hey its okay

I attended an interview last week and the outcome was not as what I expected. Yeah the person seemed keen (I judge this based on my very little experience working in the HR department). But this is a totally different country, with different values, different thinking, different culture and most importantly, different language.

However, I wanted to make sure as I did some reading in the internet and my visum (at that time) stated that I can only work with the permission of the Ausländerbehörde. I'm not sure how to translate Ausländerbehörde but its the office where migrants do their visas and apply for working permit. Different state have different regulations and different people own different visas and permissions. Since I am here under a 'dependent visa' (dependent from my husband) so there are several restrictions. And before this, my husband's visa was dependent from the company where he is currently working. So macam double restrictions la. Anyway, I showed the interviewer my passport and she checked with the HR. It seems that I don't have the permission to work. Aduh hampanya saya. Baru je nampak sinar harapan. Nevertheless, we went to the Ausländerbehörde's office and asked. It seems that now my husband's visa is no longer dependent from his company and has an independent working visa. We renewed our visa yesterday. And I automatically have the same visa and same working permit. How cool is that? Alhamdulillah.

So I called the person again and told her that my status have been upgraded and she requested that I sent a copy of my visa. Ok fine, no problem. Excited la nih.

Today I called her and she answered coldly, when I asked,

I sent a copy of my visa to you via Email and wondering if you've received it?
Ya.
Ok.. You said you will ask the HR department... em.. I am wondering what is the outcome?
Ya. I will call you when the HR say yes and when we have the project.
Ok.. Thank you very much.

Yeah, the other day she was very friendly but harini macam cold je. Perhaps because the weather is very cold today. I don't know. It seems that I don't know the Deutsche very well yet.

I told my husband. I was a little bit sad la because I thought she was still keen on accepting my application. Maybe I thought wrong. I told my husband and he said, 'It's okay, then you cari kerja lain la'

Well, hey, it's okay.. I pray that ada rezeki untuk earn some money here in Deutschland, InshaAllah..

Another level : B1,2.

Today I start with my final (hopefully) level for my Deutsch course. Before I citer dengan lebih lanjut, lemme explain what I mean by final level.

Right now I am under temporary visa (more than 90 days) which must be renewed yearly. For me to get a permanent visa, I need to undergo 600 hours of Deutschintergrationkurs + 1 week of Orientierungkurs (Deutsch government and laws) and pass the exams. This is the new law by the German government for Ausländer (foreigners) who wants to reside here. I am 'forced' to take this Deutschintergrationkurs because I plan to stay here forawhile, inshaAllah. By 'forced' I mean, because I am married and my husband works here. For this, the government is subsiding for the course and I pay at a discounted price. But only upto 600 hours.

The structure are as follows :

• A1,1 Basic
• A1,2 Introduction to Grammatik
• A2,1 More introduction to Grammatik
• A2,2 The hardcore of the Grammatik
• B1,1 How to use the grammatik in topics
• B1,2 Preparation for exams and again Grammatik

But if a person wants to study in University, one must complete till C1. That means after B1,2 there is B2 and C1.

I am right now at B1,2.

My exams will be on 1. April. Takutnya. So far, I have been busy studying. Thats why I haven't been blogging as much.. Or chatting or doing other internet activities. I called home this morning n mama said, 'Belajar rajin² la. Pekse nak dekat' . I laughed cause the last time she said that to me was when I was doing my degree.. which was somewhere back in 2003.. hehehe its funny when you're almost 30 and your mom says belajar rajin².

Anyways, I have lots of pictures to share and also stories to tell. But perhaps when I have more time okay. Pray for me. I feel that right now I can speak better and I feel more confident. Socializing with other people helped a lot.

Bis dann. Take care people. Tschüss! :)

real social network

I am now in level B1,1. It has been 3 days and I can feel the heat, even in the cold winter weather. Yes, it's still cold here. The wind is excruciatingly stark even though it is sunny. I can feel it blowing angrily in my face and sometimes I put my shawl on my face and people can only see my eyes.

If you know me personally, you would know that I hate changes. Or, it might take me a while to adapt to change. Since I am now in another group of classmates, naturally I would compare them with my old classmates. I can't help it. Biasalah, belum biasa lagi, everything is foreign and new. However, after more than a month being with this group of youngsters, yesterday was finally the day that we went out for lunch together. 

Florian from Syria asked each and everyone of the classmates to go to lunch after class. Even though it was last minute but we managed to gather some 8 people together. We had problems choosing a place to eat, Döner was the first choice but Florian suggested to eat Döner yang berdiri. See Europeans like to eat berdiri, they would have many2 tall tables but no chairs. Which I find it weird at first tapi now dah terbiasa. However, the weather was too cold to eat berdiri and our Döners might be flying around in the streets. Ilias from France then suggested Istanbul and we all agreed. So it was me from Malaysia, Analuz (Mexico), Ximera (Columbia), Khalid (Isreal), Alexander (Ukraine), Florian (Syria), Thomas (Croatia) and Ilias (France). He brought his cousin along, Ryadh, who is from Morocco. Throught all of this, we were all conversing in Deutsch. It was an amazing experience for me. I learned a lot of new things and new cultures from these bunch of people. After lunch, we headed to an Egyptian coffee shop where they guys had Shisha. And then the guessing age game came up. They wrongly guessed my age and when they finally knew they unanimously said, 'sheißer!' means, $hit! Haha! Funny2. 


And so we went on talking about the cliche´ of other nationalities. Is it true that all Asians are smart? Do the French sing when they speak? Do all Russians drink Vodca? Why do Arabs speak loud? Are all Mexican food spicy? It was a new experience for me. My husband think its good that I hang out more with my classmates, lagi bagus with the ones who don't speak English because the only common thing we have is Deutsch. And we are kinda forced to speak Deutsch.


Unfortunately, unlike other socialnetworkers, I don't take pictures of my gatherings and hangouts here. Therefore, I have no pictures to share.
 
Au revoir people! Good bye in French :)

my first 2011 post

Hello! I hope its not too late to wish you all happy new year 2011! How was your new year's celebration? We had a great time. Since me and my husband will be turning 30 this year, we decided to have some makan² and hanging out at our house. Our New Year's eve was celebrated with a theme. I came up with the idea, A Black and White Affair. Everyone wore something either black or white or both. Which looked fabulous and turned out great in pictures.We had finger food. I prepared tuna sandwiches and hotdogs and everyone brought something. In the end, we had too much food and had to tapaukan for everyone. The party was supposed to commence at 2000. Tapi dunno they all ni dah germanise kot.. 1830 dah sampai dah.. But it's okay for me :) Activies were rock banding in the livingroom, karaoke-ing in our room, poker in the kitchen and borak² di satu sudut di hujung living room. Memang agak happening jugak la I might say. The topics that we talked about covered almost everything. We talked about games played masa kecik². Main getah, main tiang, main rubber, main pen, ting ting, main bola pakai kertas, macam² lah lagi.. Borak citer hantu la, politics, economy, social.. Movies, theorems, weather, life, life in the past, life in the future. It was just chilling and hanging out. A laid back party. Towards midnight, we headed downstairs to play with fireworks. In Deutschland, fireworks diharamkan, kecuali on New Year's eve. They call it the Sylvesterfeirn. New Year's eve depa memang kaw kaw jual. What's cool in Mannheim is that banyak lelaki so diorang ni rajin main mercun. I think we had almost more than 100euros worth of fireworks bila dah dicombine kan. So main la mercun sampai almost 1am. Bila mercun dah habis, we played snowfight pulak. Someone threw a big snowball at me sampai tertelan sedikit snow. So apa lagi, kejar la siapa yang baling tu.. Hahaha.. I forgot for a moment that I am turning 30 this year. But we had fun being kids and letting go of everything and just being happy. I knew that that moment would probably not come again or if it did, it wouldn't be as much fun. We felt somewhat close to each other. Walaupun some I just came to know their names that night. Bila tangan dah sejuk and semua mengigil, we headed upstairs and continued with the Rockbanding, Pokering and Karaoke-ing. The guests stayed till almost 0300am. We finally slept at 430am.. and had to wake up again at 0530 to catch our morning flight to Ireland. Gila. I had fun. :)
 Here are some pictures... Enjoy :) 

Rocking it

 New Year!

The pokerdealer

 Our fireworks

 Semua yang hadir

Depan rumah

Before 2010 ends

I have almost 2 weeks of holidays and my husband has 3 weeks. It's nice to have him around the house sepanjang masa. He will do his stuff and I will do mine and sometimes we will do stuff together. Right now he is busy finishing his PS3 game, Fallout Vegas. And I am in between watching movies and learning Deutsch. Yesterday I wrote my resolution and my target for the first quarter of 2011. I taped it next to the mirror with the hope that I will not ignore it :p
(Click to view larger). Yeah, looks pretty sensible. and No, i decided not to gain weight since I have recently purchased a pair of jeggings and loving it! Jegging like leggings only made of jeans. How cool is that! It fits nicely and looks great when your wearing boots because the jeggings will go straight inside your boots.

Why did I finally decide take multivitamins ? Why only start now?

• I realized that I am gonna be 30 by next year 
• Since my husband is on a healthy diet regime, he unintentionally made me wanna have a healthy diet as well.
• My hair is changing color 
• I have Vitamin B12 deficiency
• The multivitamins in Germany are sold in solluble tablettes. Instead of swallowing pills, I can drink them, in Orange flavour some more! (in case you didn't know, I have problem swallowing pills)

I can sum up my targets and resolutions into three main areas; Deutsch learning (OMG- this is typical German grammar.. Deutsch lernen) correction, learning Deutsch, consuming healthy food and reading.

Why my target is for the first quarter? Well, I don't wanna wait until the end of the year to see where I am at. 3 months is just nice to review my progress and still have time to improvise till the first half of the year. By March, I will complete my Deutsch Course and hopefully, inshaAllah dah lulus for my visa.. Please pray hard for me.. My visa has to be renewed by then and kalau semua okay maka it smoothens the process of my Permanent Residency and it makes it easier to find a job or further my studies :) That's why I am really struggling with my Deutsch.

For all you readers who have been good to me, here is a picture of myself. I have mentioned this before and will mention this again, this is an unprivatised private blog. I feel very happy blogging here knowing that the people I share it with have good hearts and are not judgmental. 2010 has been a challenging year for me (If I have the time, I will blog about the highlights of the year). It's a year with full of significant changes. Honestly, I can't wait for 2011 cause it's gonna be a great year inshaAllah :)

This pic was taken by my husband. We were on our way back from grocery shopping. We got used to carrying heavy things on our bagpacks and walking back home with it since we don't have a car to carry our groceries. This was after a 2 days of heavy snow. Snow was up to my boots! White Christmas indeed.

This is me at Mannheim's Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market). On the left, I was eating Crepe with Nutella. Sedap! And on the right, I was having Alcoholfrei Glühwein. It's a traditional German drink. But they drink it with alcohol of course. The content that I had was Zitrone.Normally they will drink it during the cold winter. I brought bag the mug which costed 2€ as a souvenir.You can see very clearly that I am very lefthanded. Haha..

One question, what is the last thing you wanna do before 2010 ends?

In between topics

Blogged on 25th December 2010 ::

Since it's the holiday season, a lot of the series' themes were very Christmas-y. In addition, it's been snowing the whole day yesterday and today when we woke up, it was seputih - putihnya. Guess the Germans' got their White Christmas.

Meanwhile, me and my husband spent the day just chilling at home. We got back almost at 1:30 am last night. We were invited for a 4-Course Christmas dinner at our houseowner's place (we live 2 stairs up from them). It was the first time I ate daging Rusa. It tasted not bad I guess. It was us, Kak Anis and Joe, and his mom (Oma, she is 89) and their friend Eric. After dinner, we had a little karaoke session and I scored the highest (97% btw) hehehe. My husband suddenly asked me if I wanted a karaoke set after he saw me meng-kongker microphone. heheheh.. We shall see :)

Yeah, karaoke is one way of boosting your self esteem. Which I need very much right now. Perhaps it's the winter talking or the holiday season thingy. Im not sure. I also played the piano a little. I played Beethoven"s piece Für Elise which I learned by hard (ke heart?) since I was 9 years old. Then I played a the shorter version of The Entertainer who left Joe whistling the song over and over again hehehe. I learned that the piano that I was playing survived the World War 2. It was Oma's piano and now Carie's. It's been around since 1935. It's older than my dad. And it's still in superb condition (German made :p ). Oma was telling about her life and how it was during the world war. Mannheim was one of the cities that got bombed. What's cool about old German people is that they have stories to tell about the war. And what better way to learn my German than talking to an old lady who speaks slowly but perfect German grammar. I understood her stories, or at least 70% of it. Oma wears a necklace that was given by her 1st husband. They got married when they were 19. Two weeks after the wedding, he had to go to war. He died in the war. She was devastated. She loved her first husband dearly and speaks fondly of him. Sedihnya. Macam dalam movie.

This morning I thought about Oma's love story. I was in for a love movie kinda mood. So I watched 'The Lakehouse' today. My husband (who never watches a movie twice) sat and watched it (again) with me. The story is a fiction. And there were several questions that was playing in my head while I was watching it. After the movie, me n my husband discussed about it and came to a conclusion that we both agreed (although it would never happen in real life). It was a nice show. What I like about it is that the thought about that guy... (opps.. don't wanna spoil the movie - if you haven't watched it). I would give it 8 out of 10 for The Lakehouse. 1 point was because Keanu Reaves heheheh.


Blogged on 27th December 2010 ::

After watching Jason Segel (the guy in How I met your mother) on Conan, we decided to check out Forgetting Sarah Marshall. He did mention that there are several scenes that he showed his you-know-what secara terang dan jelas. I almost puked when I saw 'it'. Selamba jer dia. My husband said, "It's his job what.. He's an actor" Hahaha.. sabar je la. But the movie was okla.. Funny. I recommend you to watch it when you are feeling macam nak tengok lawak2 bodoh. Nothing to wow about but just ok for me. I would give this movie a half half 5 out of 10.


Since I was in a movie marathon mood, I finally decided to watch the much talked about movie. Eat, Pray, Love. I would say that I was quite disappointed with that movie. Nothing much to wow about. I even fell asleep during that movie. Till now I don't think I wanna continue watching it. It's not so bad but it's not that good either. The movie is highly overrated just because Julia Roberts was starring in it. I would rate this halfly watched movie a 3.5 out of 10 for Eat, Pray, Love. Sorry.


After much disppointment, I switched my mood to a girly-girly movie kinda. I decided to catch up on The Sisterhood of the travelling pants. The only reason I wanted to watch this movie was because of Alexis Bledel and Blake Lively (she spells out Tall, Rich, Beautiful and Style). Terpengaruh dengan Gossip Girl. Maybe it's the effect of the Eat, Pray, Love movie, or maybe because I will be 30 next year, but this movie was not for me kot. It's loud (as in girls asik2 cakap which is memeningkan - Imagine Gilmore Girls darab 2), and tambah lagi pening because there are four main characters and they keep on switching scenes between all four of them. The minute you start to focus on one character, they change to another character. (a good observation. Mental Note : not to do that if I decide to direct a movie or write a novel :p ) Rating, 4 out of 10. 1 point is because I like the concept of the travelling jeans.. And only that..


Tonight my husband and I are gonna watch Reign over me starring Adam Sandler. So I hope I am able to give some reviews :)

boots, heidelberg, winter and experience

I think sueannajoe was my junior back in SriAman. That statement was totally irrelevant but I just wanted to write that. I have been reading her blogs (she has a number of blogs, in BM, in English, about her business and photography) and she is pretty good.

We are planning to go to Ireland during the Christmas holidays. My husband's younger brother is expecting their 2nd baby. Yup, 2nd baby. So we are gonna visit them. I thought of going backpacking (am I capable of backpacking?) around DE abit before going to Ireland for the Christmas Hols. But it all depends on my husband. Nak la jugak jalan - jalan here. However, some friends are coming to DE for Christmas so maybe I might bring them jalan - jalan around Heidelberg. It's very near to Mannheim. My husband works in Heidelberg. But not the tourist area. Dia dekat tempat² office. Heidelberg is eine altstadt (an old town) and its beautiful. From Mannheim, it takes about 30 minutes or so to get there. Depending on which train you are taking. I have been there more than 3 times and I don't mind going there again and again and again..

Anyway, I wanted to share with you guys how I felt about this upcoming winter and what are my preparations. In the magazines and websites stated that this year's winter is gonna be the worst winter and I am so not looking forward for it. I bought a few jackets though and a few pair of boots and gloves. A long black trenchcoat from H & M and a cute white one from The NewYorker. Kelakar when I say The NewYorker because they actually have a shop that sells NewYork fashion. And they are not bad too. Not so pricey and it has that young vibe going on. I did blog once about buying a red jacket with a hood so that I have that little red riding hood kinda thing going on.. But I saw Baby Spice wearing a white jacket and a pair of white boots in the video Stop Right Now and she looked so cute! (Takde pic, so I had to PRINTSCREEN on the youtube video. Pathetic ay? Click on photo to see clearer) I know my husband would raise an eyebrow if I said to him, awwww cute kan boots putih tuu? kan ? kan? kan ? But.. I won't request for those from him.. Hehe.. if I want, I will buy them using my own money which he gives me every month. By that time, winter pun dah habis. Haha!
 
Some of the jackets I see online nampak cantik bila model dia pakai.. Or you see other people putting them on, it looks soo good. Macam citer Ally McBeal, Sex & The City or 30Rock. Samala bila tgk website H & M online. You feel like buying everything, if possible! But all of those are just the advertisers playing tricks on our minds.. and also, good looking models and good photography plays an important role.. Maka, jangan tertipu dengan online fashion pictures :p For example, yang kat tepi nih .. I can never pull that one off! But it looks so good on the model ! Believe me I have tried that exact same jacket but I don't look as near as good as that model. Maybe the shape of my body pun mcm sekeping je, so tak nampak cantik..  Boots dia pun cantik but kena jaga² because most boots from H & M and NewYorker or any other shoes that costs 20€ and above has pig skin lining. Jenuh la nak samak balik (although ada sesetengah orang cakap tak perlu samak because hanya perlu samak when kena daging babi. But just for the benefit of the doubt, I did samak). Harini ada mood la nak citer pasal fashion because yesterday I did a whole lot of 20 minutes walking while having my lunch. I had a small portion of wedges with Lemon Tartar sauce from Nordsee to-go (or Malaysians say it as Take-Away, dipengaruhi oleh Colony British). So I walked from Marktplatz all the way to Hauptbahnhof. I noticed that people walk while eating for several reasons. 
1. Nak jimat masa. 
2. It feels warmer when you walk sambil makan. Its a bad habit, I know. But the coldness made me do that. 3. You can kill a few stones macam jalan, sambil window shopping, think and do your shopping list in your head, check out other people's fashion and finally reach your destination. 

Things they usually have while walking are bende yang macam to-go-ish like Pretzel, Croissant, Burgers, Fries. Depa takde la makan nasi lemak or kueyteowtomyam while walking. That would be a messy sight wouldnt it?

Yeah it's already November and in a few days it'll be mid of November and come December will be winter. Daun - daun pun almost semua berguguran. My hajat untuk berphotog with my feet in dalam himpunan dedaunan pun taktau sampai ke tak since it's freaking cold to go out for photography.. But for Winter, I hope it snows though. Last time when I first landed, after a couple of days, it snowed. But I only experienced snow on my way to the hospital di dalam tangisan  sebab kena chicken pox. Read here to recall. Last Winter was quite an experience. An experience I shall never forget kot.

Talking about experience, I went to Seilwolf yesterday to do the normal weekly grocery. Kat situ tak ramai orang and you can get all this weird² stuff that they don't sell in the normal DE grocery supermarkets. By weird² stuff I mean asian stuffs like cili kering, tofu, santan, sos for nasi ayam etc etc. So as I was walking, I saw another asian looking lady and I thought it was Kak Asmah (a kakak permanently residing here, married to a German and has twin sons a year younger than us). So dengan penuh confident I ran to her and said, Hi kak asmah! and she was like, 'was?' (apa?) and I was confused, I said, 'eh, ni kak asmah kan?' dia pun boleh jawab, 'nein, nein' .. rupanya she was some Thai or Vietnamese lady. MALU OK! terus saya ckp, 'ooh! Entschuldigung²' maksudnya, 'ooh malunya saya.. sory²'. My husband will say that I am racist bila I citer nih, but actually I am not .. betul...!

Okla, do you notice that this post takde correlation antara satu sama lain ?
This entry has been edited several times. I lost count

Leben in Deutschland 101 : First Step in DE

Hello, kita bertemu lagi dalam siri Leben In Deutschland 101. Dalam siri ini, kita akan membincangkan tentang Getting Around . Let's say, you decide to come to DE either for business or leisure. So, what to do ? Where to go?

Upon Arrival
The main international airport of DE is in Frankfurt. It's called Frankfurt Am Main. Airport is der flughafen in Deutsch. Once you've landed, you should follow the sign that says Baggage Claim. It's written in both Deutsch and English. Or you can also see a baggage sign. Ikut jer, jangan cemas. It will bring you straight to the Imigration part. Ada beberapa counter and you should look for the counter that says 'NON - EU', but if you have a EU passport then you pergi la counter EU. Ada beberapa jenis visa. To enter Germany, you would need a visa. This visa can be obtained mase you nak check in kat airport. This visa lasts for 90 days. But if you are planning to stay more than 90days, you would need a special visa. Either for work or in my case, a spouse visa. That means you would need to go to the embassy to do that. I will explain in detail later. Usually takde hal sangat kat immigration, they won't ask many questions. Ni berdasarkan my experience la.

Lepas dah settle immigration maka pergi lah pada luggage claim. After dah dapat luggage, then you can walk straight ahead to EXIT. Oh yes, in between, if you wanna solat, you can see a sign that says Praying Area. Ada sign mcm² agama ada. So you can follow the sign. Even after you exit, memang ada that sign. So don't worry :)

In the Airport

Once you dah exit, if you nak lepak2 minom - minom kat airport, ada macam².. Usually we would go to either Starbucks or McDonalds. And from my experience, I naik MAS so my time of arrival would be pagi buta like 630am. If you nak go for starbucks there is one nearby lepas you exit.. But if you prefer McDonalds, you can go to the new wing, that means you would need to take the Terminal train. Either way, you would need to take the train pun, so slalunya we go to McD. Kat sane boleh la nak makan. I like the Waffle with Hönig (honey) set. Kat Airport no problem nak cakap English cause they can understand.

Mode of Transportation
To be honest, I only know naik ICE jer.. hehehe ICE is the fast train. You can purchase the tickets at any counters of beli kat Mesin. Yang beli tang mesin ni I tak terrer sbb slalunya husband I yang buatkan. So maaf di situ.. ICE is supercool. To get to Mannheim will only take about 30 minutes and dia direct. ICE stands for Inter-City-Express. Rasa macam naik kapalterbang. And it's supercomfortable and of course a little bit pricey compared to the RE (Regional Express). Apa bezanya? Saya akan terangkan kemudian.

Ok la, sampai sini sahaja for today. I need to check balik in detail about the trains here akan disambung kemudian okay.. Hopefully I get to show you some pictures of the trains.. When I go out photographying :) The weather is ridiculously cold for autumn nowadays. Shuccckkkssss...

bis später! Tschüss!

Leben in Deutschland 101 : Introduction

Start a good thing on a Friday. Actually you should start a good thing everyday. Since it's Friday and I have a good feeling about today, even though it's very cloudy outside and I predict that there's gonna be a heavy rain, perhaps it's Allah's way of giving us rahmat. Hujan rahmat di hari Jumaat. Last night before I went to sleep I thought about how to make my blog more information-y rather than blogging about my usual random posts :p So, I have decided to start a series of Leben in Deutschland (Living in Deutschland). Here I will share with you how to survive in Deutschland as an Ausländer (foreigner). So let's begin our lecture.

First thing you need to know is.. Germany is also known as Deutschland (doy-ch-lan), short form is DE . And the way they say land is lan like in the name Azlan. And the German language is called Deutsch (doy-ch). The locals are also known as die Deutsche. Why ada perkataan die kat depan tu? I will explain later in another series. Deutsch and Dutch are two DIFFERENT people. The Dutch would be the Nederlanders (Orange) a.k.a Hollanders. So don't get confused k :)

General

The currency used in DE is Euro. And the sign is €. We sebut as you-ro. They sebut the word Euro is like this (oy-ro). Because Germans sebut eu as oy (eg : Deutschland = Doy-ch-lan). So jangan terkejut or buat muka kelakar when you hear this because it took me awhile not to laugh listening to this. hehehe. If you compare to Ringgit. Is like 1€ is equivalent to RM4.33. It used to be RM5. At one point it was less than RM 4. But now that Euro is strengthening and hopefully it will strengthen more as days go by. So what can you get with 1€. Usually 1€ is used to insert in the shopping cart. But you can get a Sneakers back for 1€. You can get a good old Ritter Sport chocolate for 0.79€ at Lidl (which my family loves by the way - see left for photo). Euro currencies can be used in Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. (Source : Wikipedia). So once you're in Europe (Western Europe), you can hop on the train and travel to any other countries without worrying about changing the currencies. 

People
The Germans are generally very friendly but sometimes they may put on a very serious face but don't be scared or think that they are sombong. They are very structured and disciplined. Timing and punctuality are very important to the Germans and also if you wanna survive in DE, those two things will be your food and
drinks. Sometimes they will just greet you with Guten Tag, or just Tag! (Good day). If you go to any counters they will greet you with a Halo. Everytime. So greet them back. Or if they don't greet you first, you must greet them dulu. It's a culture thing. Cara sebut would be Ha-lo. Here are some of the greetings that you need to know and how to reply. 

1. Guten Tag! / Tag! - Guten Tag! / Tag!
This is usually the normal greeting. Sometimes pakcik - pakcik yang jalan - jalan will greet you with this. And you should reply the same. Cara sebut is very easy guten tag.

2. Guten Morgen ! / Morgen!  -  Guten Morgen ! / Morgen!
Same as above. Sometimes at kedai - kedai also they will greet you with this and you reply the same. Cara sebut is very easy guten morgen. Sometimes they dengungkan the guten and the morgen. gutn morgn. Macam the americans sebut better and later. macam they dengungkan the words. Get what I'm saying? But itu adalah phonetics that you don't need to know now. Later - later pun takpe. But they do teach us this in class.    

3. Danke - Bitte
This is the usual Thank you - Welcome greet. cara sebut : dang-ke and Bit-te. Sometimes they dengungkan the Bitte. like I explained how the Americans sebut better. So this is like better tapi bitte.

4. Vielen Dank - Bitte
Another greet for Thank you - Welcome. 

5. Danke schön - Bitte schön
Sometimes they can also use this phrase. Kalau depa sebut, Dang-ke shun, you can reply with Bitte shun. Cuma cara sebut schön is abit complicated. ö is called O-umlaut. If you notice, Deutsch have a few umlaut words other than the usual A-B-C. I will get to that in another series. So anyway, ö (O-umlaut) disebut as ou. Tapi its enough for you to sebut as Dang-ke shun je dulu. People can still understand. Maybe I can make a video to teach you this :)

6. Schönen Tag noch - Ihnen auch or Gleichfalls
Kalau kat kedai, after you bayar, they will say this Schönen Tag noch (shun-nen Tag- noh). It means, have a nice day. So you jangan la buat dek jer. You should reply as Ihnen auch (e-nen aukh) or Gleichfalls (glaish falls). 

7. Schönes Wochenende - Ihnen auch or Gleichfalls
Sama macam phrase no. 6. If on Fridays or weekends they will say this Schönes Wochenende (shunes - wokhen ender) so reply as above jugak.

8. Tschüss / Aufwiedersehen / Ciao
These are the normal farewell greeting. Kalau formal farewell would be Aufwiedersehen (auf - weeder - zain), yang lagi dua tu Ciao is biasa.. And Tschüss disebut as choose tapi ada melody sikit. Dia macam choOOose. So you reply the same to them.

Food and Drinks 
They love kaffee und kuchen (coffee and cake). It's like their 2nd religion. If you go to any locals house, they will most probably serve you these two. Of course if they invite you for dinner at their house, it's compulsary for them to drink Beer and Wine since its a popular culture in German. They drink as hard as they work. Of course it's not compulsary for you to drink it :p  Although sometimes they have Sparkling Wine which is Alcoholfrei (free of alcohol). You can drink that because there are no contents of alcohol in it. It looks like wine but it isnt. So, sometimes if you see people drinking in a Wine glass, tak semestinya it's wine, maka janganlah menuduh sebarangan. Because it could be Alcoholfrei. Oh yes, speaking of inviting for dinner, its customary that if you go to someone's house for makan, to bring something. Example : flowers, cake, chocolates, fruits or deserts. These are the small things that you need to know. If you invite them for makan, for surely they will bring something. So, if you go to a German house, make sure you bring a buah tangan :)

Oklah. I think that's enough for today. Hope you enjoyed my lecture and wait for other Leben in Deutschland 101 series okay.. :) Soo...... Schönes Wochenende! mcm ne nak reply.............? Ihnen auch! (pandai sumer!)

Tschüss!

Back in Mannheim

Salam everyone. I am back in Mannheim now. To those who follow my blog, you must have noticed that I changed the template (again) of my blog. It is now the Fall season here.

Once again, the whole family sent me off at KLIA. All the time that I was there, I felt sad but tried so hard not so show it to my family. Pretending to be strong. I know for sure that I will miss them dearly. Even though the technologies have advanced so rapidly and that I can talk to my parents almost everyday, perhaps even more often than people who are in Malaysia, it is still not the same. But I know inshaAllah I will pass this phase. It's always hard at first, but eventually, as the days become more routine, I hope that I will be okay.

When they sent me off, mama made Curry Puffs and Caremel Pudding and my sister brought Fried Kuey Teow from home. We ate at KFC like it was just like home. That's my family. Everywhere we go, we would always feel like home.

The holiday was great, even though one month is not enough. But inshallah, I hope to see each and everyone again next year when I return.. or if they decide to come and visit me here could be super cool :)

The flight was okay. I slept throughout most of the journey. But I managed to finish watching The Notebook and ate all my meals. The movie was simply amazing. Despite being sad departing from my family, it made me realize that I will be meeting my husband and I know that he will be waiting for me at the airport.

Upon arrival, they announced the temperature (-1°C)and everyone simultanously said, oooooohhhhh!!! Imagine from being in a very hot country to a very cold one. I wasn't really prepared for the weather. I only wore a pullover and a spring jacket. Luckily my husband brought my winter jacket and gloves. My husband came with our old high school friend, Kurik, and we had breakfast at McDonalds. After that, we headed back to Mannheim via ICE. I knew it was cold when asap were coming out of my mouth when I breathed.

True enough when my friend said, Fall is very nice here in Mannheim. I wanted so much to take out my camera to snap some pictures when I was on ICE but I was too tired. Perhaps one day I might go out to do some photography. Hope I wont get lost in the forest again :p

Ok people, this is just to update you upon my arrival here. I am missing my family at home so much and hoping and praying that they will come and visit us here one day. Because I know they will enjoy it very much..

Take care people! Will upload some pics on the next post :)

lunch with the 33s

I used to write alot. Before the internet era, I used to carry a book everwhere I go so that I can immediately write whatever that comes to mind. Somesort of a journal. Then, I was introduced to blogs and how cool it is to have one. I started having a really private blog somewhere in 2003 or 2004 I can remember. I don't even remember the URL and the password. Then I blogged in friendster's blog. People loved my blog because I used to write about really cool yet depressing things. Haha!

I decided to shift to blogspot when I wanted to have a low profile blog so that only a few can follow. I wrote alot. About almost everything. And I had quite a number of followers. 17 as I could remember it. Hahaha.. takde la ramai sangat but ok la. I decided to privatise that blog only to myself after I saw people landed on my blog after googling my name and also my husband's name. I didn't want people to find out about me, I guess.

So here I am now, I don't mention my name or my husband's name. People can't google us and only a few knows about this blog. So, you are the chosen one. Wilkommen :)

Yesterday was an eye opener day for me. In the morning I was chatting online with my very good friend. She said that sometimes she is confused with her life. Hey, aren't we all ? Later that day, I went to the city to do some shopping and I also met my ex-Deutsch-classmates for lunch. Both of the 33 years olds just got married this year. After finishing half a chicken, a bowl of fries and a wholesome delicious salad, we got to talking about how we all landed here in Deutschland. It surprised me that they hated Deutschland and I felt differently about it. Madalina told us that she was very successful back in her homeland and so was Jasmin. I guess we all have our stories. Things changed totally after they decided to come here and follow their husbands. But I guess I am thinking it positively. At one point I told them this. 'Yeah when I talk to people back home, they said, oh you're just a housewife there? Sometimes it can make you feel really down the way that other's look at you now.' How to explain to them that it is not easy since people don't speak English here. Even all the forms are in Deutsch. How to explain that when you've only been here 5 days and you got chicken pox, after a month of being here, you husband broke his leg. And having to go to the Apotheke and to the insurance company and the bank all by yourself in foreign land that speaks foreign language. How to tell them that you had to go to the Dentist and remove 3 of your wisdom tooth and how difficult it is to talk to the administration people. How to explain that people here talk Deutsch all the time and you can't get by without learning their language. How to tell them that we don't have the luxury to go to mamak stall or gerai² to get that Mi Bandung at 10pm. We don't have the luxury to go around with our cars everywhere and the mode of transportation is by the Bus and SBahn even when we have to carry heavy things. And they ask me, you buat apa JE kat sane? Dok rumah jadi housewife JE ke? I need not to justify myself. I just say, Yup. Jadi Housewife JE. Let them think whatever they wanna think because even how crystal clear I explain how it is here, they have no idea. And they never will have the idea until the come here and see it for themselves and experience it. Germany is not like other countries. They don't operate in English. But I like the fact that this is how it is. It taught me the meaning of survival. Jasmin said that there is always another way to look at it. People don't understand that being a housewife here is so different. The biggest challenge is the language barrier. And we have a plus point that know Deutsch when we go back to our homeland, we can speak Deutsch. We are more independent.

Looking back, God gave us a test. Can I really survive it here? God knows how frustrating it is when you can't understand what people are talking about. But alhamdulillah now, I can get around although my Deutsch is not perfect. In fact, I am soo in the beginner's level but I can understand and speak a little. Not that fluent but at least I am surviving here, and it's all in God's will.

While the 33 year old's were talking, it got me thinking about life. And how my friend earlier had asked, is there more to life ? This time last year or two years ago, I asked myself the same question everyday when I travel 60 kms to work. Perhaps, there is. And I know that I am here for a reason. Inshallah, with lots of effort and support, and God's willing, I will survive and make it here. 

What's cool

What's cool about living upstairs from a Malaysian - German couple is that we are jiran macam jiran kat Malaysia, minus the jaga tepi kain part, cause here we have enough kain to jaga ourselves let alone menjaga tepi kain orang hehe..Bila susu, minyak, garam or gula habis, boleh naik turun tangga mintak sket, sometimes beberapa keping roti bila weekend and semua tutup and malas nak ke bandar hanya untuk membeli roti.

Yesterday, we had a great time celebrating Hari Raya here in our house (our house means me and my houseowner who lives downstairs punya rumah). We had almost like 50 - 60 guests and filled with a lot of Malaysian food. The Malaysian students pitched in and we had a variety of delicous food. Everyone put on their baju kurung and baju melayu.. Even the Germans who married the Malays!

Me, my husband and nicholas prepared roti jala cicah with kari daging. Seronok pulak memasak dengan suami. and ada pulak assistant sorang.. hehehe.. It tasted really good! and was the first to finish.. hehehe.. Carie is back! She flew with MAS and she reached home at about 8am and terus screamed from downstairs, 'Selamat Hari Raya!!' and I ran downstairs to meet her! She is like my little sister here in Mannheim. I gave her my kuih raya to taste and guess what she said.. Guess la, guess la...?? .. She said, 'oh my god, (long pause sambil mengunyah and tutup mata.. gila dramatic) this is the best thing i have ever tasted' Hehehe.. She is 14 so it could be true.. or not :p So as usual, we would borak² while I masak in the kitchen. She updated me about her new boyfriend, Paul. And biasalah 14 year old, cute jer citer² dia..

Then the Frankfurters came. They are one cool and happening bunch of people. Kurik (our old schoolmate), Rose and David (Abang Dave), Emilia, Daniel and baby Aidan yg teramat comel gila!!! We had a lot of fun laughing and making jokes. I was laughing alot yesterday. Setelah bersedih - sedihan on first and 2nd day of raya. It was a great change for me.. Terubat juga sikit rasa rindu kat rumah :)

The open house started from 12pm (tapi sebab kita orang melayu, maka start betul² dia around 2pm sbb tunggu satay siap) and it ended at almost 1130pm.. Makan, makan, hanging out, makan lagi, coffee, kuih raya, pictures and karaoke session (by the way, karaoke i scored 96% singing I will Survive.. highest score beb!) hehehehe.

This is one of the many pictures billion of pictures.
This is the garden behind our house.  This was only 1/4 of the guests. 

Yang lain merata² ada. Kat atas, tingkat dua and tingkat tiga pun ada.

Note : rumput tu, cheq yang potong naah. hehehe. 

Can't wait to be home!!

*Kalini saya cakap Melayu sebagai penutup. 'Selamat Hari Raya! Maaf Zahir dan Batin!'

Autumn In Mannheim

Autumn will be commencing soon. As everyone back in Malaysia celebrating their Eid, I went to die Stadt (bandar) to get myself not a baju kurung or a kasut raya. But a sweater and a new handbag for Autumn. Actually sweater je for Autumn, the handbag just looked nice with the sweater :p . I treated myself after getting my gaji from my part time gig. But when I told my husband, he said , takpe la I blanja. Yippie ! :) Alhamdulillah :)

Since the weather was superb today (unlike yesterday, sangat mandom and depressing.. dah la raya first day yesterday), and after hearing mama's and papa's voice and listening to them enjoying their hari raya, I told myself, That's it! takmau la sedey². Aidilfitri is for us to celebrate Hari Kemenangan. Alhamdulillah the Ramadhan month went well even though it was a long 16 hour tp inshallah, dengan kesabaran, moga - moga alaman ibadah akan berganda.. ameen.

Musim sejuk will be coming soon. So I have to buy baju sejuk, one buy one. Today I bought one from H & M. Before that I saw a stunning red jacket macam gambar sebelah ni, along with a black belt (ala - ala Princess Diaries). Lama I duduk dekat Tally Weil tu belek² jacket tu. But my husband will surely geleng kepala bila tengok almost 40€ for a jacket. Actually it's quite okay memandangkan it's kalis air and ada hood lak tu. Tapi apakan daya.. Maybe I will bring my husband to town and accidentally nampak jacket tu for the first time and look all excited about it so that he saysm 'Ok la, belilah'.. hehehehe.. But knowing me, I tell my husband everything! sekarang ni tunggu masa je nak bagitau dia about the red jacket. Everyone's dresscode now dah bertukar pakai jacket² and since I have a very thin Asean skin, I need lots of fabric to protect me from the coldness. I don't know macam mana nanti Winter. Sekarang ni pun sejuk sampaikan malas nak basuh pinggan. Even ke dapur pun tunggu matahari dah naik sikit.

So okla, this post is actually a feel-good post since I have been quite sad and homesick lately. My husband berkali kali tanya are you okay? sbb I was very quite yesterday. Homesick :(
 
Alrite, for you peeps, this is the model for Autumn look from H & M :) viel spaß und schönes wochenende!

Selamat Hari Raya

Salam to all! It's 09.09.2010 and it's hari raya today. Alhamdulillah Allah had made it easy for us to fast during the holy month of Ramadhan since it's still summer here. We started 1st Ramadhan with 3.56am for Subuh and Maghrib at 8.51pm. Yesterday we fasted from 5.00am to 7.53pm. So the waktu siang is becoming shorter and shorter. Soon it'll be Autumn.

So Raya this year is sooo different. I am celebrating Hari Raya with my husband here in Deutschland. Tak rasa sangat raya here. In fact, it's just like any other normal days. My husband already left for work and I am home alone. I wanted to go and sembahyang raya at the Moschee. But its still dark and I tak berani pergi sorang² (husband kerja) because I have to walk quite far from the Haltestelle.

Tomorrow Nicholas will help me tampal the wallpaper in our Wohnzimmer (living room). Nicholas is my husband's friend who is currently staying over at our place because he needed a place to crash for a few days before he flies back to KL lepas raya nih. So, itu je la preparation hari Raya. Today I plan to make nasi briyani and rendang (I hope menjadi la). This will be my first time (in my life) making nasi briyani.

Yeah I am talking about really random stuff because I don't want to really blog about the fact that I have been superhomesick lately. I call home quite frequent. Tapi mama papa slalu busy and by the time I call them, it's either they baru nak pergi tarawikh or just got back and at that time they will be tired and want to sleep. But since this week (I dah berenti skolah), I can call them earlier during the day :)

So I guess that's all for now. It's 720am here. This morning dah salam dah my husband for hari raya :) Miss everyone at home.. Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir Batin :)

Masih Melayu di Mannheim

I had just written a post to wish everyone selamat hari merdeka. :)

Today is the first day of my last week in class with my classmates. It was a mundane day. Frau S, Oma, yang ngajar and dunno why harini dia moodswing sikit. Perhaps it was the SUPERCOLD weather! Today, after so long, I wore my WINTERJACKET because it was just too cold. wetter.com said Mannheim ada Wetterwarnung so kena berjaga - jaga lah. Keluar rumah jer, even though wetter.com said cuaca macam 11°C tadi (during Summer okay), but it felt colder because of the strong wind. Memang rasa nak melayang badan. The wind was so strong, I could feel it blowing angrily at my face. Sebab tu harini keluar rumah awal sikit. 1st kena buang sampah. 2nd sebab takut tertinggal S-Bahn and wasn't sure if I could walk fast enough sebab angin kuat sangat. The past few days has been like that. Only pagi tadi was the paling² punyaa.. Tengah hari not so bad, ada yang jalan² pakai lengan panjang je. But I still had my jacket on.

Kat rumah ni pun tengah pakai my climawarm sweater. Tapi jari jemari rasa sejuk. I can't imagine how winter is gonna be like. This is not even Autumn yet. Tapi patung² kat kedai² sume dah pakai baju Autumn dah. Now I understand why dalam citer omputih they always ask about the weather. 'Hey, how's the weather?' Sebab it's the first thing that comes into mind bila nak keluar rumah or when you look out the window.

Deutch. My classmate, Mary Nela from Romania (cara sebut Marinellla.. ala ala italian), she always say that she thinks in Deutsch. And some of the words secara automatic jadi Deutsch tiba². A few incidents happened to me also. Eg.

1. Baru kejap ni, I wanted to type Eg. I tertype zB, zum Beispeil (Contohnya).
2. The other day, my FB status was, Das Wetter is gorgeous! and my sister commented, 'wetter?' dah terbiasa tulis wetter (weather)
3. I wanted to write shiftwork, I tertulis schiftwerk. Lepas tu padam, tulis schiftWORK. I corrected the work tapi tertulis lagi sch- . Because in Deutsch. yang ada sh- jer, mesti dijadikan sch-
 4. Haritu I was thinking so hard satu perkataan ni in Deutsch, apa bendenya in English. Lame sangat baru dapat balik. Tapi now I dah lupa balik dah apa perkataan tu.. (or maybe signs of ageing??)

Ada lagi insiden² lain yang agak menakutkan saya jugak lah. We were discussing this in class and it seems that I wasn't the only one experiencing this. Bila mothertongue kita adalah bukan English, akan jadi problem balik nak cakap English balik.

So, well.. Itulah dia.. Apa yang dialami sekarang ini. Oh yes, the other day, Markus made me recite A-B-C (in Deutsch) sampai Z sebab tersalah sebut VW.. Its supposed to be FAU-VEY.. Hahaha kelakar²..

Oh another thing to share, when it rains.. everyone will do, 'Eh, hari ini hujan lebat' cause that's what I taught them :p  Siap ada Eh kat depan :p hahahahah

Have a great week ahead everyone! Blogger tak gila harini... :)

sini pun ada drama tau

Its been months that I am here. Actually it was 2 days ago and I had written a very long and meaningful blog until BLOGGER jadi gila! and everything that I blogged about vanished into thin web-air. sigh°° takde rezeki.

Updates : nothing much though. Been going to school everyday and weekends lepak at home kemas rumah, and hangging out with my husband. (I still can't call him hubby like everyone else does. I don't know why.. ). Puasa has been great. Alhamdulillah. The weather is really mundane and cold (good for us who are fasting). And maghrib time is now getting earlier and earlier everyday :) Although it's not officially Autumn, but it feels like it. Even though I have never experienced Autumn before :p

Next week will be my last week attending class. I have enrolled for the following course in December. It's kinda sad though, that I will be joining another group. I really enjoy my class and my teacher, Markus is great. He makes us really study and learn Deutsch. For A2,1, since Agnes is teaching another group, we were assigned a new teacher. Everyone calls her Oma (grandma) because she is quite elderly. At feel abit kesian because my classmates always say that she is slow and boring, since we are very used to Markus' tempo. It's true though, she is slow tapi I am abit softhearted kot. .. Ntah..

Anyway, the drama between Mr.Z and Mr.S. Ok saya akan tulis in BM now. Sebab kot² la my classmate terjumpa this blog ker :p Ingat tak I ada cakap tentang this one guy yang ajak semua orang keluar makan kecuali myself and 2 lagi budak Arab  ? Ok. Kisahnya berlalu about a month ago. A few weeks before bulan puasa. We were talking about bulan puasa. And S was explaining pasal apa itu puasa pada Z. Skali I diganggu oleh classmate lain about some question so I wasn't 100% there. Ni berlaku mase 15 mins rehat. Tau² jer, S cakap to Z, in English. 'Aku boleh bunuh kau kalau kau cakap macam tu tau..' And he sounded serious. Tiba² cikgu pun masuk. Sekali saya tanya Z. KEnapa ? Dia cakap dia tak percaya pada Tuhan. Saya tanya dia, dia takde agama ker ? Dia cakap dia seorang Christian tapi tak penah practise. And dia cakap dia tak percaya pada Tuhan dan cakap jugak, so what? Ok la fine. Dia tak percaya Tuhan. Lantak pi laa.. I pun malas nak argue dengan dia sebabnya dia memang macam ego. Tau tau jer lepas tu Z dan S sudah tidak bertegur sapa. And I asked S, kenapa korang tak cakap. Dia pun citer la pasal insiden tu. S tak citer secara detail tapi dia citer yang Z cakap dia tak percaya pada Tuhan and ada lagi yang dia cakap yang S tak suka. Saya tak berani nak tanya lebih² .. Tapi moralnya gitu lah.

Semenjak tu, Z tidak bertegur saya dan S (itu yang saya nampak). Sebab kadang² balik sekolah, saya akan jalan bersama S sampai ke Lidl. Dan Z akan bypass kitorang tanpa memandang and buat dunno. Padahal satu kelas. Kalau dulu Z akan cuit belakang saya atau tarik beg untuk usik lepas tu terus potong and cakap Byee! Tapi haritu saya greet dia Guten Morgen (good morning) pun dia tak pandang pun nak jawab.

Takpe la. Saya pun malas nak berkawan dengan orang sebegitu ego dan sentiasa fikirkan dia tu betul. Kadang² dalam kelas dia letak kaki atas meja (macam dalam movie) waktu rehat. Macam bagus la. Tau la dia matsalleh and memang dia bijak dalam kelas. Kadang² tu dia asik² belek² hp and I find it rather rude, cikgu tengah ngajar lepas tu dia tak pay attention. Ada sekali tu cikgu tanya dia soalan time dia tengah main hp, and dia boleh cakap, 'apa dia? i wasn't listening'.

Mungkin dia tercabar sebab dia seorang lelaki and tak bekerja and wife dia bekerja. Sbb haritu the class was discussing about Hous-men, and Z bulat² membangkang and cakap, apsal lak tak boleh ? sah sah dia tak setuju sebab dia adalah seorang Hous-men jugak. Dari tu kami semua boleh nampak yang dia ni stock offensive-defensive kinda. So biarlah dia.. Penat jer panjang lebar citer pasal mamat nih. Hmmph.. Bukan apa, kitorang reramai dari bulan 6, asik menghadap muka sama jer.. makin lama, rasa makin rapat sesama classmate.. and sedih la bila ada gado gado macam nih.. Tapi next week is my last week with them and they will go on sampai december.. Bestnya.. I december baru sambung.. and most probably inshaAllah kalu semua okay, March akan amek pekse.. I hope I can do it.. Then, I boleh la either sambung blajar or cari kerja sini pun best jugak :) Inshallah, kalau usaha, ada jayanya :)

Okla, I buat post lain la pulak untuk cerita benda lain k..
Take care all. Selamat berpuasa!

I just couldn't find an answer for it

We played a game the other day in class. My teacher said what's the first word that comes into mind when you people ask you about Deutschland. Here were the answers from our class

1. Autos - BMW
2. Autos - Audi, Mercedes
3. Bier
4. Viele Bier (A lot of Beer)
5. Pünktlich (Punctual)
6. Old fashion
7. Industry
8.Langweilig (Boring)
9. Sauber (Clean)
10. Schön (Beautiful)
etc. etc...

Guess which one was my answer ? Punctual. The bus and S-Bahn still amazes me!
When I told my husband about this, suddenly I asked him.

Wife : Kenapa kalau pikir german atau germany jer, mesti orang pikir tentang kereta or technology ?

Husband : Cause they are talented in doing those stuff.

Wife : Ye la, tapi kenapa ?

Husband : Cause they are talented.

Wife : Ye la (this kept going for a while until).. kenapa ? Mesti ada sebab ? Mesti ada something tentang diorang yang orang lain takde..

Husband : I don't know. Memang macam tu. Macam orang cina is good with managing money. Sama lah..

Wife : Yang tu I tau jawapan dia. Dulu kawan I cina dia ckp, orang cina kalau mase dinner, diorg akan duduk satu family and father dia sambil² makan tu akan ajar mcm mana nak uruskan duit. It's like compulsary. Memang mcm tu.. Everytime time makan jer, mesti ada ilmu² yg ayah atau mak dia akan turunkan..

Husband : ooo okay..

Wife : So, kenapa orang German pandai dengan technology sumer ?

Husband : Hmm.. sebab diorang disiplin kot..

Wife : haah kan.. tol gak tuu..

Perhaps. It is true.. So what comes to mind when you think of Malaysia ?

my first video blog

Hi everyone! this is my first video blog.. turn up the volume k.. the background was purposely made in black color..

Gig 2

Halu all,

I am back again.. with the usual .. nothing much going on. just going back and forth to school. Next week I will be entering the 3rd level of my Deutschkurs. Alhamdulillah.

Today, I went to Galleria Kaufhof in Mannheim. Bestnya! Ada sale buku² wow! If only the books were in English and the prices were in RM instead of €. Trotzdem (Nevertheless), I bought a Kochbuch (cook book) for 4.99€! Cool ay! Ada satu lagi from Dr. Oatker but The Italienische Küche looked interessanter als die anderen Bücher (more interesting as to other books. See, German is not that difficult after all :)

Anyway, this week we learned not only about Deutsche Sprache, we also learned about Deutschland and Deutsche Kultur (bukan pengkulturan bio tu.. culture as in Budaya). Its an interesting topic as the teacher also touched abit on the Zweite Weltkrieg (World War 2). The rest, I had to read about it myself cause I forgot everything I learned during Form 5 :p (my bad.. I never liked History). One fact that might interest you also is that the English language we speak today was brought to Britain by the German Invaders (wiki). And my teacher also told us that the English people didn't like the Germans (back then) so they changed some of the names so that it won't sound German. i.e. Miller was changed from Müller. And Smith was originally Schmitt.

It's really amazing to know all this (well, at least for me). Okla, update tak panjang sangat this time because I am abit tired and not so well (Don't get too excited, I am not pregnant - why I say this? because everytime I say I am not well the first thing that comes to mind is that I am pregnant).

So people, take care! bis dann.. Tschüss!

Ada Apa Dengan Deutsch.. dan Deutschland

Today while walking around in the hot sun to do my assignment, I was laughing alone tanpa disedari. Mainly because I recalled several incidents yang mencuit hati and also some new experiences I would like to share that had recently happened.

Incident 1 : Ingat ni kedai Turkei ke?
Right now, we are learning Past Tense (Perfekt) in our Deutschkurs. My teacher gave us homework and usually my husband will check after I have completed it. This was the conversation..

Wife : Tolong checkkan ayat ni betul tak? '....Maria und Jochen hat ein flasche Wein getrunken und ein Stück Fleisch bestellt (Maria and Jochen minom satu gelas air wain dan order satu potong daging)... '

Husband : (checked and laughed) ... tengok la ayat you nih.. diorang minom air wein.. tapi order daging.. you igt ni kedai Turkei ke boleh order² daging.. bang.. bagi sekilo daging bang...

Wife : (Gelak tergolek²)


Incident 2 : Jikalau takde Aral Melintang

Wife : I dah pergi Aral (kedai Stesen minyak) kat KFC tapi tak jmpa gak Relentless Shots tu.. I rase kena pergi Aral lain kot..

Husband : Cuba you pergi Aral dekat Netto kat rumah tu..

Wife : Tu la I rase smlm I ada ternampak.. nak pergi balik la.. Kalu tak.. taktau lagi nak pergi Aral mane dah

Husband : I tau.. kalau u tak jumpa jugak.. I know where you should go..

Wife : Mane ? (intonation dengan penuh harapan)

Husband : Aral Melintang..

Wife : !!!!!!!!


Incident 3 : Tak berapa nak kelakar walaupun pelik tapi benar..
Conversation between me (LS) and my classmate (MC)

MC : LS, schiashishiashia (said something in Mandarin)
LS : Bitte ? (Apa mu royak nih??)
MC : You speak mandarin or cantonse ?
LS : Er... neither..
MC : Oh ? You're from Malaysia right ? I thought Malaysians can speak either Mandarin or Cantonse ?
LS : Ooh.. ya.. but those are Chinese Malaysians.. I am not.. I am a Malay..
MC : Oh ?? (surprised) You mean you're not chinese ?
LS : (nganga ???? ohmyGod... seriously????)

Incident 4: Menyenangkan benda yang susah sket

Cikgu : In Deutsch, I know you don't like it, but we have artikel for every nouns. Every noun has genders and you can know the gender of the noun from the artikel. You have to memorize each artikel for each nouns. However, there are some that you can be sure of the gender of the nouns. For example, and nouns that have a '-chen' in the end is neutrum. i.e. das Brotchen (small bread), das Tischen (small table), das Stühlchen...

MC : That's easy.. just refer as everything as small.. then you can know the gender (neutrum) .. small person, small cake, small everything!

Me : One way to remember it!




There are a few more incidents that had happened.. mainly about class.. would love to blog about it.. tapi I cant really remember the details.. also other random stuff.. sigh.. rindu pulak nak berblog but I have lots of things to do right now... Biss später!!