Realm: Those wacky Germans Subrealm: Bureaucracy

Today, I did bureaucratic things. I opened a bank account, I got health insurance (in both cases for the second time, for complicated reasons). I registered my presence with the Bürgerbüro, and I tried to register with the Uni, but they told me that I had to do all this other stuff first. This, unfortunately, included registering with the Ausländereinmeldeamt (I think--anyway, the authority who deals with foreigners). Unfortunately, they refused to accept a photocopy of by grant authrorization AND a phone call from the Fulbright Commission as proof that I was going to be financially supported. sigh. Guess I should have started by using the rare magic item known as the Fulbright-Ausweis, which gives the bearer +3 to impress officials.
And as one of the people at the Auslandsreferat at the Uni apparently said,`"Alle die Vorurteile, die Sie über deutsche Bürokratie hören haben, stimmen schon."


Unrelated update, Tuesday: I´m playing around with the layout, so comments on the new look(s) are welcome!