Sunday, January 20, 2008
9:32 PM

Culture Shock?

1. Deutsch
Everything here is in Deutsch. Some Deutsch words look similar to English and you can kind of guess the meaning, but sometimes it’s not so straightforward. Speaking it is such a mouthful and saliva-ful too. I tried to speak in Deutsch to an assistant at the supermarket and she said “I don’t understand English”. OMG. Basically your pronounciation has to be damn accurate. Luckily we have intensive German classes and plenty of folks who speak English in Germany.

2. Importance of punctuality
In Singapore, we wake up, do our thing in the morning and walk to the bus stop, wait for the bus and it arrives in maybe 5 min. Over here, the bus/ trains come every 1 hour or so, and they come at fixed times. Let’s say the train is supposed to reach the interchange at 11.55pm, and the driver realized it’s going too fast, it will wait a distance away from the interchange on the train tracks till 11.54pm before inching into the train station. This is how precise the transportation system is, and also how annoying it is too. We realize we are always running to the bus stops or train stations so that we won’t miss the bus/ train cuz we are always running late. I bet I will be a damn punctual person when I return to Singapore.

3. Opening hours
The shops here open until about 12/1pm and then they go for lunch break before opening again at 2/3pm, which makes it so annoying cuz I had so many classes last week, and couldn’t settle a lot of things unless I pon class! There are no 7-11s here, so after 9/10pm, it’s almost impossible to get any replenishments for your kitchen. Every Sonntag (Sunday), ALL the shops are closed, so we have no life on Sundays. In Singapore, we never rest, so over here, it forces you to rest (and have some time to blog), which is kinda a good thing.

4. Transport time/ cost
A trip to Frankfurt costs about €6.75 if you buy single ticket, and less than €5 if you buy a group ticket. This comes up to about S$10-14, so it’s quite chorr compared to travelling in Singapore. Takes 1-1.5hour to do the travelling too. Everybody cycles here; even the hottest french babe. So on every Montag, Mittwoch and Freitag (M, W, F), we cycle to the Burg campus for our language class, which is about 25 min walk away. Cars here are dirt cheap compared to Singapore. I guess I could buy an SLK within 5 years of work if I work here.

5. Separation of garbage
At most supermarkets, we have to buy plastic/ cloth bags, so we usually bring our plastic/ cloth bags/ boxes to contain our groceries, so you can imagine how fast plastic bags run out over here. We actually had to buy a roll of plastic bags for our garbage. When we buy bottled drinks, we have to pay extra for the bottles. In almost every supermarket, there will be a recycling machine that enables you to throw your bottles in, in exchange for money, which can be redeemed with the receipt at the cashier’s. This means that we do not throw away our bottles. We were also supposed to separate bio waste from plastics, green glass, colourless glass, brown glass, cans, paper, etc, and throw them in the bin below our flat. Can you just imagine the potential of the recycling business in Singapore and so much more that we Singaporeans can do for the world?

our collection

6. Laundry
I don’t have a washing machine in our flat, so we have to borrow our neighbour’s machine. Anyway I haven’t been washing my clothes so regularly since we don’t smell/ sweat like we do in Singapore. Certain clothes have to be handwashed, and guess what, I really hate to do laundry. I don’t mind doing the ironing, but well, I guess I just gotta do it.

7. Domestic cooking
We enjoy cooking so much and practically the whole block gathers in our kitchen for dinners. Instead of an international mix, we only have French and Chinese (from Singapore and Hong Kong), but it’s fun (and perhaps tiring) trying to communicate properly with the French. Their English is not that great, so we kinda need to develop some sort of telepathy to understand what each other is talking about! I usually speak so fast, but I guess I’ll speak much slower when I return.

So far, we have drunk (alcohol) every day. For me, I didn't drink a lot, and shudn't too, for fear of having to carry a beer belly back to Singapore to be luffed at. They are famous for their beer, but we are in a wine town by the Rhein (Rhine River). It was interested to note that Apfelwein (apple wine) is the unofficial national beverage, and not beer! Now my fav alcoholic drink is the Apfelwein and Rose; they have overtaken my love for the Argentinian Malbec Rotwein (red wine). I've tried the Bratwurst, Currywurst and Rindwurst and they are all yummy.

Xinyu, proud of her cooking

whole kitchen of hungry ghosts waiting for the French cuisine whipped up by Caroline

gateau au chocolat (choclate cake in French) for Hong's belated bday!

eating out in a cosy Greek restaurant in Eltville

8. Weather
It drizzles a bit here, the wind is rather strong, and the clouds never goes away too. I wan2 see snow tho, but Mathilde warned me that it'll so cold I wished it never snowed. I'm not so scared of the cold so I've gotten used to the weather, but taking off and putting on coats is such a drag! The sun rises at about 8am and sets at about 4.30pm, so the day is super-duper short to do much.

9. Activists
In Wiesbaden, we saw a bunch of animal activists displaying cruel acts of killing the animals and condemning haute couture brands like Escada for killing animals for fur.

In Frankfurt, outside the European Central Bank, policemen were crowding the area in preparation for the demonstration between pro-Nazis and anti-Nazis. Elections is next week! Then came a thought-provoking conversation with our Frenchmates about democracy and the right to protest. Compared with Europe, we are indeed a little repressed and apathetic.

More pics...

Exchange Party at Honolulu Bar

we are the French and Chinese girls who call the French guys the French guys, not by names

art display at Wiesbaden

they have Spongebob here too!

it's a dog? it's a softtoy? it's a... pony!

European Central Bank, Frankfurt

Naturmuseum
We never gave a damn about museums in Singapore, but I was interested in this museum cuz of the dinosaurs outside. The museum is damn cool! They have bones, fossils and replicas of birds, dinosaurs, Lucy and our ancestors, reptiles, fishes, mammals, plants, and other stuff! It's a pity a lot of the explanations were in German so we had to guess the paragraphs.

save me from the T-Rex!

stuck in the Jurassic era!

life-size bear!