Cookies or Brownies? In ready for Christmas!

I had the opportunity to bake with a friend from school. I wondered why I see her so often during breaks between classes for the past few months of the new semester. I wanted to bake Marzipan Chritsmas cookies initially but I changed my mind because she isn't a great fan of Marzipans, but chocolate. After that, we went to the Alte weihnachtsmarkt in Heumarkt. It was really cool.

Failed Chocolate cookies. It was chewy but aromatic. :) hehe

She is totally different from what I have expected. She listens to Rock and unbearable to classic or pop. I was totally shocked whem she played the music from 30 seconds to Mars in a relatively full blast. Naturally , I didn't show any reaction towards her 'norms'. We could even hardly hear each other. She don't seem to me that she bakes because she don't have standard baking equipments at home like measuring cups or spoons. We planned to make chocolate cookies from the recipe I got from Kate. She told me that it tasted really good, she had this recipe back from her girl scout time. It reminds her of the camps she had. Okay, we used chocolate drinking powder instead those for baking, which I never thought about that the powder is sweetened. And the funniest mistake I ever did was melting the butter under heat instead of creaming the butter. I misunderstood.  :) So, we took the time to separate the cookies and as expected, all flattened up in the oven and fused into one big piece of chocolate 'cookies or brownies'. We had a great laugh. The texture was chewy and it was extremely sweet for me. (although it had a really tempting chocolate aroma. ) I didn't ate lunch and I was hungry. I ate some of the 'cookies' and went to the christmas market. It was wonderful. I had a really great time listening to her explanations about the stuffs that are being sold and her wonderful stories of her childhood.

There is a stand that is selling glass made Cologne Cathedral stuff. Those are really fine work on the products that they are selling. Marie was really attracted to the things sold there. She wanted a ring because she lost the last one she had. Then we talked and the guy in this Dom Glass company explained to us about the difference of the normal glass and the glass being utilized in making the products. I didn't remember much of the details but I am pretty sure that it is the difference in the texture and the temperature utilized to form the items. In the middle of the conversation, he told us that he is living in Jakarta since 5 years ago. He comes back to Cologne every year to work in the Christmas market.  Obviously he speaks Bahasa Indonesia and he says that the language is interesting and cool. I felt ashamed for not being to be proud of speaking the language. I can't believe that he, a German appreciates the language and I didn't see the beauty of the language.

Domglas products

I was curious that she mingled around the group of friends for the past few months. Then I realised that she mixes around with people that are older and mature. Her besties had graduated and they are now studying in another town that is considerably far away from Köln. Then we talked about being strivers because I find it easier for me to mix around with people that have good grades. Eventually the definition could me positively or negatively understood. I just can't understand about the culture and mentality of those who teases or labelises people who make an effort for their grades. Of course, those who are being labelised are eventually 'not cool' and they don't get really much contact with the others. It can be so bad that they would try to get an acceptable level of grades. I am so glad that it is different in my country. If the 'smart' people are not being acknowledged, we might have the same fear of getting better grades than the majority.

Friends matter.

I can't believe that I am so depressed because of that matter...

I had to write a test on Thursday, Physics. I wasn't really prepared because I don't really understand the concept of the theme. I went into class and felt really stupid. I should have not even be there in the first place.

Most of the participants are guys. Rebecca and I were the only females. The guys were really sweet as they wished me good luck. We were always required to observe a model experiment which will be based on in the test. After writting down my name, I read the questions over and over. It is really frustrating that I had questions from the questions or tasks stated on the paper. The test is supposed to last for 3 hours. I decided to pass my paper to my physics teacher instead of wasting my time sitting there doing nothing. Obviously, it is the first time of my life that I passed up an empty paper.

That was really embarassing but I prefer to save my time doing better things. I was shocked that Rebecca laughed in a sinister manner. Eventually the others like Lingan laughed too, perhaps just in a friendly manner. I don't really care what reaction others give but my friend, means a lot to me. My thoughts were only on this matter when I was in the computer room. I felt sad.

Before my favourite subject Biology, I went down to the small gathering hall. I saw Rebecca and I wanted to say Hi. She called out a name and walked by my side to the back. I thought she ignored me, but I was sure that she made at least 2 eye contacts with me. I was bothered and I couldn't concentrate in biology class. I didn't even talk or greet Amadeus. I told about my problems to Nilam, a girl from Afghanistan. She was really caring and nice. She noticed how lifeless I was during the lesson. The most unbelievable thing was that I actually cried. That happens usually when I am mentally weak.

Nilam was really nice that she comforted me. It helped to stop my tears flowing but I needed time to recover. I went home like a zombie. The most depressing part is that I had to cook my own lunch and I had no one to talk to. Kate was invited to a cake and tea birthday party. She left directly after my arrival home. It took me like one and a half hour to cook instead of 30 minutes. I wasn't in good form. Food and utensils fell consequently on the ground or on the stove. Nothing tasted although Kate told me that the food I cooked tasted really good.

After my late lunch, I needed somebody to talk to. I talked to Tom and  Karen. I missed Karen so much. I realised that she is the only friend that cares and helps out a lot. Really fun,understanding and hilarious person. The most important part is that we understand each other well. I had a really long talk with her in our broken and confused accented Manglish. I felt so much better. I would really like to spend time with her after flying back to my first home.  I talked to Tom about my problem and suprisingly he has a bigger problem. I feel sorry for him. He spends most of his time with exchange students instead of his friends in school or to be definitive, the germans. Not only that, he had problems with his family. I had to look up to his ability to withstand such pressure and situation at home. He had to even sign the SA.  He told me that I have to be grateful for the friends I have. He advised me to get things cleared instead of having unneccessary doubts.

I explained to Kate and she was really caring. She felt sorry for me. I felt even worse. We spent the night watching a thriller, Bourne Supremacy which in the end casted a sleeping spell on me. It was really funny to know why she don't watch thrillers or reason why my siblings feel embarassing bringing her to the cinemas. It wasn't that thrilling to me. She made so much noises like 'ooh', 'Sxi..', Auwa..','No..' or 'eh..'. She was so excited, especially the part where Jason Bourne had to drive a car recklessly across the streets to avoid the polices which in turn caused a chaos in town. The funniest part is that she covers her eyes when people tackled.

I was dog tired. I went to sleep without doing anything for my next day in school. I realised how friends matters to me.

Laterna,Laterna~!

I had no school today although it was an official first day of school. I had the opportunity to stay in bed until the sunlight woke me up. I was asked to play the trumpet for a St. Martins parade, a religious Christian event  at Rebecca's Mother's kindergarden in the evening. It was like a mini marching band for the festival.

The festival is actually to remember the deeds of a Man, St. Martin. St. Martin was riding on his horse in his red cloak on a cold day. On the way, he saw a beggars by the streets. He decided to share his red cloak to the beggars on the street by splitting it up into pieces in order to make sure that some of them have part of the material. The tradition here is that children light up lanterns, sing the Martin songs and walk around the neighbourhood, knocking on doors asking for sweets or treats. It is not really necessary for the children to knock on doors asking for things but they celebrate it in kindergardens with the lanterns, walking about and singing. After the walking about around the neighbourhood, they light up a bon fire and the children are distributed with this Weckmann (a bread made from yeast dough and raisins). The Kindergarden had a small ceremony where one of the kids was dressed as St. Martin riding on a pony, and the other two as beggars. They repeated the scene according to the story.

I have been practising for the whole week for just 5 simple songs, so that I can sound better. That is the consequence for being lazy.  On the way, I met up with Leonie. She was in the same tram as me, it took me a while for me to notice that she was standing just right in front of me. Of course, her back was facing me. Suprisingly, I managed to talk more than usual. It was really pleasant.  We were a group of five girls. A flutist, Saxophonist, Baritone player and 2 trumpeter. It was really cool that we managed to get together to help Rebecca's mother. They always had professional bands in the previous years but some misunderstood between the two parties resulted in desicion of the orchestra to not take part in this event. She said something wrong but she was not meant to be so. That is how I ended up taking part in this cultural event. After the practice, Rebecca offered her self-baked Apfeltaschen ( yeast dough made in to a pillow that is filled with apple mousse).  After the performance, most of us decided to leave although we were given coupons for food. Most of us had plans.

I walked with Leonie to the tram station and boarded on to the same tram. I took the advantage of the time we have by talking to her all the time. Then we talked about Christmas and future activities that we can do together such as ice skating and snow sleigh. Haha, I even told her that I have not baked or eaten christmas cookies before. Since she likes to bake, we might end up baking together. Rebecca bakes quite often too. I gave her a hint that we should spend more time together before I leave. I even suggested that we should go to Christmas markets soon.

I went for choir practice. The St. Martin's song was in my head all the time, instead of Bach's Lobet den Herrn or Chichester's Psalms by Bernstein. Shame on me. Hehe. The songs are really sweet. I shall share some links here below.

Ich geh' mit meiner Laterne ( I am taking off with my Lantern)
Laterne, Laterne (Lantern,Lantern)

Children from the neighbourhood with their lanterns.

Taste the Swiss Cheese- Basel.Zurich.Luzern. in 1.5 days

For the past few weeks, I have been giving myself excuses for not writting and updating about my situation here in Germany. Haha, shame on me. I was being lazy and I didn't have the mood to do it. If you have been wondering...just don't worry, things are going really well. Just like what my host mom always say, ''No news is good news.''

Zurich

I just came back from Switzerland yesterday evening. Switzerland is a must visit place. A natural beauty. There is  mountains, trees and water everywhere.  I stayed in Fei's house. I worried that I have made a wrong decision to travel to Basel just to visit my friends. Things turn out really different as expected. I assumed that this trip to Switzerland will cost me a fortune. Out of luck, I got really sweet and intelligent friends. They made my trip really worth the price. I managed to save a lot of money to visit and travel to Luzern and Zurich. I was lucky that I was on the right timing to experience the Fall fair in Basel. Everywhere is totally crowed with people. The atmosphere was really pleasant. I missed fair like this because it is not often that I can see fairs like this with people setting up their stands selling all kinds of stuffs. Morning markets in Germany sells vegetables and fruits most of the time, obviously as I said, it is costs more than the normal price. When it come to prices, I can starve in Switzerland. The things are really costly. I was 'complaining that with the amount I pay for the same bread in Switzerland is sufficient for me to buy 3 of it in Germany.However it is quite reasonable for the locals here in Switzeland as they receive a relatively high income. What I heard from Fei is that the general low income is CHF 3,000. Even Joe told me that doing simple part time job may be having a CHF 15 per hour rate.

The lovely people

In this Herbst Messe, we went around and bought typical sweets from the fair. They taste really exotic but a little too sweet for me. I am still so glad that I got the opportunity to meet Carima on Saturday evening. She gave me a really firm hug and it was relatively a long one. The feeling was extraodinaire. I felt really different that I am speaking in german with her instead of english. eveything seems different. We shared our thoughts and talked and talked and talked. It was like that there was no end to it. Then she showed me what is special and typical Switzerland or Basel.  It was really fun spending time in such funfairs. I saw how Joe was so excited to the idea of meeting her first (if I am right) Swiss who went to Malaysia. Anyways, she was the only one from Switzerland during her year. It was a brave decision she made. The world seems really small, we are all somehow connected. Fei knew who her brother is. It is really funny how exposure change the mind. Before I came, I was always excited about whites and I had stupid ideas that I would be willing to marry anyone of them. After exposures, I see people not only how they look but most importantly how they think and act. This is what I think that is really important. Communication is the only key to know somebody better. To be honest, I really wanted so badly to get to know 'white' or 'european' guys before I came. Now to reflect on my thought from back then, it makes me laugh to know how naive I was.

It was a really nice journey to Switzerland. I am pretty sure that this will be something that I will look back in the years to come. It is the first time that I broke my record in talking for all the time, sharing our thoughts and stupid ideas. It was of course nothing really bad but me talking all the time? We had really good ideas. I think that we might be a good team. Three of us have different skills and we could really compliment each other.

Encik Jeffrey grilling his famous steak. :D

We found a Malaysia food stall in the funfair. Obviously that made us really happy and excited. We were totallly in cloud nine seeing the poster of Malaysia all over the place. The food sold there are like Curry puffs, popiah and mainly Jeffrey's steak. That actually made us think that the stall is something for the Europeans. We went near to the place where the cooks are grilling the steaks. They are Indians or perhaps Mamaks.They served the steaks in between two pieces of white bread. A young mixed race guy asked us whether we are from Thailand. Joe reacted really quickly and told him that we are from Malaysia. Then he told the boss Jeffrey and Jeffrey started a conversation in Bahasa Malaysia. He didn't seem really excited as we were, nor did he smiled. Fei San and Joe had a feeling that he was being cold and rude. They turned around. It was also because that they had problems in replying in Bahasa. They needed time to switch.  It was really funny. Then I continued to speak with him. I heard him telling us that he is going to treat us. To our suprise, he gave each of us two curry puffs each. That costed quite a lot to us. Every bite reminded us of home. We were extremely happy. After speaking with him, he told us that he works for the Consulate of Malaysia in Switzerland. He goes back to Malaysia every 2 months and is currently working on a project for UiTM. We go to know that he stayed in Switzerland for 41 years and this young guy is his son.  He explained to us how often he sees Malaysians  walking by or entering his food store every year in the annually held Basel Fall Fair. Lastly, he treated us each a bottle of soft drinks, we thanked him and continued touring town. He is a nice and cool person.

Encik Jeffrey's 'steak house'

I heard of Fei's problems before I came but then it is really obvious to me during my stay by her family. Just like what Joe had reminded herself 'out-loud' that we can't compare with the others. Everyone is different. I have to be really grateful that I met people who really have mutual understanding in the family. I can't imagine how difficult it would be for me to speak and share my thought with somebody in a foreign country. What would I do if I face uneasy problems similar to her? I have to really salute Fei and it doesn't really matter to me if her decision is the best or not to make. I still think that things are never to late to change, but different individuals ask for different things.

I am really suprised to know how much self-improvements I have made in such a short period of time. Especially in my social skills. I have to admit that I am really in the pits in socializing but I tried. I learned to stay calm at all times when dealing with really stubborn and difficult people. I will never forget about my experience working in my mom's friend's company. The husband of her friend was my boss. He thought me to be diplomatic and I have to always make sure that my feelings don't interfere with what I am doing. So, in relation to the paragraphs topic, I just talked and I don't value a person through their facial expression or the way they speak. I communicate to understand and know a person. First impressions are not always accurate.

I really owe Fei, Joe, Zen and a girl chinese girl a favour for making this trip so meaningful to me. The most important part is that Fei strained her nerves to think about my budget and the for organizing the trips we have made together. The best part of the trip was when we sat by the side of the river in Luzern in the evenings, munching on chips while sharing our piece of mind.
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