Claudia in Germany

Knight Rider was a TV series I liked to watch when I was a young kid. I always had a thing for cars and robots when I was young, and KITT was such a dream car for me back then. I have been rewatching it lately, after 20 something years, with my husband - and here are my thoughts about it, both back then as a kid and now as an adult. As a Kid As a kid, I absolutely enjoyed the series. I don't remember much of the storyline or characters, but I know by heart *everything* KITT can do. I even remember his voice clearly. I loved the action, the Turbo Boost, the Pursuit mode, the Seat Ejector. It's a kid-friendly show which children could enjoy without having to actually understand the storyline and dialogues that much. Oh and the characters Devon and Bonnie really made an impression for me. I still remember them fondly even now. As an Adult As an adult, I find that my favourite character of the series is still KITT. He actually has his own personality. Even though voic

If you have any plans to obtain a German citizenship, you have to take part in Integrationskurs. The course comprises of 2 parts: Sprachkurs (German language course) and Orientierungskurs. I didn't take the Sprachkurs because I already have a B1 certificate from Goethe Institut, which is an equal skill level expected at the end of the Sprachkurs. So I only joined the second part of the Integrationskurs, which is called Orientierungskurs. It's funny because when I started the course, everyone in the class already knew each other including the teacher as well. We started the first day by chatting casually about their B1 exams, and I just sat there listening. In Orientierungskurs we learn the basics about Germany: politics, geography, history, and culture. Which is great for me because I generally love to learn, and I also have always had an inexplicable fascination with World War II era Germany history. Everything is in German, which is why at least B1 level knowledge of the

Living in Germany is wonderful, because of the people. Everyone I've met has been very nice and accepting to me. My impression of the Germans so far is that they're polite, well-mannered, accepting and the men are such gentlemen. Wherever I go, I never feel like I'm a foreigner. They would speak German to me by default, and when they realise that I don't really speak German that well, they would be glad to speak slower to me. They also patiently wait when I try to string words together into coherent sentences. At first I thought it was just how things were at the premises of Goethe Institut, where all students are required to speak German at all times and all staff are required to support us doing so. But once I started going out without my husband, I realise that this is the basic attitude of German people in general: kind, helpful and accepting. I also realise that here in Germany, I am considered somewhat unique and pretty. Back home in Asia, I was just one in a

As much as I enjoy living here, there are a few things I don't really like about it either: Shops close on Sunday In Indonesia, weekend is the high time for retail business. No one would dream of closing their business on Saturday or Sunday. But here, nothing is open on Sunday. Including the supermarkets. So we do our weekly grocery shopping on Saturday, along with everyone else - and if you happen to forget to pick up something on your shopping trip, you'll have to live through Sunday without it. We are expected to tip in restaurants In Indonesia, we don't have to tip - service charge is already included in the bill. I prefer it that way, because I don't like to feel as if I'm judging the servers by the amount I tip them (Is it too much? Too little? Will they think that I don't appreciate them enough?). It's just making me socially anxious to decide and calculate these things. I much prefer to pay a fixed sum of service charge, usually 5% from the v

Learning languages has been a hobby for me, fortunately; so it has been a joy for me to learn German. I wish to improve faster, but I have to remind myself that it is important to not get ahead of yourself and just let the process flow. Otherwise, you'd be frustrated and learning process wouldn't be optimal. While attending a good language course is still the best and most effective method to learn a language, here are some supportive methods you can use to improve your language skills: Buy exercise books online You can find plenty of exercise books online that you can do by yourself at home. Some of them even come with audio CDs or audio download links. They usually state the level of each book, so you can choose a level suitable for you. Remember to always choose ones with the answer key included, if you are going to learn by yourself. What would be ideal is a combination of some explanation with exercises. If you're a complete beginner, there are also books that

I'm so used to buying artificial Christmas trees in Indonesia, so when my husband told me we were going to buy a real tree to put up in our home this year, I was besides myself. First thing we got was a 'Christmas Tree Stand' - it's a dish-like device with clamps where you put your tree in. It comes in different sizes for different tree heights; we chose S because we were going for a tree that's about 180 cm tall. Then we went to a 'Christmas tree market' - I had probably seen these in films, but to experience it myself was so awe inspiring! I felt like a kid who'd just seen all this for the first time... but then again, it WAS my first time. The first market we visited was in a store, and we didn't see anything we liked. The second market was at the parking lot of our local supermarket, the seller was a super friendly and cheerful man. My husband told him what we were looking for and he helped pick a right tree for us. He even switched to En