Things I hate about living in Marburg

So, here it is, a post about hatred.

I write this as a person who ever lived in three different countries: Indonesia, as my hometown. Japan, for almost a year. Germany, my current home. So, comparing those countries is somehow inevitable during my 9-month stay in Marburg. Mostly about bus and supermarket things.

1. When people say that the buses and the trains in Germany (Marburg, in particular) are always on time, let me assure you: they are lying. They are not always on time, which is obviously OK because shits happen, right? But unlike in Japan, there is no apology.
2. The people is so loud. They talk to each other. They shout at their friends. They talk on the phone and laugh, even sometimes, they fight. I ever been in a train in which there were some group of people sang a long in the whole trip. Anyway, this is not really a bad thing because it is also nice seeing the interaction between people, sometimes.
3. The bus stops and the stations are dirty and not a free-smoking area.
4. The chairs looks dirty as well. I sometimes sit in a dried bubble gum -____-
5. The shopping baskets are most of the time dirty
6. No fresh fish. Vegetables are sold in large amount. They sell rotten fruits. The eggs are dirty (well, I miss the clean eggs sold in Japan)
7. Not really friendly. Typical German.
8. Some of them smell real bad.

..it might be continued later.

How to be a Marburger 2: Anmeldebestätigung

After we have arrived in Marburg Hauptbahnhof, we went directly to Hotel Marburger Hof to spend some nights there before we moved to our new (rented) home. The hotel located near the Bahnhof, thus, taxi refused to take us there -___-

The first thing I needed to do in the next day was, of course, to show up in the institute and to greet the professor, also the members, and then to go the Welcome Center (International Office).

In Welcome Center, the staff gave me a checklist so I could be a temporary Marburger, and an application form to register at the Local Registration Office.

Here is the list:

1. Registration at the Local Registration Office
2. Opening a bank account
3. Enrolment as an exchange doctoral student
4. Applying for a health insurance
5. Local Immigration Office (Ausländerbehörde)

The key is to get the Anmeldebestätigung from the Local Registration Office, because we need this to open a bank account. Without bank account (with some money in it), how can we live?

So, before going the Local Registration Office, these were what I needed to do:

1. signed the house contract so I could get a confirmation from the landlord (Wohnungsgeberbestätigung) that I was really staying at his house.
2. filled the application form
3. prepared my passport
4. went to the Local Registration Office (Frauenbergstraße 35, 35039 Marburg). The bus stop is "Stadtbüro".

the process was fast, I got the Anmeldebestätigung at the same day.

And with this letter, I opened a bank account. 

And with a bank account, I could apply for a health insurance and enrol to the university.

How to be a Marburger: From Frankfurt to Marbrurg

We flew to Marburg from Jakarta at January 11th, 2017 using Thai Airways. We arrived in Frankfurt Airport at January 12th, 2017 morning. At the airport, we followed the sign to the train station. We took a train to Frankfurt Main Station (Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof). Since it was our first time in Frankfurt, we didn't know how to use the ticket machine, so we bought the ticket at the ticket counter. The RE or RB train cost 15.50€ one way. The IC costs more expensive. Then we took the S-Bahn in the lower level of the airport at platform 1. We can use any train with directions to:

1. Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof 
2. Hanau Hauptbahnhof
3. Offenbach (Main) Ost

The schedule is provided at this website: https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml

It simply states that we have to take the RE 29503 train from platform 1 and the direction "Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof". The journey will start at 07:22 and we have to get off the train at around 07:36. Then we have to wait for around 9 minutes. The time is enough to find the platform 16 (the platform may vary, it depends on the train and the schedule) and take the RB 15004. It is better to get on the train as soon as possible to reserve a seat. Be careful in choosing the carriage, some train will separate the carriages at a station. The destination will be shown in the screen that is displayed in every carriage.

The DB ticket machine looks so scary at the first time, maybe. But actually it's pretty easy. We can switch the language into English. Choose our destination. And insert the money. Easy.

Time to embrace?

Bu Prof

The moment when I tiba-tiba dapet e-mail dari Mesir mau lamar jadi mahasiswa doktoral di bawah bimbingan Bu Prof Verda (FYI, ga ada yg manggil Prof Verda; di email itu, dia cuma sebut "Dear Prof" aja)..

Ini harus sedih apa seneng sih? Sedih karena mukanya dianggap sudah cukup tua untuk dipanggil Prof atau seneng karena mukanya dianggap cukup pintar untuk dipanggil Prof?

New Complaint

Whenever I am complaining, it does not mean that I am being ungrateful. I am just telling you that I have hopes and dreams.

I am (not) weak (another complaint)

The moment when my life proposals are not accepted and I become weaker, then I remember how weak I was back then but my life was so damn hard and I could not understand why life couldn’t be easier for a weak person like me, but then I realised that this was to show me that I was not that weak; that I should stop complaining otherwise my life would be harder.

Farida of Egypt

[Kumau insert photo here, tapi aku takut]

for more information: Queen Farida of Egypt - Wikipedia

The moment when a Pakistani friend was very excited about my last name (he thought Farida is my husband's name) and shouted, "Farida is a queen of Egypt!" and I felt like I don't know what to say and he continued, "you should know it! That's your name!" And I only could say "Ach so.." And I still don't know how to behave..


Xoxo,

The one who once thought that "Farida" was a ndeso name. I'm relieved I wasn't born at the time the queen of Egypt was alive.

(Not) My Laboratory

During my stay in Japan, a generous professor gave me permission to stay at his lab. I should do something in the lab, but it turned out that I only sat at the desk and contemplate about how my life should be -____-

I used to think that in this lab, the communication was less intense than in Indonesian office. Here, we don’t need to tell everyone that we have already been in the campus, are going somewhere inside the campus, are going somewhere outside the campus but we’d come back soon, are having a meeting, have been home, etc. We don’t even need to shake someone’s hand (oh, how I love this!). We used this magnet system. The day when I took this picture was a holiday due the birthday of the emperor, so there was no one there, except us. He did something in the lab, and I sat and wondered about a life.

It used to be my husband’s desk, but then I used it, thus, he moved to another desk near the exit door. The desk with boxes on it and an umbrella belongs to our Indonesian fellow:

+ + INSIDE THE LAB (A LITTLE TRIP) + +

The door to the lab:

Behind the door:

A cute room thermometer:

His job:

Yes. We did our prayer in the lab!

+ + +

This is the hallway. Can you see a pair of shoes? It belongs to a researcher from the neighbour lab.  A suuuuuuper busy and diligent and productive lab. And this guy, I used to think that he was actually homeless and spent all his day in his lab.

I am going to miss the lab very much, even if I didn't have anything to do at the lab :')