No job yet

I didn’t get the job that I was writing about before. Yitz and Linda figure that a native speaker of German probably got it instead, which I can believe. So I’m still looking for work. Yesterday I was perusing job postings that were seeking someone with English skills, but they all wanted either someone with very good German or someone with a state-issued certificate of something that I don’t have. *sigh* I’ll find a job eventually, but I’m a bit discouraged at the moment.

Intermediate updates on the job

Last week, I had an interview for a job at the Schloßpark Klinik, which was short but good enough that they asked me to do a trial day this week. So I went in Tuesday morning and did most of a day’s work, from 7:30am to a bit after 1pm. There wasn’t much in the way of food prep, only slicing some fruit, and maybe the regulars had sliced the breakfast rolls before I arrived. We took food out to the patients three different times during my shift (breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch), and reclaimed trays after each round, and washed a bunch of stuff. I really don’t know how many times we ran the dishwasher…and that doesn’t even get it all done, as there are some things that need to go down to the main kitchen to be washed instead of being done in the floor kitchens. I also stripped a couple of beds that had been vacated; presumably I’d also be responsible for making them up again if I were there long enough. It was tiring, although possibly more for the mental strain of doing a bunch of unfamiliar tasks in German for five hours and just hoping I was doing well enough that they’d hire me. Talking to patients is mostly ok, although sometimes I run into some serious roadblocks, and it’s hard to tell if it’s my fault for being new in the hospital, or for being insufficient at the language, or not being loud enough for old people… I’m sure I can get better at it, but I was honest in the follow-up chat that I’d had that problem with a couple of people and now I’m worried I should’ve been more vague about that part and just talked more about how fast I learn. They won’t get back to me for sure until next week, so I get to worry about it for a good stretch yet. Oof.

Wedding photo album linked within

I’ve been more terrible than usual about posting since the wedding. I can give you excuses about having been busy, but they’re just excuses. I’ve been too concerned with saying something big and trying to cover everything ever for this blog, which leads to me not writing anything. I’m setting myself a goal of writing something every day: blog post, story, poem…really anything that isn’t just my German homework. I probably won’t write a blog post every single day, but hopefully with my new goal in mind, I’ll write here more often.

The wedding went smoothly (pictures on Flickr thanks to our friend Yi) and we took care of some business things before our five-week holiday to visit friends and family in California and Minnesota. Business included going around to a bunch of offices and getting Yitz’s last named changed on all his accounts, because he’s a modern man and took my name. (Other reasons included showing a connection to my side of the family since we live so far away, and my name being easier for the Germans than his was.) Also, I got a work permit! So now that we’re home, I’m applying for paying work, which will be awesome after a year of enforced not-working. I’m looking for a job where I can speak German, rather than one where I use English, in hopes that my language skills will continue to improve. Currently, I’m waiting to hear from the food service department of one of the local hospitals, which seems just about ideal for my situation. Updates as they come, hopefully!

“It’ll heal before you get married”

Well, shoot. It’s been how long since I last wrote anything? Ouch. On the one hand, I feel like we spent most of the time since then firmly settled in a routine of Yitz going to school and/or work 10-4 every weekday while I went to language classes 12:30-3:30 every weekday, and then we’d meet up at the U-Bahn and get groceries for dinner on the way home. On the other hand, I know that a ton of other things have been happening all the time and there’s all sorts of stuff I need to recap.

Just after my last post, my grandmother’s health started to deterioriate. I started to plan a trip to see her, but before I could buy tickets, she passed away. In early February, I flew back to the US for a pair of memorial services: one in Minnesota at her retirement home, and one in Illinois at her old church. It was good to be with my family for that, and I was able to contribute to the services by putting together a slideshow of pictures from my grandmother’s life and by sharing some of my memories at the services.

The trip back was actually pretty good, despite why I was there in the first place. I really like seeing my family, and I got to see quite a bit of extended family on the trip. And the other good thing was that I got to tell my parents in person that Yitz and I had decided to get married! Don’t ask about the proposal; there wasn’t one, unless you count “so when do you think we should get married?” as a proposal, and I can’t even remember which one of us said it. The wedding will be here in Berlin in mid-July, with fewer than a dozen people, all family. Most of our friends wouldn’t be able to fly over here, and I think the imposition on my enormous extended family of asking them to fly over here would be rude, so we’re just going to fly ourselves to the US and have a couple of parties there in August (San Francisco early in the month, Minnesota at the end). Extra bonus on the Minnesota leg of the trip: introducing Yitz and his mom to the State Fair, and then seeing Weird Al play a concert at the Fair!

Ok, there are way too many things I could say about preparing for the wedding, so that will have to wait and be its own post. (Or two or three…) Other things that have been happening around here have included a small flood of visitors. Yitz’s friend Yesha came for a couple of days in March before heading to a law school-related competition of some kind. In April, we helped Yitz’s sister, Hannah, arrive secretly to surprise their dad on his 60th birthday, which turned out quite well on the arrival and surprise end of things. Things got a bit complicated, though, when the Icelandic volcano erupted. All in all, Hannah ended up staying an extra two weeks, but she got back to New York safely in the end. Oh, and (just before she came to Berlin) she got into Yale’s brand new projection design graduate program, which is going to be fantastic. A few days after Hannah finally made it back to New York, it was my turn to have a visitor, and Josh arrived for a wonderful week in Berlin. I even took the week off of school so I would have plenty of time to show him around and hang out. We hit some of the famous monuments and museums, walked through some of Berlin’s gorgeous parks, ate the traditional Berlin foods, and generally had a great time.

Then at last, it was time to go back to school…or so I thought. On the day I was scheduled to resume classes, I had a fever of 102 F (39.1 C) and it took me the next three days to get back to eating and drinking like a normal human being. Then I had one week of class before I was out again, this time to have surgery to excise an abscess near my tailbone. I spent two nights in the hospital, and they let me out on the third day. I have to check in with a surgeon at an outpatient clinic about once a week to keep an eye on how I’m healing, because, oh yeah, they can’t sew me up because of the likelihood it would lead to a relapse. Don’t worry, every professional who’s looked at it post-surgery has had positive things to say about how well it’s healing, how clean we’re keeping it, and so on. Thank goodness for Yitz! If I didn’t have him to help me clean it and dress it, I don’t know what I’d do. I’ve so far refused to look at the wound itself, though Yitz did take a few pictures so I can look when I’ve already healed.

They gave me a prognosis of 6-8 weeks to heal, and that was exactly 7 weeks out from the wedding. Whee! In fact, this has led to a fair amount of silliness. When someone gets hurt, Linda will often tell them, “It’ll heal before you get married.” In the week since my surgery, there’s been quite a bit of “Well, it might heal before you get married!” And it should be all healed up before we fly to to the US, so that’s a mercy.

Busy holidays!

Aw, I was doing so well at giving a monthly update, too. The holidays were delightfully full of visitors, which forced encouraged us to do a bit of cleaning and decorating around here. My ability to prep for it was made all the more interesting because I had class right up through 23 December. Nevertheless, I managed to go out and get curtains to match every room but the kitchen, which already has a curtain (which we leave up all the time anyway), and then I hung the curtains in the study and the guest room. They need to be hemmed up, but that requires borrowing the iron and ironing board, and I hate ironing. For now, they’re artfully knotted and draped to keep them away from the heaters. Also off the floor, but that’s less important. Yes, I am a heathen. What? Anyway, the other curtains really do need hemming before I hang them, or I’d have done it already.

Yitz and I also went out and ordered a proper bed and mattress, hoping to get it delivered in time for my parents’ visit to us. (Since the move, Yitz and I had been using the bed intended to be the guest bed.) Being the naive first-time decorators we are, we failed to anticipate the six-to-eight week wait that would follow an order for well-made furniture. The bed is wood, with the frame, legs and headboard selected from a set of size/shape options. In order to best match the color across those pieces, they make each bed from one batch of wood. It’s going to be excellent, but we ordered just before the factory took a Christmas break (why yes, I do live in a country with decent amounts of vacation time) so we won’t have it in our hot little hands until sometime in February.

Never fear, we still gave the guest bed to my parents for their visit. I may be a heathen, but I’m a heathen who takes good care of guests. Yitz and I got the mattresses out of his old loft, where we slept this summer, so we weren’t sleeping on the floor either.

But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. So much visiting happened before that! Yitz’s sister, Hannah, came in first, fighting valiantly against foul weather and dreadful airline customer service. (She got in 36 hours later than planned, and her bag showed up several days later, on Christmas.) Hannah’s boyfriend, Yi, arrived on Boxing Day (26 Dec.) and his mom and stepdad arrived the day after that. By the time my parents got into town the morning of Silvester (New Year’s Eve), it was quite the gathering! We had drinks for everyone at our place before going around the corner to the other apartment for a buffet dinner. We split our group for the end of the night: most of the parents went out to see the midnight fireworks from the rooftop of one of Linda’s friends in the middle of town, while the kids stayed home, watched the Brandenburg Gate party on TV (like watching the ball drop in Times Square) and then played Rock Band for a while. We had almost gone to bed by the time our parents got home.

Over the course of the holidays, we had a ton of food. Particularly of note is the number of dumpling-style foods we ate. Polish (Pierogi), Chinese (both steamed and fried), and even the German Maultaschen are in the same dough-around-deliciousness mode. Also, as with any visit from Hannah, the rate of tea consumption was astonishingly high. Between the constant presence of hot tea and the delightful flavor of the special Christmas tea we got from the local teashop, I am officially converted to tea-drinking from my state of hot-caffeinated-beverage atheism!

Man, there’s so much more I could say (the Christmas markets alone deserve their own post) but I’m tired and this is getting long. Time to call it a night and try to write more soon!

Settling in at the new place

About two months after we took over the lease, we finally moved our base of operations from Yitz’s parents’ apartment to our new place around the corner. (I’d forgotten, but part of the reason renovations took a long time is that we gave the contractor permission to take breaks from our place to do short, time-sensitive projects for other people. We really weren’t in a rush, and we wanted to let him have as much work as possible because his wife just had a baby.) The wait, I assure you, was worth it. Every room looks awesome, and we’re slowly working on getting it furnished.

At the moment, we have exclusively hand-me-down furniture, and all the rooms are pretty sparse. The guest room is worst: it has nothing but a floor lamp and the packaging off of most of our appliances, which we need to take down to the dumpsters a bit at a time. In the kitchen, we have one patio chair and one wooden chair at our little table, but at least the office chair is back in the study now. The living room is kind of nuts, because it has half a dozen partially-unpacked boxes strewn around the floor, with a china cabinet and a two-person couch left to us by the previous tenants (der Vormieter) and the wicker rocking chair from Yitz’s old room. And then, sitting in the corner as if were the most natural thing in the world, a big shiny flatscreen TV we just bought…on a TV stand the Vormieter left us.

Please don’t think I’m complaining about the stuff being handed down or left behind for us. We’d be sitting, eating and sleeping on the floor and storing all our stuff in the shipping boxes if it weren’t for the stuff that’s been given to us, and it’s all pretty good stuff. I’m just amused by how it’s all a bit random, and I’m trying to give an accurate picture of what the place is like at the moment.

We had a heck of a time with setting up some of our appliances. The washing machine went in easily, but I haven’t used it yet because I have nothing to dry stuff on or with. Turns out the dryer we thought we bought never made it onto our order, and we don’t have enough racks or hangers to hang dry a normal load of wash. We asked that our fridge have the hinges on the left side of the door, but they hadn’t set that up for us, and when we tried to switch it, there was one screw we couldn’t remove. As it happens, that may have been for the best anyway once we tried to slide the fridge into place. There was enough space to slide it in, but not enough to open the door: with the hinges on the right, we couldn’t grab the side-slot handle, but with the hinges on the left the door would have hit the wall and stopped opening at about a 45-degree angle. Then we discovered that the water-in pipe for the dishwasher had a valve on the end that was too big to fit through the existing hole in the under-sink cabinet.

A friend of Linda’s brought over some tools and solved both problems for us without too much hassle. Luckily for us, the counter that was constricting the fridge extends several inches beyond the cabinets underneath it. He took about half an inch off the end of the counter, which allowed the fridge to fit in and be opened easily and completely on the existing right-hinged setup. After that, enlarging the hole under the sink for the dishwasher pipes was a breeze.

And our landline phone was a pain, too. The network over here is ISDN, and to use analog phones on the digital network, you need an adapter. We tried a couple of Linda’s spare phones before realizing we didn’t get an adapter from the Telecom. I tried to buy one at an electronics store, but it wasn’t the right thing, and last weekend, we just gave up and bought an ISDN phone so we could skip the adapter. I’m glad we did, because we can take advantage of some pretty cool features. We don’t have most of those set up yet, though. I’ll wait on telling you all about those until I know how they actually work. The one awesome thing we have set up is the flat rate for calls to the US. For 4 euros a month, we get unlimited calls to the US and a bunch of other countries. Four measly euros!

Right now, I’m waiting for the delivery of my new German cell phone. I ordered it online, and they called yesterday to confirm that it would be delivered between 8am and noon today. It’s 11:27 now, and I’m getting pretty antsy. I have to leave for class just after noon, so they should really hurry up! But they’re German, so I’m pretty sure they’ll show up by noon because they said they would.

In praise of German health care

I got back from the States last week (have you noticed only ex-pats call it “the States”?) and spent several days being an unfortunate combination of jetlagged and sick. It was just a cold that I’d picked up, but being tired and out of whack, I was sleeping a lot, and ended up on something like a 12-hour sleep/wake cycle instead of a 24-hour cycle. Blech.

I’m better now (just needed rest and fluids) but what was interesting about it was that Linda (Yitz’s mom) heard I was sick, she immediately suggested that I could go see a doctor. I didn’t go, because I wasn’t that sort of sick, but it was a reminder that over here, you actually could see a doctor when you’re sick. Not in the ER, not an urgent care center, an actual primary care physician. Not next month when your symptoms have passed, but actually while you’re sick. And instead of costing an arm and a leg when it turns out they don’t take my insurance (or when my claim gets rejected by the insurance company), I would pay 10 euros at the most. Affordable and available health care! It shouldn’t be a revolutionary idea, but it kind of is when you come from the US.

I’m pretty impressed with the German health care system. It’s government regulated, rather than government operated, and it has public and private insurance companies. The one I’m with (DAK) is one of the public ones. They were obligated to insure me once I got a residence permit, and when they took me on, they retroactively insured me from the day of my arrival in the country. That sounds like a way of getting more money out of me, unless you know that they did the same thing for my friend Kristin, who had payed out of pocket for a bunch of medical tests before getting insured, and the DAK then reimbursed her! There’s a 10 euro co-pay the first time you see a doctor each quarter, and if you get referrals to other doctors during that quarter, there’s no co-pay at all. Without referrals, you’ll keep paying the 10 euros at your visits. Any non-elective test or procedure is covered, and the definitions of “elective” aren’t designed to make a buck for the insurance companies. (Thank you, government!) May I restate for the record: A mere 10 euros! I had higher co-pays on my prescriptions in the US, when I could get prescriptions covered at all.

Heck, I’m even impressed with the insurance card. It’s got all my information on a little metal chip on the front of the card. When I went to make an appointment for a routine checkup, the receptionist just swiped my card and had all my info entered where she needed it! No slow slog through spelling my behemoth of a name or time spent on entering my date of birth and residence in earshot of the whole waiting room. I spent more time trying to find the card in my wallet than it took to get all my data entered and the card handed back to me. Oh, and scheduling the checkup? I had my choice of days and times for two weeks from now. How did they make this system so awesome, and why on earth does the US seem so opposed to having something like this?

Still not moved in

The renovations, which were initially estimated to take about two weeks, are still in progress. Yeah, that’s a month of renovations and we haven’t moved into the place yet; we’re still living with Yitz’s parents, just around the corner from our new place. The two additional ceilings were definitely a big time suck. *sigh* But it’s worth it to get it all done right. We’ve gone over a couple of times to see how it’s coming along, and the paint job is awesome. The rooms look great, and we’re really pleased with the color schemes we chose.

We picked out four major appliances for my birthday: refrigerator, dishwasher, washing machine and dryer. Going out shopping without whining was Yitz’s present to me, and he was quite good about it. Secretly, once he was out and about, he was actually kind of interested in the process. (“Because I’m excited about nesting with you,” he explained. He’s so cute.) The appliances are getting delivered tomorrow (Tuesday) in the afternoon. Herr Dorn (the contractor we hired) will still be working, but he said it would be ok to have stuff brought in while he’s there. Hmm, it occurs to me that we may have to move some furniture to make room for appliances to get through the hall, but if that’s our biggest obstacle, it’s not so bad.

On other fronts, I succeeded in getting German public health insurance! We weren’t sure if the DAK would take my application under the circumstances, so after a couple of weeks of silence, we called to check on my status, and we were told they couldn’t find any record of my application! Since I needed to get insured to keep my residence permit valid, I applied for an American-based insurance designed for long-term travel. I was accepted for that, but then, much to my surprise, I found a letter from the DAK in the mail at our new apartment. They’d evidently found my application, because they accepted me and had retroactively insured me back to the date of my arrival in Germany! Awesome! So I’m canceling the other insurance, which was much worse.

I also got myself signed up for an intense language course at the Hartnackschule. The placement exam I took was undecided about which level I should be in because my score was just on the edge between A1.2 and A2.1. The proctor told me I could choose, so I went for the challenge and signed up for A2.1. I haven’t started yet, although in principle I’d have liked to, because I’m taking a trip back to the States for ten days in the middle of this month. I’m heading to San Francisco to celebrate my friend Jesse’s wedding, and since I can’t do whirlwind weekend wedding trips from across the pond, I’m staying for a bit and seeing other folks in the area before I head back home to Berlin.

News from Yitz: He’s going in today to sign a contract for his research assistant position. He’ll be on a project to unify and improve a large number of online student services for the Technological University, where he’s doing his master’s degree. Classes start next week. He’s signing up for classes and already is looking forward to when he’s made that system more user-friendly, though not quite so thrilled about possibly having to do so in Java (the programming language, not the city in Indonesia).

Apartment renovations and banking

Phew! The last couple of weeks have been busy! There’s been quite a bit of action on the apartment front, and progress on a number of the other things that I needed and/or wanted to do but couldn’t before I had my residence permit. I still don’t have a cell phone (maybe we’ll get to that soon), and there’s still more work to do on selecting and signing up for German lessons. But on the upside, I’ve applied for public health insurance with the DAK (hoping to hear back soon) and I’ve learned that even if I end up having to go with a private insurer, there’s an easy-to-meet criteria for getting back into the public option later. And Yitz and I opened a join bank account, so now I’m in the German banking system.

I was going to open an individual account, but Norisbank was hesitant to open an account solely with someone with poor German skills. They wanted to be sure their communications (mailings, calls, etc.) would be understood. So we decided it was best–and probably easiest as well–to get a joint account. We went with Norisbank because they have a truly free checking account, unlike nearly all the other major banks, which have monthly charges of 2-7 euros unless you have about 1200 euros deposited every month or have official university student status. Also, Norisbank is in the “cash group” of banks that don’t charge ATM fees to each others’ customers. That’s a nice feature, since Norisbank’s nearest outlet and ATM are both about 15 minutes away by bike or public transit, but the cash group has an ATM about three blocks from our new apartment.

Where to begin with the apartment? Let’s see… On the 31st, the previous tenants were moving out and called us to see if we would be interested in keeping a few pieces of furniture that wouldn’t fit into their truck. Since we have almost no furniture to our name, that sounded pretty good to us. All in all, we got a small dresser, a two-person couch, a TV stand, a mirror, a curtain on the kitchen window, and some storage-related things. And we’re keeping temporary custody of a wardrobe they borrowed from a friend, who will come pick it up from us at some point in the (hopefully not too distant) future. The stuff we rejected was an old PC monitor, a hideous teal-with-black-splatters cabinet, and one of the boys’ bed frames (which was a one-person mini-loft).

Then while we were there, the superintendent came by, and he said if we had thirty minutes, he could do the official handoff stuff. We had plenty of time, so we got walked through the cellar storage space, the bike room,  the gas and electric meters, and the fuse box. Then the old tenants signed the papers, and we signed the papers, and we got the keys!  That evening, we and our friend Kristen went to the new place with a bottle of sekt (the German region’s version of champagne) and toasted to our new place and Kristen’s new job. Good times!

The painter came over a day or two later and started laying down floor protection. Yitz and I picked out colors for all the rooms, and we’re both pretty excited about how it’s going to look when the renovations are done. It’s going to take longer than expected, unfortunately, because two of the ceilings we thought were in good shape are going to need to be redone, bringing the total number of ceilings to repair up to three. But if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right, so we’re going to get it all done.

We’re working on the next step to having a livable place: crucial appliances. We need a fridge, and because the sink can leak out the dishwasher-draining pipe when it’s not connected, we need a dishwasher. I’ve got a couple of prime candidates for each of those, but it’ll be a bit longer yet before we buy those.

Residence permit acquired

Whew! After much waiting around, the date of my appointment with the Ausländerbehörde (Foreigner Office) finally arrived. I gathered up my application form, my passport, my passport-appropriate photos (acquired yesterday at an automated booth in the nearest U-bahn station), my most recent bank statements (to prove I won’t go on welfare), my processing fee, and my courage. Yitz and I showed up about half an hour early, which turned out to be excessive. Finding our way was pretty easy, and then in spite of having an appointment, we waited another half hour before getting called in. That sort of wait would be normal enough in the States, but Germans think tardiness is the height of rudeness, so it was somewhat surprising, though the letter we got said that there might be delays.

Things went very smoothly when we got in. The only slight bump was that I couldn’t get exactly the type of permit I’d been hoping for. I ended up getting a permit that will make getting a job a bit harder, but otherwise it’s great. Officially, my purpose for being here is listed as learning German, and my permit is good for a whole year before I have to get it renewed! I’m required to take German classes, but I think that’s a good idea anyway. To get a work permit, I’d have to find someone who wants to hire me, then send in some forms to the Ausländerbehörde and wait 3-4 weeks while the office decides whether a German could be filling that position better than I could. Potential occupations with a need for strong English skills would be easier for me to get (e.g., English tutor) but the sort of thing that would help me actually learn more German (like stocking grocery shelves) might be much harder to get.

Anyhow, I got my permit, and now I can start moving on to other things that were hung up by not having residency. I can now open a bank account, which I need to have in order to get a cell phone contract. Oh, and I need to get a new health insurance policy that will run the length of my residence permit. I’m hoping I can get something from a German public insurance organization, but they may not go for it. There are also private insurers, but Yitz has warned me that if you’ve ever been on the private insurance, it can be very hard to get onto the public, mostly because private is cheaper when you’re young and healthy but more expensive when you’re older and/or sick, and the public insurers want to keep cost spread out evenly. So if I can’t get on public insurance, I’ll see what non-German insurance options I have that will cover me here.

And if that wasn’t enough excitement for one day, we met this evening with a painter while he did an estimate and measurements for repainting the apartment before we move into it next month. So much to do! But no more nervousness about how much time to do it in!