from Nov. 27th, 2007: "Today was a good day..."

Lazy Sunday. Housecleaning.

Yesterday (Monday) we got up and headed back to the Rathaus to fill out our Anmeldung forms. This time we got numbers with which we waited for a specific desk and then a woman helped us, who even had an English translated form. We now know that our first experience there was quite unusual and this time it was way easier. Now we have successfully registered. I kept looking at the form and thinking, "My first German stamp.", because I figure there will be many to come.

After leaving the office we walked back by a Deutsche Bank we had been eyeing to go talk about opening an account with. After R looked up a few words we approached the counter and asked to open and account. She directed us to a small room where she had us wait for a banking assistant who spoke English! Because our bank person was so wonderfully bilingual we had no trouble opening the accounts we needed and getting the info to have our US funds transfered. I mean, to the point where she filled out all the forms for us and went over them and we just had to sign off.

That was two great things accomplished in one morning and really got me excited about being here. Not that I wasn't excited before but at first everything had seemed a bit daunting. Now that we had accomplished this two small steps toward major ones it all seemed a million times more manageable.

The rest of the day we spent around in our neighborhood and came home for dinner and doing the first laundry. After 'reading', and here by reading I mean picking out the 5 German words that I know and then looking up all the rest in the dictionary, managed to figure out almost all the options on the washing machine. The only thing I haven't figured out (which is true even in the US sometimes) is where to put the bleach.


manual for washing machine

There is an indication on the diagram but it looks like your bleach goes in a tiny little hole (#4) which doesn't make any sense. It is impractical (which Germans are not, right?) and really illogical. Does it go in the Vorwäche (prewash) area? Where the Fabric Softener?/delicates detergent?/or Weichspüler goes?

Speaking of the practicality of Germans, I feel like I am possibly starting to get a sense of the German mentality...the stereotype of which I guess is dealing with the function and preciseness of their products, and the supposed 'uptightness' of their personalities. From what little I have read and experienced it seems the desire for efficiency is not an end in itself but a means for having more time to think about other things. The sentence that keeps running through my mind, which I think summarizes it nicely, from a Lonely Planet book on Berlin says, "...when Berliners are not eating out, dinner will be something quick and easy (if the microwave did not exist, Berlin would have paid someone to invent it.)..." Basically, make it work well so I don't have to think about it...which gives me time to do more interesting things. Logical, yes, but again, not as an end to itself but a means to having more time to pursue individual interests and desires, which starts to speak to the more cheery part of the German culture...more time to do things Germans like to do...like go to the movies!...which I am getting ready to do right now.

(But...this is about Berlin which is suppose to be an atypical German city...?)