Primark Love (5th of April)

     This blogpost was supposed to be posted last Friday ago, but since that day I am super lazy like a slug. So now I just post it.

     Ich liebe PRIMARK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  x100.  Enough said?

     Well last thursday, I was supposed to stay at home all day. But later that afternoon , Jojo said: I know you really want to go to Primark, so how about we go to Essen now? And I was like: OH Mai God, seriously?! I couldn´t be more excited to hear that! So , I immediately get ready and jet off.

    You see, Primark is really, and I mean, REALLY popular among Europeans and Britons. Primark  is a clothes-department chain that sell extremely filthy CHEAP apparels and accesories  in a very good quality. Everybody love it !! That is the only store I think that sell 5€ pretty jackets without having any sales or discounts. And one thing, I especially love it, they have a wide range of choices and they have huge stock for every things. So don´t worry about the thing that will be out of stock.

    And so, I went to Primark Essen and boy, the store is HUGE. I think it is the biggest clothes outlet ever in Essen. There were six floors inside of Primark Essen and 4 of the floors are entirely for women! So you can imagine how big it is. Is a shopping paradise for every women. No wonder almost every girl in the street have at least two big Primark bag with them.

    Here´s are some looks of Primark Essen (pictures from internet) :

 When I enter the store, I feel more like I am entering a clothing FACTORY rather than a department store.They are sooooooooooooo many clothes, shoes , accesories everywhere and they have so many colors and stocks !! I never saw everything like this in one place ever in my life!! I was overwhelmed !!!!!

   And then, the syndrome come, all of the shopaholic nostalgia enters inside of me. And thats when my shopaholic´s claw strikes. I wonder wonderlessly inside the store and feel extremely lost (thank God Jojo was beside me at first), overhelmed, dizzy and especially excited. All feelings at once ! I can´t describe the feelings clearly, only certain people will know that kind of feeling.

  There are many many people inside that are too, extremely lost as I am and wondering around the stores like a drunk hyenas and grab whatever clothes and things they like without looking at prices because everything are FILTHY cheap. And i mean, really really cheap.

   But me, I start to calmed down and since the place is huge, so I just search for the things that I need to buy. And since I have only 40€  with me, so I just try to control my urge and thank GOD I survived in there.

   And seriously, I am extremely impressed with Primark , the clothes they sell are in a CHEAP price and good quality.No wonder why this store is extremely popular. It´s actually cheaper in Malaysia if you want to buy a good quality´s bargains. Of course, they are clothes in Malaysia that are extremely cheap too, but they are in poor quality.

   SO now, I´m not obsess with H&M anymore, but now I am Primark fan! Now I am obsessing Primark like how I obsess with Padini and Forever 21 when I am in Malaysia.

   And so, I spent around 1 and the half hour inside Primark Essen and look what I got for 32€ :

This gotta be my most favourite thing that I bought that day: 1€ long feather necklace. Seriously, this is the only store in the world where you can find a 1€ or RM4 pretty long necklaces.

     Primark got to be my No.1 shopping destination now and I am looking forward for more trips to Primark again. My next Primark trip will be tomorrow ! In Dortmund !! Yay, can´t wait to see what´s in store for me. But I gotta shop for some birthday presents too. Sooo.....

  And Mom or Dad, if you are reading this now, don´t get mad, okay ? I will not go broke or anything and I will only buy necessary things that I need. I know how to limit myself.Don´t worry about me . I still have much $$ left in bank.

   So hope you enjoy my post about PRIMARK !! I hope you didn´t found this unínteresting .

   Let´s hope they will open a PRIMARK store too, at Malaysia in few years to come. If there are, it will be a MIRACLE.

Ostern !! (8th of April)

 Hey peeps ! Yesterday was the Ostern celebration. It was quite a celebration though. Today is Monday and still is Ostern, so it´s a public holiday!

  So yesterday´s my family´s Ostern celebration starts with a hearty frühstück (breakfast) with my family. With lots of eggs and breads and even lots of easter chocolates!  You never knew how happy I am having easter chocolates as breakfast. *grin grin*

  And then after having breakfast , Mama give Jojo and me some easter present! I am felicitous upon receiving the present because I never knew they give presents during Ostern too, thats like what they did during Christmas! But my mama said, this is the Ostern tradition, giving Ostern presents to kids.

And so, I opened the present and look what I got : 

A super cute pink pug T-shirt. And since now I am quite obsess with pugs, I am really glad to have  this. Danke, mama!

And then, we had a mini game at the house, that is to find the Easter chocolates that are hidden around the house. Traditionally, it was supposed to be a Easter eggs findings around the house and the backyard, but since now there is no more small kids around the house, me and Jojo are practically a grown up already, so we just use easter chocolates instead. And mind you, chocolates are tastier than eggs!! *mischevious wink*.

    So both of us started to search for the chocolates around the house, I am SUPER bad at finding hidden things and so this are the chocolates that I managed to find :

They are too cute to be eaten :D

   And after then, we go on and do our own activities. But after lunch, Mama and Verena decided to play mini golf. So Jojo and me joined both of them. The mini-golf park are only a walking distance from our house.

    I DISLIKE golf very much, mini golf either. But still I decided to give it a go because I want to see how extremely sucks my golf-skills is . And boyyyyyyyy, it sucks BAD !!!!!!! 

   And so we enjoyed the game, I pretty much enjoy the game too, and it´s quite challenging. But , I think mini golf is such an enjoyable sport to play than the REAL golf. Agreed? That depends on you.

Play mini-golf like a SIR.

Sir Cedrik just chilling out and become the ONLY audience to watch our game :D

What a perfect weather to play mini golf. LOVELY.

Mind you, my mini golf skills sucks so bad that I even laugh at myself when I am playing it.

Me with the most loveable pug in the world. 

  Then later that evening, is the Ostern fire ! This the most important part of Ostern , burning the Christmas woods/trees. I don´t know why the reason they burn it, neither does my host family. But we just enjoy the warmth of fire. Almost every person who live in Nordkirchen came to witness the Ostern fire. Actually this is the first event ever where I saw the whole town´s residents come and meet together. Which is nice though, I get to meet new people and get to know them.

    So everyone just witness the fire, talking to each other, with beers on their hand and enjoy the warmth in the cold weather. Me and my familie hang out there for quite some time, meet friends and enjoy a couple of beers. Then, we go home and decided to call it a day.

   I pretty much thought Ostern will be a massive celebration at first , but it turned out to be a low-key one. I enjoy this and let me experienced how Ostern is like. This maybe will be the first and last Ostern celebration for me, but who knows? Maybe I have the chance to celebrate it again next time !
But I like it, and I am really glad to be a part of this celebration.

   So today, I do nothing much really, just chilling out at home and learning Deutsch with Mama. But tomorrow will be a shopping outing in Dortmund with one of my friend.

   Can´t wait to see what will I buy tomorrow ! *wink*

   So, Frohe Ostern, peeps ! Tschüss!

  

Ostern Preparation (6th of April)

   Happy Good Friday, everyone !

   My host family didn´t really celebrate Good Friday today, but we are eating as vegetarians today.Today is a public holiday so everyone decided to stay at home.

   And guess what ? We are making some Easter preparation today by decorating and dyeing the Easter eggs.
 
    Easter is this Sunday, and I absolutely can´t wait ! I never celebrate Easter before and I am really looking forward to celebrate it with my host family and see how is like ! Excited, this will be my first Easter celebration EVER !! 

   So, we started our easter preparation by dye-ing some eggs. Not some eggs, but lots of eggs !! Mama bought some special easter eggs dye-ing kit to start our work ! And so, me and Jojo start our work. I didn´t really know how to do it at first, so Jojo and mama teach me the steps of doing it.

   So at first, we hard boiled the eggs.Then, mix the colorings with water and vinegar. Next ,we use some candle stick to draw the patterns that we like on those hard-boiled eggs. I am not really good at drawing the patterns on the eggs. Jojo were way better than me when doing that. And then we put the candle-drawed eggs into the colors-mixing. Then the `magic´ happened  , after a minute, the color appeared on the eggs and the patterns that we candle-drawed are outline prettily.

    We made a lot of patterns on the eggs and mixing some colors. I have quite a fun doing that. It´s quite a process...

Dye-ing the eggs

 

Jojo´s creation. How pretty!

I love this one, because of the specially bright color !

Taddaa! How colorful they turned out !

Better put those colorful eggs back to their colorful nest ! :D

Add some Easter chocolates. 

 

    So, this is an another new experience for me again. Trying something new for the first time in my life ;) What a perfect activity to spent Good Friday.
 
   So, the house and the backyard are decorated with some Easter decoration too. Really pretty and sweet! Here are some of the decorations  : 
 

The Easter tree at our backyard garden.

   So looking forward for this Sunday ! So stay tuned and I will post my Easter celebration experience very soon ! Tschüss !

A short shopping trip to Oberhausen (4th of April)

   So yesterday, me and Jojo and one of our friend, Lena, went to Oberhausen`s Centro mall for some shopping !! Haaaa, i luuurrrvveeee shopping. It was the best therapy ever to overcome everything.

   But the past two two days, i didn´t really go anywhere. I just chilling out at home ,went to towns nearby us for some shopping and spent some quality time with my host family ;)

  Then yesterday was the REAL outing. Oberhausen was actually quite far from here. Its a two hour train ride. But anyway, we went there just because of the Centro Mall. The mall was the BIGGEST mall ever in EUROPE: So, you can imagine it. Really big , like super mega !  ;))))))

  So finally we went there, and my GOD , the mall was ENORMOUS and GARGANTUAN. I was in AWED. Sehr sehr Große ! You can find everything in there.

    I was planning to buy a birthday present for my my schwester´s upcoming birthday, which is next week. But since the mall was so large and there are 100% chances for me to get lost in there and can never being found, so I just stick beside my schwester. And since she was beside me everytime, I can´t choose the present for her. Sooooo, you see.....

    But anyway, we went to H&M (my favourite clothing store EVER since I come here, everything are so CHEAP and PRETTY !!) to buy some clothes. The have a spring sales so I couldn´t resist it. A girl can´t never  have too many many clothes!!! When I went in there, my old habit strike again!! I´m getting excited rapidly and wonder around like a crazy hyena and grab whatever clothes I like. I think you may called this a Shopaholic Syndrome. But anyway, I spent quite some time in H&M  and look what I bought :

I am so happy of what I bought from H&M. It´s suitable for winter and spring !

   
   I assumed that before I come here in Germany, my Shopaholic´s habit will REDUCED somehow. But, no. I still like and love to shop even when I´m here. Somethings are cheap in here and they are sooo many bargains to offer and soo many choices. So who couldn´t resist that? But I have my limit too. I don´t go around and spent aimlessly. I just love to shop for some bargains that was worth it and pretty for me. I am conscious of what I buy because I am aware of the money that was given by my parents every month and everything is in Euro currency. I have my budget limit every month and I am soo hoping to GOD that I won´t go broke someday.

  But what really made my day was, I get a discount/member card from H&M ! I spent like, over 50€ there and I get the card for free. But i don´t like the H&M  in Centro because the shop inside was very,very untidy and messy. Clothes are thrown everywhere at the floor. It´s a HIATUS  !

Taadaa!

    We spent only three hours at the mall because all of the outlets closed at 8 pm. I only went to the QUARTER part of the mall. But let me tell you, it´s already tiring enough for me to walk around because as I said , the mall is huge. The quarter part of the mall that we window shop are like the  size of Gurney Plaza, Penang. So you can imagine how humongous the all is !

  I was really exhausted by the time I got home ! But I am so happy , because I do buy something from myself at there and as I said , Shopping is the therapy to overcome everything! :)

   Next week , I will go to Dortmund again with one of my friend, for shopping again, of course! And buy some birthday present for my Schwester.

 Primark Dortmund, wait for me !!!!!!

 

 

Essen trip (30th-31th April)

  Its the beginning of the spring holidays. But the weather are changing to winter again. So its extremely cold. But this is Germany, and the weather are always changing. I am quite sad actually, because i am so looking forward to Spring , take off all the heavy coats and jackets and welcoming the sun. Gosh, I suddenly miss the SUN so much !!
   
 But anyway, last friday, my schwester and I kicked out the start of our holidays by going to Essen. Its a two hour train ride to there from Nordkirchen. Actually ,  the word `Essen´ means`eat´ in German, so the city is like the city of eating or city of food. We go there to meet one of our AFS friend , Viktor . Viktor organised a `party´ called Far East Asian Night. Viktor is actually been exchanged to Malaysia before so he organised this event by serving Malaysians food !
 
  I am quite excited by the way. So my schwester and I starts our journey to Essen at 5pm. The train station were quite crowded because all of the people rush back to their homewtown to spent their holiday.

  So when we arrived at Viktor´s house, he already started preparing the Malaysian´s dishes. And by then, two other AFS friends , Jenny and Marvin arrived. Both of them were exchanged to Malaysia too before. So , the list was complete and 4 of us started to help Viktor with the dishes. We are making Nasi Lemak, Roti Canai with daahl and Teh Tarik.

   I have so much fun with them while preparing the dishes. We are talking about Malaysia and the experiences they have while they are in Malaysia. I even talk Malay with Viktor, Jessy and Marvin with those typical Malaysian accent. So the house was full of the word `lah´ throughout the night ! I am exhilarated because this is the first time I am able to talk Malay with someone and preparing Malaysian´s dishes since I come here.

 

Viktor make his move preparing the teh tarik :{D

Haaa, finally a teh tarik. You don´t know how grateful I am to be able  to drink this. I feel like I am in heaven the moment  I drink this.

 So, after quite some time preparing the dishes, we finally had our dinner at 10 pm. But it was worth the wait. The meal was delicious , and I feel so much  like home. I am so grateful and very touched to be able to eat this. I never knew that I missed this food so much. What my mom told me before was true : YOU NEVER KNEW HOW MUCH YOU MISS YOUR OWN COUNTRY UNLESS YOU ARE AT DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. True story. I miss my home and my country . I feel so much like in Malaysia when I ate them. But what was more special during the dinner is, we ate our meal using our hands without forks and spoons!

The only lacking in this Nasi lemak was the Ikan Bilis. The ikan bilis  was not really cooked and we have some trouble frying the ikan bilis. But , its delicious anyway.

From left : Viktor , Marvin , Jojo (my schwester), Jessy and me .

  It was a wholesome meal. Everybody enjoyed it. Although the kuah daahl was toooo spicy for me. So after our meal, we went to watch a movie at the living room until 3 am.

I love this ink tree behind Viktor´s house backyard. Its like a  Sakura  tree. LOVELY.

  So the next day , we woke up at noon, and had our breakfast at noon ;). Then Viktor take us to stroll around the town of Essen by first bringing us to see the Lake Dam and the scenery. The place was not really far from his house. The scenery was breathtaking and picturesque. It was very windy and I am exteremely cold. But we enjoy the view so much.

The lake was popular for sailing and yatching activities. 

  We spent around one hour enjoying the view and then we went to the main area of Essen  for some window shopping. They have many shops and clothing departments available everywhere. The are many people around everywhere . So we bought some things and I ended up buying a novel. In English.

 So around 7:30 pm, its time for Jojo and me to catch the train and go back to Nordkirchen. And so we part our own ways. I love to come back to Essen again somedays and meet Viktor, Jessy and Marvin. They are amazing and I like meeting three of them again someday!
  Hope you enjoy my post . There´s more to come !

Not a wild Stufenparty ;)

    So last thursday, (not yet holiday) is the stufenparty organised  by our school 13 graders. Its their last days and year in school so its like a party to celebrate their school ends. And we, the 12 graders are invited to the party. But we need to pay 15€ to go there. Its quite expensive but I give it a shot anyway because i want to see and feel how its like the studenparty here compare to the studenparty in Malaysia. By the way, my host parents allowed me to go there too. And let me tell you, they are far more different to each other.Way more different.

  I am soooooo excited by the way on that day. And the party was neon themed so everybody was wearing neon coloured outfits. And at there , i get a white t-shirt painted with nail colored paints. So I think that was cool. The room was quite big by the way, and i think what was lacking at the party was , the people. There have  not enough of people to fill in the room. Maybe this is because the next day is still a school day and some of the students have their exam so they prefer to stay at home.

  So anyway , i love that night. And i gotta said ; THAT WAS THE BEST NIGHT ever for me so far. The music was so awesome and we dance all the way  through the music. Everything was so clubbing-like with those lightnings, and those misty smoke everywhere, and those DJs grooving out with the music. So everyone in the room gone pretty wild when they dance and some of them have awesome dance moves. So me, and my friends got tons of fun dancing through the music.

 And during that party, they serve beers too.In Germany , the legal drinking age is 16 years old. So during the party , everybody drink. Some of them drink too much and got really drunk. Me, i just drink a couple of beers that had been limited by my coordinator, my coordinator was at the party too. But when i drink, my head feel kind of woozy and unstable. And i cant tell if I am drunk or not that night, because almost everybody was was more drunk than I am.
   And from what I observed was, they love being drunk.I noticed some of my friends who already get drunk that night changed. Their movements and they gone NUTS ! But anyway, is not that WILD as you might think. I think this party are quite controlled based on our situations. But I certainly do noticed that things got more ´wild´ and fun later at the party because everyone gone pretty much drunk and they dont even realize they are drunk and made some crazy movements.

 
 And so my friends and I gone party until like, i dont know, quite late actually. I cant tell you the time because i might break some AFS rules slightly if I tell you.but its late. And I had  a sleepover at my friend´s house  that night. But overall, I have tons of fun at the night. I can´t describe the awesomeness to you unless you are at the party. It was a FUN experience ever for me so far.

 

 But the next day, I didnt go to school because I have a major headache and i am extremely tired. A minor hungover, you can said. And by the way, i only have two Arts lesson the next day and my host mama told me take a good rest in house because I will be going to Essen later that evening. Its quite a journey though, to Essen.
  And later my host sis told me everybody in school keep asking about me from the night´s party. They are wondering if there are something wrong happened to me after the party. but she told them I am fine. I am certainly fine , indeed. And what makes me happy is that, some people in my school actually remembers me although some barely know me and they are asking about my condition.
    But let me tell you, this was the night that was hard to forget. I am looking forward to some parties like these again that are appropriate for me.Its a normal thing here, its not that wild as you think they are. I am allowed to attend these kind of party by having fun and not breaking some serious rules. I am aware of those rules that have been set by me.
   So ciao ! This is the beginnng of my post about the things I have done during this two weeks of holiday. So, stay tuned.
   I am having a blast !