Remember there is an ordinary tourist saying, “I have found myself in Asia”? Now read how I have found myself here in Bavaria.

I wouldn’t start this by saying that I wasn’t a curious person who didn’t want to learn or explore something new. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be studying at the THD and writing this blog right now. My sphere of interest wasn’t, at the time, as big as it is now. I was interested and partly obsessed with certain things such as music, poems, and literature. Anything else was pretty much not that necessary to learn about for me, yet. Here in Germany, I must say I am very fortunate to be surrounded by mostly intellectual people and that is the main reason why my sphere of interest is getting bigger and better. Why not just bigger but better too? Because I have no more interest in things that do not help me further with general knowledge. Thanks to these people and their diverse discussions, I could learn from them a lot and from time to time, I also do some extra research about the topics discussed. That way, I am able to feed my brain consistently with good food.

Not only have my interests and knowledge been broadened, but I have also been learning a lot from Germans about the value of time and punctuality. Observing how my fellow classmates respect study time alone, has enhanced my respect for time more than I expected. I am sometimes more German than Germans themselves, as I have now started to make appointments beforehand for almost everything I do; even arranging a virtual beer-session with a friend. For example, I have one good German friend and most of the time, we call or arrange to meet up quite spontaneously. Though, I realized I started to adopt the habit of only arranging exact date and time long in advance which I haven’t really done before. Even my German friend found it strange because normally I would call her if I needed or wanted to talk about anything. She mentioned that I am being very German now. Tja! Was soll ich sagen!

I am also in a current addicted phase of watching “Tagesschau” which is a German news program. I can’t go a day without Tagesschau because I love to keep myself informed. And who says German have no sense of humor? I sacrifice and devote my time regularly just to watch political cabaret shows. Can I say I am being “German” when I understand German jokes? You decide!

We are now coming to an end of this series people! I must say that I am excited and thrilled to encounter more of new hidden cultures and lifestyles here in the future.

See you later alligators! *wink

Demati Chay is an International Management and Tourismusmanagement student who understands Bavarian dialect more than most Germans do. The only Khmer student at the THD is a festival junkie, a language freak, a fusion-foodie, a snow lover, an urban gardener, and a beer sommelier-wannabe.