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.''
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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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