Anmeldungsbestätigung!

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Day 8 (Dienstag, 23. Sept. 2008)

You know how some days you get off the S-Bahn and you instinctively walk in the direction of whatever office you need to go to in order to file whatever paperwork you need to file that day? Today wasn’t like that.

I started off the day with two things to do: 1) register with the FU-Berlin (that’s what they call it!) and 2) register with the local authorities.

I left the house late and it took more than 45 minutes to get to the FU. One reason is that the bus unexpectedly decided to stop running two stops early. I have no idea why—it didn’t do that last time. So I had to get off and walk the rest of the way in the light Seattle-style rain.

Here’s what the FU looks like.







Well, that's the main building. There's actually a lot more to it than that.

I then had to get directions to the Akademisches Auslandsamt, or the academic international office. It was in a house by campus.

There I met several nice people who were nice enough to speak English to me. The second asked me which I preferred, and I said I preferred English but I would like to try German. He said since the info he was going to give me was so important, he’d rather we did it in English. What are you gonna do? When a man is right, he’s right.

I then found out I have to pay 200 Euros to the FU *before* I can register. Dare I say I now know how it got its name? So that's not great. But I will eventually get reimbursed for that money, or at least that's what the nice English-speaking gentleman told me.

The next thing I had to do is to go to the local authorities to register my domicile. I tried to do that yesterday but the place was closed until further notice.



So here’s what happened.

I took the bus back to my regular train stop. Before I got there, however, the bus went past another train stop, which a quick look at my map (that is, the map in my Moleskine. Thanks, Rachel!) revealed was *the train stop* I needed to be at. So I got off the bus, crossed the street, and waited for the same bus I was just on, except going in the opposite direction.

It came; I got to the station and took this picture of graffiti.



I hopped the train to Rathaus-Steglitz, where I managed to find the Schloßstraße, which is where the registration office is.

I was on the block with street numbers 81-100. Naturally, since I wanted to get to the office with the street number 37, I started walking South. That’s where I took this picture.



Now let me show you a picture of the place I had to go.



You may notice in the first picture there's a red building behind me. Well, half an hour after I took that picture, I realized that *that* is the building I wanted. Notice that I’m walking in the opposite direction.

How can I be blamed, liebe Freunde, for not knowing that 37 Schloßstraße is directly across the street from 87 Schloßstraße? I mean, come on. What kind of a way is that to lay out a street?

So when I finally got there (I had to take *a bus* back from the place I had walked to!), I was scared I would have to wait in some boring line for hours. And in fact I *was* there for 2 ½ hours. But you know what? It was great. I loved it. That's because after about ½ hour of sitting there doing nothing I decided to see if they had wireless internet. They. Did. I was in heaven. I entered five days worth of updates to my blog, checked my email, and transferred the money from my ING account to my IU account. Oh yeah, and then I registered my apartment. As Ken Nunn says, it was just *that* easy!

When I got there, I looked at the numbers board.



Then I took a number.



Yeah, it was gonna be a while. The girl next to me had number 95 and she told me (in German!) she had been there for an hour and a half already.

Here is me after I registered.



And celebrating with my new friend at the Anmeldsamt.



All in all another good day! Now all I have left to do before I’m settled is to get a bank account, buy health insurance, get registered with the university, sign up for classes, get a cell phone, and get a residence permit! Leicht!