Spaß Machen

So, I’ve been in Wuerzburg for a few days now. I’ve had my victories, I’ve had my stresses, and they’re only yet to begin. But, however, hope that I am done with the bureaucracy and the overwhelming interaction with other people. From now on, I hope that it’s a little bit difficult, but not a wash of German, of which I only understand bits and pieces, usually only the last word of a sentence. So now I chronicle my experience thus far.

Wednesday, March 3.
My train from Brussels left at 7:25am. I got to the train station way too early, expecting travel like in the USA. Not comparable. I could have showed up at 7:23 and been perfectly fine. Now I know. The trip was actually pretty pleasant. The ICE trains move very quickly, very smoothly, and very quietly. I had plenty of opportunity to snooze a bit, which I did. As we pulled into the Cologne Hauptbahnhof (main train station), the Cologne Cathedral came into view. The Cologne Cathedral was the only building spared during WWII bombings (not by some miracle, mind you, but because it served as the landmark from which planes distinguished other targets.) It was magnificent and exciting, but I was dumb and had left my camera in my suitcase, which I stowed in the baggage rack. From Cologne, the train made its way to Frankfurt am Main. The city is actually very beautiful and reminds me much of the Dallas skyline (but with a population like Austin.) There, I changed trains (very quickly, because my first train was running slightly behind schedule thanks to a holdup in Belgium) and found my seat for the last leg of the trip, Frankfurt Hbf to Wuerzburg Hbf. The scenery was beautiful. The train weaved amongst forest and hill, fields of green and fields of grapes. As we entered the city, I noticed the imposing Festberg (tower on a hill), which pleased me greatly.

When I got off of the train, my contracted Tutor was there to meet me. Immediately, those German classes failed me. My tongue froze and I couldn’t even utter “Hallo, Ich heisse Adam.” Nonetheless, after a bit of coaxing, I could mutter a few coherent sentences. My tutor drove me to my Wohnheim, which, contrary to what they teach you in German class, is actually more like an efficiency apartment than a dormitory. First, I have a room to myself; second, I have a private bathroom and shower; third, I have a private kitchen, refrigerator, and storage space. My flat is newly renovated, so it’s nothing like the Wue-tang Clan of last summer described. The Hausmeister was not in (and not answering his telephone), so my tutor basically broke into the office and retrieved my key so I could move in (with my two bags).

After plopping my bags down, we went to a grocery store, Tegut. Besides the fact that everything was in German, priced in Euros, and weighed in grams or kilograms, it wasn’t that much different than shopping at a grocery store in the States, except the selection was much less and the store much smaller (this was one of the larger supermarkets I’ve found – there are others, Aldi and Lidl, which have an even smaller selection and even smaller stores, but the smallest prices.) So I bought a box of cereal, a liter of milk, and a few things to make sandwiches. Of those things, the most striking is the milk. It is (1) served out of a box carton and (2) not refrigerated. This is most peculiar, and I haven’t quite figured out why this is. I’m sure that it’s perfectly healthy, but I feel really weird stuffing milk into my backpack and not running home to get it in the refrigerator. Also, the checker people do not stand. They have swively-chairs, make no eye contact, and just mutter sechzehn und dreizig, expect you to hand them correct change (otherwise they give you the most annoyed look ever). After they hand you your change (if you had the audacity to as for some), they say Tchuess very quickly, shove your stuff to the edge of the counter and start checking out the next person. They give you no bags (or charge anywhere from 10-50 cents if you want one), so it is expected that you pack all of your stuff yourself and with your own bags.

After my shopping excursion, I had the rest of the day to myself. I walked down to the Stadtzentrum, or downtown (which in itself took about an hour.) It was very surprising to me how vibrant and “hip” downtown was. As with most cities, this is the hub for shopping, eating, and hanging out, except, unlike the US, most everything is affordable downtown. Wuerzburg is a city about the size of Amarillo, so it has a respectable array of options should I decide to go on a shopping frenzy, but I haven’t really found any restaurants that whet my palette, because everything is either a Doener shop or a Biergarten. I found the ubiquitous American chains – McDonalds, Subway, and Pizza Hut, but went to a bakery. I successfully ordered a sandwich with some ham-like product with only minimal frustration on both my end and the server’s. After some walking around and unsuccessfully finding a Deutsche Bank (from which I can extract cash from the ATM with no fees), I was tired, so I took the bus home after paying the 2.20€ bus fare.

In the morning, the real fun began. I had no idea where the international office was, so I thought that I would go to the campus in the center of the city and walk around. Luckily, I found it fast enough. There was a tutor anxiously awaiting an incoming student. I said hello and thus it began. I filled out a gigantic application for admission and was whisked away to take care off all of the things that needed to be taken care of.

1. German Healthcare. All citizens in Germany are covered under a comprehensive government-funded (thus tax-funded) healthcare system. Since I am neither a German citizen nor a German taxpayer, I could have paid 64€/month to subscribe to the German healthcare system, but I had to politely decline because I had already paid a much higher sum for private international insurance in the States (thank you, Study Abroad Office for this gem of awful advice.) They printed off a form that basically says “this fool is going to use private insurance. Make sure to run every test available and charge his American insurance company as much as you can justify.” Great.

2. Bank Account. In Germany, people don’t write checks. So for the big purchases in one’s life such as his monthly rent, tuition (which, by the way, is only 500€/semester) and a car, funds are transferred via a wire. Wiring money in the States costs a lot of money, but here it is both expected and free. So to pay for all of these things, I had to set up a bank account. I finally found a Deutsche Bank (oddly enough, right next to my bus stop downtown, where I had stood for 10 minutes the night before), but they wanted a minimum of 12 months and a fee of 5€/month just to have the account. That did not please me, so I went to the Sparkasse Mainfranken Wuerzburg, which has branches all around the city. At first, my experience was a wash of German, most of which I didn’t understand, but my tutor sat back and explained everything in clear, well-enunciated (and most importantly) simple German. Eventually, I signed my money away, wired my student fees for the semester, and gave permission for the dormitory people to withdraw my rent every month.

3. Registering/Student Visa. This was the worst. First, I had to pick a number and wait 30 minutes. Then, I sat down in front of this large man with a very low voice and have him proceed to ask me questions about my business here. I had to give proof that I could support myself for 5 months here, sign a paper acknowledging that I couldn’t use any civil services unless I pay an income tax (which I am not eligible to do since I have no work visa), and then he proceeded to flip through my passport and spout many incomprehensible sentences about how he can’t find my visa. This really started to worry me, since I was told that I don’t need one. I landed in the UK, so I have an entry stamp from there and a stamp from the French saying that I had entered the Euro-zone, but nothing from the Frankfurt Airport. Apparently this guy (who works in the office of immigration and registration) was unaware that Americans don’t need a visa to live in Germany for less than one year. Many levels of stress caused because this burly German man didn’t even understand his own bureaucracy. Great. He then proceeded to ask me questions, such as where I was born, what I do for a living (student?), and what my religion is (which I found very peculiar.) I then had a sheet of paper saying that I was legal. Yay.

4. Immatriculation. Once again, stand in line. I handed a lady a giant stack of papers as required of me, and she printed off my student ID card, which is really just a quarter of a sheet of paper. How exciting.

So now I have an apartment, a student ID and a cafeteria card, but no internet. I have to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday for the internet guy to come (the arranging of which was an ordeal in itself.) So here I am.
Stay tuned.