Earlier today, I drafted a blurb on visiting the Freiburg Bürgeramt (public authorities office), but I decided my description sounded unnecessarily petulant. Suffice it to say, this morning I went to the Bürgeramt to continue to initiate the first step in the process of commencing to bid adieu to what the proper paperwork filled out in duplicate and then submitted to and stamped and dated by a civil servant might, regardless of the temperament of said civil servant that day or any other, justifiably be identified as German Bureaucracy. Schoenen Tag noch.*
Whether I was successful remains to be seen, as I eventually abandoned hope of speaking with a live human being in the Un-Registration office, and instead used my Oblivious Ferner's wiles to convince the woman at the welcome desk to take my form. She looked dubious, because giving her the form meant I would not be able to obtain a receipt. Fortunately, the U.S. government doesn't give a hoot whether I have proof of un-registration from the city of Freiburg.
Afterward, I went out into the fresh air, stood on the corner with a bunch of other people, and pretended to be German by dutifully not crossing the street until the pedestrian signal gave us permission to do so.
*"Have a good rest of the day."
Showing posts with label government. Show all posts
Showing posts with label government. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Daily life
We arrived in Freiburg just in time for the start of summer vacation. Elias is attending a day camp for the next two weeks in the hopes of making some friends and becoming more comfortable speaking German.
After dropping Elias off this morning, I walked through the Altstadt and across the Dreisam river to the Freiburg public authorities office and Ausländerbehörde (Aliens Authority). I had tried to visit the office yesterday afternoon, but forgot that in Germany, the day you decide to visit a government office is the day the office closes at 12pm. Because we're living here more than three months, both Elias and I need to apply for visas. Our family also needs to register with the city--even Germans need to do that--so that the city knows we're here and so we can get our garbage collection sticker.
Germans take garbage and recycling very seriously--so seriously that there's very little actual garbage. Paper and cardboard go into one container, glass bottles into another, biodegradable food waste into a third, and all packaging materials (plastic containers, cans, foil lids, etc.) into the "gelbe Sack" (yellow sack). What's left is Restmuell. We share Restmuell space with another tenant in our apartment building; our combined monthly allotment is about two cubic feet. That's not a lot of garbage. The gelbe Sacks, however, fill up fast, so we need that sticker.
After speaking with a friendly woman at the Ausländerbehörde, I made a visa application appointment for September and collected a stack of forms to fill out in the meantime. On my way home, I visited the farmer's market at the cathedral. Locally grown produce is sold on the north side; local and international produce and goods are sold on the south side.
Daily markets facilitate daily shopping. Germans go grocery shopping more often than Americans, in part because the daily shopping habit developed when most households included a stay-at-home wife, and also because most refrigerator-freezers are only about three feet tall. My new rule for buying food: if the backpack is full, the fridge will be full. Also, a kilo of green beans is a heckuva lot of green beans.
Last night, our landlord, Frau H.--a retired Gymnasium English and French teacher and a trained tour guide--took us on a tour of the Altstadt, so thanks to her I know the Muenster has been a market site for at least 700 years. The west tower was completed in 1330; carved into its base are records of the size of a loaf of bread in AD MCCLXX (1270), AD MCCCXVII (1317), and AD MCCCXX (1320). Want to make sure you're getting your money's worth? Hold your loaf up to the loaf outline carved into the Muenster stone. (Click on the photo for a larger image. I don't know if the three white circles are graffiti or other bread records.)
Frau H. also pointed out the very rude gargoyle on the south side of the Muenster. Seems the stonemason was displeased with his pay, so he arranged to have the bishop's house permanently mooned.
After dropping Elias off this morning, I walked through the Altstadt and across the Dreisam river to the Freiburg public authorities office and Ausländerbehörde (Aliens Authority). I had tried to visit the office yesterday afternoon, but forgot that in Germany, the day you decide to visit a government office is the day the office closes at 12pm. Because we're living here more than three months, both Elias and I need to apply for visas. Our family also needs to register with the city--even Germans need to do that--so that the city knows we're here and so we can get our garbage collection sticker.
Germans take garbage and recycling very seriously--so seriously that there's very little actual garbage. Paper and cardboard go into one container, glass bottles into another, biodegradable food waste into a third, and all packaging materials (plastic containers, cans, foil lids, etc.) into the "gelbe Sack" (yellow sack). What's left is Restmuell. We share Restmuell space with another tenant in our apartment building; our combined monthly allotment is about two cubic feet. That's not a lot of garbage. The gelbe Sacks, however, fill up fast, so we need that sticker.
After speaking with a friendly woman at the Ausländerbehörde, I made a visa application appointment for September and collected a stack of forms to fill out in the meantime. On my way home, I visited the farmer's market at the cathedral. Locally grown produce is sold on the north side; local and international produce and goods are sold on the south side.Daily markets facilitate daily shopping. Germans go grocery shopping more often than Americans, in part because the daily shopping habit developed when most households included a stay-at-home wife, and also because most refrigerator-freezers are only about three feet tall. My new rule for buying food: if the backpack is full, the fridge will be full. Also, a kilo of green beans is a heckuva lot of green beans.
Last night, our landlord, Frau H.--a retired Gymnasium English and French teacher and a trained tour guide--took us on a tour of the Altstadt, so thanks to her I know the Muenster has been a market site for at least 700 years. The west tower was completed in 1330; carved into its base are records of the size of a loaf of bread in AD MCCLXX (1270), AD MCCCXVII (1317), and AD MCCCXX (1320). Want to make sure you're getting your money's worth? Hold your loaf up to the loaf outline carved into the Muenster stone. (Click on the photo for a larger image. I don't know if the three white circles are graffiti or other bread records.)
Frau H. also pointed out the very rude gargoyle on the south side of the Muenster. Seems the stonemason was displeased with his pay, so he arranged to have the bishop's house permanently mooned.
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