"Welcome to Germany!" she whispers to herself.
Finally! I have officially settled into Berlin! I've found an apartment, I work during the week and I have my papers stamped to prove that I am a resident in Berlin at this location.
This was not a simple task. Actually the first time I went to get this done, I had no idea what I was supposed to do or where I was going and the lady at the desk became more and more upset at every English word I uttered. She refused to give me a form and a waiting ticket and although I could not decifer exactly what she was saying, I could tell she was not pleased. I understsood it to be something along the lines of, "Well, too bad for you if you can't speak German, aaand you suck!" I have to admit, she was pretty rude, and I was useless so I left quite discouraged. At least, I was able to leave with a form because at one point someone saw my distress and tried to help. He could speak broken english, and could only help me a little, but we were able to get the angry woman to hand me a the sheet in a huff. She was totally like, "What's the point, you can't even read the form!" (which was true) But it really makes me wonder, how do all the expats do it?The second time I went, I was also rejected, but this time it was by a different woman and it was because although the office closes at 3pm, and it was only 1:40pm, they had accepted enough people that day to (estimate) keep them busy until 3pm. So they weren't taking any more people in for the day! At this point I considered just living in Germany as an illegal resident. Nobody would know, right? It's probably a bad idea, so today, I went in early (before opening time) and waited almost three hours to see the woman who stamps my sheet in acknowledgement of my existence. But! She didn't ask me any questions! (thank god) I've come out the other end unscathed. Success!
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