Monday, May 23, 2005

Annettes Besuch

Annette’s visit
It is already 0014h, but let’s see how much I can write before the zz monster takes over.
Annette, my German host when I was in sec 3, came to visit me at Nuremberg on Sunday, 22nd May. It seems that she is just growing prettier every time I see her=) Lothar and Renate, her parents, and Daniel, her younger brother came as well. They traveled 4 entire hours to reach me=p I tried to treat them to “Kaffee”, the german style, with cakes and pastries. But I could fully understand their lack of enthusiasm for butter cake bought from a supermarkt and instant choc cappuccino and instant peach tea. =) (*note: German Kaffee is a big business, with a selection of home-made cakes, and real, brewed coffee. People can sit around for hours in the garden, just enjoying the sun, food and company.)

I brought them around town, went to the Albrecht Duerer Museum in the Altstadt of Nuremberg, which told us the life story of Albrecht Duerer, a famous artist and writer, famous for his “Selbstbildnis” or self-protrait, in which he painted himself as a noble man, and an open window behind him indicated the kind of openness and freedom of thought, the vision that intelligence brings along with it. He was also famous for his painting of the rhinoceros, amazing because it is so life-like, though he has never ever seen a rhino before. Imagine, the people in the 1500s probably thought that the rhino was some prehistoric creature or some mythical being. Anyway, I must qualify that this is all prior knowledge before I visited the museum…the museum just told us of Duerer’s life through the eyes of his wife, a middle-aged ‘ah soh’, and said little about his works. However, I must admit that some exhibits were good, such as that of the metal engraving and the video show, and the museums here always provide you with a personal hearing guide, which is really wonderful. We should have that back home too.

We went on to Dutzendteich, the Nazi party’s land and the great museum there, as I have mentioned in one of my earlier entries. I hope they had a good time, for they seem to be people who like museums, who always are excited at the prospect of more knowledge. I talked a lot to Annette, and found out that she intends to just do an Ausbildung or ‘training’ at a German firm, and perhaps she would not even go on to Uni. This is probably unimaginable to people at home, right? Uni studies seem to be all-so-important, but the thing is that people in developed countries still do very well without one. In fact, they do BETTER without one, for like Annette, she would probably stay in the same firm she does her training in, and rise up far up the ranks if she does her job well. Not going through Uni allows her to save time on education that is not necessary in this case. In fact, haven’t we heard of the Jap internet maverick, who tried to take over some major Japanese network companies so that his company would have a greater presence…anyway he said that the best thing to do is to set up your own company after high school, and manage your own business. There is a Chinese saying “Chu1 sheng1 zhi1 du3 bu2 pa4 hu3”, so I guess this is the only time, when one knows nothing yet about fearing to fail, that one has the best chance to succeed.

Right, the zz monster is starting to take over. Will tell ya more tmr. =)

Sunday, May 22, 2005

The Ritterfest

22nd May 2005-29th May 2005
A crazy week!

I must apologise for not updating my blog for so long…or for that matter, for not writing back home for ages too! It suddenly seems as though my stay in Germany is getting shorter and shorter everyday, and it seems really fast that I will be going home in a month. ONE month! There’s simply not enough time for me to explore more of this country, nor achieve the level of proficiency for the language that I want to have. Well.

Anyway, in this past hectic week, I have been hosted, did some hosting, lots of work and lots of traveling too=) Let me start with the Ritterfest. May take up some space!

The Ritterfest (or a visit to Gaul=))
On Saturday, 21st May, I went with Manni (Manfred, but we all call him Manni) and his really cute and funny family to the Ritterfest (knights’ festival). We traveled to Kersbach, a very small place with a Festung (fort) that was over 300 years old. So it all looked a little bit run down, like the ruins of Athens: you could see majestic old walls stretching into the sky. (I took an interesting photo of these “ruins” with a building crane in the background, it was really an ironic pic.) Manni’s children, Johannes, Emily and Samuel (6,4 and 2 years old) are really cute. Johannes and Emily were dressed as a knight and as a princess respectively, and Samuel was just terrorising all of us with his demands to be carried, refusal to let his elder sis share his pram and all. But that is beside the point.

At this Ritterfest, most of the people were dressed in quasi-middle ages style, ie with long flowy skirt, or for the men, in tunics. It was held in this open space within the old fort, where you could get a v clear view of the land miles around. All around us, large tents of cloth were set up, where “real” knights and princesses were staying in, and they were surprisingly good at imitating the olden times! They cooked using those old large pots that the Druid in “Asterix and Obelix” uses, over a real fire and firewood. The stalls were selling lots of “middle ages” accessories, swords, Indian jewellery they tried to pass off as middle ages stuff, bows and arrows, dresses that would be wonderful costumes at the Fasching (an absolutely crazy festival in Germany), interesting food (haha they had this asian fried rice, and instead of wrapping it in banana leaves, they wrapped it in cabbage leaves!) There was also an entire pig on roast. There was even a “Waffenschmied” or a blacksmith, who used a real leather air bag to blow on the fire, and a stall that allowed kids to sift through some sand in the water to get real gold. The stall-owners bought 100euros of real gold pieces and mixed them into the sand! Talk about throwing money into water.

Oh btw the security there was surprisingly very good, I tried to get a good pic of the land around, so I climbed up the castle wall and sat on it. Then this man in dark glasses and leather trousers said to me in German, “You might want to come down.” He was just standing there the entire time, and earlier on my wallet was retrieved by another person who was similarly dressed. It was the Sicherheitsdienst (or safety service?) and they were really observant.

The atmosphere was wonderful. They had a performance with knights fighting in their armours and a fake announcer speaking in middle ages German…(he was just talking in this funny accent, and I couldn’t understand it. So when Manni asked jokingly if I understood the “mitteralterliche Deutsch”, I was told him no, and that was rather unfortunate.) Then a juggler (Jonglierer) performed, followed by bagpipe performers (or Dudelsack, man am I proud I remembered it! *wink) who had really very long hair. They looked like Orlando Bloom.

After a picnic lunch, we went to visit one of our colleagues, Joerg, who was a “real” Ritter, or hobby Ritter. We played some “ritterliche” games, like the Rope game, and the “Knock-down-the-King” game. I would love to describe them, but that would take you ages to read. You can ask me when I go back home=) If you want to. After which, Joerg decided to “knight” me, or turn me into an asian Chinese Ritter. So he took out his 21 KG armor (Ruestung), let me put it on, and lent me a sword to complement it all as well! Everything was INCREDIBLY HEAVY. It was a long-sleeved metal mail thingy, together with something for the head. The only thing that spoiled the effect was my hair, which has grown too long now. Then we had some mini-battles with the swords, though I could hardly move. Joerg then decided to amuse himself, and told me that he did not know how to get me out of the mail, and that I had to get out of the armor by myself. I tried pulling it off over my head, as that seems to be the only way in and out of it, but I could not lift it off my shoulders. So I tried bending over to let it slide out, but I couldn’t lift the part of the armour that was over my bottom. That was the most unfortunate scene, I wince right now even as I try to picture how I must have looked like: a snail who was trying to get out of its shell, but found that somehow its bottom was stuck in the door or something. We all had a good laugh, and Ute (Manni’s wife) took many pics of me with my camera. Wie peinlich! (how embarrassing!)

Following that, Joerg treated us to a most amazing performance of fire-swallowing and fire-spitting. It was almost unbelievable, he spat out so much fire that the fumes were almost twice that of his height. He said that he learned that all by himself, as a hobby. I never ceased to be impressed…apparently he made the entire armour/metal mail ring by ring, all by himself as well! As well as chairs and beds…everything is DIY.)

We went back to Manni’s place, where I had some wonderful cake and then was showed some photos of Manni’s and Ute’s trip to Jerusalem, and to Beijing. Thoroughly enjoyed myself then, and I wasn’t even tired, despite having only slept for 4 hours the night before. =)

(The song “When You Say Nothing At All” is playing suddenly on my laptop. That reminds me of school previously. Am happy thinking about the great memories and experience, I don’t think I regretted anything I did back then. I don’t think I have regretted things I have done, but only things that I did not do. This might change, though. What do you all think? Do you regret more what you have done, or what you haven’t? What is worse? Feel free to drop me a comment.)

Saturday, May 21, 2005

The BIERFEST

Have you ever been to a bierfest? A real, german Bierfest with the great Masskrugen (A Masskrug is a beer mug that measures 1 litre of beer) and the masses of people? It is an experience not to be missed…and definitely never to be repeated.

Some people would protest that I am not doing justice to the great time-honoured practice of celebrating the Bierfest. Afterall, it is the spirit of celebration and togetherness that counts, as well as the team spirit involved in challenging one another to finish as many Massen as possible. In any case, let me first explain how such an activity becomes tradition and pastime of the Deutschen.

As always is the case with large celebrations and holidays, one NEEDS to have a reason for them, though the true reason is obvious, ie. To relax and celebrate. Over here, the reason is simpler: to drink beer. And they do have a very good side-reason for this bierfest in Erlangen. It is called the Bergkirchweih, (direct translation: Mountain church blessing). Just after a church is built, it would be blessed in a ceremony and this ceremony is called the Kirchweih. Of course they had a mass celebration after that, and to commemorate the great day in which the community had a new church, a yearly Bierfest is held, and this Bierfest is simply one of the largest celebrations I have seen in my life. It lasts for 2 weeks every year. Not only the Germans celebrate, but the entire world celebrates with them. This occasion is so international, that at least 4 out of 10 people I saw were non-Germans, ie. Chinese, Africans, Asians, etc. Even the signs on the Autobahn point to this place: the signs rarely say Erlangen, but “Bergkirchweih”.

It is admittedly tough to picture the enormity of the event unless you had been there. Remember the book that Jules Verne wrote, “Journey to the Centre of the Earth”? Now if he had been to the Bergkirchweih, he would have been inspired to write “Journey to the Centre of the Kirchweih.” It was FULL of people, so full that you are compressed by people all around you, and there are times when your feet hardly seemed to touch the ground, because you are just carried by the immense throngs of people about you. It was amazing to see how people can balance 2-4 Masskrugen and go through the crowd, hardly spilling a drop of the celebrated froth. People skillfully drank and smoked, whipping their cigarette butts away from other people just in the nick of time, some just jumped to the life music there. The sights and the smells, oh, the smells of the place…there was the hint of something sour like regurgitated beer in the air, but my colleagues insisted it was horse dung, which made it somehow more bearable (how would you get horse dung in the middle of a city, though?) The five of us made our way through the crowd miraculously, and stood in line to get our Masskrugen of beer. There was a deposit of 5 euros, while the beer costed 6.50 euros, because you had to return the Masskrug. After getting a Masskrug each, we made our way back to get a seat, which was unfortunately against the flow of human traffic (everyone wanted another Mass of beer suddenly) I lost sight of my petite friend and accidentally pushed a drunk man, who started protesting repeatedly, “Das war gemein, sich anzustiessen.” (That was mean, to push on ahead.”) I muttered a guttural sorry and hurried on.

We finally met our colleague Alex near the live band. He was wearing the traditional German Lederhosen or Leather Pants, with the holsters, traditional shoes and all, and looked really cute in it, like the traditional German Farmer. It is the standard Bierfest suit, you could almost imagine him dancing the folkdance in it. We said “prost”, knocked one another’s Masskrugen and drank up. (Apparently you HAVE to drink up after you do this, or else you would have seven years of bad sex.) Surprisingly, the beer did not taste that bad after all, it even had an aroma. Unsurprisingly, the live music was bad, so to entertain ourselves better, we stood on the benches, putting our arms around one another, and pretended to like the music.

At 11 pm, everything started to quieten down. Sales of beer stopped at 11pm, and some people started to head home. My colleague Ioanna and I were heading towards the toilet when this guy just stopped Ioanna, and said, “Du reizt mich an.” (You excite me). I tried to steer her away from him but this persistent guy just blocked our way wherever we turned. Luckily Yang, a petite but very streetsmart Vietnamese Australian, turned back to get us and she was great, just saying,” Excuse me, we are trying to get to the toilet here. Es ist dringend! (it is urgent!)”, gave him a shove and we were free. I was impressed. Guess must be fiercer next time.

After returning the Masskrugen, we made our way to the pubs, on the way meeting some guys who offered us some of their pretzels (the big ones which are about twice the size of your head). Yang and Ioanna started playing with Alex’s Lederhosen, threatening to undress him or something. Then a group of youngsters heard them and really tried to strip him. It was all done in the spirit of fun, not threatening, and when we realized that Alex didn’t know these youngsters at all, Yang shooed them off, saying, “No no no, he’s mine!” That was hilarious=)

Nothing exciting happened at the pub, though it was rather tiring to keep dancing, and trying to help Ioanna ward off some advances. (Really, she is rather pretty and dances rather well too=)) I left at 2am, rather early by party standards, and reached home at about 4 am, as the sun began to rise. One thing I must credit the Germans with is that it is rather safe, even with half of bus being drunk, and public transport is always punctual, even in the wee hours of the morning. It was interesting to see how someone would start singing a song on the bus, and the entire bus would sing along. I mean, can you imagine someone singing Chan Mali Chan on the our SBS buses and everyone just singing along?

Plonked right into bed at 6 am, after eating a most delicious bowl of instant mee, and was up at 10 am to go to a Ritterfest (Knight festival) Will tell ya all about it only tomorrow, it is 1 am plus now, and I still have to work tomorrow=)

“Money makes the world go round, beer makes the world go round and round…”
--aleetlesometing is lacking in my brain at 1.20 am in the morning. =P

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

SSAG AGM=)

13-16th May 2005

SSAG stands for Singapore Students’ Association, and just like other students’ associations in other countries, its aim is to connect students, promote interaction between Singaporean students in a country. Well, it seems to me that SSAG’s mission is rather tough, because Singaporean Students are really SCATTERED all over Germany…you can have as few as one or up to 30 plus students in one city/area. Thus no matter which place you choose in Germany, it would be a really long trip for some people. I belong to one of those ‘privileged’ ones to have to travel 13 hours by car up to Uelzen, Hannover. It was just like driving from South Germany to North Germany. We were also lucky enough to catch the Pfingsten traffic (Pentecost holiday, the one that the French Government recently scrapped, causing a nation-wide strike), so I must say that this is one of the longest journeys I have experienced. I could have flown back to Singapore for the amount of time I spent in the car!

However, the ride there was worth it. I guess there is an immediate connection between people who can spice up conversation with the occasional ‘lahs’ and ‘mahs’, as well as the ability to play bridge, Tai-tee (at this juncture I must admit that I finally learnt how to play Tai-tee properly, from a German girl who is the girlfriend of one of the Singaporeans. But I mastered it in record speed! * self-justification*=)) It was interesting to observe how some of us mix German in our conversations, because seriously, some German words explain things a lot better than their English substitutes. I christened this new language “Sherman”, but another alternative is “Seutsch” (Singlish and Deutsch). I think it is really a Singaporean characteristic to mix all the languages we learn…I was just talking to my sis in office, when Jochen overheard and asked, “Do all Singaporeans mix English and Chinese?” And I had to explain, “No, we mix Hokkien, Malay and sometimes German too.”

We played Frisbee in the morning, had a real German lunch at noon, (I had a Jaegerschnitzel, or the Hunter’s Pork Chop, which is really delicious and had this mushroom sauce with whole mushrooms that people could pick from the Black Forest) and had the AGM in the afternoon, followed by a Barbecue (or Grill) at night on the second day. The camaraderie between everyone was almost tangible. We laughed so much that Pris (DSTA scholar studying at Wuerzburg) and I had stomach muscle aches the following morning. Sam, Ruth and Kailuo and I stayed in the same room, and I must say it was a great feeling, to have ‘big sisters’ taking care of, or nagging a little at me again. Things like, ‘Apply moisturizer’, ‘Wake up, it’s time for breakfast’, etc, are a welcome break from the usual quiet that comes with living alone.

On the next day, we went canoeing along the peaceful river Ilmenau, which is rather small actually, about the size of a canal. It was a pity that the weather was so cold and wet, it just rained NON-STOP. Clever me forgot to bring a cap, or a completely water-proof windbreaker/jacket for that matter, and got completely wet. Other than the cold and the wetness, it was great fun, to just sail down the river, singing Singaporean songs at the top of our voices. (Kharthik remembered all the lyrics, amazingly!) Songs like Count On Me Singapore, The Little Things, We are Singapore…it would have sounded incredible to the Germans that we can be so nationalistic, as Germans are still in general wary of nationalistic feelings due to the Nazi past. To keep my hair away from my face, I placed my glasses on top of my head, and nearly missed looking at some big moos which were grazing by the river bank. One of them turned to me with a baleful gaze, munching on some grass at the same time. It was just the Perfect Setting for a great getaway.

We had to cut the Canoe trip short by 2 hours, because it was raining non-stop, and most of us were shivering in our wet clothes. It was really no joke to have your teeth chattering and knees shaking, and hopping around to keep warm, as the wind blows past to take all remaining warmth you might have had.

We returned to the Jugendherberge (Youth hostel), took warm showers…and then I played Ping Pong. Some Germans are surprisingly good at it! We (the guys) played against this German boy who had the posture and strikes of a professional Ping Pong player, and I learned how to enjoy the game too, though it is because everyone gave way to me as a first-time player, haha!

At night, we passed the time by playing bridge. This was when I learnt something else about myself for the 2nd time in two months. (The last time I learnt that I am actually a very shy person, short of painfully shy, remember? Don’t you laugh, I am probably a very very quiet person in my subconsciousness. See, my subsconsciousness is sooo quiet that I hardly knew there was a shy me in it. Ah, crap.) Well, this time it is that I am conservative, that I probably couldn’t take risks. Comments, anybody? The things that people can read about you from just a card game. Conservative is fine by me, it doesn’t mean I can’t take risks, but that I take CALCULATED risks. But being shy is another matter I think…shy and conservative, the last time I remembered being so was when I was five…or was it Primary Five? Haha, Old Friends, you tell me.

Time really passes quickly, it is nearly 1 am in the morning and I have gotta work tomorrow. Keep in touch!

Sunday, May 08, 2005

Advice needed (!!)

8th May 2005

Hey everyone..

I am feeling a little lousy right now. The weather outside looks wonderful, sunny and having the appearance of being warm, but it is all just an illusion, once you step out, you would be hit by a cold drift that makes you shiver. Terrible, the whole time I was just carrying my ibook to and fro, from my bedroom to the garden, then back again, because I simply couldn’t stop sniffling.

I went cycling earlier today. It was beautiful, but for the cold…and the sudden rain. The skies over Nuernberg are terribly fickle. They cannot decide if they should rain, thus the frequent and sudden showers of ‘blessings’. I never knew how cold being wet could be.

It is Mother’s day today, and do you recall the saying about how you would miss your loved ones many times more during festivals and all? Well, it is really true. I called home just now, and couldn’t help but cry when I heard my mom’s voice describing how they have spent Mother’s Day. It is not that they had a terrific celebration, just the normal, day-to-day things that they do, like shopping and wondering about the prices of fish (!!), but sometimes you just wish that you were there with them, taking in the sights and the sounds, making lame comments, having the company of your loved ones… Well, she didn’t know that I cried, and probably wouldn’t know, since none of my family read my blog. (Ironic, isn’t it? I started the blog with the intention of informing them what I am doing overseas)

Right now, I am keeping myself ‘grounded’ at home, not only because of the weather (it is 1-7 deg cel outside, according to weather report…I estimate about 5-6deg) but also I have to read through dozens of downloaded uni websites, in order to decide what other subject I should take besides my main subject PS. I want to take up the Magister program, which consists of either 2 main subjects (Hauptfach), or 1 main subject and 2 other minors subjects (Nebenfaecher). PS is my no. 1 main, but I am currently trying to decide which other Hauptfach I should take. I have within my choices Sociology, Economics and History, in the order of preference for now. The problem is that I think I would have lotsa fun taking Sociology, it seems to be the subject that I would jump at, but Econs is the more practical one, allowing me to really understand economics, thus understand rationale behind policies, and all. History would be very helpful for me to understand my main subject PS. The problem is that if I were to take 2 Nebenfaecher instead of 1 more Hauptfach, my understanding in the 2 Nebenfaecher, I imagine, would be rather limited. So any suggestions, anyone? Advice please!

Right, short break over, shall go back to studying the different areas of the subjects. And the big prob is that ALL unis have diff interpretations of the subjects. In addition, there is also a difference between the traditional Magister degree and the new international Bachelors and Master of Arts degrees. So, as I am applying to 3 universities, a simple calculation would mean I have 4 (subjects) x 3 (types of degrees) pdf files to read, and some of them can be really lengthy, ie 29 pages! And in German too, but frankly speaking, I find it easier now to think in German. So good training for me then=)

See the silver lining?
Ting=)

Saturday, May 07, 2005

I am getting the Blues...literally and figuratively

7th May 2005

Die Blaue Nacht! ( the Blue night)

This is a night, in which all parts of the Altstadt (the old city) in Nürnberg was made blue, literally. There were blue people walking around, with blue faces, bright blue costumes, and really strangely, blue hair, which made them look either like fashionistas or Martians from the blue planet. (Wait, Mars is the RED planet, and Earth is the BLUE one, so they are dressed to be like Earthlings after all…never mind.)

In spite of all good advice not to go there (my sources of advice being the weather report, saying that temperatures would drop to even ZERO degrees, and from friends here who have braved the rainy weather in Nürnberg before), I went there alone, my solitude being due to the lack of willingness of my colleagues to freeze together with me=) And boy were they right. I had the luck of meeting the rain head on, at 7 deg Celsius, but with the wind…it really felt like winter was on me all of a sudden. My fingers were really frozen, and the cold made me wolf down 2 pretzels, a chocolate pastry AND a Bratwurst (or was that an excuse?) But that was the first time I really felt SOOO satisfied with a bratwurst, it was heavenly, hot sausage with mustard and ketchup, a warm refuge from the cold. I can finally understand why most Germans are Wurst carnivores.

The night was beautiful, despite the cold. The street lamps were blue, buildings and the old ancient castle (Burg) was cast in a fantastic blue hue. There were wonderful artistic performances all around, some people just setting up their music instruments and playing them spontaneously, with the applause or singing of people on the streets as accompaniment. There were skits around the city, and I really sympathized with the performers, who had to be garbed in thin circus suits in the cold…you could almost hear the chattering of their teeth. All the museums were open through the night, until the wee hours of the morning, and there were special performances and exhibitions all around. I did not buy a ticket (€12), which would grant me access to all the museums, although I was very tempted to do so just to escape into the comparative warmth in a museum =). Thank goodness that many Germans are tall, so I could hide behind them, and peek over their shoulders to watch the performances.

Somehow, despite the cold and all, I thoroughly enjoyed myself=) The atmosphere in the Altstadt was just perfect for artists to just station themselves in the middle of the road, to play, sing or act, because this city is one full of art and tradition. I could have stood behind this German guy all night, just to listen to this Spanish group sing, and just take in the entire atmosphere. Then this guy had to take up a cigarette and smoke. Ugh. That completely spoiled everything there and then.

Being away from your family can be a very odd feeling. You are fine, good, and living very well by yourself, keeping yourself busy and entertained, making lots of new friends, basically feeling great about being independent and able to somehow ‘stand on your own two feet’, yet at the same time this is this itch at a little corner of your heart, right just where you can’t reach, no matter how hard you may try. You can ignore it and pretend it is not there, but it IS. Then when you chance to hear a familiar tune that your father loves to sing at home, or chance to see a pair of slippers that you know your sis would love, or see some things decorated in a really traditional Chinese manner that you know your mom would have liked to have, but would not have admitted to it in order to appear ‘cool’ and ‘hip’ to her children…that itch spreads right from your heart to the back of your eyes, making you sniffle a little even though the weather was just as cold as it was a few seconds ago. That’s when you know that homesickness is actually a kind of slight cold that appears from time to time, at various odd and random stimuli. It is indeed a kind of illness, now that we have recognized it, and just like any illness, there are ways to combat it, e.g. through regular doses of home food like rice, and in contrast with the other forms of illnesses, through plenty of work (not rest) and lots and lots of interaction. There is, unfortunately, no available vaccination for it, nor would your body build up a kind of immunity against it. More exposure does not mean greater resistance. This illness can be infectious, but most of the time, it is not. Because seeing other people who are infected with the same strain of homesickness (i.e. they come from the same place) can be very very therapeutic, thus the association of patients with similar ailments is actually encouraged.

tings

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Kaffee, the little Red Riding Hood and others

2nd May 2005

Hey All!

I have just eaten a very big dinner, and as it is time for bed, I have no idea how my stomach is going to digest it all…guess I would wake up with indigestion. The thought of all that food lying undigested in my stomach as I sleep makes the thought of sleep unthinkable. Thus I thought of updating my blog=)

I have the good luck of having a wonderful lady called Angelika as my landlady=) She brought me to her sister’s house on Saturday, just for a gathering, and the entire family just unhesitantly took me into their fold. It was wonderful. We drank a lot of Kaffee (the German Tradition of Kaffee-Trinken deserves a mention, see paragraphs later) and had a Grill (BBQ). There were quite a few of us, Angelika’s niece Karin (40) and her Italian-sicillian mate (not husband and not from Mafia, apparently what the Mafia does now is just to be normal politicians, helping to repair roads, build community facilities, etc.) Pino, Angelika (63) and her sister Marianne (72), their funky neighbour Anita(69 going on 70), Anita’s daughter (forgot name) and Anita’s granddaughter Samira. We had fun thinking up ways to remember my name, e.g Lied- (Lied=song in German) or Meeting. It was too much effort to get them to pronounce it the Chinese way, so I just told them that the stress is on the first syllable. After dinner, we just sat around, drank wonderful red wine and chatted, and boy, are the old ladies lively. Someone (not me) mentioned about snails in the garden, ‘vernaschen’ the grass, then someone else corrected her, saying that it was naschen, not vernaschen, with vernaschen being a sexual act. They spent a long time debating about the importance of the use of the correct word, Geli arguing that it was important for me to know if a guy says “Ich will dich vernaschen.” (I want you) or something.

Angelika told us of her experience with a guy who tried to get it on with her, and I thought her answer was worth one hundred points. She was walking home alone one day and a car stopped beside her. The man inside asked if she was interested to go for a ride. She said no, because it wasn’t safe. Then they agreed to meet at a pub further down the road. In the pub, the guy said, “What beautiful legs you have.”
Her answer was classic. “I know that.”
The persistent but unintelligent bloke ventured on, “What pretty lips you have.”
“I know that too, so what?”
Kinda reminds you of the little red riding hood and the Big Bad Wolf yeah?

We laughed as these grandmamas recounted their manifold experiences, the latest being Marianne’s breakup with her boyfriend just a day ago. He wanted her to move into his farmhouse, and even bought her a Mercedes (I am not sure if anyone would do that for me=P) but she did not want to (Her house is one of the most beautiful houses I have seen), thus they broke up. Being with them, I felt so prudish. And they are 3-4 times my age. Allmech. (Bayerisches Word for oh man!) Anyway, I did not know how to comfort her, so I just listened and repeated whatever her younger sister said, C’est la Vie! But I don’t think that’s the way to do it though…didn’t we learn in Pastoral Care that the one good way for people to get over things is for them to really think it through and cry over it for once? However, I seriously doubt if she wants to know about the engineering supremacy of Mercedes cars..

It was really hot in the weekend and today as well, hot according to the Germans (really hot= 25-28 deg Celsius), and we will be waiting for the frost soon. Nope you did not read wrongly, the weather here is really unlogical and unpredictable (unvorhersehbar, Angelika praised me for using such a big word, and I felt this pride I haven’t been feeling since learning the 2 times table in Kindergarten). May Day is the official start of real spring, but there are still the Eis-heilige (the ice-holy ones) to tide through. These days even have names: Niko-something, Servatsius and die kalte Sophie (the cold Sophie). Frost would come on these nights and we would have temperatures of minus something. I am really NOT looking forward to it. Some people would jump at the opportunity of seeing snow, but I can skip that, truly the cold is not worth it. I really should get a big thick coat to hide under.

I will be going for the AGM in Hannover with the other Singaporean students. I am looking forward to it, a great gathering with other Singaporeans, with canoeing and some sight-seeing. There is even a holiday this Thursday, called Christihimmelfahrt. I have no idea what it celebrates, but one does not question holidays =)

Time passes really quickly, it is already my third week here. I think I have adapted well here so far…just need to watch my diet a little more. I have no idea what and how much to eat, not exactly used to cooking for one, and I have to finish everything when I cook more or something. There is a weighing machine in my living room, and I have never ventured to step on it, guess the truth would be out only when I return home…bwahaha.

=) tings