Smartphone Charger

I use Blackberry for my communication need. I use it because my family also uses it. So I won’t miss any news, gossips, or unimportant progress that happened in my family. It’s kind of peer pressure, actually. But hey, if you have five cute monsters as your nephews and nieces, you don’t want to miss any story about them also…!

I use Blackberry since 2011, since I was still in Indonesia. I brought it here and changed the SIM card. Everything else remains the same. However lately, I found problem whenever I want to charge my battery. The phone couldn’t be charged right away. I have to shake the cable in order to get charged. Sometimes I need about five minutes to shake the cable. And then I have to make sure that the cable stays still until the charging process ends. Otherwise, the battery doesn’t get recharged although it has been plugged in for the whole night.

In the beginning I thought it’s the battery that caused this problem. Until one time I realized that the cable of the charger had torn apart somehow. Then I realized, it’s the charger that caused the problem…

My Blackberry charger. Notice the torn cable.

So there I was, thinking that I need to buy a new Blackberry charger. But when I went to buy it, the original charger was sold out. There were only the ‘compatible’ ones available. They are sold in two parts: the USB data cable and the plug head. Total cost: € 18,80! OMG, it’s not original but it’s expensive. How could that be… In Indonesia it costs probably around € 5.00. But I didn’t have a choice; I needed it.

My new smartphone charger

So finally I got a new charger. I can charge my Blackberry without shaking the cable first or make sure it’s still charging every 15 minutes. But then, my brother reminded me that actually I could also charge my Blackberry in a computer!!! Aaaaarrrrggghhh… why he told me so late?!!!!

Pocket Camera

I had an unfortunate event before going to Germany.  My camera was broke and if I wanted to repair it at the official service center, it would take more than a month!  So I had to buy new camera, the question is where?

My options for buying camera were three: in Jakarta, in Doha (where I transit), or in Berlin.  The good points in buying in Jakarta, the variety of products is high and cheaper.  Well at least for Canon brand like I used to have.  When I compared the products from the Canon Indonesia website to Canon Germany website, Indonesia has newer series and the prices are also cheaper.  So if I buy it in Germany, not only more expensive, but if something happened while I am in Indonesia and need to repair it, it may take a long time also since the product is out of date.

But then when I thought about buying in Doha, there might be a chance that the price is even cheaper than in Indonesia.  My brother who lives in Saudi Arabia said that there is no tax in the Middle East, so the price for electronic is cheaper.  In this point, I decided to buy a new camera in Doha.  I would have 3-hour transit time, so it should be enough for browsing and buying. 

So I set my mind to buy a new camera in Doha airport while transiting.  I didn’t waste my time to look around the duty free shop, I went directly to the electronic section and looked for camera.  Buuuuut…  The place is not as I imagined, the camera section is small and the products were a few.  Not many options.  And even, the available products were older series than in Jakarta.  I felt so disappointed…  Now I really don’t have an option, I have to buy it in Germany… [sigh!]

So there I was, having no option but to buy a new pocket camera in Germany, which would be expensive.  On my third day I browsed the famous electronic shop called Saturn.  But to my surprised, apparently the price is cheaper!!!  For example, the price of Canon Ixus 500 in Indonesia is € 304,82 while the official price in the website is € 329.  But the price in Saturn is € 239!!!  Isn’t that weird???!!!

Yes, not all the new series were there but at least I can find one product that available both in Indonesia and Germany.  Then I thought, “Why don’t I browse more, to find the suitable camera for me.”  So I asked the customer service about camera that can be used underwater.  The reason was, although I wouldn’t dive in Germany because it’s too cold and nothing to see, underwater camera means it can sustain weather shock.  So if I use it in the cold weather of Germany and then I bring it to the tropic of Indonesia, the camera can still performs well.  Underwater pocket camera nowadays can be used to 10 m depth.  It’s not really suitable for my diving needs, but my broken one has casing that can go to 40 m.  I hope when I need to use it sometime, it already fixed (I asked my brother to find a good camera service store).

Anyway, so I was directed to the underwater pocket camera section and saw my options there.  There were more than 10 options available from various brands.  I observed them carefully and found 5 models that suit my needs, they are (from the most expensive to the cheapest):

1.     Pentax Optio WG2

2.     Canon D20

3.     Nikon Coolpix AW100

4.     Olympus TG820

5.     Fuji Finepix XP150

After I saw those, I didn’t decide directly.  I went home to browse all the products from the Internet.  I read and watched the pros and cons about the products.  In addition, I also talked to my friend who learns photography.  And in the end, I finally chose… (drum roll)… Nikon Coolpix AW100!!!

My new pocket camera

So I went to the electronic shop and just grabbed the Nikon box without hesitate.  I directly went to the cashier, but when I was lining up, I noticed a small writing on the left corner of my Nikon box.

Nikon Coolpix AW 100 - Made in Indonesia

Oh My God!  Why would I travel a long way just to buy something from my country…!

Flohmarkt (part 2)

A week after my first experience in opening a stall in flohmarkt, I try my luck again. It’s still on the same place, the Wesser River. This time, the weather is totally different from the previous week. It’s a bright sunny day.

I start very early from my place. At a tram stop, I see two Chinese girls with big suitcases. They take the same tram with me. When the tram stops at the central station, these girls do not step down; by this time, I know that they are heading to the flohmarkt also.

The weather really makes a difference on everything. More vendors crowded the place since early morning. Me and my friend, this time only two of us, find difficulties in getting a space for our stall.

Once we find a place, we try to set the knocked-down clothes hanger. However, it’s not easy in doing this task. The clothes hanger is not ours, and apparently setting up a clothes hanger is beyond our skill. We place all the pipes and screws according to our logics. However, the clothes hanger couldn’t stand still; it’s always unbalanced.

After 10 to 15 minutes struggling with the clothes hanger, finally an African man comes to us. He says, “If you do it like that, it won’t stand even if you try it for 2 days!”. Of course we’re just grinning. Luckily, this man helps us to set up the clothes hanger. Apparently, we connect two wrong sides of the pipes which make it unbalanced. Right, if he’s not around, probably we would take a week to figure it out….

The African man, apparently, is a flohmarkt regular. He buys things from flohmarkt and sells it to his country: Senegal. I see some African people do the same.

Along with the nice weather, a lot of people come to the flohmarkt. But still, it’s not easy to sell things because the competition is higher. A lot of vendors sell clothes, so we have to compete with them. In my case, my clothes are small which are unlikely sizes for the Germans. Once, there’s a big(ger) lady try to fit in my clothe. I am so afraid that she would tearing apart my clothe because just by looking at her, I know the clothe doesn’t fit for her!

In the end, my income for the day is even worse than the previous week! I can only sell stationeries like pens, pencils, erasers, and sharpeners. No clothes or shoes sold. Fortunately, my friend has a better luck. Her children stuffs are easily sold. She makes more than € 15; which make us can pay the space rent for € 6.

I guess selling children stuffs is easier in flohmarkt because children tend to break their stuffs easily. It means, having cheaper stuffs is preferred. Lesson learned for today: sell children stuffs to get better income in the flohmarkt.

Flohmarkt

Toward my departure from Germany, I have to sort my stuffs. Which stuffs that I will bring home and which stuffs that I should leave. I will leave all my household stuffs like the plates, glasses, cooking utensils, clothes hangers, bed sheets, etc. These stuffs will go to a new Indonesian guy who will study at the same program like me starting this year.

But there are stuffs that I can’t give him or bring back home: my winter outfits! For sure I won’t need it in Indonesia so I have to leave them. The options are: throw them to garbage bin, give them for charity, or sell it in the flea market or flohmarkt. Of course I could just give them for charity, but I would like to experience in selling something at the flohmarkt. So I decide to sell them to flohmarkt first; if things couldn’t go well then I’ll just give it for charity.

Flohmarkt in Bremen exists on every weekend. There are many places of flohmarkt but probably the most famous are: alongside the river bank on Saturday and on the backyard of the main station on Sunday. Me and my other 2 friends, who’ll also leave Germany, decide to try at the river bank.

On Saturday, we go to the flohmarkt place. We have to start very early to get strategic place in placing our stall. And being strategic also means to find a well-sheltered place, because Bremen and raining are related each other. We arrived around 8.30 AM and find that all strategic spots are occupied! We have no other option than open our stall at an open air area.

And then comes the unpleasant time, the rain falls! We have no place to cover ourself; only one umbrella under a narrow road roof for 4 persons. Our stuffs are covered partially so most of the clothes become wet. To make it worst, the wind is pretty cold. Or maybe not so, but since we’re all fasting, we don’t have enough calories to burn. One of my friends even starts imagining having warm drink if we were not fasting… That’s really not helping!

After being freeze for around 2 hours, finally the sun decides to cooperate with us. The sun is shining and we can start to arrange our stall nicely.

In regard with the selling, well how to say, apparently it’s not as well as we planned it. For example, I have 4 pairs of shoes to sell. Well actually these are my aunt’s shoes. She gave me when I visit her in Holland. But for sure I couldn’t bring them all to Indonesia. It’ll be too heavy and I don’t think I need them. Anyway, in the beginning I plan to sell it for € 5/ pair. But apparently this price is too much for flohmarkt. There’s one guy who asks for € 2 for one pair. Since the weather is cold, and I though I couldn’t stay longer, I decide to agree without any struggling. Funnily, when I say ‘OK’; even the guy is surprised. And at the same time, my friends scream in surprised! Yes, I am weak in selling.

But apparently that guy isn’t my worst customer. There’s an old lady who ask for € 1 for one pair. Again, I don’t argue. But when she wants to pay, apparently she only has 98 cents!!! OK, how could I say ‘No’ to an old lady? So I just let it… Oh well, at least I never buy those shoes…

And then there’s a time when I know how it feel to sell a thing that I bought. It happens to my rucksack. I have a red ‘Roxy’ rucksack that I bought in Indonesia. It was very cheap, around € 3, because it was a clearance sale. I decide to sell it because the straps are too wide for my shoulders. Whenever I use it, one of the straps will fall off from my shoulder. However the rucksack still look nice, I only use it for 6 months. So, there’s a lady who interested to my rucksack. I told her that the price is € 3. She asks for € 1.50. I try to get € 2. But well, of course in the end I end up as the loosing party. And again, my friend couldn’t believe it. She says, she is also interested to the rucksack and willing to pay € 2 if in the end I couldn’t sell it. Well, what can I say, it has happened. I feel a bit annoyed that my rucksack is only worth for € 1.50. Maybe I shouldn’t sell it and just keep using it instead. Ah well…

We stay until around 2 PM. Many people come but mostly are old people so they are not so interested to our stuffs. And if there any people who interested, the sizes are unfit. Maybe we should look for student flohmarkt to sell our stuffs. (Well there’s no student flohmarkt). And although we make a sign “We’ll fly back home. Everything must go!”; not everybody interested with our stuffs. Instead, they’re just smiling in reading our sign!

One surprising thing: my first supervisor is visiting the flohmarkt at that time. So we feel surprised to meet in different setting. Hmmm if I knew she’ll passing by, I’ll make a sign “Need money for PhD”!

In the end, one of my friends earns the biggest with more than € 10 because she manages to sell an external hard disk. I got less than € 5 and my other friend got € 4 selling 2 thermoses. We are extremely tired after it which makes us couldn’t open our stall for the Sunday flohmarkt. But surely we have a lot of fun J

Factory Outlet

This article is written due to a question from Ivanna in Brazil who wants to live in Bremen.

In general, clothes in Germany are expensive for developing country people’s point of view. It makes sense because most of the clothes these days are made in developing countries.

To get branded clothes with cheaper price, we have to wait until the season is almost over or even totally over. So if we want to buy cheaper winter clothes, then we have to buy it in spring or summer and vice versa.

But mostly, the sale period for these off season clothes is only happened in a short time. To get the off season clothes forever or without considering the time, there are so called factory outlets. In these places, all off season clothes are pooled together in cheaper price. So if you don’t really care of the current trend, factory outlets are the best place in looking for cheaper branded clothes. Of course not every brand has its own factory outlet. But in Bremen, some of the major brand has it; for example: Esprit, Nike, Adidas, Puma, Jack Wolfskin, St. Oliver, Tommy Hilfiger, Levi’s, etc. However, in my opinion, it’s only Esprit that has a very significant cheaper price. For other brands, yes they sell it cheaper but somehow it’s still expensive.

The Factory Outlets haven in Bremen is located slightly outside Bremen, called Brinkum. There, we can find the outlets for clothes, shoes, home decoration and design, and also IKEA.

There’re 2 warnings in going to this area. First, since it’s outside Bremen, so for regular traveler, we need to pay additional ticket for the bus. The daily ticket isn’t covering this area. But if we have semester ticket (student ticket) then it’s not a problem. Second, just be prepare, you’ll loose your money easily as you’ll spend a lot!

Copy Service

I really miss the copy service in Indonesia. How come I don’t… There, if you want to copy something, you go to the copy shop and just give what you want to copy. There’ll be operator that provides the copy service. You just have to wait until it finished. And if the queuing is too long, you can just drop your document and leave. You can comeback again later when the document is (predictably) copied.

In Germany, dream on! Don’t wish to have that kind of service…! In here, you are expected to master every machine that exists in the world. If you go to a copy shop, they will just direct you to go to available copy machine and then you have to do the copy process by yourself! Each copy machine has its own counter, so you will be charged by the calculation from the counter.

Luckily, I am pretty familiar with copy machine from my previous office; so I can prevent any unnecessary charge in wasting paper to get the exact copy as I want to. I don’t know how it’s gonna be if I need special kind of copy like to enlarge or minimize it because all the instructions are in German.

Now I wonder, how about binding and laminating services, do I also have to do it by myself? Gosh, why should I pay if I have to do it by myself…???

Asia Market

What it means as Asia Market is actually a supermarket that sells foods and ingredients from Asia. As Indonesian, I visit this place regularly because they sell Indomie, cabe rawit (green chili), tahu (tofu), tempe, bakso (meatballs) and various sambal (chili sauce).

The best thing of this place is that you can get discount like in traditional market. Once, my total purchase is € 15.62 but then the cashier allows me to just pay for € 15! And then there are many times where I get bonus in form of kerupuk (crackers)! So it’s fun to shop in Asia Market :)

Oxfam Store

Oxfam is a humanitarian organization that started in England. They also have an office in Indonesia and I somehow familiar with their works. However, I just find out in Germany that they also have stores for their fund raising activities.

What makes it interesting, the items that they sell are second-hand items. And surprisingly, these items are still in good condition. So, it’s really far from the flea market image. In Bremen, they sell clothes, shoes, toys, dolls, books, CDs, and household related items. It’s really worth to shop here cause it’s cheap and you don’t have to examine the items in too detail. As you can see in the picture, I bought these shirts for only E 4.50 each!


So, even my friend, after I show him about this store, comments “After Oxfam, Flea Market is no longer needed for me”.

Flea Market

Like everywhere in the world, second-hand or used items are still attracted for people and worth to buy. In Germany, every weekend there’s what so called Flea Market or Flohmarkt that sells used items. In Bremen, this Flea Market is located in the side of Wesser River.

The items sold here are used items from a person or household. It can be clothes, books, CD record, bicycle, anything! It’s not a big business like in Makassar or Kendari where they imported used clothes, bag, and shoes from other countries and then sell it.

Of course you have to be attentive in choosing the items as most of it can’t be tested. And the good thing is, you can bargain in here. I think every girl have natural talent in bargaining.

Sometime, there’re also new items sold in the Flea Market. For example, I buy new Tupperware container here. It seems that the vendor is a member of Tupperware MLM network, that’s why he can offer unused products. I also buy a new towel from the Flea Market. I guess the vendor is somehow a distributor. Other new products that we can find here are electricity stuffs like cable, jack, lamp, battery, flashlight, etc. Usually they are Chinese products.

In general, Flea Market is not much different than Friday Market at Mosques in Indonesia. And probably before I return to Indonesia for good, I’ll end up in the Flea Market selling my stuffs.

Returned Items

In here, most of the things you buy can be returned. Of course there’re terms and conditions applied for returning it. But in general, it can. When I buy shoes, it stated in the receipt that they can be returned in not more than 12 days. And once I witness a lady who returned an opened cosmetic product. So it is allowed. So I think you can just buy a fancy outfit, wearing it for 1 day and then return it back at no cost! ;)

Plastic Bags

Plastic bags are free in Indonesia. Whenever you buy something, you’ll get a plastic bag to place your items. Sometimes, we even get more plastic bags than what we buy!

But not in Germany. Plastic bags are limited. Only department stores will give plastic bags for free. But sometime if you just buy a small thing, they will ask you whether you need a plastic bag or not.

In supermarket, plastic bags are sold! Yeah, you read it right. No free plastic bags from supermarkets. People are encouraged to bring their own bags to carry the purchased items.
I guess this is a way to minimize plastic wastes in order to save the environment. Hmm, can it applied in Indonesia? Probably plastic producers will conduct a demonstration for it. But I still remember the time when my maid used to carry a basket for shopping at the traditional market though…

Anyway, I have an experience too with all the items that I bought. There’s a time when me and Ari shop a lot in the supermarket. When we want to pay, we just realize that we can’t carry all the items. Even though if we use plastic bags, still we will need about 5 big sizes of them. And we have to walk. So carrying 5 big and heavy plastic bags for 15 minutes walking isn’t a good idea. So we have no choice. We have to bring along the trolley if we don’t want to suffer. Well at least, to minimize our suffer.

So we push the trolley along the street with shaky shock and noisy sound from the trolley cause it doesn’t designed to be used on the street. And of course, people are starring to us…

At the next day, which is Sunday, we bring back the trolley to the supermarket. During that time, we met other people who also returning the trolley. So it’s a common behavior apparently, and I don’t have to avoid any CCTV whenever I bring out the trolley…

Shopping Hours

In Germany, normal shopping hours are from 10 AM – 5 PM. I don’t know whether this is according to the law or not but most of the stores are operated within that hours. For supermarkets and department stores, the shopping hours are longer, until 8 PM or sometime 10 PM. I never have seen any 24-hours store in Bremen.

In Saturday, the shopping hours are shorter. And in Sunday, no stores are open! When I got briefing about life in Germany, I’ve been told that the Sunday-closed-stores regulation is made based on the Christian culture where people would go to churches at that time. So okay, fine with that. I am not going to comment on it, I’ll just adapt on it.

However, I still can’t understand with the workdays’ hours. That’s basically the same as workdays’ hours for offices. So suppose that I am working and want to shop around. I have to wait until Saturday to do it! Oooh, I think that’s not good for economic growth. Yea right, suddenly I am an expert in economic major. Well as a girl, I like to walk around in shopping areas. And as a normal girl, I use to buy something without planning! So I think it’s good if the stores could open until 9 or 10 PM to give a chance for working people to shop around. Imagine, how many girls will take this opportunity!

Now I wonder, do Germans have a longer lunch break in order to give a chance to office workers in case they have to buy something? And if it’s not, can we use that as an excuse to have shorter hour at the office? ;)

Spices and Spicy Seasonings

As a girl who comes from the country that had been colonialized for its spices, German foods are considered to be tasteless. So it’s not surprise at all that it’s hard to find spices or spicy seasonings in the normal supermarkets. You have to go to Asian Market to find them.

However, I find 1 German supermarket in Bremen that sells these kinds of stuffs. It called Lestra. The choices are surprisingly various although most of them are in formed of powder and not fresh. But it’s really a good place to shop for these purposes. The price is a bit more expensive than regular supermarkets but if you want to have options, Lestra is the place.

However, I never saw any other branch of Lestra in Bremen.

Just don’t be surprise to find that most of spices and spicy seasonings products are made in Holland…