Geschafft!

I did it! I passed my German language test with flying colors! I got a 5 (the perfect score!) for the listening and Reading parts of the test, a 3 at the written part (Scheiße!) and a 4 at the oral part!

All I have to do is to convince a university that a three ain't that bad (remember I need a 4 out of 4 for my course!) since I got a 5, twice! Three means I still passed the test.

Ich habe es in einem Jahr geschafft! Letztes Jahr (Jan 2006) konnte ich nur "Alter Schweder," "Guten Tag," und "Gesundheit" sagen! Jetzt kann ich Deutsch ganz offiziell! Es hat viele Tränen gebraucht, aber es hat sich gelohnt.

Hooray!

We are finally moving! Found an apartment, and we're moving to Erfurt! By the end of the month! Yay!

I am very, very happy to be moving out, and I am happy to be out of reach from my MIL. She is quite sad, and has taken to hugging me and saying, "Everybody wants to leave me. You too?"

While I am sad as well, I am actually more excited at the fact that I'll be independent in a new city, and happy to be away from her meddlesome and annoying ways.

She always prides herself as a really good cook, and admittedly, she does cook well. She loves making traditional German dishes, and asks me to watch while making them. "Das ist wie meine Oma das gemacht hat." (That's how my Grandma used to make it.) Since traditional German cooking is rich in meat, potatoes, and fat, a normal meal in the household usually drips in grease and butter. Even her vegetables are marinated in heavy sauces or butter. Hearty German dishes literally are not for the faint of heart! Then she complains the next day at how big she's become.

I think I have gotten along with her for the past eight months by playing the compliant Asian. Though Thomas says that the following statements are not completely true, I think that I never complained. I do stuff around the household the way she wants them done to avoid arguments. I never answer back. I understand that because Thomas was not here to explain my behavior, and that because I can't express myself in German as well as I can in English.

I patiently waited for the day that Thomas would be done with school so we could move out of this backwater city. It is beautiful, yes, but a tad slow for my taste.

She, in turn, treats me like the provincial innocent. That was ok, because in some respects, I was. But sometimes it gets too much!

Everytime I cook something Filipino or Asian, she always has to meddle with how I should do it. Mas marunong pa siya sa akin, eh sino ba ang Pinoy dito? I tell her that I want to recreate the taste of my childhood, but she insists that her cooking methods are better than mine! She always meddles in my cooking. She doesn't want anybody to meddle with her cooking but she insists on meddling with mine, all because I sometimes cook with a recipe in hand!

Like during Filipino Food night. She insisted that I flood the freaking wok with cooking oil as I made Lumpiang Shanghai (spring rolls) so we can fry a lot in a short amount of time. People normally use up to three tablespoons of oil when frying spring rolls.

I didn't use water or egg yolk to bind the end of the wrapper because it doesn't work. The spring roll wrappers sold here are too thick, they break because of the moisture. So I let it be. Barbara told me, that won't work. But I've done it before, and it does.

So as I cook the Spring roll in the vat of oil, the wrappers ballooned and floated to the surface. She exclaimed "Scheiße, I told you so! You should've used egg!" in front of everybody! Carola, the other cooking host said "Shh, don't fight here!" I was steaming mad at Barbara, and gave her dagger looks. Thomas just ladled out the excess oil in another bowl and told me, "See, I told you, you shouldn't listen too much to my mother!"

Well, it was my fault because I was too much of a pushover. But in everyday life she is just the same as well. Typical German who wants to control everything. So anyway, I promised to cook these past few days as a thank you for allowing me to stay in her house.

Last night I made Tortang Talong (Eggplant Omelet). To remove the skin while achieving the burnt eggplant flavor, I put the eggplant over her ceramic hot plate stove, a lot safer than the Filipino method of grilling it on fire. She took a look at what I did, and said "Scheiße, what you're doing will make the stove dirty! I think you should put it in the oven instead."

Since it was her stove, I had no choice but to put it in the oven. It works just the same, but it didn't taste the same. Then as I fried the omelet on a skillet, she noted, "Cooking one eggplant at a time is so inefficient. Why don't you put everything in the oven? You can cook three to four eggplants in one go!"

Grr grr and more grrr!!!! Outside I was all calm, but deep inside I wanted to scream! "Hey, who is the Filipina here? You and your pseudo-Asian dishes are fine, but when I cook Filipino, then I cook Filipino! If I wanted to make baked eggplant omelet, then I would've done so!"


I made Maja Blanca for dessert, from scratch! I literally scraped hard coconut meat out of a shell to make coconut milk! She asked where I put the water, and I replied that I threw it away. She went, "Scheiße, why did you throw that away? It was good for drinking! We drank that in Cuba."

I couldn't take it anymore, so I made Thomas explain to her that coconut juice is only good when it comes from a YOUNG coconut. Old Coconut juice tastes yucky. Because he was in Southeast Asia for a year, he knew that.

I know she just means well, but I can't take all this meddling! I will be glad to have a kitchen I can call my own!

Expat Meme

From Heidelbergerin


5) Name five things you love in your new country:

1. Being able to wear what I want/ Fashion. Love the clothes!

2. To be able to walk around/bike around without being assaulted by pollution, noise, and traffic

3. The honesty of the people

4. Things get delivered/done when and as promised.

5. The Autobahn! Cheese! Bread! Cold cuts!

4) Name four things that you miss from your native country:

1. Malls! Mall of Asia, Megamall, Glorietta, Greenbelt.

2. People are friendlier in the Philippines.

3. Shops are open from 10 am to 10 pm, even on a Sunday!/Midnight Madness sales/Really cheap Chinese shit. There's also a lot of Chinese crap here but they're more expensive.

4. Filipino culture/Filipino Christmas/Filipino Food/Filipino weather/Filipino beaches/My Makati life/My family

3) Name three things that annoy you a bit (or much) in your new country:

1. Everything is so expensive, double or triple the price compared to the Philippines

2. The obsession over privacy. I understand it, but sometimes it gets too much. Being a Filipino, I have a much looser sense of personal space. When I first got here, I had to ask Barb's permission to enter her living room (because it was "her" living room)

3. Power-tripping inflexible government workers.

2) Name two things that surprise you (or surprised you in the beginning) in your new country:

1. They eat raw pork!!!!

2. They allow their children to roll around in the dirt! And clean them up later when they're really, really filthy. Filipino mothers watch over their children like hawks. Kids can't play outside unless their backs are caked with baby powder, with a small towel placed under the backside of their shirts. Pag pawis na, hala! Habol! May dala nang basang bimpo at kailangang punasan ang mukha!

1) Name one thing that you would miss terribly in your new country, if you had to leave it.

1. The lack of social hierarchies. Angela Merkel and the jobless single mother have equal rights.

I would encourage anybody living abroad to answer! What do you like/dislike about your new country?

Broken Record

A little Pictionary of my new life.



I work here.



Fellow teachers Mary-Louise (Canada) and Jeff (US)

Jeff and I got to talking yesterday, and asked a question that I've heard a thousand times.

"How is it that you speak with an American accent?"

People who know me personally know that I speak with an American accent. I sound like a broken record, as I've told the story a million times already, to schoolmates, officemates, and most of my co-teachers. I was raised by my grandparents, who were born during the American occupation and educated under the American educational system. They decided to create an English-speaking household. It isn't hard, I tell them. I was raised on a diet of Matlock, Steve Allen, McGyver, and Sesame Street. It is possible to raise an American-speaking kid in the islands.

I didn't learn my native language, Tagalog, until I was three, when I had to go to school. That resulted in 11 years of hell, when kids picked on me because I spoke English well.

Mary-Louise joins in, "Hey I had a friend whose parents were Polish immigrants. They speak Polish at home, and she didn't learn English until she had to go to school."

"That's just what she said!", Jeff exclaimed. "See, I wonder what would happen if I marry a German. I speak German as well, and I want to know how it would be like for my kid if we decide to use English at home."

I was reminded of a question that has been floating in my head for some time. I speak German, English and Tagalog. I would love it if my kid would be able to do the same. However, I'm scared that I would overwhelm my kid. I could speak Tagalog exclusively to my future children, while Thomas could speak English, even if my English is better than his. Our children could pick up German in school, right?

A little note on trilingualism: Thomas' best friend is half-Greek, half-German, and was born in America. His dad, a university professor, spent a year there on a PhD grant. He holds all three nationalities (shh, don't tell anyone!). He speaks all three languages in varying degrees of fluency. However, he didn't start speaking until he was three!

At first his mom spoke to him in Greek, his dad in German, and both occasionally spoke to him in English. However, because he didn't utter a word in any discernable language, they decided to raise him in one language: German. Then he started to talk.

Because of his multi-lingual upbringing, he is able to pick up languages quickly. He now speaks Spanish as well. I noticed that I share this trait. German is a difficult language, but my progress is better than most of my classmates, who were raised speaking only one language.

I can't expect my children to have the same capabilities as I do. Will I overwhelm my future children if I try to raise them in three languages? Will it work?

Meanwhile, I hope that I still have enough room in my head for Spanish. Thomas and I plan to move to Chile after five years to learn the language. Since Tagalog has a lot of Spanish in it, I hope I can learn it quickly. That's another challenge for my future kid!

Biyenan Blues

Pasensya na kung Tagalugin ko yung post na ito. Mahirap na, baka mabasa ng mga Aleman! Alam kong binabasa ako ng pinsan ni Thomas! Rant lang ako ng konti dito sa blog ko ha, pasensya na.

Hay, naku, wish ko lang makapag-ipon na kami ng pera para maka-alis na kami dito. Don't get me wrong, magkasundo kami ng biyenan kong hilaw, pero minsan di ko siya ma-take na kasama sa bahay. Kaka-graduate lang ni Thomas nitong March, kaya ayun, dito kami pareho sa Jena naka-tengga. May trabaho na siya, kaso laging nau-urong yung starting date ng trabaho, freelance consultancy firm ang pinasok niya eh.

Kaso nga lang, parang aso at pusa magaway ang mag-ina. Daig pa ang mag-asawa! Kaugali kasi ni Thomas yun ex niya. Si Barbara, pagdating sa akin, very patient. Hindi ko alam kung bakit. Kasi foreigner ako? Kasi lagi ko siyang sinusunod kahit alam kong wala siya sa katwiran? Kasi ako yun taga-linis at taga-laba at taga-luto sa mga araw na depressed siya?

Ako naman, diskarteng close. Ngiti lang, minsan kahit inis na. Kailangang pakisamahan eh. Magiging biyenan ko din yan someday. Namana ni Thomas yung ugaling nagmamarunong lagi sa Nanay niya, alam ko yun. Ugali ng ex + pagmamarunong=recipe for disaster!

Nakatambak noong Sunday yung mga gamit ni Thomas from Deggendorf sa home-office niya, hindi naman ginagamit yung opisina. Alisin daw, so inalis. May isang rung sa shelf na walang laman, so naglagay siya ng bag doon.

Ito namang si Barb, nagfreak-out! Alisin daw yung gamit niya, opisina daw niya yun. Ayaw alisin ni Thomas. Ano ba naman yung iisang part ng shelf, di ba? Tapos ayan na, as in she went apeshit. Talagang namula sa galit! Iyak ng iyak sa inis. Ewan ko ba, menopause lang kaya 'to? Tapos nun, sorry ng sorry, sabay halik sa amin. Eh hello di naman ako kasama sa away.

Yan lang ang latest sa mga kaganapan sa bahay. Basta ako, ewan, parang pahirap na pahirap para sa akin na pakisamahan siya. Sabi niya, aalis daw siya papuntang Greece o Spain for the month. Di naman umalis. Haay basta sabi ko sa kanya alis na kami dito by the end of the month. Sana kumita ako ng more than 800 euros this month para makapag-rent kami ng bahay.

Hay naku, nahahawa na yata ako sa negativity niya at ang vibe ng bahay niya. I know that I have to get away from here as soon as possible.

My Favorite Things

Before there was Germany, before there was a Thomas, there was a 6 year old girl named Arashi who watched her favorite film over and over again as a child. She knew all of the songs by heart, and would later sing these songs like 'Edelweiss' and 'My Favorite Things' up in the lonely Alps.

She thought that 'Edelweiss' was the national song of Austria, and that this movie was representative of the people that lived in these two countries.

Later, as she set foot on these two countries, she was horrified to discover that the people had no idea of the American movie with the Governess, the Captain, and his seven children! Except in Salzburg, where they are now making a killing out of the Americans who like to ride in buses and wear silly hats. They know a German film, though, which had no music, no girls who were sixteen going on seventeen.

So she made it a mission--A mission!--to introduce this lovely film to everybody who cared to listen. She ordered the special 40th anniversary DVD edition on Amazon, and with bated breath, organized a film night and shared it to her German friends.

The hills of Jena were alive, not with the sound of music, but with laughter!
"Who on earth eats schnitzel with noodles?" asked a girl beside . Yes, who on earth does eat breaded prokchop with noodles? The crowd tittered everytime the American-speaking Austrians mispronounced words like "Auf Wiedersehen" and Edelweiß!

"Oh it's a very Hollywood movie. How can people think that the Germans are like that?"

----------------------

Well, an idiot like me, that's who.

I live in a land where Al Gore would be preaching to the choir. I don't know about the other Germany, but this Germany is hard-core about environmental issues. People bring their own backpacks to the supermarket. They have to pay something like 6 pesos for every plastic bag they get from the store.

I also passed around my DVDs of my favorite American TV show "The Amazing Race." My friend Adam and I are so in love with it that he downloads and burns copies for me. I passed it around my group. What did they have to say about it?

"It's a waste of airplane fuel!"

I told Thomas that my camera, which I forgot in Manila, would make a trip to Germany with a stop over at my aunt's in Las Vegas.

"What a waste of airplane fuel!"

You have to admire their economy of words and resources.

Salamat!

Hello guys I'd like to thank everybody who sent in their suggestions! I ended up making pansit, lumpiang shanghai, and biko! They ate everything (and I mean everything) that I didn't even have leftovers for the staff to eat. It was fantastic!

The version of biko that I made was suggested by the anonymous poster in my February 2 entry. The biko was basically a hybrid of the ordinary biko that we think of, but the brown caramelized topping that I made out of condensed milk reminded me more of the cassava cake toppings that come from Bulacan. Instead of macapuno, I filled the biko with langka. This is a tradition I see often in Cavite.

And I tell ya, I've served these old folks before, and they are picky eaters.



So thanks everyone for your suggestions! They want an encore, and I'll probably make Leila's embutido this time!