My German Friends – Meine Deutschen Freunde

True or False Quize Based on Facts About Germany

1. German children get a big bag of candy and toys on their first day of school. (T/F)
2. The Octoberfest in Germany starts in October. (T/F)
3. Every shop is closed on Sunday in Germany. (T/F)
4. It is bad luck to wish someone happy birthday in advance. (T/F)
5. Every German has to own a Dirndl dress or leather shorts. (T/F)
6. Germans are always on time. (T/F)
7. The head of state in Germany is Helene Fischer. (T/F)
8. 90 percent of all Germans have blonde hair. (T/F)
9. A German woman gives birth to 1-2 children in her life. (T/F)
10. A brand of gummy bear candy from Germany, Haribo, is taken from the inventor’s name and his city of origin. (T/F)

 

https://www.amazon.com/Haribo-TRTAZ11A-Goldbaren/dp/B002IXYE36

http://www.thecocoatrees.com/products/haribo/haribo-mini-goldbears-maxi-bag-250g.html

http://sweetsinbags.com/product/haribo-bears/

Bonus

11. Germans drink more than a hundred litre beer per year. (T/F)

Answer:

1. Parents give their children a bag of candy and toys on the first day of school to wish them good luck and happiness.
2. It starts in September until October.
3. Due to Germans’ religious belief.
4. It is more okay to say happy birthday to someone one day after even a few more days later.
5. Only people in the south Germany who wear them.
6. It is considered as rude if someone is not on time.
7. Helene Fischer is a singer. Angela Merkel is the actual head of state.
8. Only 10 percent of Germans that have blonde hair.
9. On average most german women only give birth to 1-2 children.
10. Haribo is taken from Hans Riegel Bonn. The inventor name is Hans Riegel, and he comes from Bonn.
11. Yeah, they like drinking beer.

This quiz was made by Tessa Marks, Alicia Peelen and Lukas Beinhauer for teaching the older kids about Germany. Don’t worry, they didn’t include the last fact to tell to class because it was inappropriate.

The last volunteers I got from Germany were Lukas Beinhauer in November 2017 and then Alicia Peelen and Tessa Marks in December 2018. Also Delia Fransisco in January but she stayed for a week only at the learning center. And last one was Janin Gantz in February.

Lukas, Alicia, Tessa and Delia were younger than me. Delia has been graduated from A Level and she is going to enter the university. Tessa, Alicia and Lukas are students at the University of Twente, Holland. They go to Holland to study psychology. When I asked why to Lukas, it was because it is very hard to enter the university in Germany to study psychology. Wow, so as students in the university of Twente, they also need to study Dutch because the lectures are given in Dutch not in English.

Alicia, Lukas, Ibu Ketut, Me, Tessa and Delia during Lukas and Delia’s farewell day

Well, at first I was interested in psychology when I was in senior high school. And then when I met Phil Courts, my English teacher from UK, he gave me some kind of influence to avoid psychology hahaha. It was when I was at my senior year in high school, I was invited for a lunch with Phil and his fiancee. At the restaurant in Sidoarjo we talked about where I was going to continue after I finished my high school. I answered that I wanted to study psychology, and I added that I read Sigmund Freud book about Deviant Love. Then Phil revealed something about psychology and that Sigmund Freud is a drugs addict or something about his crazy thought. I became afraid about that since that time, lol!

Anyway, Alicia and Tessa taught the kids about Zumba dance, and we really enjoyed that. Tessa, Alicia and Delia also interested in yoga so we did yoga session with the kids. I led the Surya Namaskar session and then Tessa and Alicia continued with the next yoga sequence, such as the tree pose, happy baby pose, and warrior pose…. and so on. While for Delia and Lukas it was probably their first yoga session. They were having difficulty to get yoga mats, but Tessa and Alicia ended up using beach cloth as their mat, yes they shared one wide beach cloth for two. On the other hand, Lukas was wearing towel as his yoga mat and Delia was using “tikar”. Lukas was also kind by lending his towel to another kid who didn’t bring any mat for yoga. Before that, he gave a toothbrush to a kid who didn’t bring toothbrush for personal hygiene class. Of course a new toothbrush he gave.

Tessa and Alicia also surprised me by giving every kid with Haribo after the class. I knew about Haribo from Mbak Nella Silaen’s blog. She told on her blog that Ben really loves Haribo. Haribo is some kind of candy, but I didn’t know what kind of candy was that until Tessa and Alicia came up bringing one pack of Haribo and shared it to the kids and to me – wide smile. It is a gummy candy like Yuppi in Indonesia. I think it is like a jelly candy with bear shape. They have different colors for every piece of candy that represent the flavor of fruits. Haribo candy was made by Hans Riegel and he came from Bonn. Hans Riegel Bonn was shortened and became “Haribo”, the name of the candy and as the brand. It is nice to know about the fact behind Haribo.

When my mother and my father came to Bali, I invited Tessa, Alicia and Ibu Ketut to come to my house so I can introduce them to my family. And then I served some snack made of cassava and taro or “talas” in indonesian. We can call it cassava and taro chips with spicy and salty / original flavors. Amazingly Tessa and Alicia liked the chips very much. Alicia like the spicy one and Tessa the salty one. They even wanted to buy the snack again so the asked me where did I buy it. The thought I made it by myself :D.

taro chips original flavor made by locals

During their visit to my house we were talking about their study in psychology. How much the cost to study in Netherlands and how they pay that cost. Alicia took a credit or loan for studying while Tessa’s parents can afford the tuition fee. Tessa also told us about her experience working at the mental hospital. She said that it wasn’t scary at all to work there eventhough that something could be shocking to reveal.  We also talked about Tessa’s boyfriend, Malte. And Alicia described Malte as “everyone loves Malte.” Funnily, Tessa’s dog name is Monte, and it is quite similar with her boyfriend’s name. Sometimes she was mixed up to call her boyfriend as Monte and call Malte to her dog, LOL!

Once I had asked Lukas to cook a German food because he likes cooking but on the day when he did cooking, I was absent because of having a sorethroat. Next I asked Tessa and Alicia to cook German food like what Lukas did before. They cooked me hashbrown and apple sauce. I ate the hashbrown with Kalki. They told me to eat the hashbrown with the apple sauce bacause it was the way they eat the dish. I think the savory hashbrown doesn’t match with sweet apple sauce, so it was kind of weird combination for me. However, I did try that way. Oh yeah, hashbrown is made by potatoe. They have  a lot of dish made from potatoe. Lucky for me, I love potatoe and hashbrown has been added to my potatoe recipe collection.

cooking hash brown and apple sauce

Tessa and Alicia were crying on their farewell day

After Lukas, Tessa, Alicia, and Delia there came Janin. Janin works at softwares company. Her education is business administration. She is older than me and she is very nice. She helped me with the printer matter, filling the ink and trying to connect the printer to anothe computer that still works. When I got shorethroat, Janin sent me a short video of the kids during the class wishing me to get well soon. How sweet….

On Monday February the 12th, one day after my birthday, Janin brought me a cake with some candles on it. She asked me to make a wish and blow the candles. She was so kind remembering my birthday and giving me some birthday presents: a pack of Haribo candy, a sketch book (knowing that I sketch some volunteers faces on white board), and a pencil. Plus she gave me a Brain on Fire book (that I wrote the review here). She said that book Brain on Fire is not a birthday gift, she just gave it to me because she wanted to share the story with me and she noticed that I like psychology 🙂 sweet.

A psychology book from Janin

With Janin I haven’t got the chance to learn how to surf because she can surf, and she was willing to tell me the basic of surfing. She even asked me to join her yoga session at Balian beach. She said that the cost for a yoga session at Balian Beach villa was about Rp 125.000 and they provide yoga mats. Wow, I couldn’t afford that but Janin said that everything seems more expensive to international tourists in Bali. That’s true in some way.

Once I helped Janin to wear “kamen” or Balinese Saroong and Kebaya, when I wrapped her hips with the Balinese saroong, she told me about how to tie the apron of dirndl, a German tradional dress. If it is tied in front or on the side of your hips or at the back, it will show your status. It could be a symbol that you are single, widow, or a maid by where you tied your dirndl apron. Surprisingly when I asked Janin to fill my book with her bio, she could read my russian letters on the first page of my book as ‘hello’. Then I asked if she could speak Russian. Yes she could, because she had ever stayed in Russia for working and her ex-boyfriend was a Russian. Wooow! I just leant Russian from Masha and The Bear animation and I think that’s hard to learn the special letters.

Janin stayed for only three weeks or four weeks? I forget. She told me a little bit about Wanderlust. It is popular in German as fernweh. The desire to travel. But what Janin explained to me was something a little different about the meaning in German. I was confused to understand that hahaha. She likes to travel, her instagram is full of traveling photos and she also write a blog about her traveling experiences. Because we are the same bloggers and blog readers, she shared with me the information about an app that enable you to subscribe all kind of blogger friends’s blog although the use different blog platforms. It is Feedly. Sure I downloaded into my smartphone although my kids are dominating in using my smartphone right now.

On Alicia’s and Tessa’s last day, I was given a denim jacket by them as a gift for me. They were really nice considering that I wouldn’t feel cold anymore using this denim jacket. Not only that, I also got Alicia’s white sneakers + shocks, printed and plain tees and shorts. Well, I like all the gifts they gave to me. I am wearing the unicorn printed tee right now :D. And from Janin, besides of my birthday surprise gifts, she also gave me Ricola to soothe my throat when I had sore throat and a mustard-colored tee. Janin really cared that I often got sore throat so she gave me Ricola, she also knew that my favorite color is yellow so she gave a yellow tee. Later then I eat a few of Ricola before my tonsillectomy surgery. For the rest of the Ricola, it was my husband who took care of them.

Denim Jacket from Tessa and Alicia

Ricola from Janin. Image taken from https://shop.ricola.com/products/ricola-original-sf-lozenges-box-45-g

There is a booklet about “Things To Do in and around Bali” especially at our learning center at Samsaman village. Later on I was told by Ibu Ketut that it was Janin who made that. The booklet consists of some useful information about what kind of activities we can do in Bali also some advise about nice places to go and tips how to get there. I think it was meant for the other incoming volunteers and it was written based on Janin experience complete with photos to support each list. The content is very comprise and practical, danke Janin you have a such good point!

That’s the story about my German friends. Why I am interested in Germany? Because I had learn German for a year in my high school. And I learn about German history too. Such a pleasure to have a German friends to know more about their country. I think German people have a strong characters and ethos. Well, I need to spend more time with German people to prove it, but I believe that’s true because although Germany lose in World War II, they could still build their country back and become well-developed.

I got so much fun with my German friends. I hope I can meet them again.

Haribo, anyone?

(again) Haribo from Janin

Bis spater!

♡ Intan Rastini