Frietag

Two weeks into my stay here and I have learnt 20 German words. Not bad I should say, considering that that’s more than one word a day. But after those 20 words, I realized yesterday that I have hardly added new words to my vocabulary, and so I searched online for the easiest words to learn in any language: numbers and the days of the week. I’m pretty sure I will not be able to SPEAK German by the time I leave but I at least hope to know more words than before I arrived here.

My colleagues in Penang are asking me to learn German swear words and in turn, teach the people here Malaysian swear words!! Lol! I don’t think I want to teach them how to say ‘puki’ or ‘lanchiao’! Just doesn’t seem right! As for learning German swear words, I noticed that f*ck seems to be the common swear word used. :S Maybe I should ask what a real German swear word sounds like. Hmm…

By the way…I forgot to mention yesterday that my hsemate wants to take me in her car and show me around. From telling me that she isn’t the babysitting type to this! Maybe she likes me! I in turn, offered to show her pictures from back home. She says it’s always nice to have someone local telling you about a place, rather than Googling pictures and reading reviews online. She’s told me about two of her other tenants – one from Japan and another from Mexico I think – and from what I hear about them, they all seemed to be close. Maybe it takes her some time to warm up to someone foreign, and maybe I’m not too bad a person either. J

Annelen asked me about my plans for the weekend! She wanted to know if I would like to have dinner with her and Andreas. I told her about the museum plan and the shopping plan, and invited her along! After much discussion, plans for tomorrow were made and it’s a full day! I’ll be taking the U-Bahn (metro) on my own tomorrow morning to meet Marie at Alexanderplatz and together we’ll go see Nefertiti. After that, it’s shopping with the girls; and after THAT, it’s off to a cheese fondue dinner at Annelen’s place (I think she changed dinner plans). Yay! Must take pictures!

I’m just amazed at how open and welcoming the people here are; because I surely would not offer to spend my weekend with someone new back home. Even my boss was telling me that Europeans are not that friendly and unlike Asians, they won’t simply invite you home. I guess there are two types of people. Which made me realize that I have to change my thinking; I should be more open to foreigners coming to my organization and be more helpful. I don’t mean I should baby-sit them but I could take them out for dinner or show them around town for a day. Hmmm….

Till my exciting weekend tomorrow!

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