The German Bureaucracy

In order to stay here in Germany and study at the University of Duisburg-Essen, there are certain administrative tasks that I must take care of. On Tuesday, Martin (the son of my host mom) took me around the city in order to take care of said tasks. First we started at the University where I needed to enroll and obtain a student I.D. card. This process in the U.S. usually seems fairly simple, however, in Germany this was not the case.
We arrived and I filled out the required forms, including one for a foreign student orientation (thinking that will be helpful). I was then told that I needed to have the AOK (public health insurance) man sign off on the fact that I had private insurance and would not be enrolling in the public insurance. Then when I went to turn in all the required forms I was told that I would have to return at 2:30 p.m. because there was only one lady who could complete my enrollment (since I was there with the Fulbright program) and she was out for the morning.
Martin and I then ventured to the Aliens Office so that I could register as a resident and obtain the necessary permits, etc. At the particular Aliens Office we went to, I was told that they could not help me and that I would need to call a different office and make an appointment for the next week. The lady at this particular office was unhelpful and did not know anything about what I would need to bring with me or anything else. Later in visiting with Martin I learned that this is very typical of bureaucratic employees in Germany - they are guaranteed their jobs for life regardless of how much or how little work they do. Normally we as Americans think of Germany as being the model of efficiency, order, and punctuality but when a matter concerns the government this does not seem to be the case. Everything moves incredibly slowly within the bureaucracy - a stark contrast to the transportation system.
After the failed attempt at submitting my residence application, I ventured to the bank. There everything moved quickly and efficiently and it was painless for me to open a German bank account. The differences between the public and private sectors have never before been so apparent to me.

Jetzt bin ich im Deutschland!

I arrived safely in Frankfurt on Monday morning and immediately made my way to the train station. It was rather difficult moving around with all my luggage (something I did not really think about since before I had only traveled by train with a backpack). Luckily the people in Germany are incredibly friendly and so they alway offered to help when I was getting on and off the train.
From Frankfurt I took the train to Göttingen (pictured in the photos at left), where our orientation was. I arrived about an hour before the shuttle to our hotel began and so spent some time hanging out on a park bench. Immediately I met another Fulbrighter. It was not difficult to distinguish who was a Fulbrighter because of all the luggage that we all had packed. It was fun to meet everyone and all of us students had a great time getting to know one another. We also made tentative plans for traveling during our large breaks by Christmas and in the spring. I am positive that we will be spending a great deal of time traveling to the various cities where everyone is living. During orientation we took a small city tour and were able to see what Göttingen has to offer. It is a small university town. It looks like a typical German town. We encountered some students from the University who were undergoing orientation themselves (and also a bit of hazing by the older students - pictured in the large photo above). In the middle of the town they were having to run around and complete certain challenges, one of which was to remove their clothing (except undergarments) and then line their clothing up on the ground. It was all comical and made it difficult to concentrate on what our tour guide was saying about the town history. The rest of the orientation consisted of discussing the next year and getting to know one another. A big group of us ventured out to the pubs every night in order to explore the city and get to know each other better.
After our 2.5 day orientation was complete I caught a train from Göttingen to Moers (a small city close to Duisburg). The train ride itself was not very eventful but unfortunately I missed a connecting train in Hannover and had to wait there for an hour before I could catch the next train. Finally I arrived in Moers and my host mother, Wilma, met me at the train station.
Wilma is an incredibly nice and energetic woman. She is in her early sixties and has been a school teacher at a Grundschule (elementary school) but had to take a leave due to the death of her parents. She lives alone in a large house (which is nice because it provides me with my own apartment - pictured at right). She has two children, both of whom are grown. Martin (her son) lives with his girlfriend Britta in Duisburg. They are both teachers at a Gymnasium (like a high school). I met them both on the first night. Martin and Britta took me out to dinner because Wilma was attending a symphony concert that had been sold out and she could not buy a ticket for me. Wilma also has a daughter who is a teacher in Hamburg. Her daughter, Melanie, is married and has a 1.5 year old son.
So far everybody has been incredibly nice and they are allowing me to practice my German because they are very interested in talking to me. They can all speak English, but they understand that I need to prepare myself for the beginning of classes at the University in Duisburg and so they are happy to oblige me. My ability to speak German is much better than I thought. I think it helps to be surrounded by the language and I found that it is much easier to think in German here than it was at the Fulbright orientation (where we spoke only English).
I have also been pleasantly surprised at the food here. It is different than in Austria and southern Germany (healthier and reasonable portion sizes). Every day I eat with Wilma. First we have breakfast which consists of bread, cheese, and coldcuts as well as coffee and fruit. Lunch is always the biggest meal and it is always warm. Today we had Nürnberger sausages, potatoes, and vegetables but tomorrow I believe we are having scrambled eggs with spinach and then mashed potatoes. After lunch we have dessert which consists of Quark (I do not know what to compare it to in the U.S.), Yogurt, or Fruit. At around 5 p.m. we have coffee and cake (the cake is like coffee cake only with various fruits) or cookies. Then around 7 p.m. we have dinner which is similar to breakfast. I do not feel as though the food here is too much to take in and always feel satisfied and not overly full.
In the past two days I have had the opportunity to explore the city. Yesterday Wilma and I walked around the city center and then in the afternoon took a bike ride around the outskirts. There is a castle here that used to be occupied by a count. I will try to post some pictures soon. Moers is about 20 minutes from Duisburg (which is where I will live the rest of the year) and about 20 minutes from Holland. Next week I will be going with Wilma and a friend of hers to visit Holland.
More to come later. Tschuss.

In Transit

After what could have been a rocky beginning to my journey (with Horizon grounding numerous Q400 flights), traveling has been pleasant. I flew to Portland in order to get one final hair cut, visit friends, and catch my flight to Germany. After a delightful Sushi dinner with friends at SushiLand, Nicole took me to the airport. At the airport I encountered perhaps the nicest, most thoughtful ticketing agent that I have ever encountered.
It should be noted that my luggage was about 5 pounds overweight (yes the weight allowance has been decreased from 70 lbs. on International Flights to 50 lbs.), and whereas I was charged on my Horizon flight earlier in the day, this ticketing agent decided to be nice and pretend not to notice that my luggage was 5 lbs. overweight. Her rationale was that it was only 5 lbs. and that the airline is starting to charge for too many extras and she is getting tired of nickel and diming people.
The ticketing agent, however, did not stop at simply this act of kindness. Noticing that only one of my heavy bags had wheels and that I was in for a long journey once I arrived in Frankfurt, she quickly grabbed a collapsible luggage cart that a previous passenger had left behind. So now I have an additional piece of carry-on equipment but it will likely make my journey to the train station and then on to Goettingen much simpler.
The flight to Chicago was uneventful. Luckily I was able to sleep for the entire duration. Now the task at hand is to occupy myself for about 10 hours in the O'Hare airport....where to begin?

Housing

After many months of not knowing where I would be sleeping, I finally received notification that an apartment in Student Housing is available for me. I will be residing at:

Kammerstrasse 206
# 05-04, 47057 Duisburg - Neudorf
Deutschland


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Please feel free to send me lots of mail. I will be moving in on October 1, 2007, so please do not send any mail before that time.