An Official Munich Resident

Last day of school in July

The first week and a half of being a total bump (no school, no work, no responsibilities) are almost come and gone. I was afraid I was going to find myself without anything to do, that I would get bored and that the days would go by very slow. But that hasn’t been the case. I still feel I haven’t caught up with everything that I wanted to get done. I’ve been busy running errands, trying to get the telephone connection solved, registering at the office of Foreign Authorities, getting my residence permit so I can stay here an additional 3 months, getting ready for my upcoming trip to Ibiza, updating the blog, planning some of the things I want to do in the next couple of months, celebrating the birthdays of 2 friends, a couple of sightseeing activities, and getting caught up with all the things I have to do myself now that my dearest mother is not next to me: cooking, doing laundry and ironing. The cooking experience has not been that traumatic, as a matter of fact I´m enjoying cooking, even if it is for just one person. Something I never thought I would enjoy. The story about getting the laundry done is a little bit more interesting. There is a 24 hour laundromat very close to my building (3.50 Euros per load on the washer, 2.00 Euros for 15 minutes on the dryer and a 2 minute walk), a washing machine on the 6th floor of my building (2.00 Euros per load on the washer, 1.00 Euro for 20 minutes on the dryer and a one minute walk) and a friend who told me I could use the washing machine in the house where she lives (0.00 Euros per load on the washer, 0.00 Euros for unlimited time on the dryer and a 7 minute walk to the subway station, a 5 minute drive with my subway to the central station, a 5 minute connection at the central station, a 20 minute drive with the second subway and a 15 minute drive with the bus). She lives out in the boonies.. Ja, ja ja!!!! The things you have to do when you have no income!!!! I’ve only gone to her place once but with the current exchange rate it is very tempting once I start doing the math. Specially because being as picky as I can be, I have to have a load for dark clothes, one for whites, one for colored, one for the linen and one for delicate clothes.

As a foreigner when you stay in Germany for longer than a week you are obligated to register your presence in the country at a Registration office from the local government; in my case the city of Munich. Every time you move you have to go back to the same office and register your new address and once you decide to leave the city you have to go back and unregister. I was a total procrastinator and only did it last Friday. Since being registered was one of those things that I never needed, I never felt the rush or urgency to do it. But it so happens that one of the requirements to obtain a residence permit, a permit or visa which will allow me to stay in Germany longer than 3 months, is to have registered in the city office. On August 15th, it will be 3 months since my arrival in Germany. Can you believe it? That 3 months have already passed? Not having a lot of time remaining, and given the fact I won’t be in Munich next week, I finally went on Friday to register and pick-up the application for the residence permit. I went expecting the worse and thinking I was going to have to waste the whole day or at least the whole morning registering. I waited about 30 minutes before my number was called and had to walk into an office where I was finally registered. The whole process took less than 5 minutes. I was also afraid I was going to be given a hard time for having waited so long to register; but not at all. I was helped by a very polite (and by the way good looking too) man who gave me the piece of paper I needed to take to the Foreign Authority office to apply for the residence permit. I was asked what I was doing here in Munich so I explained I was attending a language school. The whole conversation took place in German and I was even complimented on how good my German speaking skills are. Yesterday I went back to the office of Foreign Authority to apply for my residence permit. This time around I was sure everything was not going to go as smooth as it did on Friday. I´ve always heard about how much bureaucracy there is in all of the institution of the German government, how inefficient their processes are and how slow their employees work. Even tough I had all the required documentation (health insurance, bank account, school registration, passport, photo) I was expecting spending the whole morning there. I was also expecting to undergo a heavy and dreadful interrogation by a “Beamter” (government employee) who had been trained by a former agent of the secret intelligence agency of the times from the cold war. But once again I was wrong and was happily surprised with a very smooth and quick process. 40 minutes and 50 Euros after my arrival to the building I walked out with the visa already stamped on my passport which allows me to stay in Germany until November 30th

My class the first 3 weeks in July -- My class the lat week of July

My teachers are the two in the front: Gabi & Regina

.…And even though I’ve had my hands full getting all of this done I also have to admit that I miss school and the routine I had gotten used to: getting up at 8:00 in the morning and getting ready to go to school, which included preparing a “lunchbox” with a sandwich and a fruit for the break, riding the tram to go to school and doing some people watching while I was at it, socializing a little bit before the start of the class and finding out how everyone made it home from the previous day outing, socializing some more with the teachers and school staff, learning new things about the German language in the class, taking the 30 minute break where I would go downstairs to a bakery together with some friends to get a cup of coffee (the coffee machine from the school broke down), eating my sandwich and socializing a little bit more, catching up with the latest gossip from the school and the “Gray’s Anatomy” lives of some of our class mates, returning to the last hour of class, and making plans to meet in the "Waiting Room" for our daily event.

School Building -- "The Waiting Room"

I’ve already registered for my next course in the same school. The classes begin August 27 and they run until September 21st , the day before the beginning of Oktoberfest. My mom and my brother shall be arriving (God permitting) on September 29th and will stay on this side of hemisphere until October 14th. My plan is for them to spend some time here enjoying the city and all there is to see, the Oktoberfest, and Munich’s surroundings before taking off to Prague and probably another still-to-be-determined destination. After they leave back to Miami I make take another 10 day trip with some friends from Munich and I would then come back to my last week in the capital city of Bavaria. My plan is to be taking off (actually drive off) from Munich to France around October 31st and before I know it the first part of my adventure will be coming to an end.