I'm alive!!

So again I am stuck with no internet, and am literally hanging out the window of my apartment in order to get a weak signal. I just wanted to let you know that I am alive, even though it's been a while since I've posted and all that jazz. Hopefully the internet thing will be fixed soon, but until then I have been keeping up with what I've been doing in a Word document, so now all I have to do is copy/paste.

But before I do that, I will briefly say that my host family is amazing and I love them, and I totally hit the jackpot with them. At a later date I will post info about them, but I don't have any of that pre-typed - so it will have to wait until I'm not hanging out of a window.
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Day One at the University - they should call this place "dead end alley"

On task for today was register for housing, move into my dorm, and enroll for the semester. Mark was nice enough to come to campus with me and help me do all this stuff, just in case I needed someone to translate and explain stuff or whatnot. It was also great to have the company and have someone there to stand in line with me so I wasn’t completely on my own.

We got to the Studentenwerk (the “student organization,” kind of like the Food Services, Housing, Student Government, and whatever else all combined into one) a little before 10, and it was a madhouse. We then realized that they were only calling German students, and didn’t even start serving the international students until every German student had already been helped – not until almost 11:00. Needless to say I was slightly irritated – if they weren’t going to call us until t 11 they should have told us to come at 11, not give us a window starting at 9:00 - but there were dozens of international students there in the same boat. Once we were called back to talk to somebody we were met with another line – awfully anticlimactic, because this lady asked “do you want to buy the bedding/kitchen starter kits? Yes? Ok good, now go upstairs and pay your housing deposit and money for the kits, and come back down here.”

Then, yep – another line. This time it was to get to the cashier desk, because they only had two cashiers working for hundreds of ready-to-pay students. After I paid I went back downstairs to the first lady, signed the rental contract, and went on my merry way. Wait time: almost 3 hours. Time spent interacting with people: 5 minutes. No exaggeration.

Next, we went to my building to put a few things in there before going to matriculation. I have had a slight problem with the Germans thinking I am a man, because apparently the name “Robin” is exclusively a man’s name over here, and most emails I receive are addressed to “Mr. Sch@ps” until I respond and drop hints that I am female. This had happened also with the housing people, and I had hoped that they would just read the form where I checked “female” and put me in the right place. Unfortunately all the paperwork I got today said “Mr. Robin Sch@ps,” and honestly I don’t know yet if I am in the right place or not. None of the people who live in this apartment are here yet, or at least they haven’t surfaced yet and I haven’t heard them – but the kitchen is full and it is obvious that people do live here. By the way it’s “decorated” and by the names on the mailboxes, I am concluding that it is mostly, if not completely, male-inhabited.

But then I found out that some of these apartments are in fact co-ed, so I don’t really know what this situation is.

But let me tell you how awkward this place is – I feel like I’m moving into someone else’s house while they’re on vacation…I guess because that’s exactly what I’m doing. I don’t know how they share kitchen stuff and what I’m allowed to use, what space is mine, how they divvy up goods and space, etc – but no one’s here to tell me otherwise, and I don’t want to tread on anyone’s toes when they return to find this random new American girl suddenly inhabiting their apartment. The room itself is nice – it is very big by UGA standards, probably just as big if not a little bigger than my own apartment was, and I have it all to myself. I have a desk, a floor-to-ceiling shelf, a wardrobe (outside of the room so it doesn’t take up more space), a night table, and of course a bed. It is very cold and stark and badly in need of decorations, but that will come in time. It is definitely livable.

So back to the story – next item on the list was matriculation/enrollment for the semester. I had my piece of paper that told me to go to XYZ building from 9-3, and bring my admissions letter and passport, so that’s what we did. We waited in line, again, and when I sat down at the desk and handed the lady my papers, she said “ok so where’s your health insurance certificate?” I told her I hadn’t bought it yet, I had just gotten to Dresden and hadn’t done it yet, and she told me I couldn’t enroll without this certificate. I told her ok, fine, but why didn’t it say that on the sheet, so I could have taken care of it before I came to the office? She didn’t have an answer for me other than “well I’m sure it said it on another sheet” (it didn’t – I checked all my paperwork afterward), so there was nothing else to do except go back downstairs. By this point Monika had left work and came to meet us, so she went with me to talk to the people to find out 1) if I needed this insurance in the first place because I already have insurance that Rotary required, 2) if I do need it where can I buy it, and 3) why the bloody hell didn’t it say it on the sheet? (Ok so maybe I added that last one).

We ended up buying their insurance plan because it sure enough is required for all students, at an extra 55 euros a month, and went back upstairs to the same lady to finally enroll. She took the certificate, gave me the paper, and said “ok great, but it’s too late today - you have to come back tomorrow at 2 to finish the process.” What time was it at this point? 2:15pm. What time did my sheet say registration ended today? 3pm.

I am suddenly learning that even though I had studied all my paperwork through and through to make sure I remembered and understood everything, even if it says so on paper it doesn’t necessarily mean it is true. So much for trying to be prepared.

Monika and Mark took me back to the dorm, and after getting settled in a little bit I did a quick grocery shopping trip and surveillance of the area. I made sure to return by 6 because that was when the internet guy was supposed to be available, because signing up to get internet is an entirely separate process as well. 6:05 I was there knocking on the door, and no answer. I returned every 15 minutes, and at 6:45 I met two other people trying to reach him too. This time someone finally answered the door, but it turned out that the guy was out of town and wouldn’t return until tomorrow, but we should try some other guy somewhere else in the building.

So we headed off to find this other guy, only to find a note on his door saying he was out and people needing internet should return that night. The three of us decided to meet back at 9 and try again together. When we finally got in touch with him, he told us he couldn’t help us because we live in a different part of the building and he only has access to a certain part. So much for that, but what’s the difference to go ANOTHER day without internet when I’ve done it for over a month already! It’s just another city where I don’t know anyone and don’t have any means to access to anyone I do know.

But the good news is, those two people and I ended up hanging out and chatting for a while after the internet fiasco. They are both first year students and are very nice, and I really didn’t have any problems at all with the language. They were very nice and told me I actually speak very well – but it doesn’t change the fact that I’m still terrified.
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Day Two of the University – more dead ends

This morning I headed to the residence office to officially register myself as a resident of Dresden. Monika drew me a map of where it was, and as I was about halfway there it started to rain – and I was umbrella-less. They were doing construction on the building so I missed the sign, but I finally found it and got myself registered. The lady was nice, and after I was done she told me to go upstairs to the international office to finish the process.

So I headed upstairs to the office, waited in line, and finally was called back to see the angry and irritated secretary. I told her I had just been to the residence office and gave her all my paperwork, that I had painstakingly gone through and made sure everything was there and everything was correct and in the right order, only to have her stare at me blankly and tell me she couldn’t do anything for me today. Apparently they can’t process all the paperwork the same day, so I have to come back Thursday so the residence papers will have time to be processed. (So why did the first lady send me here?) Oh, and by the way, all the passport photos I got made in the States won’t work here because they are not zoomed in close enough to my head – apparently German standards are different than in the US. So the 10 photos I had made before I came….unusable, at least for this office. Now I have to get more made before I can get my visa.
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ok that's all I had pre-typed, but I got registered and have my student ID, and today's a national holiday (their version of July 4) so nothing will happen toward getting myself more settled in at the university. Hopefully I will get my own internet soon, but now at least I know I can hang out the window and get something!

And by the way, I don't know what my teacher was talking about when she said that daylight savings time ended this weekend. It definitely doesn't change until the end of October.