Bürokratie...es geht weiter...

So yesterday at the university Michael and I successfully registered as students! Which means we have the much-awaited Semesterticket so we can ride all U-Bahn and S-Bahn (all public transportation within Berlin) for free. Yipee!

This was the process: The office we needed to go (Auslandsamt) to is only open three days a week, including Thursday from 2:00-5:00 pm. These hours might make sense during the semester, but not during the first weeks when everyone needs to register! I will say the people were friendly and helpful, but we also got there early on. We got in line at 1:00 (an hour early), and there were already maybe 15 people in line in front of us.  They first gave us a plastic card, which we took to another office, maybe 1/2 mile away. We put this card into an special ATM-like machine, and paid exactly the required fees. From this machine we got a receipt, which we brought back to the first office, and got back into line. They took small groups of students together to register. Filled out some forms, had to show proof of health insurance and the receipt for paying the fees, and then we got the registration. All of this took about 2 hours, and when we left, the line was out the door, down the sidewalk, and down the block. And not moving. Seriously, I bet some people waited in line three hours and never got in. What an awful process. 

Of course the successful registration had to be celebrated with some German beer...

I will add a disclaimer to my complaining about the bureaucracy, because I don't want to be bashing government employees or these bureaucratic offices. In Germany, you study for next to nothing. We paid 194.70 EUR total for the train ticket (145,00 €), and other small fees for student organizations.  And because we are studying in impoverished Berlin, we get 100 € "welcome money" as students for choosing to study here. Awesome!

Next step: Visa (Aufenthaltstitel). We now have appointments to apply for the visa, and there is a 90-day grace period for doing that paperwork. So now a bit of a breather...