The Weekly How-To Manual: Volume 1 - Registering at the Ausländerbehӧrde

Either of these trains will return you to the city center.

 
  Welcome to the "Weekly How-To Manual," where I will explain how to go about completing some of the many tasks required in order to live and study here in Leipzig, and Germany in general.  This week's topic is registering with the "Ausländerbehӧrde," or the foreigner's authority (immigration office).  This registration is functionally identical to obtaining a visa, but as U.S. citizens, rather than obtaining a visa in advance, we are able to register after our arrival here in Germany. 

The required documents are: (Make copies at one of the University's copy centers in the Augustusplatz campus, as the office takes them for their file)

• The application document, which is available here (do not click the "English" option; the website becomes a tourist site when you do), which must be completed (sign it the day you go to register)
• A biometric passport photo (these can be taken at a photobooth in the city hall office on Markgrafenstr. 3.  It costs 7 Euros for 4 pictures; the Ausländerbehӧrde person will have what amounts to a hole punch to cut one out.
• Your passport
• Your rental agreement
• Proof of your insurance (Stamped letter from the company, explanation of benefits, and proof of payment)
• Your matriculation form (make a copy of both forms that the University gave you)
• Proof of funds (659,00 Euros, per month you are staying, in a German bank account.  Make it abundantly clear that you are only staying until the end of the semester, and bring a copy of your first month's rent and room deposit payment reciept)
• If you took a language course (ie. Goethe Institüt), bring a copy of your completion form.  It will function as proof of language ability, and explain why you didn't obtain a visa for several weeks.
• 50 Euros (fee for the visa for four months.  Have 110 on hand, as that is the full payment for a year, and it goes down from their based on the actual time you will spend in Germany.)

Location Spotlight: The Reichstag

The Bundestag, a day before every other picture,
because there's not way to tell on the internet.

     Hello again!  I apologize for the delay (that no one noticed because my posting schedule isn't announced), but here we are again.  This post marks the first "Location Spotlight," where I will cover some of the history of a notable place I have visited in the past week.  This week's location is the "Reichstag," which is the meeting place for "Bundestag," which is the main governing body of Germany.

Rules of the Road, and other Places: Volume 1 - Bottle deposits

A typical American bottle return station.

    In the United States, we are accustomed to see machines like these, used for returning plastic and glass bottles for their 5-10 cent deposits.  Some people do so fairly regularly, although many will either simply recycle their bottles, or throw them away, as the price of the deposit doesn't necessarily warrant the additional time and energy spent on retrieving it.  Here in Germany however, it is a far different story.

Enjoyable Oddities: Volume 1 - Jaywalking

A Typical German City Crosswalk

     Welcome to "Enjoyable Oddities,"  a series of posts which will follow the fun, and sometimes downright weird little differences which become apparent to me over the course of my time in Leipzig, and Germany as a whole.
     This week's topic is jaywalking.  In many cities in the United States, jaywalking, crossing a street without a traffic signal or crosswalk, is a common part of everyday life.

Cooking for People Unsure of What a Stove Does: Recipe 1 - Simple Noodle and Vegetable Stew

It probably looks like this, just, you know,
 attached to the counter.

   Oh hi there!  So you're away from home, where you don't cook anything because you're not sure of how to convert ingredients into anything edible, the University's cafeterias and Mensas are closed (because they're for breakfast and lunch silly), and you really need to save some money somewhere, so you can go to that "museum" on the weekend.  Never fear!  Each week I will post a new, simple recipe which can be made in about 20-30 minutes, relatively cheaply, and without any guesswork.                                        Guten Appetit!

Simple Noodle and Vegetable Stew

Ingredients:

• Noodles of your choice (approx. 125g of bagged or boxed pasta, or 1 packet of ramen noodles)
• Mixed vegetables (fresh or frozen, diced)
• Vegetable bullion (powdered, cubed, or paste)
• 2 cups of water
• Oil or butter
• Salt and pepper (to taste)

Culture Post #1: Guten Morgen Deutschland!

     Hi!  How's it going?  Today we're going to explore the most important meal of the day.  Here in Germany, people on the go might decide to stop into a local bakery, or perhaps a chain like "Backwerk," for a quick bite to eat, and a cup of coffee.  These types of places are (obviously) chock full of various types of 

There's no way I'm trying not to look creepy taking this...

bread, but also stock plenty of sandwiches, particularly variations on the caprese, as well as sweeter options, like Berliners, danishes, and certain donuts ("pinky," chocolate frosted, and plain.  No exceptions).  As far as coffee goes, they have just about anything you could want, although you make it yourself using one of their machines (though this is not true of all bakeries here), and it also appears that all of those many and varied artificial sweeteners that we are used to in the U.S. are nowhere near as popular (look for the little tablets, or for the industrial Pez dispenser- they're hiding behind the hundreds of tubular sugar packets), while anything involving milk takes the top spot.