Weekend stories

Things have been pretty settled down now. I got my contract phone and just started my German course (twice a week). So far everything seems okay to me. I am still enjoying Duesseldorf.
I have no special plan this weekend, intentionally I want to make it a relaxing weekend (except for cleaning my apt and doing my laundry :-P). I had 'busy' weekends recently, at least the last two weekends.

Two weeks ago, I went to Aachen to have lunch with Runi at our fave Japanese restaurant there. After that, I stayed overnight at her place in Sittard, helping her packing her stuffs (well, actually that's also because I joined her to send some of my stuffs to Indonesia also) since it was the last weekend for her before she went back to Indonesia for good. The next day, she joined me to Duesseldorf to eat sushi in Kikaku hehehe.... yeah we both loved two things (madly), traveling and Japanese foods :-P

The next weekend, I went to Heidelberg. I really want to go there for sometime and I knew that weekend, there's going to be a firework in Heidelberg, it's called 'castle illumination'. So everything's been planned well, took the ICE train with 50% discount and booked the hotel. And Heidelberg was nice, I like the city. I walked around the old town and visited the castle. Oh and the funiculair was also cool, I rode until Koenigstuhl which is the highest station. Then I checked in to the hotel, had some rest for a while (I took the train at 7am from Duesseldorf) and went to the old town again to have dinner and see the firework. It was a great evening and I walked around 17500 steps that day (uhm yes...I count my steps using pedometer), my best record so far.

Some first posts...

August 18, 2007

After a lazy half day, I went to city center to accompany a colleague from Singapore office walking around Duesseldorf. He just arrived last weekend and I just knew several days ago that he is a Malaysian who works for our branch office in Singapore. We went up to Rhein Tower (which was my first time also). The view was great, thanks God for the nice weather. I never thought that I can get a nice view from that tower :-P. The good thing is that we do not have to climb stairs, just go in the elevator and after several seconds, we reach 172m height in the peak of the tower. The next destination is Medienhafen, where there are three famous buildings of Duesseldorf, designed by famous American architect, Frank Gehry.

We chatted quite a lot, one that surprised me is that as Malaysian, he does not need to get visa to visit Germany and UK (I think also other EU countries) for less than three months period. I know about Singaporeans, but I do not know about Malaysians. Wow…I have to admit that I am jealous, especially after I could not join the workshop in London on 4^th and 5^th of Sept because…yes, you know… I can not get the UK visa before that date. Last week I tried to apply online on the website and after taking some times to fill in the form, I had to arrange the appointment only to find out that the earliest date available is 3^rd of September. So forget the workshop, though I know that Sven, my boss will, again, amaze with all the documents that I need to travel or stay in Europe. Last time when I told him that I need a visa to go to the UK, his reaction was…”what...you need a visa to go to the UK? You just got your residence permit for Germany”…and then I have to explain about Schengen treaty….bla bla bla…

It is not that I regret to be born as Indonesian or something like that. No, I am proud to be Indonesian. I am jealous why they can get such privilege and we can not. Are we that bad compared to them? Or we did not have a good enough diplomatic relations? Or it is related with the Commonwealth status… no idea…

August 17, 2007

Happy Independence Day for my beloved country, Indonesia!!!

Hmm a long weekend for everyone in Indonesia I guess…J

I went to Ikea after work. Helen already reminded me to not spend a lot of money there hehehe…But sorry Helen, it did not work…at all …hehehe. I got everything I want (hmm unless the computer desk that I dream of…still have to think how to carry it…btw) and also several things that I did not plan to buy before….hehe…as usual.

August 15, 2007

Got surprising news from Dimitri this morning about the killing of six people in the area close to Duisburg Hbf. Duisburg is only 30 mins away from where I live. Later, it turned out that all the six people are Italian and connected to one of the clans in southern Italy. See more in http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070815/ap_on_re_eu/germany_shootings.

After work, I had dinner with Liz, Helen, Daniela, and Jennifer. We went out to Mantgold, several minutes by tram from our office. The food was great, I ordered pasta with king prawns….and it’s not bad choice indeed. I really like the pasta…yummy…

August 13, 2007

Today I arrived in Duesseldorf with a different feeling….the feeling that finally I deserve to live here since I just got my working and residence permits. I really want to shout ‘welcome to Duesseldorf’ to myself when I reached Duesseldorf Hbf, although I moved to my apartment in Duesseldorf already :-P It was a long story…four-depressing-month to wait these permits, but when finally I got it, I felt that it was not that terrible after all…

Now I can really start my life here in Duesseldorf, unpacking some of my stuffs which still untouched (in boxes) in my apartment, decorating my apartment to make it more cozy (I have to go to Ikea this weekend) :-P, thinking about which mobile phone contract that I am going to take….that kind of things…. besides, for sure….I feel so relieve….I am so happy today :-)