Back from the land of... no wireless.

I'm back!  A few days ago, while Martin (my landlord's brother) was out of town, our wireless router died.  And since it's locked up in his apartment, I was shut off from the rest of the world.  Some of you (Mom) expressed worry, but it's ok.  I have internet again.

I also have a cell phone over here.  Which is pretty nice, because now I can call people (work, Jakob, Lindsey, etc), which makes things a billion times more easy, especially if my internet dies again.  And, it feels cool to have a German cell phone number.  I got the basic cell phone pay as you go plan offered by Aldi, which is one of Germany's grocery stores.  Yeah, I bought my SIM card from a grocery store.  It's actually a decent deal, and I look forward to making use of it.

I finally dropped off my completed papers for my work visa.  This hasn't been quite as easy as the German Consulate in Chicago made it out to be.  Not to mention that German Ämter and Behörden (office and bureaus) are very... bureaucratic, full of Is to dot and Ts to cross.  Here's a basic summary (including repeats from previous posts) of my experiences with the Ausländerbehörde:

- Find the central office

- Find out that they're only open from 8 AM - 1PM, and then only MTWTh.  Oh, they also only give out visas on Thursday.

- Find out (thanks Jakob!) that I can go to a different one in Altona, which is the district of Hamburg that I live in.  This office has the same opening times, but gives out visas every day that they're open.

- Actually, it'd be more accurate to say that the give out appointments, instead of giving out visas.

- I found out that you have to show up around 6:30 AM to get a "number", which guarantees you an appointment on that day.  I showed up at 8:00 AM.  Luckily, if everyone with a number gets an appointment, they give people without a number a chance to get an appointment.

- Unfortunately, it's not mentioned anywhere (even when you ask ahead of time) that you have to register with the city before you can get an appointment for a visa.  I found this out around... 11:45 AM.

- Registering with the city is fairly painless, except that there's about an hour of waiting time, and it costs 8 €.  To balance that out, they give you free tickets to the Hamburg theater.

- So, on my second attempt at getting an appointment, I found out that there's a special form that my employer has to fill out, and no, the documents I signed at Varengold saying that I'm an intern and wont break the law, etc aren't good enough.  It has to be a specific form, as defined in some book she had to look it up in.  I shouldn't forget to mention that it took her about 1o minutes to realize she needed the book, 5 minutes to look up the thing in the book, and then about 20 for everyone in the office to help her look for the correct form.  The question I had was, if they had all of this trouble finding the form, how the hell am I, as a foreigner, supposed to find it?  Anyway, she gave me the form.  I think I lucked out, because she was fairly sympathetic with me, especially when she told me I needed to have been hired in order to get the visa, and I explained to her that no, Varengold hasn't hired me yet, because legally I need a work visa in order to be employed.

- Today, Mr. Joost (I think he's the person who's directly in charge of me) got the paperwork filled out, and the nice lady told me that I didn't need to wait in line again, I could just drop it off at her office.  That saved me probably... 4 hours.

- Now, I just need to call back every day until the "answer comes back" from some federal employment office, whether or not I'm granted a work visa, which my residence permit relies on.

The Consulate in Chicago led me to believe that the process consisted of me showing up at the Ausländerbehörde, showing them some papers, and getting a stamp in my passport.  Every German I've encountered has complained about their complex system of offices and bureaus, and how they're all necessary and not time efficient, but apparently they're ingrained enough into German culture that they're probably not going anywhere anytime soon.

On Sunday, Doris (my Vermieterin) had some friends over, who were all closer to my age than hers, and we had a ping-pong tournament in our back yard.  They're (almost) all professional musicians, so Doris and one of them had a little piano - saxophone jam afterwards.

I'm starting to get the hang of things around here, I think.  The next big task is figuring out how to get the student price for a month train pass.  After I get that done, things will be a lot easier.  Right now, I'm minimizing my train riding because 1. it's expensive (1.30 € or 2.60 € per trip), and 2. riding without a ticket (Schwarzfahren) is even more expensive (40 €), so I try to keep that to a minimum.  After I get that month pass, I'm going to check out the swing dance club, and see if it looks like fun!

In more good news, everyone at works seems to like me, and appreciate that I'm there.  I always get work done faster than they expect, and I get projects from all over the place.  One person even went so far as to tell me to apply for a real job when I'm done with college.  I also get paid (much) more than I expected.  I was expecting 500 € / month, and found out today that I'm getting a minimum of 700 €.  Technically, it's not official because we can't finish the paper work until I get my visa, but that's what was written on my papers for the Ausländerbehörde.  700 € gives me a lot more room than 500€!

To close it up for today, here are a couple pictures of Hamburg:

Tweet tweet

So, Hamburg is pretty far north.  By my rough estimates from Google Maps, it's about as far north as Hudson Bay.  Luckily for us here, the ocean's proximity keeps us from getting too cold; and according to my Vermieter, it gets to about 34 C (93º F) in the summer, which isn't so bad at all.  Being so far north, the sun sets around 9:30 PM, and rises around 5 AM.  This is all according to a web search I just made, but I always feel like the sun sets closer to 10 PM and rises closer to 4 AM.  For example, it's 10:20 right now, and it's still  light out.  Of course, accompanying the rising sun are the rising birds.  Tweet tweet tweet!  I think I'm getting accustomed to them though, and sleep right through their chirping.

Work has been great lately.  I'm becoming more and more the go-to guy for any and everything related to English.  Granted, people there have decent English, but they can't whip out things like "...and hereafter, the aforementioned client shall remain the sole authorized agent...".  Granted, that one was a little over done, but my English skills have come in handy in writing letters to clients, understanding letters from clients, and translating different forms.  Yesterday, Maria had me carry a box down to her car, and then she remembered she needed a box of her business cards, only to realize she had forgotten her Handy on her desk, and then only to realize she needed this one business card that was still up in her office.  So after 4 trips back and forth, she profusely apologized and bought me a double-scoop ice cream.  Totally worth it.

One really cool thing about work is that they have a basket of free fruit for the Mitarbeiter (employees).  Granted it's not organic or anything, but it's better than nothing!  Today there was a little market on the street near work.  A small little deal, with a few little vendors and their German food.  I ended up getting a smoked salmon Brötchen for lunch today, which was quite good, and decently priced.

The rest of today, however, was a pain.  I woke up earlier than usual, and went to the Ausländerbehörde, to get all signed up and to get my visa.  Of course when I got there, they had given out all of the numbers, and I would have to wait if I wanted to try to get an appointment.  Keep in mind, none of this process is posted anywhere.  Not online, not on the wall, not in a poster or leaflet.  The only way to figure out this process is to go and do it wrong once, and be corrected.  Then you'll know how to do it the second time.  The only other way is to go with someone who's done it, or have them explain it in precise detail.  Either way, that process involves them screwing it up on their first time.  So, after I wait in line, and finally get in, the lady starts talking, and informs me that in order to get my work visa, I need to register with the city.  And no, even though I had asked her earlier what to do, and had asked up at the information, no one bothered to mention that.  So that took another hour of waiting, but I'm now officially a resident of Hamburg.  Meaning I'm registered with the city, but don't have my residence or work visa yet.  Which is really really dumb, and I didn't find a single person today who thought otherwise.  But on the upside, I got a free pass to the theater, for one showing in the next three months.

Tomorrow's casual Friday at work, which should be nice.  I'll take (and link) more pictures once I start to get more into the swing of things.

First Day...

First day of work was great.  The office has a great location, and it seems like I'll be doing a lot of interesting things there.  Everyone seems really impressed with my German; Herr Joost kept on introducing me to people and assuring them repeatedly that even though I'm an American, I "speak fluent German", and "there will be no problems communicating at all."  I'm apparently just what they were looking for, because they need someone who's got an inside understanding of the American mindset, and knows how stuff works there.  Of course, I'm not seasoned American business person or tax expert or anything like that, but I can also wade through the information in English a little easier.

There's one person there who I met who's about my age, and he's an intern from France.  He speaks English with everyone, since we don't speak French.  Apparently he was almost my roommate, but called about 10 minutes too late, after the new guy who moves in in two weeks called.

I was able to set up a bank account, and in desperation I exchanged some of my traveller's checks over.  However, since the rate wasn't too great, I didn't do all of them.

Now the visa stuff is much more of a pain.  So, the Ausländerbehörde (Foreigners Office, or something along those lines) is only open MTThF from 8 AM - 1PM, but even worse, they only give out visas on Thursdays.  How dumb is that??  What do they even do all the time?  When I got there, there were about 5 people smoking outside (and they were for like... 30 minutes), and one guy just wandering around inside.  Thanks, Germany.

Anyway, my lunch is almost done (I'm making one now, so I don't need to go pay €3 for lunch), so I'm going to be heading off to work.  I'm planning on buying a week pass today, and even though it's a Tuesday, it'll still be cheaper than paying for 1-way tickets, or buying day passes, or Schwarzfahren (riding without a ticket) and getting caught.

I made it!

I made it all the way to Hamburg!

It wasn't 100% straightforward, or without trouble though.  First off, Newark Airport was unpleasant; really fit the whole New Jersey stereotype that I keep on hearing about.  I arrived in Newark, and then went through security, found my gate, and then of course the security guard informed me that I had to go get my boarding passes reprinted; they had been printed by Northwest in Minneapolis, and I needed to have British Airways reprint them.  Kinda dumb, huh?

So Newark (or at least the terminal I was at) has two main floors where all of the activity is.  And then they have a basement, where British Airways is.  Great design, I know.  Crammed into a little room was a huge mass of people waiting for the seemingly overworked and understaffed teat at the counter, trying to accomodate the sea of people.  Because all I needed was to get my ticket reprinted and didn't need to check in, I was allowed to go in the "fast lane", which probably took 30 - 45 minutes of waiting.  Would I make my flight?  I only had two hours of layover time!

I eventually reached the counter, and tell the guy my story, how security upstairs said I had to get my boarding passes reprinted, and he goes and takes them, and types stuff into the computer.  And then I was taken off guard.  "I don't see you on this second flight to Hamburg."

WHAT?  I went on explaining how I was obviously booked for it, since they were able to find it in Minneapolis, and look at my luggage receipts!   They got to Hamburg!  He insisted that I was on the flight to London, but not the connecting flight to Hamburg, and that I'd have to go to the ticketing booth (just a few feet away) to get it straightened out.

So I made my way over there, and waited patiently (another 15 - 30 minutes), and then told the guy there my story.  Turns out British Airways took the courtesy of rebooking my flight without bothering to inform me, because an hour and a half between flights in London wouldn't be enough time to make the second flight.  Which, I later found it, was completely true.  But it still was a pain that I hadn't been informed and was afraid my flight had been cancelled.

So, I made my way back upstairs, went through security for real this time, and got to the plane right as my row was being called for boarding.  I kinda lucked out, because when the guy at the ticketing booth "rebooked" me, he was able to get me some pretty nice seating.  I was in the front row of the coach section for the flight to London, and got me in the 5th row for my London-Hamburg flight.  10 feet of legroom is pretty nice, I've gotta say.  

Newark - London was pretty boring.  I had a hard time sleeping, but did manage to get a little rest.  I devoured the food that mom had packed for me, but in retrospect, I should've saved it for London...

London Heathrow is an enormous airport.  It dwarfs the quaint little MSP Lindenberg Terminal that I'm so used to.  I think that if I had known exactly where to go and I had sprinted to the shuttle  bus, and then to the right gate, I might have been able to my original flight on time.  But because I followed the signs like everyone else, and didn't sprint, and because the ride on the shuttle itself took 20 - 30 minutes (this is after the 20 - 30 minutes it took to get there and wait for the shuttle to come), I didn't get to Terminal 5 until well after my original flight had taken off.

At Terminal 5, they deemed my backpack to be a security threat.  I had accidentally left my bathroom-kit in there, which had some nail clippers, and a pair of scissors.  I had the option of throwing them away, or checking my bag.  After some deliberation and discussion with the security guards (the security guards were actually pretty nice), I decided to carry my laptop by hand, so that I'd have something to do for the next 4 or 5 hours, and then check the rest of my backpack.  This wasn't necessarily a mistake; I just wish I had remembered the other half of the sandwich that I had in my backpack before checking it.

So, here I was, in the London airport, no food, no British Pounds, and a lot of time to waste.  I think I managed to get a new high score on my tetris game on my computer during the wait.  The only options for food were good old regular airport food; and there was no way I was going to pay £8.95 for a Hamburger (that's about $18, by the way).  Anyway, it worked out fine, and I ended up making it to Hamburg alright.

In Hamburg, I was met with a slightly different set of issues.  First off, they didn't really mark where you're supposed to go, so a lot of the people (including me) wandered to "Baggage Claim Terminal 2" instead of "Baggage Claim Terminal 1".  This resulted in about 10 minutes of me looking for the "London British Airways" luggage claim, and asking around to figure out where it was.  I made it to Baggage Claim Terminal 1, and then after a few minutes found out I was allowed to walk  against the one-way signs, and into the baggage claim.  I found all my luggage, and it was all in good shape.

Then came the problem of transportation.  I had to figure out which bus to take; Doris (my renter) told me to take the 39, but the 39 stops at the airport and can go two different ways.  After about 45 minutes of waiting, the "correct" bus 39 came.

After all of that, I made it to my little home here.  It's not the best, but it's not bad either.  My room is huge, which is a nice plus.  I'm not such a big fan of my roommates, and they smoke all the time in their room, but they're moving out in two weeks, so I'm not really too worried.  I met the new guy who's going to be moving in, and he seemed pretty decent.  I seem to get along with Doris, who lives next door, and her brother, who lives on the ground level of my place.

So this weekend, of course I haven't been able to get my credit card to work.  I'm always met by the "Incorrect Pin" or "Falsche Geheimzahl" message.  Who was I to assume that after calling ahead to Wellsfargo, that my credit card would work here.  And of course, everything is closed in Germany on the weekends.  Ok ok, not everything, but banks are, and I needed a bank to exchange my traveller's checks!

Doris gave me some bread, cheese and butter, which in combination with my sandwich and carrots, held me over nicely.  I managed to find a weak wireless signal in the area, and got ahold of Jakob, who's another Waldsee Betreuer, who's studying here in Hamburg.  He biked over, and we walked around, and he bought me dinner.  We found this Greek place (there are several in the area, actually) that was pretty good.  For Sunday, I ate some of the Thai Noodle packages that I was planning on bringing for Lindsey, and some more bread that Doris gave me.

So, here I am, jet lagged at 6 AM, typing away.  Everything will be fine money and food wise after today, since I can go to a bank and deposit my traveller's checks, and maybe even fix my credit card.  I've heard that you don't need your PIN number to get money from it at Citibank, so I might have to try that out.  I'm still researching the different pros and cons of different accounts at different banks, but I think I'm just going to pick a free account that gives me an EC Karte (debit card), and see what else I can get.  You might be thinking "Zach, don't you work at a bank?  Can't you just use them?"  And the answers are "Yes, sort of" and "No".  I'm working at an investment bank, which isn't really cut out for the individual saver.  More for rich people and companies that want to invest tons of money.

Anyway, I'm going to try to get another half hour of sleep before I have to "wake up" and get going for the day.  I figure I should be super early for everything today, since I have no idea how long things will take, and I probably have to walk a ways, since the bus stop near my house doesn't have an Automat, where I could buy a Tageskarte (day pass for the public transportation).  I'm going to see what kind of discounts I can get, and see if there's any way that I can get the student discount, etc.  Everything gets sorted out today!

Hamburg, here I come!

So, today's the day.  I've moved out of my apartment, finished my finals, done with work, done with Waldsee, and done with packing.  All set.  (Ok ok, still need to pick up traveller's checks, but that shouldn't take too long)

Here we go...