Crossing My T's and Dotting My Lower Case J's

I spent nearly the entire day at work yesterday sorting through the paperwork and documents needed to get all my permits and such (as well as most of today). It’s possible that I’m over-preparing but since all of the forms and websites are in German it’s an intricate process of google translating. The last thing I want is to go to one of these government offices and get scolded in German for having the wrong stuff. I wish I had visio on this computer because my requirements would be best shown in flowchart form. Please see the diagram below for an overview of the process on getting my life together:

(click to enlarge)

Even though the U-bahn (subway) is underground, there is still cell phone reception. Not sure if there are enhancers or what but I’ve got a full signal at all times - I almost don’t want to get used to this! Anyway, I was late to meet Renee for the Big Lebowski watching party because I confused Rudow and Ruthaus. I didn’t let her know I was late nor did I catch her call because I was in underground mode…whoops! The party was good times. Let’s be honest, watching that movie alone is fun. but with others and white Russians is even better. We went to her friend’s apartment who had a projector for the movie. I met some fun people and I hope to enjoy movies and/or beverages with them again. I sat next to a native German who had seen the movie before in Deutsche. Since the villains in the movie are German we asked him what he thought… he told us in the dubbed version they are Italian. Ha! He also shared with us a story of when he went to East Berlin as a child. He said that in order to obtain the visa, his family had to attend a two hour class on the politics of EB. It was really fascinating talking to him about a historical event that I only know from the movie Goodbye, Lenin (and school).

Tonight, I learned that Germany doesn’t believe in personal liability so if you don’t have lights in your stairwell or ice on your walkway and someone falls and gets hurt they can’t sue you. Which explains the ice and lack of lights…I also learned that the train doesn’t run all night but don’t worry I didn’t learn that the hard way.