Wahnsinnige Platzangst!

[tigermouse88]

(Ominous voice-over:

"The year is 2008. The University of Potsdam, most advanced institution of its kind, has advocated a new innovation in course sign-up: The use of pens and paper. Stone tablets and cuneiform are now a thing of the past in this bastion of modernity...")

How do I hate German bureaucracy?

Comments

[miriamg]

"Leave this to me! I'm British, I know how to queue." xD

Luckily I never had to personally deal with German bureaucracy (the only way I could spell this word correctly is by checking how you spelled it), but I've heard some horror stories from my mum from when we first moved to Berlin. Apparently it was a Really Big Problem that my brothers and I didn't have my dad's (OR my mum's) surname, so the authorities were confused as to how we could possibly be a family. It ended up with my mum refusing to leave the building until somebody did something.

[miriamg]

Hi, Miriam. Anna here. This last-name fetish sounds so American! Or at least, American-pre-divorce-epidemic. I had a college friend who married and retained her own last name. She and her husband chose not to wear wedding rings, and they moved down to Mississippi, I think, where they were the objects of the worst kind of suspicion because the locals were convinced that they were Living In Sin. Having two different last names was criminal enough, but not wearing wedding rings !?! Shocking.

[luzifer_]

Oh my. I'm sorry to say it sounds slightly hilarious from an outsider's point of view, but I can only imagine how horrible it must've been for you. At least we only had to wait in line for a couple of hours, and at least it was a very well managed queue. *Hugs*
I'll resist the temptation to bash the economy thing and instead wish you the best of luck with everything, and a congratulations on the room! Small spaces can be quite cozy and Hákon and Hildur have always struck me as incredibly nice and fun people. : )

[sarahblack]

I am so sad about the whole situation. And kind of pissed at Gordon Brown, though I know he was just trying to do something. I just wish that he had chosen to do anything other than shoot himself so massively in the foot. :|

Immanuel Kant find the chicken!

[expectfailure]

whoa... aren't Germans supposed to be orderly and good at bureaucracy? how non-German-like of them!

And I'm glad you have a much more permanent home now! I expect many more regular updates and emails.

btw, please let me know how the used bookstores go! :-)