Stay with me, bitte

The German Class

December 29th, 2023

Cassandra is a young talented nurse. She is kind and pleasant. She has worked at goverment hospital for 14 years. She decided to leave her job after her father suffered a cardiac attact. She has married a man and has 3 sons from him.

Dean is Cassandra's husband. He is open minded and supportive for his wife. He works in the private sector and holds a good position at his office. Sometimes, he can be aggressive, when he has overthinking things at work. He has twice discussed divorcing her, and asking Cassandra to return to her family. But Cassandra forgave her husband. They still live together today.

11 p.m

Beep! She noticed her phone is light up. A message had come in from her German group, "The class is about to start, please join the online meeting", the teacher reminded everyone. Cassandra took out her tablet, opened the online meeting, and joined them. The class began solemnly, the teacher giving several assessments to complete. Everyone was focused on the task, including herself.

The class is consists of 50 people from various countries. Only 5 person among them, were from Jakarta, Indonesia. Today was the first class, after five days preparation before for online document submission. However, she still had no chatted with others on that group. Class are held daily, from 5 p.m until 7 p.m, Germany's time, that means 11 p.m until 1 a.m, Indonesia's time. Sam was the teacher. He came from Kenya.

After submitting the assignments, she took out her phone, checked out the class member. She was going to chat someone about the course. But suddenly, her thoughts drifted back. Her father was hospitalized. While accompanying her father in the waiting room, she searched for another job, then founded 4 job openings that matched her educational background, and applied for them. She also discussed the matter with her father. Her dad agreed, "It's okay, if you dare to work abroad. Just try your best to reach them.", her father said.

A few days after that discussion, her father died of his complication. Cassandra was very sad. She really closed with him. She can not focus doing anything, also can not sleep comfortly. No more tears drop, but she looked so pale. She refused to eat and meet others. Her mothers asked her to open her notebook or going somewhere to refresh her mind, also she refused.

Two weeks later, she received an email from a Germany's company informing her that she had passed the first test. She was ecstatic. She thought this is a grant from God, to erase her sadness. The company invited her to an interview. Also, she passed the test. And now, she is here, join the German language preparatory course. This course will lasts for a year, before she can leave for Germany, taking her RN Test and then work there.

She looked back at her phone. Confused, scared, and lots of thought on her mind. Finally, she picked up a phone number to chat. "Hi, I am Cassandra. I saw your number in German class today. Do you have time to chat?", she texted her. Shortly after, she replied. "My name is Cynthia. Yes, please. It's nice to know someone has the same goals as me.". Then, the conversation begins smoothly. They introduced themselves and then shared their progress in learning German.

After chatted with Cynthia, she took the initiative to form a small group of 5 Indonesian : herself, Cynthia, Evan, Anton, and Ricky. Then, all members of small group introduce themselves, also shared their progress in learning German and collecting documents.

Ricky, the youngest personil on small group, is very talkactive. For next several days, he compared briefly several programs that has same goals with this company. He clearly explain plus and minus of each step that has to be taken. The other group members, give feedback to his thought.

Evan, the eldest personil, almost so quite. He never respond the topics, except we directly texted him. Ricky take a first initiative to asked him privately. From Ricky, Cassandra known that Evans not a medical team. His educational background is Informatica Technology. Both Cassandra and Ricky are confused, how comes Evan can join them. But none of them complain directly or show up their thought to Evan.

February 22th, 2024

Cassandra was in the library, looking for German grammar book to learned. She prepared herself for A1 test. A message came in, from Evan. "Where are you?", he asked. "In Library.", she replied. "Can we talk? A moment, please.", Evan wanted to call her. "Okay, a moment.", Cassandra replied him. Then she went to canteen and texted him again, "You may call, I am outside the library."

Evan called her for 15 minutes. He asked about Cassandra's plan to go to the embassy. They had to send copies of documents to Germany. But first, those must be verified by the embassy. He wanted to meet Cassandra personally and together go to embassy. Cassandra agreed to do it together. She also invites Cynthia, Anton and Ricky to join with them next week to embassy.

Evan also asked many questions about Cassandra's life: her goals to work in Germany, where and with whom she lived, and where she worked. From that brief conversation, she learned that Evan's office is closed to the embassy. Cassandra did the same for him. Evan also answers the questions honestly.

February 29th, 2024

Next Thursday, at 10 a.m. Cassandra was already in front of German's embassy. Evan had not arrived yet. She was processing her documents individually, then Evan sent her a message. He apologized that he had many things to finished first before went out. Just as Cassandra was about to finish, Evan arrived. Since, it is forbidden to waiting inside the embassy, Cassandra went out and looked for a cafe next to embassy. She waited him there.

An hour later, Evan spotted her at cafe. Cassandra was writting on her notebook. He explained, that he was having problem with his documents. He had lost his original diploma certificates, so that he had to go to his campus and request a letter of guarantee from them. Evan asked Cassandra to accompany him. "Will you help me? I need you to accompany me there.", he asked. "That's okay, it is still early. I have time until 5 pm.", Cassandra replied. Then they took a Taxi to campus.

During the trip, they discussed the prospects of working abroad. Cassandra mentioned that she had friends working at Sydney and Tokyo, but never had relatives in Germany. Evan explained his plans. He told Cassandra, that he was divorces and wanted to rebuilt his life in new environtment, in Germany. He had a daughter, who lived with his ex wife. Cassandra did not give any respond to his story. "It is none of my bussiness.", she talked to herself.

On campus, Cassandra helped Evan talk to academic department. She explained that Evan had lost his original document and needed a guarantee letter for the embassy. The campus approved the request, a guarantee letter could be picked up 7 days later. Evan seemed pleased. He thanked Cassandra. Then they left campus to find water before heading home.

After their trip to campus, Evan kept calling and texting Cassandra. He always curious about her daily activities. Cassandra sometimes ignored him. She was not interested to have further contact with him. She realized that she was married.

However, Evan was very curious about Cassandra. He searched for her profile from social media. Soon, he got Cassandra's address, her own home and also her parent's home. Evan monitored her whereabouts. Because he worked as an IT staff, his working hours were very flexible. He could work from anywhere, so he could do anything and everywhere at the same time.