Indonesian Community

Indonesians like to gather.  We even have a principle that says mangan ora mangan kumpul which means “eating or not at least we gather”.  So it’s not surprising if even in the foreign country, we still flock together or try to find other Indonesians.  People who want to stay abroad for long time like me, will try to find any existing Indonesian community.  This is like a normal SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for Indonesians.

The main benefit of joining the community is of course we can get help.  It’s not such a secret if students like me like to come to a gathering event for having free Indonesian foods.  Of course in return we also have to help others, but this is just a karma circle: you got help and then you help others.

Facebook page of Indonesian community in Bremen

The thing is, I thought this behavior is just normal. People from other countries will do the same.  Apparently I was wrong.  In my German class, there are students from nine countries from Asia and Eastern Europe, but only me who do the search for people from our home country.  They are not familiar with the system.  Hmmm…

So for example, most of our problem now is finding an apartment for our study later (after the German course).  They, of course, search in internet, but in my case, I have asked the Indonesian community in Bremen and now I have few offers.  And if worst-case scenario happened, I could just go to Bremen and crash to an Indonesian home for awhile.  Indonesian community rocks!

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

Space

This is another strange thing to me. German people are big in size, in general. However, their living space is smaller than Indonesian point of view.

Their house is small because they can organize the space efficiently. That’s why they don’t need bigger house and chooses to live in doll house type. Well this is just my judgments. Probably there’re many more reasons behind it. But it’s just strange for me.

And not just for the house. The space in tram’s seat is also too narrow. If we sit facing each other, our feet can’t be relaxed. We have to retract our body tight on the seat so all the four foots can be fit in. Of course this is only applied for 2 skinny Indonesians like me and Ari. If I have to sit facing German, one of us should bend the knee toward outside! Nah, can you believe what kind of acrobatic movement arise when there’re 2 Germans sitting in front of each other? Gosh, what kind of calculation that they use when designing that thing?

My friends and I even find stranger situation. We are 3 skinny persons entering 1 small elevator. Even in there, we feel discomfort cause there’re not much space available. We have to stand straight to avoid contact with each other, which we’ll have if we stand in relaxing mode. But then when we see the directory of the elevator, it stated that it’s for 6 persons! What?!! Who design this thing? Isn’t there any anticipation that people inside have to breathe?

Building

When I send pictures of my room to my family, one of the questions that I got is “Does the room have Air Conditioned?” Yeah, that’s so Indonesian standard. Tropical country is so hot, which make AC becomes primary need.

In this cold refrigerator land, I haven’t seen any AC at all. AC is only exist in the car. At least, that’s so far that I know. For buildings, and rooms, a heater is mandatory. Transportation means are also equipped with heaters.

Another building adaptation for the cold is having many glasses like a greenhouse. This is designed to generate a greenhouse effect, which will make the building warm in the inside. My Master Program Office is also having this type of building so we can take off our jacket once we’re inside as it’s so warm :)

When I have my language lesson, the building where I study is just a regular concrete building with glasses as its windows. In here, the cold still can creeping in so most of the times, I can’t take off my jacket :(

People in Bremen

German people have a stereotype of being cold, stiff, serious, and unfunny. On the contrary, Thank God, it doesn’t exist in Bremen. People in Bremen are pretty friendly and nice. They aren’t stingy in smiling and greeting.

In my apartment building, people always greet each other when they met, although we don’t know each other. This even doesn’t happen in my kost (rented room) in Depok when I did my bachelor degree. If we don’t know each other, then we don’t greet. What a big city life!

Bremen people are also helpful. If they encounter a clueless person, for example a person who’s clueless in using train ticket machine, most likely they will help it out. Even though they don’t talk in English, but they will try to help. Nice, isn’t it?

And this is making my life, as a foreigner here, easier. Whenever they see my face with a clueless expression and a big question mark written on it, they will help me until I could get it done. Once I have to pay my semester ticket at a Bank, which is not my Bank. So I went to the customer service and ask about how to do it. I don’t know whether she tries to be helpful or she just gets irritated with my question. In the end, she just fills in the bank slip for me and I only have to go to the cashier for paying.

Somehow, I enjoy being foreigner in here cause people tend to tolerate my silly questions and behavior ;)

The City of Bremen

Bremen is a small city, from Indonesian people point of view. The population is only less than 600,000 people! I think this population size is pretty much the same like Kecamatan (Sub-District) Kebayoran Baru where I live in Jakarta.

Bremen covers an area of 300 something square kilometer. So, it’s pretty small. Although I come from a megapolitan city, I like small city better. It’s cozier to live in. That’s why I like living in Bremen, of course apart from the weather issue.