A change of heart

It all started when someone in the nuclear medicine lab where I worked yesterday, asked me something.

"How long have you stayed in Germany?"

I answered without giving it too much thought: "One year."

But when I came home that day I started thinking...."Wow it really has been a year. Has it been that long??"

And the memories started flashing before my eyes. The memories from the first days, weeks and months of me living in Germany. I can say that those days were definitely not my favorite ones.  Back then I only knew very few words of German, which I could count only using the fingers of my hands (and maybe my toes too:P) and I could not understand at all what the people here were saying when they spoke. I can remember being so petrified when I had to apply for my residence permit because I could not speak and understand the language, how I almost cried when I wanted to open an account in a bank where nobody wanted to speak English, how embarrassed I was when a cashier in a market simply asked me for 10 cents and I just stood there like a complete moron trying to figure out what she was saying, how frustrated I was because I couldn't understand a damn thing on TV (which by the way, for a person who worship TV like me is a total torture), how the people stared at me when I walked on the wrong side of the road (here people walk on the right side instead of left like in Indonesia), how I was honked so many times by bicycles cause I was walking on the bicycle track. To top it all off, it was my first try to really live on my own, away from my home, away from my family. So basically "home sick" was my middle name back then.

But then, I thought that I had really no choice but to suck it up and do something in order to survive in this country. The first thing of course:  learning the language. Hello?? You should've done that BEFORE you came here. But the fact was I hadn't done it, so I had to learn it here.

Learning just the language turned out to be not enough (but it sure did help a lot ). The way the people here think, act, what is normal for them, what is not, and how to interact with them are important things to know and to get use to. First I was kind of surprised by how direct the people are. They always say what they mean, never beat around the bush. Yes means yes and no means no. Saying what's really on their mind is honesty to them and not impoliteness. Being Indonesian I was not accustomed to this kind of attitude and it took me while to get use to this. Now I can even appreciate, if not admire this trait because you don't really have to worry when someone is saying things in front of you then say different ones behind your back (sound familiar??). Another thing that I admire is their value of time. Being on time is something normal here. Being late however is not. Nine o'clock means 9.00. Not 9.03, 9.04, 9.15 or else 10. I learned a lot about being on time and decided that it is a culture I want to bring home.

So one year has gone, and when I look at how I view Germany these days, is not really through frustrating, angry, fearful and skeptical eyes anymore. Let's just say my heart has grown soft for this country.  Now I can enjoy watching German TV ( but I still think Indonesian TV is way way better..sorry....), I have a favorite soap opera which I tune in everyday (cheesy, cheesy, chessy), I'm a big fan of a German superstar (see previous posting), I'm starting to listen to German songs and loving some of it, I'm trying to read novels in German (although I only understand the global meaning of it), I go to the cinema (ditto with the novels, only understand the global meaning of the movies), I'm having so much fun in my German class (although my German is still not good), and I don't have such a bad case of fear when I want to extend my residence permit but..... unfortunately I still get honked by some bicycles hehehe....

Don't get me wrong. It was not always a happy cheery time here. There were low times too namely when my experiments failed, when I got yelled at by my supervisor, when I was stranded outside Hannover when there was a train strike, when I was stucked in an elevator in my apartment (FYI, this has never happened before, not even in RSCM hihihihi) and many more.

But I guess good and bad things bound to happen and they happen for you to embrace, experience, enjoy and to be thankful. They will mould you into a wiser human being (taelaaaaaaaaa).  That's just life. And life...in Germany....is really not that bad. Not bad at all.

I still have a long way to go here, challenges to face and hard work to be done. But I hope this country will stay being nice in the process.

Happy 1st anniversary, liebes Deutschland!! :-*

Comments

[Bibip]

ga enaknya dateng di negara yg ga pake bhs international ya Rin, anyway u already fight and keep on 1year haha..good girl!
bedanya pendatang kan lebih fight hehe..masih berapa tahun lagi disana Rin??!!
Bedanya ama org jepun mskp mereka iya2 senyum didepan makkk diati beda manyun ga suka ga jelas makanya mesthi ati2 ^o^

[Rina]

Haha thanks Bip...doain ya biar bisa lancar terus :) Pengennya tahun ini senggaknya penelitian udah selesai (Insya Allah) tapi kalo ujian defensenya masih harus nunggu lagi.
Ternyata orang Jepang mirip sama orang Indonesia juga ya...Mungkin sama2 asia kali ya.