Tag Archives: crazy Chinese family

Chinese Wife, Crazy Germans, Me, Mom in Law, Our cute son

Daily life of an Interracial Couple in Germany

July 10, 2016 CrazyChineseFamily 54 Comments

We live now for over 1 1/2 years in Germany and are getting the hang on living here. I should know much about it as I lived here nearly my whole life except those 7 odd years in Finland but it ain’t so. You see both my wife and I adapted to the life in Finland during those years rather well and things are just a bit different here in Germany.

There is for instance the good old Mittagsruhe – Midday Peace which is a quiet time from 1pm till 3pm. You shall make no noise at all during that time. You have some work at home which needs to be done? Tough luck as you will have a horde of furious elderly neighbours massing in front of your door in case they even hear a tiny sound. This might sounds amusing but it is not, not at all. Sure it is a more generational thing these days but we have the luck to have a building full of elderly people here and they can hear pretty well out of nowhere as soon as it is Midday Peace. Also another thing I didn’t know about in Finland is that many restaurants have a Ruhetag – Day of Rest some when within the week, sometimes even two of those days. I wonder how often my wife and I already drove somewhere to eat just to find out that they have their Day of Rest…

Anyhow this is actually not what I wanted to write about but it came to my mind as I just had yesterday again some complaint from a random neighbour due to the midday peace. The topic for today is in fact something like a continuation from my post from January 2015 “Living as an interracial couple in Germany”. Back then I had many things on my mind with people behaving odd with us or also the thing about language. Most of those troubles have subsided over time such as the annoyance with official documents and governmental things as they are done (for now). Also we had no stupid neighbour going through our trash anymore which is rather nice. But there is still something which happens few times a month.

When I take a walk with Nathan around the city people always say how cute he is, especially elderly women are really fond of him. However when we are out together as a family people are looking at us and then whisper something to each other. Often when I am close enough I hear stuff like “She must be here for the Visa”, or “Another Thai around here” or “I wonder if it is even his child”. Now I don’t get upset about it or try to argue with them as it is anyways useless. I never heard such stupid things in Finland, not in the big city there nor in the countryside. Here in Germany I also only heard it in my hometown not in the bigger cities such as Hamburg, Kiel or Cologne. It really seems that people in Germany appear to be more narrow-minded the smaller the city gets. But I must also say this is another generational thing same as the before mentioned “Midday Peace”. I have never heard anything like that from people around my generation, always from one to two generation older than us.

It appears also that the people around here have a very certain stereotype when it comes to WMAF, White Male Asian Female couples. Why? Because more often than not you see older German guys with their younger Asian (in this case nearly always Thai) girlfriends or wives. In fact in our building there is a nice man living together with his Thai girlfriend but she lived here already years before she got together with him. This is also why all peopl assume that my wife is from Thailand. Just few days a guy whom I gave few cents for a bus ticket asked me if my wife is from Thailand. Here again it is nothing I get upset about, nor does my wife care about it any longer but the consistency about those things are something which sticks to my mind. Do I think that life is harder for us due to our interracial relationship? No, not at all but it brings up a lot of more comments from other people around. Sure many of them sound racist (some actually are) but most of these comments are happening because they don’t know any better.

Now that this is of my mind (thank you blog for being my therapy) I can go back and focus on more important things in my life, such as preserving the kitchen from total destruction due to MIL. Oh and by the way, next weeks blog post will be a bit delayed. We will be over the weekend in the beautiful city of Dresden for some sightseeing, eating and visiting a few of my friends.

Do random people start talking about you when you take a walk outside?

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Guest Post

Guest Post: The Great Story Behind West Lake China

July 5, 2016 CrazyChineseFamily 6 Comments

Remember when I wrote that we visited during our city tour also the West Lake in Hangzhou? Today I have a guest post by Karenr Robinson giving a wonderful description of that area. Where I could only write about what I saw myself during that short rainy stop at the lake Karenr provides with this article a summary on what you can see there and how to experience it the best way.

China is a beautiful country that is blessed with plenty of tourist attractions. China have a lot of magnificent attractions to visit for the tourists including antique sites and relics, grand imperial palaces, stunning water towns, marvelous natural wonders, fabulous cultural heritage, and unique folk customs. West Lake is one of the most favored tourist attractions in China amid visitors and a plenty of tourists from around the world used to visit the lake every year.

Heaven on Earth

West Lake is a freshwater lake situated in Hangzhou, China. The lake is divided into five parts by three causeways. The visitors can observe temples, pagodas, gardens, and artificial islands within the lake. West Lake has persuaded many poets and painters right through Chinese history for its natural splendor and historic leftovers. The green leaves and flower blossoms make the lake a heaven on earth.

UNESCO World Heritage Site

West Lake was labeled as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011. The Lake has influenced Chinese garden designers and also many other designers in other countries. West Lake is said to be the only lake heritage site in China. UNESCO mentioned that the lake was able to persuade garden design in the rest of China and some other countries including Japan and Korea over the centuries. The lake in fact reveals and romanticizes union between humans and nature.

Natural Scenery and Human Culture

West Lake is the most gorgeous attraction in Hangzhou and the lake itself is full of attractions. The lake is enclosed by hills on three sides. Numerous Chinese poets and artists have praised the lake for its perfection and amalgamation of spectacular natural scenery and human culture. Su Shi who is a prolific poet in the Song Dynasty compared West Lake to Xi Zi, the most gorgeous woman in ancient China.

Full of Attractions

West Lake is a man-made lake situated at the heart of the city alive with plenty of attractions Including gardens, pavilions, causeways, pagodas, temples, artificial islands and bridges. The entire lake is a fantastic place to spend time with your family, lover, and friends. Numerous temples, pagodas, gardens, and artificial islands seen within the lake make it an exemplary destination.

History & Facts

West Lake has a long history to tell and the original West Lake created more than 2000 years ago. It was formed with the sedimentation of the Qiantang River. It is considered that the lake was almost double compared to its present size during Tang Dynasty (618-907). The lake dried up around the middle of the Tang Dynasty by reason of negligence and poor management of the lake. Hence, a fresh dyke and dam structure was put up, causeways were made and the lake comprehensively developed.

The lake has a surface area of more or less 6 square kilometers. The length of the West Lake is approximately 15 kilometers. The par water profundity is just about 0.8 meters. The lake has the ability to hold up to 14,290,000 cubic meters of water. West Lake has its own dry land for the maintenance and repair of boats.

The West Lake has been a main tourist attraction in China for the past many years. With the incessant development, sharp maintenance and the formation of islands have guided the lake to become a most beautiful tourist attraction in China. The Three Pools Mirroring the Moon is the biggest island of the lake. Mid-Lake Pavilion is the oldest island of the West Lake. The lake is delimited on three sides by mountains and hills.

Best Seasons

The lake is best to visit during rainy days, sunny days, spring time or winter time. The main reason is that West Lake is always good-looking but in dissimilar forms. Each season has its own splendor but March to May used to experience huge rush in West Lake and it can be called as the best season to visit West Lake.

How to Explore the Complete Area of West Lake

The scenic West Lake has many little attractions spreading around the lake. You will require one or more days to see its complete attractions.

Walking

Walking around the lake will be a delightful experience for the travelers. Walking around the lake’s two causeways such as the Yang and the Su cause ways present you amazing views.

Riding a Bike

The finest means to travel the whole West Lake is riding a bike. Bike riding is fast than walking, and you will be able to cover the whole attraction within few hours. Another way travel on the lake is by boat.

Cruise Boat

Boat Cruise on West Lake will be a mesmerizing experience for the travelers and it offers you the chance to enjoy the lake’s stunning scenery. Gaily painted pleasure boats, motor-driven boats, and rowing boats are available here. Boat Cruise allows the tourists to travel the islets on West Lake including Three Ponds Mirroring the Moon.

Sightseeing Car

The tourists can find cars here for sightseeing and it is suitable for people to explore the lake in a short time. You can find a guide along with the car. The driver can also become your guide and will introduce you the sceneries.

Author Bio:

I Karenr Robinson and forming articles to sites and some other online areas are my scope of thought. My experience and authority must make sure helped for me to make scholarly assignments, for instance, paper on School-An essential unit of instructive change .I am sufficiently capable to apply my insight and set forward customers’ verity and certainties moved down articles and papers .I am a specialist in the field of best essay writing service. I am respected with amazing speculative data on the field I am capacity.

Crazy Family, Mom in Law, Our cute son

The Joy with dear Mother-in-law

July 3, 2016 CrazyChineseFamily 35 Comments

It has been now roughly 4 weeks since my dear Chinese mother-in-law arrived here in Germany. In the beginning I mentioned that nothing bad or weird had happened thus far. You can imagine that it was an exception and that she returned to her good old self within no time. I guess it was like the jet lag affected her that she was not able to pull of any stunts the first week. So what has happened since then?

She is once again a world champion in leaving her oily handprints all over the apartment. The windows, the tv screen, the cabinets, the glass wall and door between dining room and living room, the bathroom mirror, all windows and doors of the new car, the aquarium and heck even on the tiles on the floor you can find some of them. I am not even kidding when I say that there is her facial imprint on the sun roof of the car! I surrendered long time ago in trying to clean up everything on a daily basis, now I let the madness just happen and wonder how bad it might all look like when she is leaving in two months. Over the years I wrote in a few posts about the stuff she had broken such as some bowls, the car safety belt or the toaster. Nothing major has happened yet except of a broken plate and few chipped bowls but it seems she is trying hard to scratch our glass table. Why she is trying her best? The thing is she hits her legs daily several times on that table because it is glass and I clean it making it look pretty neat. She is not the biggest fan of having a super clean glass table as according to her she can not see it and thus hits her legs. Not that she is openly scratching the table but I have seen and heard many time when she scrapped with some bowl over the surface…

Now to the weird things. She is back again being her weird self. Who broke the plate? It wasn’t her. Who ran against the glass door? It wasn’t her, and so on. Also she has a rather odd way of perceiving on what is good. For example she was urging my wife to find our lost Zwilling nailcutter because according it so much better than the old one we still have. I must add she has actually never used it. When my wife was asking her why and what is so much better about it she just replies something along these lines “The brand is good, it is expensive so of course it is better”. Same applies to everything she has never tried or used herself. If by any chance the brand is well-known it must be great just like the old Iphone 3 she has which is according to her so much better than her new Oppo F1 in every aspect. Now she is also very upset with my wife that she has never time to go shopping. You know my wife is the whole day busy with work and MIL does not compute that there is no real way around it to earn money. Besides she got a wicked fashion sense, most of her clothes will remind you of some Circus artists. Her goal is always to find something cheap, but good quality and fashionable, indeed this resulted that she never bought anything over the past years in Germany or Finland. Not anything? Okay that is not right as she once bought a jacket which she even tried on but was in the end way too small for her and bed sheets which did not fit at all either.

I could of course go on with my rambling but I will stop for now as there is just more and more coming to my mind as soon as I start writing. There will be more coming about her but not today, perhaps in another month in case I don’t go insane till then.

Will this crazyiness ever stop?