Tag Archives: chinese in germany

Living in a world of your own

February 28, 2016 CrazyChineseFamily 49 Comments

Everyone was already in a situation where you thought you did something such as paying some bill but in the end you basically forgot to do it. This can be rather annoying at time because you were at first 100% sure you did pay the bill which makes it even more frustrating to see that you were wrong in the end. Let me tell you there is nothing bad about it as it happens more often than not to me, especially when it comes to bringing the trash out (could be also my mind is doing it on purpose because who really likes to bring out the trash…). However this can be also very aggravating when it does happen to a person all the time and thus not only causes delay in doing certain things but also waste your time.

Who could I possibly talk about? My dear mother-in-law of course! I mentioned in various posts before that she is a rather odd person who is always right. No matter how clear it is that she did something wrong she is always able to blame others for it or it never ever happened. The thing is it wasn’t bothering me/ us so much as we didn’t have to depend too much on her most of the times but this changed a bit over time as she also started to visit us each year for three months and so on. Of course it wouldn’t matter at all in case these things were about trivial stuff but it usually always happens when it is about important or urgent matters.

Last time my wife was with Nathan in China she wanted to take some cash with her to Germany. Okay no problem there as she just had to go to bank with her mother (as the money is on her account) and withdraw some Euros. Now the problem wasn’t with getting the money but to find it again before flying to Germany. Few days before my wife and Nathan were about to fly back she started to pack and noticed that the cash vanished. She went to her mother and asked her where it could be. So MIL told that she gave it to her. Okay no trouble there but my wife couldn’t remember this at all so she asked her again. MIL then explained step by step how she gave the money to her when they arrived in the apartment. She even explained how she was giving it and with which hand. But as my wife couldn’t remember this at all MIL was just like “I gave it to you so it is your problem now!”. OKAY…according to my wife this went on for several hours until MIL finally decided to check her closet for something and voilà: THE FREAKING MONEY WAS WITH HER STUFF!!! Basically dear mother-in-law just created her own world once again and made up this story while she actually put the money to her closet and never gave it to my wife.

Tierpark6 — Just for fun, a big fish (according to MIL)

Another example just to show you MIL’s insanity happened few weeks ago. As you might know both my wife and I have a little business (okay mostly my wife as I was just too ill to get anything done so far but things are slowly improving for me). All of our customers are from China so my wife has to send packages there every week. In case people buy some smaller amount my wife waits for a bit and then sends a big package to her parents containing stuff of several customers who had smaller orders. These things then are being put into smaller packages by MIL and then send to the customer. This actually sounds more complicated than it is because my wife strictly separates each of the items which belong to one customer and attached the name and address of this person. So all MIL has to do is to take it out, put it into some smaller packages (in case my wife didn’t put it already into some smaller boxes), attach the address of the buyer and give to some logistic company. Well well there is not really ever anything easy when it comes to MIL.

Few weeks ago my wife sent such a package containing the items of several buyers but there was one item without an adress as the buyer was just moving to a new place. The customer then sent few days later the new address to my wife and there was so far no problem. But the trouble of course started when my wife called her mother and gave the address for this last package. MIL was like “What package? I sent everything already away! There is nothing here!” WHAT??? How is this possible as there was this one package without any address! MIL was 100% sure that she sent this package but she didn’t remember any longer to whom. My wife then spent the whole day trying to figure out where on earth her mother could have sent this box. Late in the evening MIL then contacted my wife “Oh, by the way I found the missing box, it was with my stuff”. Guess how furious my wife was after wasting a whole day trying to track down where the box could be.

In the end father-in-law’s words ring too true “She is just crazy, she lives in a world of her own” and “She is able to bend reality and thus the truth to her own liking, she is never wrong about anything. Just crazy, you know”. This poor man living with her for so many decades, no wonder he developed several OCD’s over the years.

Do you know someone who creates her/ his own reality when it comes to such things?

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What Winter?

January 24, 2016 CrazyChineseFamily 35 Comments

Currently it seems winter has arrived everywhere in the world. New York is basically drowning in snow, Scandinavia had for the past weeks more than enough of this devilish snow with temperatures dropping down to -40 degrees Celsius, heck even Chongqing is covered in this white mess. It seems everywhere it is snowing except my dear hometown. I am usually the last person to complain about lack of snow during winter time as I had my share of battles in Finland à la digging out the car each morning/ actually finding the car. However ever since we moved to Germany winter has been very mild in this area.

winter2 — Grumpy Nathan on December the 24th, what a winter

Northern Germany, especially the state of Schleswig-Holstein where we live, is rarely hunted down by icy winters with tons of snow. The last time there had been much snow here was during the so-called “Snow Catastrophe of 1978” when even in my hometown snow drifts could reach a height of up to 3m! The reason for such mild winters is the fact that this state is located between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. We had each winter some snow, nothing special but usually enough to go to the nearby sledging hill and have some fun or to build snowmen and castles. When my wife visited Germany for the first time in 2010 we had snow. In fact each time we went to visit my parents during winter time we had snow here. However now we live here and the most I have seen is a layer of perhaps an inch of snow which melted away the very same day.

winter1 — Winter of 2010, see we had snow before Nathan was born!

No snow is not a bad thing for me except that we would love to show Nathan what all he could do outside during winter time. Thus far all he could do this winter is wearing his rainboots and jump into puddles. The weird thing is that when Nathan was born we also lacked snow in Finland! We had a thick layer up till a week before he was born and then suddenly poof it’s gone! That week before he was born was the last time I needed any winter clothes or to dig out my car. I have the strange feeling that Nathan is creating an invisible dome around us which does not let any snow in. Afterall I think he even hates snow from what I can tell about his encounters with the pathetic one inch layers of snow in the past two years. Each time he sees snow on the ground he retreats, points with his hand to the snow as says “eew”.

Do you have snow where you live?

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Surviving New Year

January 3, 2016 CrazyChineseFamily 29 Comments

My first post for this very young year is about how we celebrated New Year. For some little info on how we celebrated Christmas check out this post from last week. Right from the beginning I must add that I have no clue on how to properly celebrate New Year here in Germany nor do I have any clue on how it is done in Finland. In case there are certain traditions please feel free to tell me!

New6 — The Table for the Eating Marathon

During all my childhood each New Year was the same. It started each time by taking a walk through the nearby park in the morning, have the potato salad for dinner (no lunch!! I really wonder why!) at the old ladies place where we already had the very same dish on Christmas and then watch some TV and then fire some rockets to join all the other people who love destroying their money through fireworks. Really interesting, isn’t it? In Finland in comparison it was the first years more like a big party with my friends however the last few years it calmed down a lot for me and I just enjoyed it together with my wife by doing nearly nothing except visiting some friends for a nice dinner. This all changed when we moved back to Germany last year. Sure my parents still have their old routine but all in all we do it a bit different.

The thing is that we started to celebrate not only with my parents but also with my brother and his girlfriend. A mere potato salad wouldn’t do the trick so we “upgraded” and bought a Raclette table grill last year. I know Raclette ain’t a German tradition but hey, I have not a clue what is a real tradition in Germany for New Year so this should be fine as well. The thing is about having this grill is that we not only prepare the standard Raclette but also grill tons of other food…too much food. Since last year the New Year celebration has become an eating marathon and days after you still feel all those extra pounds you gained within few hours. Though we bought already only half the amount of food compared to last year there was still enough left to have a proper lunch the next day with the leftovers, at least we didn’t waste any food. My dear mother is not a big fan of celebrations so she spend most of the evening watching TV, avoiding all the eating. The good thing about it is that she could watch Nathan while we stuffed ourselves full.

One thing I forgot to mention, there is actually a “German” tradition we do/ watch each New Year. This tradition is to watch “Dinner for One” which is a comedy sketch which is originally written by the British author Lauri Wylie and was later on recorded by the German television in 1963. It is shown on nearly every German TV channel on New Year several times and is through that the most frequently repeated TV program ever. After all the eating, drinking and watching the same tv show has been done/ survived it is time for the final preparations for the countdown. As last year we went for this down to my parents apartment due to a special reason which I will mention soon. Anyways at my parents apartment we prepared again some Berliner, sparkling wine and the fireworks. By that time my mother was once again already entirely annoyed by all the people and noise but still she stayed for watching the countdown and the fireworks. So the reason for going to my parents apartment except of annoying my mother are the fireworks. My parents have a huge balcony from which we can fire all those rockets, saving us a trip to the streets or plaza outside and with it the dangers of being it by some misfired rockets.

As you can see nothing too special was done except drowning in food and annoying my mother. Nathan watched the fireworks this year again as he woke up once again shortly before midnight. I really wonder why he wakes up each New Year around the same time whereas all the other night he just sleeps through. Lets see what 2016 will bring, I hope it will be a turning point for my health and perhaps a less unhealthy next year New Year celebration.