is better and we were “this is iphone yo” hahaha

  • Does Wes looks like the UFC fighter Mc Gregor?
  • Or all white people with beard looks the same?

Wesley had this amazing skill of going through express vpn by configuration #something that I don’t understand, due to I don’t use express so he tried to set it up on Tash’s phone and I don’t think it went smooth at the beginning and Tash was nervous if she won’t be able to connect vpn later on mwahaha I have a bit faith in Wes, I don’t think he’s totally clueless 😉

Then our lovely host Elle brought the mushroom soup which she knew for sure that it taste great because guess what? She tasted it! But she had no idea about the main food because she didn’t taste it haha! “So, just remember that the mushroom soup taste good when the chicken arrived” quoted Elle and yes I will remember it 😉

Before Elle serve the food, she asked Wesley to cut the chicken and for some reason she needed all of us to gather on the kitchen to see how Wes did it. She said she fell in love with Wes when she saw he was chopping wood so…..


  • Can’t see that this is the reason though 😉

I have a special non-fatty pork yeay! And we were back to the Shrine’s living room, we were enjoying the food until Wes told us a story about a series that he watched? And he watched a psycho man killing cat and then moving on to killing person, why on earth we talked about that on a Christmas day? #not that we can talk about it anyday, it’s just when Christmas the expectation was getting high 😉

We also gossiped about co-workers and stuff, up until the point Elle said “It’s Christmas why are we gossiping?” haha the night is not even late but our conversation was going all the way. Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to Ira because we won’t let her miss her plane even though before she fly we talked about plane crash etc haha why we did that to her?! I wanted to say that you do missed a very clueless topic of conversation from trying to get permanent residence of other country and Wes will learn Spanish and Tash thought Spanish was just English ended with “o” like spoon to spoono uh uh no girl that’s not how Spanish sounds like.

Elle asked me at least two times if I was in a hurry and no, never, you have to kick me out to let me get out from your Shrine, just a reminder again that I don’t read between the lines 😉 Wes was trying to maybe give some “cue” which I don’t follow obviously by asking “does anyone wants to have a coffee?” and Tash said “maybe later when we have our desert” and magically the desert appears and he asked again about the coffee until Tash asked “are you hurrying us up, Wes?” haha and Wes told us deliberately about an advertisement of a candle and the flavor of the candle was “get the he$# out of my house” and even with this we totally clueless what was the meaning did Wes really want us to leave? Hahaha No, just kidding, I know you won’t mean that #wink wink 😉

Due to we still have some food left so Elle packed some for me for the next day yeay! 😉 and at some point me and Tash left the Shrine because it’s getting late, turns out me and Tash live not so far away, awesome!!

Thank you Elle and Wes for welcoming me, thank you for Tash and Ira, I’m happy to meet you all. Thank you for the dinner, the gift and the fact that you were so environmental friendly and wrapped it with a used newspaper 😉 Thank you also for my own gingerbread house #drooling. Hope we all happily entering year 2020 and everything that we planned disregard of how clueless it seems tonight will all turn up well 🙂

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The “Nightmare” Before Christmas- Episode 2

Well…well…well never had I ever thought that I will have sequel of “nightmare” before Christmas. Good news is this time I didn’t almost miss the flight or anything happened somewhere near the airport. It happened right on the city center of Julu Road, Dodu restaurant.

Few weeks before Christmas, me and Courtney has been texting and asked each other if we will be here on Christmas and yes we both are. We didn’t plan anything until 23rd of Dec when Courtney said let’s meet up on 24th I said yes to her and we started to look for a place to have dinner, we didn’t want to be a fancy deal dinner, there were some places that we were interested in but in the end we chose Dodu at 7:30pm. Courtney made the RSVP and we all set for the next day.

On the day, I had to take the wrong direction so she had to wait for me, she said “it’s ok because we didn’t get the table yet” until I arrived which was 15 mins late we still didn’t get the table but we were not complaint about it, we understand that restaurant was busy. The only table available was the one that directly in front of the door, originally we didn’t want to sit there because it’s cold….but anyway we chose that table for a while. We ordered “roasted cheese” and “half roasted chicken”.

We both kept talking until I realized some guest from upper floor already went home, so I talked to the Chinese guy-let’s call him the manager- that I want to move upstairs and he said “No, upstairs only for 4 people” heee??? What is that? He can’t separate the table into 2-2 or what? And I turned myself to Courtney and said “Courtney, as white people to another, please talk to this white guy, he seems to work here” and she did, the white guy was peeking to upper floor and said to the manager “yes they can move upstairs” I think the manager tried to be funny by saying “yeah, you can move upstairs if you want, actually it’s colder there” yeah for sure it’s colder there. #weird feeling number 1

When we were upstairs, the table that been set up by the white guy wasn’t really convenient but we didn’t complain about it, within few minutes we saw another table of 4 left so we just moved there, the waitress- I assumed she’s a Filipino separate the 4 table into 2-2 and sitting next to us was a couple.

Our first dish arrived, which is surprisingly not the cheese but the chicken, not a biggie, we were hungry anyway, it came with the sides and since the table is small so the food was kind of consumed all the space on the table.

Then our cheese arrived but the waitress gave it to the couple next to us and I said in Chinese and Courtney said in English that “this is ours” the girl heard us and move it to the next table of 4 and I said to her “that cheese is mine” she said “no, they also ordered” Courtney said “but we were here before them” #weird feeling number 2

Anyway we continued eating our roasted chicken, I think it was not more than 5 mins the manager came to me and asked “did you order roasted cheese? We didn’t mark it and now it sold out” and we both said “that cheese was ours but she gave it to their table” well the manager done what every manager would do which is he gave us a pate as a compensation.

Even after the pate we were still hungry and thinking about dessert until the food of the couple arrived which is half roasted chicken and their portion was bigger! Turns out they mistakenly gave our order, they gave us quarter of a chicken! No wonder we were still hungry! #weird feeling number 3

I had a habit of taking picture of the food and I called the manager to talk to him and he said “I can’t see the difference in the picture” hmmmmm you can’t see the difference? Like HOW?! They have 6 pieces and we only have 4?

  • Ours
  • Them

Anyway the white guy was around and Courtney talked to him, he was quiet surprised and I asked him “are you the manager here?” he said “I’m the boss here” I continued “Good, can you see this picture and the food that this couple had?” but the way me and Courtney talked to him wasn’t complaining, we just informed him about what happened and he took our report seriously than his staff. I said “I’m really sorry but I won’t write a good review about this place” and he was so wise by telling me “It’s OK do what you need to do”

Then we went downstairs to pay and the white guy still there and he said “OK, we will charge for the quarter of the chicken and please wait here I will give you something to compensate” and guess what he gave us??? A complimentary voucher of a free quarter of a chicken! Yeay!! And when he handled me the voucher he told me “Now you can write an OK kind of review right?” haha! I asked him what is his name, he is a Hugo Boss and we really appreciate him for his behavior but we warned him that the attitude of his staff is not good at all.

We left Dodu in searching for a dessert place, while we were walking we got a bit calmed and able to think clearly and we find it funny that it seems like we got the food for free due to this voucher 😉 and we just laughed when we realized that our Christmas Eve dinner was only 78 RMB mwahaha bottom line is it wasn’t really a bad thing after all.

The voucher was written valid until 31st Dec but Hugo crossed it until March and I said to Courtney well actually we can use it now and said to them “Hello, we’re moving on, we’re still hungry and we both demand our free quarter chicken now” haha but we didn’t do that we stick to our dessert searching.

I ended up having ice cream at Garcie’s and Courtney having crepe at Odelice!

As the night is going late…. We had to say goodbye but both of us will come again to Dodu to see if the service has improved or not and for our free food obviously! Haha! Turns out this wasn’t a total “nightmare” before Christmas but I don’t mind to not have this kind of moment again for next year, please don’t let it become a tradition!

Merry Christmas everyone, hope you all had a nice Christmas Eve and Christmas day 😉