Wednesday morning we wake up and for the first time we actually have an appointment at 9:45. Every person who moves to Germany has to register their address (einwohnermeldung) within 4 weeks. Instead of the government doing a census it is up to each citizen to do this. If you do not you will eventually be fined. Marty is very on top of these things and someone in the know told him that it is so much quicker if you make an appointment instead of just showing up and taking a number (picture the DMV with more bureaucracy) So, weeks ago we made the appointment. He read through all of the requirements and had all of the paperwork needed in a file (birth certificates, passports, marriage certificates, etc) and off we went, the 5 of us. We still have a car, thankfully, because even though it wasn't far away we went to the wrong location and then had to rush to the right location. We quickly park and race in to find that our appointment number had just been displayed on the screen. Couldn't have timed that any closer. Marty asks around for where we need to go and a nice person points us in the right direction. We are ushered through to a large room with a bunch of people working on computers. We sit down at our assigned person and the process begins. She proceeds to take photo copies of everything, asks a few questions and within 30 minutes we are officially Berliners!!
To celebrate our official residency we decide to celebrate with our FIRST (for this trip) ice cream cone. Anyone who knows us knows this is quite shocking that it took us 3 days to accomplish this feat. But as always it tasted SO good. And for 1.30 Euro (yep, they upped the price by 30 cents) you can't beat it on a hot day. We walked around Zehlendorf, Marty stops into the Telekom store to confirm (for the third time) they our internet will in fact be installed TODAY? They say yes and so we happily come home with dreams of wifi by dinner time.
As we head out to dinner we take bets on if the internet will be up and working when we return. The internet company (Telekom) promised it between 9AM and 9PM on Wednesday. They were doing it remotely and really it was just flipping a switch.. but still we waited. Knowing if a German says they will do it by a certain time it will be done. Dinner was great.
Sitting outside on Berlin's big, open sidewalks is what being in Europe in the summer is all about. So fun to have my sister here for a few days.
Unlike the rest of our visitors she was here during our VERY formative week of set up. Probably not as fun or touristy but hopefully memorable.
We return home to NO internet. We go to bed after 9 feeling frustrated. Marty really has to get the radio connection up and running so that he can test it. If there are problems he will need time to trouble shoot to figure them out before he has to be back on the air, live, in just a few days.
No comments:
Post a Comment