Of Germans and a Geburtstag

Song of the day : Like a Dog Chasing Cars by Hans Zimmer.
There's no real reason. It's just epic! XD

Yesterday was a very family affair as it was Papa's geburtstag!!

Doesn't it look just lovely? It means warmest congratulations.

And I had my first big-family gathering. I met many new faces, and made many new friends.

Before leaving for school in the morning, the family gave our presents to Papa. I gave a cookbook, Mutti gave a watch and a surprise helicopter ride over Sassnitz while Lisa and Jonas gave a mug and mouse pad which had their photos digitally printed onto the surfaces.

Then everyone adjourned to their respective ways, me to school, Lisa to work and Mutti to prepare the party.

I returned from school around 4 in the evening to see that Opa and both my Omas'  had arrived. There was a lot of Hallo's and Wie geht es dir's from the adults and a lot of Sehr gut's from me. We had some blackforest cherry cake and a few other pastires. Ooh, and I had a glass of champagne!

We had an insanely yummy dinner.

Hehehe...

And after that, EVERYONE arrived. I got so confused with the names that I had no choice but to do this.

Mutti's side of the family

Papa's side of the family

It's my family tree!! Well, what's left of it.. But it's good, yeah? And most of the relatives came to help me with my tree. It was so much of fun to do. If you really squint your eyeballs, you can see that I've also written the names of their pets. Yeah, I know. Big family. Whoop-de-doo!

I'd also introduced Malaysia to Jule, who is Florian's girlfriend, who is Hannes' brother. It was cool because she's got good Geography, so I didn't have to explain that Malaysia existed in the first place. And she actually knew about Kavadis! It's fun explaining about Batu Caves to a German..

And that's when things got a tad bit ridiculous. We had another batch of arrivals which included Cindy and Nicole. So now, sitting at the table was Nicole Nico, Jule, myself, Cindy amd Hannes. Oh, if only one could imagine the end of the world. Only then one could begin to comprehend the utter madness of everybody present.

Ergo, I have compiled a list of thingys that make Germans, Germans! Note, this is based ONLY on my family's habbits. It doesn't even begin to define other German-sers

1. Germans have watches that are kaputt

2. Germans freak out. Like, FREAK OUT! Da dum di dum..

3. Germans are very expressive. There's no end to their hand motions.

4. Germans force foreigners to drink eggs.

5. Germans smell each others' armpits.

6. Germans are proud of their swear words, for example Scheiße and Verdammte scheiße.

7. German guys like girls with a full belly.

This is German liebe. 

8. Germans love saying laber laber laber and alter.

9. Germans drink bibob. I'll leave you to figure it out yourself.

10. Germans steal food from each others' plates.

11. Germans are disgusting. They spit out potato chips when they talk, and if that isn't obvious enough, they talk with their mouths full.

I have another list too, but this one is according to my cousin.

1. Germans are lazy, but punctual.

2. Germans are are early, but late.

3. Germans love smoking. And beer. And parties. Ooooh, lots of parties.

4. Germans take it easy. Mika is like their Buddha.

5. Wild schwein. *Snort*

In short, Germans are awesome.

This is my family and they're my favourite Germans. Everyone say Scheiße! XD

First Wochenende in Germany.

First of all,

YAY!! It's the weekend!!

Next, we begin.

Today I got up late. Real late. Around 10.30 in the morning. And I had an hour long bath. Felt awesome and revived. Mutti's sister's husband came to visit about 15 minutes later. I gave my greetings and sat at the breakfast table while he drank a cup of tea. He was very nice.

After breakfast, Mutti had to run some errands and I tagged along. There wasn't much to do, so we finished up pretty quickly. Then Mutti proposed that we go to her sister's place which is on the other side of town.

We entered the older side of town which is nearer to the Baltic Sea. The view was breathtaking. If people could pass out from a picture perfect scenery, I would be the first. Mutti's sister was so agreeable. Like sister, like sister!

The Baltic Sea

The shining sun glorifies the sea.

 Then, Mutti dropped by another place before taking me home.

My first look at fußball!

Papa prepared lunch!

My secret craze, Oreos and Milch!!XD

In the evening, the plan was to go for a sightseeing tour around the island and then catch a movie. But as usual, plans never work. It's always better to be random and spontaneous anyway. Life's more fun!

So, Nico and Nicole picked me up and we went for a barbeque at Andi's ranch. And no, they don't line the pigs up. (Note, babi in the Malay language refers to a pig. So when we say barbeque, it sounds like babi queue. In short, it means queing up pigs. Big HAHA!!)

This is the best way I can summarize my night out.

I actually thought this was toasted bread.

The ever so famous German beer.

A crown that I found. Looks like something straight out of a movie.

Check out the 'Dartfighters' on the bottom left hand corner. Awesome!

They wanted a picture so I humoured them. That's Hannes, Nico and Cindy (Nico's sister)

A whiz-bang bottle opener. Translation : This is what happens when you drink milk instead of beer. At least, I think that's the translation! @.@

I have no idea who drew it, but I personally thought it was damn scheiße! And that's a meatball.

Germans buy cigarettes in Poland!

A Shisha. Completely WICKED.

The alcohol for the night

Cindy's boyfriend could puff rings 

Another Shisha. But we didn't use this one.

The used tobacco from the Shisha, next to my Mickey Mouse.

And this is just Saturday. I wonder what's in store for tomorrow...

The Art of Running with Hannes. Nicht cool.

Today, I learnt a new word. Scheiße. And this is a story of how it entered my vocabulary.

In the morning, Hannes told me that we were going to have to rush for our bus back home. Y'see, school ends at 1 in the afternoon on Fridays and the bus is at 1:06 on the dot. And yesterday, I counted the steps from the school to the bus stop and I ended at 909. So we walked 909 steps in 20 minutes or so. Alright, yeah? 

Heh. So here's the thing. Today, we ran 909 steps in 4 minutes. Sure it's okay for Hannes. He's got a metre-long legs. But I'm an Asian. Asians are pint sized!! On top of that, he was yelling at me to hurry up and move faster. As we were nearing the station, the bus was already getting ready to move out. So now, here I am, short of breath and this fella is shouting at me to run another 1 kilometre to the next bus stand. He even grabbed my text books to get me to move more swiftly. Then I half waddled, half scurried to him. And in my head, I was thinking scheiße. SCHEIßE!! To the damnations of hell!

Though I felt awful then, I think it's absolutely hilarious now. We were beat by the time we got to our seats. And guess what? Hannes said he does this every Friday. I was like this crazy shit is going to get me killed! So I've decided to take up the Orchestral lessons after school hours on Friday. That way, I won't have to huff and puff like a dying kangaroo to get home. Which means I'll be coming home alone on Fridays. A teensy weensy sacrifice. Cos these are my options. 

A) Walk to the bus stand alone with the possibility of getting lost.

B) Run to the bus stand with Hannes with the possibility of falling flat on my face, which I 
very inconveniently, have a tendency of doing.

My brain could be half asleep and I would still be able to choose A over B. That's how wacky it was to run for the bus. And Hannes didn't even indulge me in the thought of waiting for the next bus. Ah, Hannes... Mad as a March Hare. 

When we got off the bus, we bade each other Scheiße, and I walked another kilometre to my home. But it was awesome to be home as I had this waiting for me.

My lunch: Omelette with bacon and potatoes, last night's cucumber salad, carrots with lemon, cola and a lolly.

All in all, it was an interesting day. And most exhausting! Luckily the weekend is here. Now, it's family time!! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :)

Exploring

 Song of the day : Zombie by The Cranberries

The reason I chose this song is because of the line 'And the violence causes silence'. In school today, as I was exiting the building, a guy and a girl jumped out of thin air right in front of me. They leapt ito each others' arms and hugged ferociously. So I did the only thing that I could think of. I took cover under my armpits. I tried to duck but I didn't exactly want to lose sight of Hannes in the crowd. So I braved my way through them. Which explains my song, their violent love reduced me to a quiet fear.

After school, Papa took me to Binz. It's a little town about 15 kilometres from Sassnitz. Apparently, it's a holiday zone. People zoom into this place, especially during Summer. I can see why. It's absolutely marvelous and I can only imagine the springing beauty when Summer arrives.

In case you don't know, that's me. In Binz.

A view of a hotel facing the sea.

The pier. Freakin cold by the way...

One of the best tea cafes, according to Papa.

My hot schokolade!

Then we went to Mutti's work place and I hitched a ride back home with her. Papa went grocery shopping. And when he came back, he made dinner.

Cucumber salad

Curry rice

Und baked fish.

Pretty cool, eh?

Schule

Phew!

First day of school was a success!

Today I got up at 5.30 in the morning. Papa was actually going to wake me up at 6 but I was just burning with nervousness that I decided to jump out of bed. I even got cold feet in the bathroom as I was getting dressed. But alles klar, I made it through :)

Then, Mutti drove us to where Hannes lives. The plan was to pick him up and go to school together. When we arrived, he said to wait for 2 minutes. We ended up waiting for more than 5 minutes. Whoever said Germans were super duper truper punctual obviously hasn't met Hannes.

The journey to Bergen was about 20 minutes or so. In school, we met a teacher who gave me my schedule and  left me some instructions. Hannes took me to my class while explaining stuff about the school. Then, both Mutti and Hannes adjourned, leaving me to explore Germany via my new classmates.

I was very lost actually. I didn't know what to say or do. And the teacher that entered gave out worksheets in German. All I could do was stare at everyone like a duck. Until one of the girls, Frauke, gave me this piece of paper which had some basic German words.

To make sure I wasn't confused, they even drew caricatures or rather, cartoons of themselves

Some of them I already knew but the other new words, I made sure to write down in my little notebook. And I also copied some of the passages from the worksheet to show Lisa.

The next lesson was Religion. The teacher in this class allowed me to do whatever I pleased. So, I took out my notebook again and studied the new words. Then as the teacher was making her rounds, she stopped by my table and gave me a little introduction about the subject she is teaching. From her description, I can deduce that it is almost like History, except that it is seen through the eyes of religion. As in, from a religious point of view.

After Religion, we had Economics. As soon as I entered class, a girl bounded up towards me and gave me a hug. I was taken aback to say the least. I patted her in return out of courtesy. I don't really now how to put this, but in Malaysia, when you hug a random stranger, you either;

1. Intend to steal money from their pockets by disguising it in the form of a hug; or
2. Are a perveted pig.

And you either;

1. Get slapped.
2. Get slapped really hard.

I sat next to a lovely girl, Kim. She was very kind to translate  lots of things that the teacher and other students were saying.

School ended at 1 in the afternoon and Hannes accompanied me out from the building. Lisa was already waiting with her Auto by the time we came out.

At home, I was interrogated by Lisa and Papa. It was fun because it felt like I was back to my first day at school 11 years ago. I even told Lisa about the embarrassing incident that happened during my Religion class. Shuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuussshh, Lisa!! It's a sister secret.

Afterwards, we watched Harry Potter 7 Part II. Finally!! I had been waiting to watch it since the release but I just didn't have the oppurtunity. Harry/ Daniel looked awesome. Handsome celebrities....gotta love them!

When the movie finished, Papa taught me how to play Mahjong. Ironic, isn't it? By right, I should be the one teaching Papa how to play it! We lost the game though. Haha. Then Papa showed me pictures of Jonas' many girlfriends. And we gossiped about them like old grandmas.

On another note, it's pretty sad that I'm a girl and my room is this messy.

The unfinished puzzle Oma Inger gave me and other stuff

My unmade bed, a fallen bottle and other stuff

The unkept floor, random junk on the windowsill and other stuff

The overflowing books on the table and other stuff

Notice how I used 'other stuff ' to describe my room? That's cos I have tons of other stuff. No wonder my luggage looked like it was hiding an elephant.

Papa and Lisa said that my room isn't all that bad. They said Jonas is way more messy. Harh. Wait until I live here for a few more months. Then we'll see how messy I can be. But I will TRY to organize my room and keep it clean. Soon. I hope. If I remember.

Anyeong everybody!!

Döner

Today, we had the most epic bread for lunch. It's called a Döner in German. It's a Turkish sandwich that is stuffed with meat and whatnot. So for lunch, Lisa drove me to the shop and we ordered three Döners. One for Papa, one for Lisa and one for me. I can't really explain the sheer fantabulousness of this bread so you're gonna just have to drool at the pictures. 

The meat that was used. You can see the lil gizmo on the right of the meat, which he used to sort of scrape the  flesh.

I can't rotate the picture so this shall suffice. These are actually the fillings for the bread that we can choose.

This is mine, up close and personal.

This is mine as well. Scrumptious!

Abenteuer Deutschland

Alrighty, I've finally laid my foot in Germany.

But before I get on with that, I'd like to say that the German computer keyboard is mind blowingly confusing. Some of the letters are not in the right place and there are numerous weird alphabets. But since I'm a German now, I guess I'm the weird one. Can you believe that I'd been searching long and hard for the @ symbol? And then I figured at this rate, I would only start on my entry tomorrow. So I googled, "how to write the at symbol on a german keyboard". And it worked!! Hehe.. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@!!

Back to my journey. The German gang left KLIA at 7.30 pm local time. There were 8 of us. Kak Azreen said the other girl would join us in March. So we sat through a 7 hour flight. It was pretty long but the entertainment made time just whizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz by. We arrived at Dubai late night. We were lucky to meet a fellow ex- AFSer from Indonesia who helped us find our gate. She even told us about the free meal voucher. (It's only free if your transit is more than 4 hours. Ours was 5) Then we left Dubai around 3.30 in the morning. Oh, and during the wait, I Skyped my sister and my parents! But the line was awful, so we didn't chat for long. We arrived at Frankfurt at 8 in the morning.

The volunteers were waiting at the exit and one of them helped me lug my heavy suitcase. He still doesn't know how very grateful I am. We pretty much hung around the airport throughout the day. And as time passed, more and more AFSers joined us. Around 11 am, the first batch left to catch their train. And the scenario repeated for the rest of the day.

Although, I had to spend the night in Frankfurt cos I was placed way up north. You see, my train ride is actually for 9 hours. And I'm assuming that the earliest train is at 7am. But we arrived at the airport at 8 am. So, you could say that I missed my train.

Whilst the others left one by one, I took out my storýbook, Emma, and read. By the time I finished Volume I, it was time to leave the airport and we, the new batch of AFSers (they arrived very late) and myself, adjourned to the Youth Hostel, which was just a little way off the airport. And I met two Thai guys who insisted on accompanying me cause we were the only Asians in the whole group. So grateful, again!!

The next morning, the whole lot of us got up at around 5.30 in the morning to catch our 7 o'clock train. And so I sat in the train. For a very long time. You can imagine what 9 hours of waiting did to me. 'Twas like waiting for roti canai to be served with mushroom soup. Impossible!

But survivable. The scenery made the journey worthwhile and a lot more enjoyable. In other words, it was awesome.

I arrived at Stralsund in the evening. And my family was waiting for me at the station, which was freezing by the way. They gave me big big hugs. And I tried to return them. We hopped into the car and drove to Sassnitz which is about 50 kilometres from Stralsund. At around 20 kilometers to go, we took a detour to Burgen which is where my school is. It's mega huge. We also stopped by the place where Lisa, my host sister, works.

And at last, we came to a stop at my new home. I must say that I absolutely love it. Insanely love it. The house was so well designed and built. The second floor belongs to the kids and currently, that speaks for my room and Lisa's room. Papa (Dad) and Mutti (Mom) have their bedroom downstairs. There's also a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom and a store room. They also have two guest houses that are next to the living quarters. And they have rabbits!! Big fluffy ones. And a cat. Mousie. I'm not sure how it's spelt though I'm sure that's how it sounds.

I retired very early to bed on the first day. I was super duper tired and I was soooooooooo jetlagged. I think my family was a little sad that I didn't seem too enthusiastic. But they understood immediately when I conveyed my feelings about being exhausted and downright lethargic. Ah, AFS would be so proud to know I communicated! Hehe..

On the second day, I got up at 6.45 in the morning. (The after effects of sleeping early) I decided to take my first proper German bath. And I got the biggest surprise to find the water burning hot. It was crazy! I don't know how I did it, but I did it. I took my bath.

After breakfast, Mutti, Lisa and I went to Burgen. We had shopping to do! Papa didn't join us cos he was in the midst of a painting project. He's doing up the guest houses.

So, we went to the mart, got my boots, shopped for some groceries, bought my SIM card and had lunch! All in the same building too! Then we went to another place, also in Burgen. I won't disclose any details here cos it's supposed to be a secret!! After that, Mutti took us to the beach. And it was FREEZING!! So fricking cold!! Lisa and I searched for some sea shells. Lisa got wet. :)

After the beach, we visited Oma (Grandma) and Opa (Grandpa). They are Mutti's parents. They were so lovely!! Oma was so kind to me. She was smiling at me the whole time. She even gave me a hug! Lisa told me Opa is 77 years old. He sure doesn't look his age. He's as fit as a fiddle!

After exchanging some news with Oma and Opa, we went upstairs to visit Andy and Tina. Andy is Mutti's brother and Tina is his wife. They have two sons. The younger one, Hannes goes to school with me. Oh, I forgot to mention, Oma and Opa live in this really huge house. They too have two guest houses. Oma and Opa live downstairs, whereas Andy and Tina's family lives upstairs. Now that's all cleared up, I'll move on.

As we were going upstairs, I met another cat, Bonnie! (I'm sure that's NOT the spelling) Tina served us tea with pastries. And OHMYGOD, these people have the BEST teas ever. The first day I arrived, Lisa gave me apple tea and Tina served us the ultra delicious red tea. I have no idea what it is, but I'm sure gonna find out!

I showed them where I lived, right down to Batu 12. We used Google Earth. Explains a lot, doesn't it? I showed them Pangkor Island too, where Ma works. And a little while later, Andy pointed at the window and said schnee. So I looked out at the window and it was snowing!! Like little white flakes falling from the sky!! So cool!! Literally and metaphorically. But it was very warm and cozy inside so we didn't feel anything.

Andy, Tina, Hannes, Mutti and Lisa were having a conversation whilst I tried to figure out what they were saying. I'm sure they shared a joke cos they were howling with laughter at some point. That's all that I made out though. XD

After a while, we returned home. We unpacked the things we bought from the mart. It was fun, something a family would do together. Then we went into the living room, where Papa was watching the television. I can't remember how, but Papa ended up showing me his collection of DVD's, which lemme tell you, is a lot. It's funny cos, my dad at home is a movie buff as well! Just then, Nico, Lisa's other cousin came to see us, and he brought along his girlfriend, Nicole.

Nico said that we were going to go sightseeing around Sassnitz and it would just be us young ones. So we picked up Hannes in Nico's car and drove to where Nicole works. She's a receptionist at this really big hotel. She took us to the 9th floor which has probably the most amazing view of Sassnitz. And then we stole into the kitchen and grabbed some meat and coconut-chocolate cake. Ah, the joy of being a teenager.

After that, we went to drink coffee at an Italian restaurant. And we talked. It was beyond fun. I'm extremely delighted to have met this bunch of people here in Germany. They were cracking jokes and acting all funny. There was such a light feeling in the air. Hannes said they (himself included) were crazy. He called them freaks. I mean in the good way. After coffee, we walked up the bridge that takes us to the sea. But we went only halfway and walked back to the car.

When we reached home, I showed them some stuff about Malaysia on the internet, and they showed me stuff about Germany. Then Papa and Mutti called us to dinner. Some time after dinner, Hannes, Nico and Nicole left. Mutti showed me some pictures of my host brother, Jonas over Facebook. Then, Lisa and I went upstairs to her room to watch Harry Potter 7 Part I. I watched my first German movie!

So here I am now, finishing this up. I meant to post this entry about ten hours ago but I didn't finish it in time. And when I came in tonight to post the ongoings of my second day, I figured, I might as well continue writing from the first one.

Till the next time, Gute nacht!