Claudia in Germany

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

Wonton Soup, € 4.50 So this weekend we went to Main-Taunus-Zentrum , which is for now my favourite mall in the area. It has a nice atmosphere and tons of shops to browse! We stopped at  Tao Tao Ju a 'China Restaurant' just across the cinema building, Kinopolis. It is a bit away from the crowd of the mall visitors, I think the location is a bit unfortunate. People would most likely not wander into this area of the mall unless they're heading to the cinema. My first impression: It looks pretty authentic for my Asian eyes. It's pretty much how Chinese restaurants look back on my home continent. The menu looks pretty authentic as well, they even have some Indonesian food. Black Tea + Lemon, € 1.90 The restaurant is not directly behind the entrance door, but rather you are greeted by a spiral staircase which leads to another door upstairs, and then you arrive at the actual restaurant. They display the menu on the glass window by the entrance door downstairs,

I remember having a conversation about a decade ago, when I was in my twenties, about where I saw myself in 10 years. "Carrie Bradshaw," I replied. I never saw myself as a marrying type, especially since I was a loner who was basically invisible to men all through my teenage years; so I ditched the idea of getting married and began envisioning myself as a single career woman. I proceeded to attempt two relationships after that - and when they failed, I was determined that I was destined to be alone and it'd be better for me. Until I met him. Sometimes I wish I'd met him sooner, to spare myself all those unnecessary heartaches of the past. I would also be spared of all the social pressure I received throughout my twenties, where everybody and their mothers would a) ask why I was single, and b) give unsolicited advices to find someone as soon as possible. But when I think about it, I'm glad that I married him a bit later in life. And here's why. I'

Apart from the obvious: my family and friends, I do end up missing a few things about Indonesia once I don't live there anymore: The crazy convenient food delivery Most restaurants provide delivery service anyway, and even for the ones who don't, there's always Go-Food. You can order literally anything you want, and they will be delivered to your doorstep in no time. I miss the convenience, but I also miss... ...the variation of food you have in Indonesia Which brings me to another thing I miss about Indonesia: there's a plethora of food you can buy! Any kind of cuisine is available, usually not too far away from you. From the cheapest food hawker to the most luxurious fine dining restaurant, they're all available. This does not apply only to meals but snacks are also aplenty, maybe because it is our culture to snack a lot? You can find Taiwanese bubble drinks, Thai tea drinks, Japanese mochi, Korean fried chicken, pretzels, ice cream, yoghurt, and a