DINNER WITH NEW FRIENDS
Home-cooked Indian food in Wolhusen.
Since April 2025, I've been taking German courses at one of our local language schools. In addition to improving my German, I've been meeting a lot of new people outside of my usual "bubble," which was previously through working in internationalâi.e., English-speakingâoffices.
Most of the people attending the German courses are job-seekers and refugees. It's been interesting meeting people who can't speak any English at all, where we need to use German or another language (in my case, Mandarin) to converse. It was also refreshing to meet people outside of the tech/white-collar bubble.
Through these classes, I've learned more about countries like Myanmar, Ukraine, Tunisia, Finland, and Iran. I attended a colleague's DJ set at a local bar. A few of us met up for coffee and German conversations after our course, and now we're attending a conversation class together.
I am grateful for these courses because I haven't had to pay for them at allâit's all paid for by the government. It's been the silver lining throughout this past year.
I met K when I transferred to another B2 course. She's a professional flautist, has played in the prestigious halls of Lucerne's KKL, and is currently a freelance flute tutor also looking to secure a permanent position somewhere. She's from Ireland and the only other native English speaker I've met in any of my classes.
Funnily, we didn't talk at all during our course. I was more social in my previous course, because the teacher then was a more social person. But our instructor in this course was strict which suppressed my inner social butterfly.
However, during our last day of class, I caught up with K as we walked out of class and we talked all along our commute to our respective destinations. K was also one of the people who really promoted our coffee + German group, and we've also met up at cafĂŠs for some casual chats before class.
Countryside manners
Wolhusen is a town in the canton of Lucerne. It's pretty much the countryside. I used to go there frequently because my ex lived there. It's very small with nothing much going on. I haven't been there in nearly 10 years.
K invited Daniel and I for Indian cuisine at her place. We would also finally meet her boyfriend, J, who I'd heard so much about. Since it's been a while, I was surprised that it's a 40-minute train ride from Lucerne to Wolhusen. (I can't believe I used to commute so long for that horrible guy.)
Anyway, we took the 18:15 train to arrive promptly at 19:00. I told Daniel that, according to my ex, we had to greet everyone we met on the street*, also when entering and exiting the restaurant. Like, you had to greet the ENTIRE room. Daniel thought that was weird.
*It's also customary to give a general greeting when you enter a waiting room. I do this out of fear of being scorned.
We had to take a bus, and I noticed that commuters exuberantly greeted each other. I assumed it's because they knew each other, as they were around the same age (old) and wearing hiking gear. When we got off at the stop and walked towards K's place, I noticed a man greet two women from across the street. I asked Daniel if we should do the same, and he said no, that it wasn't his experience as a Swiss person.
Two women were walking behind us. They ended up surpassing us, and I noticed one glared at us as she walked by. When they were a few feet ahead, she even turned around and glared at us again. I told Daniel we may have pissed them off for not greeting them. It's been a long time since I felt this type of hostility.
Luckily it was a short walk to K's home from that point, and the cranky woman was quickly forgotten as we were warmly greeted by K and her boyfriend, J.
A homemade Indian meal
K and J live in a spacious apartment. They showed us to the balcony, where we chatted a bit about movies and shows. (Now that I've been playing Tomodachi Life, this reminded me of the scenes when two Miis get acquainted with each other.) Later, we went back in, ate some appetizers, and J chatted with us on the couch while K prepared dinner.
Salt & vinegar chips and cream cheese salmon crackers.
"You guys can pick a record for the evening," K announced.
J explained that he had been collecting records and has written down over 200 to eventually buy. Daniel and I excitedly browsed through his varied collection: there was jazz, classic rock, and even a Britney Spears album! Since it was early in the evening, I chose George Clinton for some energetic funk, and Daniel chose Erykah Badu to mellow us down.
K prepared everything from scratch, including the naan. She told us that her favorite restaurant in London was a place called Dishoom, where her recipe book is from. I've been to Dishoom once. According to J, K has their entire menu memorized.
The naan was exceptionally good too. I am normally not a naan person but I had 1.5 servings.
For the mains, she made a delicious black dhalâwhich I had to try, despite my sensitivity to lentilsâand a chicken curry called chicken ruby. It was a restaurant quality meal. Daniel and I had seconds, of course.
The records we chose ended, and J put on some Joni Mitchell for dessert. K brought out cakes from Migros. I love princess cake and strawberry tarts!
We each had half a slice of everything.
We chatted well into the night, until Daniel realized and asked when the next train was.
"In 15 minutes," J replied. "You won't make it by walking, so I'll drive you down."
I forgot that out in the sticks, trains don't run as frequently and the bus stopped running long ago. We said goodbye to K and J drove us down to the station.
"See you next time," I said, "Maybe at Gameorama."
I'm always happy to meet liked-minded people and find Daniel someone to potentially play games with. We already told them that we will host them here. I just need to think about what to make! Probably Taiwanese.