0:00

I've had scenarios where

0:00

I, I've accidentally bumped

0:03

someone I'm like, Oh, sorry. And

0:03

they're like, what? Four.

0:08

I'm just like, Oh look,

0:11

sorry for sorry. It's the Germany experience the

0:18

podcast about life in Germany as

0:22

seen through the eyes of

0:22

outsiders. I'm your host, Shaun,

0:25

and visit

0:25

theGermanyexperience.de for

0:28

episodes, information about the

0:28

show and a lot more. Now, this

0:32

week's guest is someone who

0:32

arrived in Germany from

0:35

Australia, in the middle of a

0:35

global pandemic. And we'll get

0:40

to her story in a second. But

0:40

before we do that, I want to

0:42

talk about the charity challenge

0:42

that is happening with Nicole of

0:45

the expect cost and me right

0:45

now. It's the Advent challenge.

0:49

We call it segi pedco, which is

0:49

the second ever Germany expect

0:54

podcasts Advent donations face

0:54

off. And basically what it is,

0:59

is we go head to head to see who

0:59

can raise the most money for

1:02

charity. And I have to say this

1:02

at the moment right now. Nicole

1:07

is winning. Now it's, it's early

1:07

days. So we're we just had the

1:12

second advent, which means we've

1:12

got to advance left, I'm not

1:16

that far behind Nicole. So this

1:16

time to catch up. So what I need

1:19

you to do, as listeners of the

1:19

Germany experience is go to

1:23

theGermanyexperience.de/charity2020.

1:23

Follow the link there and

1:28

donate. And when you donate, be

1:28

sure to write "the Germany

1:32

experience" in the public

1:32

comments field. And if you want

1:36

to know what you're donating to

1:36

this year, we've chosen Uber den

1:41

elegant as our charity of

1:41

choice. And specifically, we're

1:45

promoting a project of theirs in

1:45

Freiburg, where the money will

1:50

go to the construction of a

1:50

portable kitchen, which will

1:54

help the Freiburg branch, expand

1:54

and improve their events. And if

1:59

you want to hear more about the

1:59

charity, and about the project

2:02

that we're supporting, take a

2:02

listen to this clip from an

2:05

interview that Nicole did with

2:05

Tara from Ubud intelligent. And

2:10

you can hear the full interview

2:10

over at the expert cost. So go

2:13

and listen to it there if you

2:13

want. But here's just a clip of

2:16

what the charity is about and

2:16

what project we're supporting.

2:18

And

2:18

we didn't turn up and we create

2:20

opportunities for people from

2:20

different cultural backgrounds

2:24

to come together to get to know

2:24

each other and, and hopefully

2:29

build friendships or learn from

2:29

one another. Through bringing

2:33

people together, we would like

2:33

to get rid of the stereotypes

2:37

that we have from each other and

2:37

the judgments. I mean, everybody

2:41

has them based on the things

2:41

that we read the here we watch

2:47

for one way or another all bias

2:47

so what we're trying to do is to

2:51

bring people together, so that

2:51

we can learn from each other and

2:55

we can see that we have much

2:55

more in common than those

3:00

differences that we were always

3:00

thinking of. so evident

3:04

telephone usually has culinary

3:04

events. So we usually get

3:08

together to cook through

3:08

building a mobile slash portable

3:14

handcart kitchen, which is

3:14

called boiler. So very creative

3:20

person called Buta pepper sack

3:20

designed this boiler this

3:24

portable kitchen as a part of

3:24

her Bachelor thesis and gave the

3:29

design to evident telecon as an

3:29

organization. How it works is

3:33

that it's, it's a kitchen that

3:33

you could basically take

3:37

everywhere. And we can invite

3:37

people to get together and have

3:41

an interactive cooking session

3:41

and experience outside.

3:47

So go over to

3:47

theGermanyexperience.de/charity2020

3:53

or click the link in the show

3:53

notes and get donating. Now,

3:56

we've also decided that we're

3:56

doing a bunch of challenges

3:59

along the way. And last week, if

3:59

you remember, Nicole challenged

4:02

me to come up with a jingle for

4:02

SEGEPADFO. By this week, now I

4:07

be honest, that jingle is

4:07

written it exists, but I haven't

4:11

recorded it yet. We I'm getting

4:11

to that. But I decided to

4:15

counter challenge, Nicole. And

4:15

what I've asked her to do is to

4:20

provide some backing vocals for

4:20

the ciggy pedo jingle. So that

4:24

is going to happen this week.

4:24

She's going to provide her

4:28

buttery smooth singing vocals to

4:28

the segi pedo jingle that I'm

4:34

putting together. And we'll

4:34

you'll hear the result of that

4:37

hopefully very soon. So I'm

4:37

looking forward to that. And we

4:40

also put together a video promo

4:40

which you can find on my

4:44

Facebook page. And while we were

4:44

doing that, we actually ended up

4:48

with a lot of bloopers. So what

4:48

we decided is if we get a

4:51

combined donation total of 200

4:51

years, we'll release the

4:56

bloopers from that promo and

4:56

believe it or not for two

4:59

podcasters There are a lot of

4:59

bloopers for a two minute promo,

5:04

it is quite surprising actually.

5:04

So if you want to hear that,

5:07

make sure you get to donating

5:07

and hopefully we can hit the 200

5:11

euro combined mark and then

5:11

we'll then we'll release the

5:13

bloopers video for you to see

5:13

the mistakes that we made. Now

5:17

on to my guest this week, what

5:17

is it like to plan to move to

5:21

Germany and then to move to

5:21

Germany in the middle of a

5:24

global pandemic? I wondered that

5:24

myself. So when Cassie from

5:28

Australia left me a voicemail

5:28

message about arriving in

5:31

Germany during this time, I just

5:31

had to invite her on the show

5:34

and see if you'd be willing to

5:34

tell her story. And she was. So

5:38

Cassie started planning to

5:38

continue her musical studies in

5:41

Germany at the beginning of the

5:41

year. And then of course, the

5:43

pandemic came along it put a

5:43

temporary hold on those plans.

5:47

And in the end, she still

5:47

managed to make the move. So I

5:50

talked to her about her mindset

5:50

during this turbulent year. Why

5:53

she stuck with her plans and the

5:53

first impressions of Germany now

5:57

that she's here. Here's Cassie

5:57

from Australia.

6:06

I'm from Australia. I

6:06

grew up on the Gold Coast. So I

6:09

grew up on the beach and then

6:09

studied in Brisbane in

6:13

Queensland and then I moved down

6:13

to Melbourne to do some more

6:15

study. And yeah, now I'm in

6:15

Germany and fine Ma.

6:19

Now you Weimar is not

6:19

as a city that I hear a lot of

6:22

people going to

6:22

night it's it's quite

6:22

random. It's very small, but

6:26

really beautiful. Yeah,

6:28

it's actually on my

6:28

list of cities that I really

6:30

desperately want to visit

6:30

because it's it's got a lot of

6:33

history there of course with

6:33

good. And Shiller I think that

6:36

they either were born there, or

6:36

they spent a large time of their

6:39

career there.

6:40

Yeah, exactly. It's

6:40

incredible. Like, I would

6:43

definitely recommend, especially

6:43

in summer I imagine it will be

6:46

so beautiful. And it's just

6:46

crazy. like God has houses here.

6:49

It's Yeah, it's fascinating

6:49

coming from Australia and seeing

6:53

all this history here. It's

6:53

Yeah, incredible.

6:55

Did you know Goethe and

6:55

Schiller before you left

6:58

Australia? Is that something you've learned recently with your move?

7:01

I'd obviously heard of

7:01

them. But yeah, being here and

7:04

the Germans are so proud of

7:04

them. You can't help

7:09

but I guess it's like us and Shakespeare.

7:11

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

7:12

Yeah. I have like, it's

7:12

very embarrassing to admit, but

7:15

I actually had never heard of

7:15

either Goethe or Schiller before

7:18

I moved to Germany. And it's

7:18

very embarrassing. In fact, I

7:22

heard about them for the first

7:22

time in German courses when I

7:24

was doing some German courses in

7:24

South Africa before I left and

7:27

then our teacher but happened to

7:27

mention good inshallah. My god,

7:29

this seemed like a big deal.

7:33

Yeah, just a bit. Yeah.

7:33

You kind of need to get up to

7:35

speed quickly once you get.

7:37

Yeah. So you're in

7:37

Weimar. So yeah, it's not it's

7:40

not that big. As far as I know.

7:40

It's like 60 to 70,000 people if

7:43

I'm really,

7:45

yeah, I'm coming from

7:45

Melbourne. Yeah, I'm getting

7:48

used to the small town last time. Very different.

7:52

Yeah, I can imagine I

7:52

can, I can definitely imagine.

7:55

So we'll get to why you're

7:55

there. In fact, let's do that

7:59

now. So why are you in Germany

7:59

and specifically Weimar?

8:03

Yes. So I'm a musician.

8:03

I play the flute. And basically,

8:09

I always wanted to go to Germany

8:09

to do some further study. And I

8:13

was put in touch with a really

8:13

good flute teacher, he teaches

8:16

here in Weimar, and basically,

8:16

that led me to audition here,

8:20

and then I was offered a place

8:20

to do my masters. So yeah,

8:24

that's basically why I'm here in

8:24

this small town.

8:29

It's, um, yeah, that

8:29

was my biggest question. Like,

8:32

what brings someone to vinyl but

8:32

I can imagine with having such a

8:35

big cultural scene that there

8:35

must be a lot of music stuff

8:37

going on

8:38

there. Yeah, there's a

8:38

really good Hochschule here. And

8:41

it's really important for

8:41

musicians to learn from really

8:44

good teachers. So that's really

8:44

the main reason. Wow, that's

8:48

very exciting.

8:49

Yeah, it is. It's fun.

8:49

It's nice to finally be here

8:52

because it's been in the works

8:52

especially with COVID it's taken

8:56

a lot longer to actually get

8:56

here so I'm just glad to Yeah,

9:00

have made it

9:01

Yeah. So I know a lot

9:01

of people who've had to put

9:05

their plans on hold or it's kind

9:05

of like fallen away their pens

9:09

to come to Germany because of

9:09

the whole Coronavirus thing. So

9:11

tell me how the lead up to this.

9:11

What kind of hoops that you have

9:15

to jump through. And did it look

9:15

at some point like you maybe

9:17

weren't going to be coming?

9:19

Yeah, it's it was an

9:19

interesting time. It was

9:23

actually crazy because I came

9:23

here in January to do an

9:27

audition and I flew to China

9:27

Southern and had a massive

9:33

layover in China and was here

9:33

for a week and then went back to

9:36

Australia and it def and Corona

9:36

definitely was around during

9:39

that time but right. But I just

9:39

think it's insane that I

9:42

actually made a trip earlier

9:42

this year. Anyway, so that

9:46

happened and I was offered a

9:46

place. Once I found out once I

9:52

go back to Australia so I packed

9:52

up my place in Melbourne in

9:57

preparation to start In the

9:57

summer semester, which is in

10:01

April, right? And then I stopped

10:01

in Queensland on the way to do

10:07

some work. And I had my suitcase

10:07

and all my summer European gear,

10:12

my suitcase ready to move over.

10:12

And during that time, the

10:17

borders closed by the German

10:17

borders and the Australian

10:21

border. So I was stuck in

10:21

Queensland.

10:24

What was your feeling?

10:24

Then? Did you did you? Were you

10:27

utterly disappointed? Or are you

10:27

just kind of caught up in

10:30

whatever was going on

10:31

then? Yeah, I mean, it

10:31

was everything was changing

10:34

daily. It was so hard to know

10:34

what what to do or whether to

10:37

try and then get turned away.

10:37

Once I got got to Germany. I

10:41

really wasn't sure. Anyway, I

10:41

made the decision to stay in

10:44

Australia and just hope that

10:44

hope that it would open up again

10:48

soon, but but it turned out to

10:48

be six months that I was in

10:52

Australia before I could

10:52

actually get here. So yeah,

10:56

yeah. How did you know

10:56

you could How was the time right

10:59

after six months? Well, it was

10:59

it because Germany had eased up

11:02

there lockdowns or what what

11:02

made it that you could get

11:05

finally get to Germany.

11:06

Um, it was actually also

11:06

quite difficult to leave

11:09

Australia, they put in a travel

11:09

ban for Australians to leave.

11:14

And you had to apply for an

11:14

exemption and provide and

11:19

provide like, numerous job

11:19

documents approved saying that

11:23

you had a legitimate reason to

11:23

leave the country. And so I

11:27

decided to apply for a student

11:27

visa while still in Australia.

11:31

And just to back up my

11:31

application. And yeah, and so

11:37

once that that all happened, the

11:37

German boat is reopened. And it

11:42

was also I also tried to get

11:42

over here for the start of the

11:46

next semester in September. So

11:46

yeah, that was a few things that

11:51

that I had to get done.

11:52

Would you were determined to make it happen?

11:54

Oh, yeah. funding the

11:54

student visa was like, was like

11:59

my first taste of jevin.

11:59

bureaucracy. It was insane. It

12:03

was actually during COVID Oh, my

12:03

gosh, I can

12:08

I can I cannot even

12:08

imagine. So to get from

12:13

Australia to Germany is a pretty

12:13

long flight in normal

12:17

circumstances. But of course,

12:17

you've got the whole Coronavirus

12:20

thing happening now, how is that

12:20

flight for you? What did that

12:22

look like? Well, I

12:24

actually have my flight

12:24

already booked for April. So

12:27

fortunately, that airline

12:27

actually honored the flight when

12:29

I flew later in the year. So I

12:29

didn't have to pay anything

12:33

extra despite the prices being

12:33

much higher. But It normally

12:38

takes about 25 hours, I think

12:38

over two flights, but I had to

12:44

add an extra flight into state

12:44

within Australia. So took it

12:49

definitely took longer around 30

12:49

hours to get here. I also I

12:54

remember checking into my flight

12:54

and asking the the attendant, I

13:00

asked Can I get a vote myself,

13:00

please? And he and he just

13:05

laughed at me. He's like, oh,

13:05

you'll be fine. And I got on the

13:08

plane. And there was about

13:08

probably about 10 other people

13:12

on one of those massive

13:12

international planes. Both

13:16

flights there was probably under

13:16

20 people, which is so bizarre.

13:22

This bizarre,

13:23

but amazing. You'll never have another flight like that again.

13:26

I know I slept so well.

13:26

I got the rotor myself.

13:29

I've never slept well at a plot.

13:32

That is that is like

13:32

that. That is the dream in some

13:35

crazy way. But do you have to

13:35

wear a mask the whole time?

13:37

Yeah to ask. But it's

13:37

bizarre because you take the

13:40

mask off when you ate and the

13:40

attendants were in the full the

13:47

full protective PPA gave me

13:47

Yeah,

13:51

that's crazy.

13:53

And the airports were so

13:53

quiet. Yeah. And Abu Dhabi it

13:57

was everything was just closed.

13:57

And I was just walking. It was

13:59

very eerie. It's like a Yeah,

13:59

Thriller movie when you're just

14:03

walking through a dead airport

14:03

by yourself. Yeah,

14:06

it's like, what was

14:06

that? There was 28 days later

14:09

that has an amazing intro

14:09

sequence with with the guy just

14:12

waking up in hospital and then

14:12

walking through London. And I

14:15

think it's a hole of quite a few

14:15

minutes and no one's around.

14:18

That's what Coronavirus makes

14:18

some cities feel like I think

14:20

when

14:21

in any of those videos

14:21

what people are doing those

14:23

drone shots and yeah, the cities

14:23

are just dead. It's It's so like

14:28

apocalypse.

14:29

It is it is really

14:29

apocalyptic. It really is. And

14:35

now of course, I get I'm

14:35

assuming that because you grew

14:39

up at the beach, you had pretty

14:39

mild winters. And now we're

14:41

heading into a winter here in

14:41

Germany. How is that for you? Is

14:44

that or have you experienced

14:44

European winters before?

14:48

Not really not to this

14:48

extent it's getting extremely

14:50

cold and yeah, and there's frost

14:50

everywhere. It's insane. I'm

14:56

excited this morning I checked

14:56

the weather and there's a little

14:58

snowflake, but anyway Yeah, but

14:58

it's really cold. I need to buy

15:04

some proper winter clothes.

15:04

Yeah. Yeah.

15:09

Yeah. So you're you're

15:09

still looking forward to winter.

15:11

Yeah, I think the

15:11

novelty still there for me. I'm

15:14

sure it will wear off soon.

15:14

Yeah,

15:17

I don't know. Because

15:17

for me, like the snow and

15:20

everything that still hasn't

15:20

worn off the novelty of that

15:22

every year, it's exciting. And

15:22

every year it's fun, or makes it

15:26

less fun is I don't know how it

15:26

is in your apartment. But we

15:28

have. We had vintage dienste

15:28

winter service. When we lived in

15:33

a previous apartment where each

15:33

of us living in the apartment

15:36

had to have a week of shoveling

15:36

snow. During winter. It was in

15:40

the contract and then so when it

15:40

would snow an hour when it would

15:44

come to our week, we were just

15:44

like, please no snow this week,

15:46

please. Because we were in

15:46

charge of cleaning it up. So

15:51

that made it less fun. But the

15:51

novelty is still there for me

15:54

after 13 years. Yeah,

15:55

I hope it stays the same

15:55

for me. Yeah, I don't have any

15:58

any vintage dates, though.

15:58

That's good. Yeah, good, pretty.

16:04

Lucky.

16:07

Um, how is your German

16:07

by the way?

16:11

Uh, it's okay. I mean, I

16:11

had all that time when I was

16:15

stuck in Australia. So I decided

16:15

that it would be a good

16:18

opportunity to do some more

16:18

study. So I was taking lessons.

16:22

And I managed to do an intensive

16:22

course before right before I

16:26

left, which sort of prepped me,

16:26

and I was sort of hearing it

16:30

every day just before I flew. So

16:30

that helped. My course is all in

16:34

German. So I'm really like,

16:34

forced to understand and I'm

16:38

trying to speak more, I have

16:38

lectures and like colleagues

16:41

that I speak to in German, so

16:41

it's okay.

16:46

It's one way to learn

16:46

pretty fast, I guess is if

16:49

you're studying in German.

16:51

Yeah. You have to see,

16:51

yeah, it's hot. It's tough

16:54

language, though. Oh, my gosh,

16:54

I'm just, I'm just accepting

16:57

that I just make lots of

16:57

mistakes every day. And most

17:00

most of the time people still

17:00

understand. So it's okay.

17:03

That's,

17:03

that's the most important thing. Like I figure if people understand me that it

17:05

doesn't have to be perfect that

17:08

that would. That's what got me

17:08

through the early early days.

17:10

Yeah, definitely. And I

17:10

was listening to your podcasts a

17:13

lot. And like, a lot of people

17:13

was sort of having a similar

17:17

idea. And I was very stressed,

17:17

because I wanted to be perfect

17:20

all the time. But now it's just impossible.

17:23

It's it's really not,

17:23

it's really not. And even I can

17:26

tell you, but But then again,

17:26

I'm a bit lazy with learning

17:28

German, and so on. But even

17:28

after 13 years, I am very far

17:31

from perfect. My grammar is a

17:31

mess. It is a miss. grammar.

17:36

Oh my gosh, I feel like

17:36

my brain is just like taking

17:38

over like trying to like work

17:38

out how to just structure a

17:41

normal sentence like?

17:44

Yeah. So do you think

17:44

that gets in the way of your

17:47

learning? Because you said, obviously, you've got a really good flute, professor or teacher

17:49

or instructor? Do you think

17:55

that's gonna get in the way of

17:55

you learning the flute? Or is

17:57

are you able to do it? Despite

17:57

the language barrier?

18:00

I can understand, which

18:00

is the main thing, I think

18:03

that's most important. It's just

18:03

so in that sense, no, I don't

18:08

think so. It's more just like

18:08

when you want to express

18:12

yourself and respond. That's

18:12

what I'm finding most

18:15

frustrating is that I just feel

18:15

like in German, I'm much more

18:20

shy and hesitant to speak, which

18:20

is frustrating, because Yeah, it

18:24

is.

18:25

So but you'd obviously

18:25

studied quite far with the flute

18:29

before you'd left Australia, right. This is something that you've studied for a while.

18:32

Yeah, I've been trying

18:32

since I was like, 10 years old.

18:36

And okay, any five now? So it's

18:36

been? Well,

18:39

it's been, it's been a

18:39

while. And this is obviously the

18:42

career that you want to you

18:42

wanting to make this a career.

18:44

Yeah, exactly. I mean,

18:44

it's bit difficult at the

18:46

moment, because odds have been

18:46

so affected by COVID. And

18:49

fortunately, I'm still able to

18:49

study at the moment, but there's

18:52

no concerts or anything, which

18:52

is really bad. Yeah, I believe

18:56

things will open up soon. Yeah.

19:00

I hope so. And there's

19:00

positive signs of things like

19:02

vaccinations that are coming

19:02

soon. And who knows if that's

19:06

gonna end and yeah, so I think

19:06

we're, we're looking at a better

19:09

2021. But who actually knows at

19:09

this point, Cassie,

19:12

I know, and I just have

19:12

to accept that everything.

19:17

Do you? What is the

19:17

effect been on Weimar? Have you

19:20

been able to experience the city

19:20

yet? Or do you think that

19:22

there's still a lot more to to

19:22

experience?

19:25

Um, I actually feel kind

19:25

of lucky that I'm in a small

19:27

town in that sense, because the

19:27

case numbers are low. There's

19:34

like, I don't think there's been

19:34

many this year at all. So I

19:38

don't feel like I'm at risk as

19:38

much as if I was in a bigger

19:43

city. So I was I've been still

19:43

able to explore Well, I had few

19:50

weeks when before we went back

19:50

into lockdown, where I could go

19:54

to museums and things like that,

19:54

but Okay, um, yeah, I'm a bit

19:58

sad. That cafe And bars. And now

19:58

museums, again, a closed

20:03

because, um, as a student when

20:03

you start your degree, like

20:07

normally you're used to, like,

20:07

big student welcome parties and

20:10

things like that. And the whole

20:10

social aspects been taken away,

20:15

which makes it quite difficult.

20:15

And there, you know, you have

20:18

the idea of like the full expat

20:18

experience when, what when you

20:22

move overseas, but yeah, we just

20:22

have to sort of take a step back

20:26

from that at the moment. Yeah,

20:26

yeah,

20:29

I feel like it's, I

20:29

feel like there's a lot of a lot

20:31

of things that we were losing

20:31

out on, like, if I think of

20:33

across all the across the board,

20:33

like a lot of kids at a certain

20:37

age are missing out on a normal

20:37

teenage life where they would

20:40

just meet up with their friends.

20:40

And now it's been, you know,

20:43

with this lockdown, okay,

20:43

lockdown, light hasn't been that

20:45

long, but it's still a long time

20:45

in terms of teenagers. And then

20:49

also think of people like you

20:49

foreigners coming to a country

20:51

for the first time. You do miss

20:51

out on part of the experience.

20:55

But I think in your case, it's

20:55

just cool that you're here. And

20:59

you just have to, unfortunately,

20:59

wait until things maybe

21:03

hopefully get a bit better.

21:04

Yeah, definitely,

21:04

definitely. Not very likely to

21:06

be.

21:07

Yeah, are you? So that

21:07

social aspect Are you do you

21:11

feel isolated at all? Or do you

21:11

still have enough contact for

21:15

you to feel pretty comfortable?

21:18

Um, I think and

21:18

initially meeting people is

21:22

quite tough, because you're not

21:22

in those group situations. And

21:25

there's not that many like

21:25

activities to do. I've still

21:29

managed to make friends. And I

21:29

still keep in contact with my

21:33

family and friends back in

21:33

Australia, which is, which is

21:36

really lucky. Yeah, it's hard

21:36

because all those like

21:39

spontaneous encounters which you

21:39

normally get, have sort of been

21:43

taken away. But you sort of make

21:43

do.

21:46

Yeah. Do you do sort of

21:46

make do that is very good. What

21:50

is what is your mindset at the

21:50

moment, though, is it Are you

21:54

feeling feeling any sort of

21:54

homesickness right now? Or is

21:58

still pretty? Like you're in the

21:58

honeymoon phase with Germany?

22:02

I'm not so much

22:02

homesickness. I think I'm a I'm

22:07

a bit sad that the Christmas

22:07

markets are not on and I don't

22:10

mean ease on happening. Yeah.

22:10

It's just the Christmas spirit

22:16

that I was looking forward to.

22:16

But yeah, you can still buy

22:19

going on at the same

22:21

time. Not the same

22:21

Cassie?

22:28

Yeah, I say pictures

22:28

with my family and friends. And

22:31

they've got the beautiful summer

22:31

in Australia, and the warm

22:36

Christmas. So I think the code

22:36

is a little bit depressing

22:42

sometimes. But I, I really like

22:42

Gemini, and I've, yeah, I think

22:49

it's, it hasn't worn off just

22:49

yet.

22:51

Yeah, I think what the

22:51

problem is, is winter does go on

22:53

for a long time. And Gemini is

22:53

something that I found as a

22:56

South African as well, like in

22:56

the beginning, it's very cool.

22:59

And it's very, it's nice. If it

22:59

snows like, especially if it

23:01

snows then it's a great winter.

23:01

But the thing is, is you

23:04

probably had an environment, it's the same as where we are now. It's just gray every day

23:06

gray and damp and kind of cold.

23:12

And that is I think that is what

23:12

brings people down is not not

23:15

not necessarily the winter, but

23:15

just this this gray short days

23:19

kind of thing.

23:20

short days. That's a big thing.

23:22

Yeah,

23:23

that's what's annoying

23:23

me at the moment when it's when

23:25

it's the sun setting, like,

23:25

quarter past four, it's just,

23:30

and then and then you're looking

23:30

at a clock and it's still like

23:32

six o'clock and you're like,

23:34

You're like my pajamas

23:34

ready to get into bed or

23:38

already had dinner. What

23:38

am I gonna do for the next few

23:40

hours? Yes, and it's gonna get worse.

23:45

Yes, it's gonna get worse, but not much worse. I think we got up until we got

23:47

December to get a little worse.

23:51

And then it starts getting

23:51

better. But I always find and I

23:54

think I may have discussed this

23:54

with a guest recently that

23:56

February is the worst in in

23:56

Germany. Okay. That is that is

24:01

that worst month for my wife and

24:01

I because it's just like, okay,

24:04

winter, we're done. Now. Let's

24:04

move on. Let's go, you know,

24:07

let's let's move to spring but

24:07

doesn't bring. Oh, gosh, okay.

24:13

I'm prepared now.

24:16

And what about culture

24:16

shock? Have you had enough

24:18

exposure to German culture to to

24:18

have any culture shock or things

24:23

that are completely different to what you're used to?

24:25

Well, I think it's a bit of a weird scenario at the moment, but there's definitely

24:27

been funny moments that I've had

24:30

as an Australian where, where

24:30

things are just, I've just been

24:34

misunderstood.

24:37

Yeah, like,

24:39

I think it's, I think

24:39

it's a lot of like, like an

24:42

Australian disposition that

24:42

doesn't always translate into

24:45

German culture very well. Like,

24:45

I think I've had comments that

24:50

like I seem very like open and

24:50

just like up for anything. And

24:54

perhaps Happy is the wrong word.

24:54

It's more like a denial. Open

25:01

energy, I don't know. And people

25:01

are like, Oh, are you okay? You?

25:05

You seem too happy. I'm a little

25:05

bit unnerved by this. And I'm

25:09

like, Oh, sorry.

25:13

Yeah. Oh,

25:14

things. I've had

25:14

scenarios where I, I've

25:17

accidentally bumped someone I'm

25:17

like, Oh, sorry. And they're

25:20

like, what? Four? I'm just like, Oh, look.

25:25

Sorry for sorry.

25:29

Like, I'm just not gonna

25:29

say anything. Yeah, they

25:33

are very, very strange

25:33

about in South Africa. We're

25:36

also very polite and we say

25:36

sorry, a lot. Yeah. And that is

25:39

something that Germans done.

25:39

Don't understand when you just

25:42

apologize for everything. Yes.

25:42

Why use by you? Sorry?

25:48

What is the reason for

25:48

this is not very practical.

25:53

Yeah, it's it is it is

25:53

a very difficult mindset when

25:56

you first come into contact with

25:56

it, especially for the open,

26:00

friendly, gregarious cultures

26:00

like we come from. Yeah. Do you

26:07

feel like you need to adjust?

26:07

Like, you have to turn it down a

26:10

bit? Have you started doing

26:10

that? Or are you just being

26:12

yourself?

26:13

I'm just like, wary of

26:13

fitting in and also being more

26:18

direct and probably being a

26:18

little bit less apologetic. I

26:23

suppose. I don't need a sorry if

26:23

I lightly bumped someone. Yeah,

26:27

yeah, definitely trying to be

26:27

more direct and that kind of

26:31

thing.

26:32

Which is, which is some

26:32

sometimes rough because, like,

26:36

like you can you can plan to be

26:36

you can you can tell yourself,

26:38

okay, I'm gonna be more direct. But when you get into that situation, I think your cultural

26:40

instinct just takes over and you

26:44

behave the way that you your

26:44

instinct tells you behave,

26:46

because I can say that some

26:46

things that I've noticed never

26:49

lost, is that apologizing for

26:49

things, or even just if

26:52

someone's mildly uncomfortable?

26:52

They say something like, I don't

26:55

know. I can't think of a good

26:55

example. But I will say oh,

26:59

sorry about that. Yeah. And

26:59

they're like, what, but I'm

27:01

like, I'm not really sorry. I'm

27:01

just trying to express that I

27:04

I'm empathizing with you, like,

27:04

I understand what you're going

27:07

through kind of thing. And I

27:07

still do that, even after all

27:09

this time. So I think it's something it's hard to get rid of.

27:12

Yeah, it's true. I

27:12

definitely made some sarcasm as

27:16

well. And sort of that kind of

27:16

humor. I find that like, making

27:22

fun of yourself and being

27:22

sarcastic doesn't really

27:25

translate super well.

27:27

No. Okay. Can you think

27:27

of an example of how you would

27:31

do that? Or how you would use

27:31

sarcasm like that? Oh, I

27:34

definitely use it all

27:34

the time. When? When I'm saying,

27:38

Oh, great. I'm so excited for

27:38

that kind of thing. But it's not

27:43

exciting. Why are you saying

27:43

that?

27:48

No, I mean, the opposite?

27:49

Yeah, exactly. I need to

27:49

explain those kind of

27:52

situations. Okay.

27:56

An example that another

27:56

guest of mine, Nicole from the

28:00

expert cost actually an example

28:00

that she had was she would she

28:04

will often say when something

28:04

something goes wrong, she go

28:07

like, ah, super. And, and

28:07

they're like, why is the super

28:11

Why? Like, what is the point of

28:11

it? No, no, no, it's not

28:14

actually super

28:16

unsanitary. That's what happens to me.

28:19

So you think that is

28:19

the that is the biggest culture

28:21

shock that you've noticed so

28:21

far, is just the just the way

28:24

that people experience you? And?

28:24

Yeah, it's always fun talking to

28:29

someone who's so new in Germany,

28:29

I really appreciate it. It's

28:33

always so much fun to me. Yeah.

28:33

Because I've been here for so

28:35

long that I sometimes forget

28:35

those early phases of what it

28:37

felt like, like how you're

28:37

observing the culture for the

28:40

first time. So it's always fun to hear.

28:42

So do you think that

28:42

you've adjusted now?

28:45

Or? Yes, I have I have

28:45

adjusted a little too Well,

28:49

sometimes, because I can, I can

28:49

see that there are certain

28:52

German qualities to my behavior

28:52

that went, yeah.

28:56

So we went back to South

28:56

Africa. You You're more German,

29:01

I suppose.

29:02

Yeah, I've had my

29:02

family telling me that I'm very

29:04

aggressive now, which I'm still

29:04

not, like in terms of Germans, I

29:08

am not aggressive. But that

29:08

comes across as aggressive

29:12

because I'm just saying

29:12

sometimes exactly what I think

29:15

like the Germans do. So I've

29:15

kind of adopted that as well. So

29:17

when I go back, I will just give

29:17

my opinion, where in South

29:21

Africa, we, you know, we don't

29:21

exactly do it directly, we'll

29:24

say, typical South Africans say

29:24

like, you know, it would be

29:28

really nice if you could

29:28

consider doing this and this and

29:30

this. And we're actually asking

29:30

you to do it. But we're asking

29:33

you a really nice way. But whereas now, I would just like could you do that? Yeah, I think

29:34

like the Germans do. So that is

29:38

that is something is definitely

29:38

changing. I was told by, by my

29:41

family members that I was a bit

29:41

aggressive nowadays. And I'm

29:44

just generally impatient. When I

29:44

go back back to South Africa.

29:47

Like I just expect a waiter at

29:47

my table within, you know, three

29:51

minutes of sitting down if it's

29:51

not happening, which doesn't in

29:54

South Africa. Yeah. I still get

29:54

like, Where's that? Where's the

29:57

service? What's going on? Yeah,

29:57

So I definitely think that's

30:01

that's the things that change.

30:01

But how long is your course for

30:06

two years? And then the plan

30:06

right now is that you would go

30:09

back to Australia?

30:10

Um, I don't know yet. I

30:10

really I've been enjoying it

30:13

here so far. So I'm sort of open

30:13

to seeing right guys? Yeah.

30:19

Yeah. And I guess it's

30:19

very early on anyway to be to

30:22

know, things like that. Yeah,

30:22

and how it's gonna be to have

30:27

the holiday holidays away from

30:27

home. I, you, you obviously

30:30

can't plan to go back anytime soon.

30:32

That's the thing when I

30:32

when I left Australia, because

30:36

there's such strict travel bans,

30:36

it's so hard to get back into

30:40

the country at the moment. So I

30:40

knew once I left, it was going

30:45

to be quite a permanent move. I

30:45

don't know about you when you

30:49

move. But you know how you sort

30:49

of had that idea in the back of

30:51

your mind where you're like, oh,

30:51

if it's if it's really bad, I

30:54

can always go back, I can always

30:54

Christmas or something like

30:56

that. Or I can come and visit

30:56

me. But now it's just not

31:00

possible. So Christmas is going

31:00

to be interesting. I really hope

31:05

that I'll get the chance to see

31:05

some friends. If if the lock

31:11

with the light lockdown stays

31:11

like this. But yeah, who knows

31:14

when I'll be able to get back to

31:14

Australia. It's really weird

31:18

knowing that I suppose.

31:20

Yeah, it's difficult,

31:20

isn't it? Yeah.

31:22

I know, a few other

31:22

Australians that are stranded as

31:26

such. So I hope that we can have

31:26

an Australian Christmas

31:29

together. Yeah, it's really just

31:29

dependent on travel and things

31:33

like that.

31:34

Yeah. And what's what's

31:34

your short term view of things?

31:38

Are you just getting through

31:38

this period? Or is there enough

31:42

for you to enjoy right now, with

31:42

everything that's going on? Um,

31:45

I think like, my study

31:45

is still really valuable. And

31:49

I'm still really enjoying that.

31:49

So it's sort of keeping me

31:52

going. I really hope

31:52

universities and schools will be

31:56

able to stay open. But yeah, I

31:56

think taking it day by day is

31:59

the best way. At the moment.

31:59

It's hard to know what what will

32:02

happen. Yeah, in a month, or

32:02

longer.

32:05

And and your tuition is

32:05

not something obviously that you

32:08

could do easily by video.

32:10

Well, I actually, I did,

32:10

I did take my first semester

32:14

online, the university, I think

32:14

a lot of the German universities

32:19

offered it, it was I could opt

32:19

for a free semester. Basically,

32:26

if the semester wasn't what

32:26

would be equivalent to in person

32:31

semester, I could ask for a free

32:31

semester, which meant that I

32:34

basically got a whole semester

32:34

for, for nothing. And I can

32:38

retake the semester at the end

32:38

of my degree for nothing, which

32:41

was crazy, because I had other

32:41

friends in like other countries,

32:44

and they were paying extreme

32:44

international student fees. And

32:48

I was just getting this whole

32:48

whole semester. I mean, in

32:52

saying that it was incredibly

32:52

reduced and having music lessons

32:56

online is not ideal, but you're

32:56

better than nothing. So yeah.

33:01

So you're still pretty

33:01

new here, Cassie, but is there

33:05

anything that you've learned in

33:05

the time that you've been here

33:08

in making the move during Corona

33:08

times that you could offer

33:12

people who might be in the same

33:12

situation, as you were? Oh,

33:16

gosh, it's

33:17

a tricky time moving at

33:17

the moment, I made sure that I

33:21

was really prepared in terms of

33:21

having an idea of what I need to

33:26

organize once I got here,

33:26

because I find like, it's not as

33:30

open to organize things like

33:30

health insurance and find stuff

33:37

in that light and things like

33:37

that, because I'm going to like

33:41

an office, it's so there's

33:41

always like that extra level of

33:45

COVID safe procedure. So someone

33:45

might be working from home or

33:49

they've got different opening

33:49

hours or something like that,

33:52

which just adds that extra level

33:52

of Okay, now I need to make a

33:56

phone call in German and, and

33:56

that layer of difficulty. So I

34:00

made sure that I had researched

34:00

those kind of organizational

34:06

things before I got there. So an

34:06

idea of what I needed to do and

34:09

where I needed to go. Because I

34:09

find like that kind of things a

34:12

little bit harder at the moment.

34:12

Yeah, yeah. I think being

34:17

organized and having an idea.

34:17

Yeah, of information. And things

34:22

like that helped me.

34:25

Yeah. So you did all

34:25

that before. Do you have any

34:27

tips of resources that you use

34:27

quite often that get you by?

34:32

I listen to the podcast.

34:38

Good on sir Cassie.

34:38

Very well played well.

34:45

There's heaps of

34:45

information on online and I

34:47

joined heaps of Facebook groups

34:47

for expats and stuff like that.

34:50

Just getting advice from people

34:50

that are already here as well. I

34:53

had friends that were here. So I

34:53

was constantly messaging and

34:56

asking for advice.

34:58

Yeah, yeah. So just try

34:58

and create As much as possible

35:00

before getting here Yeah. Okay,

35:00

cool. Well, Jesse I really

35:05

appreciate first of all you

35:05

leaving a voicemail way back

35:08

when for the for the podcast I

35:08

really enjoyed that voicemail

35:12

and and thank you for joining me

35:12

to talk about your experiences

35:16

and getting to Germany and and

35:16

your thoughts so far.

35:20

Thanks for having me. So

35:20

nice to chat.

35:23

And do you want people

35:23

to find you online? Are you on

35:26

Instagram or anywhere that you

35:26

want people to go and visit?

35:29

Um, yeah, I mean, I have

35:29

Facebook and Instagram. My name

35:33

is Kathy slide. So if anyone has

35:33

like any questions or anything,

35:37

feel free to contact me. Yeah.

35:40

I'll put the links in

35:40

the show notes. Thank you so

35:42

much, Cassie. Thank you. All

35:42

right. That's it for this week.

35:45

remember segi Bedford go to the

35:45

Germany experienced D Ford slash

35:49

charity 2020 and get donating

35:49

their music in this episode this

35:53

week by my bed hints and Jains

35:53

and additional music by Ryan

35:57

Anderson until the end. Thank

35:57

you for listening.