First Month in Germany

Hello everyone! It’s very nice to be back on the track after taking a break for a while, partly because it is just several days after my first arrival in Germany. There are several adjustments need to be taken into account and most important is, I am still waiting the status of my internship program, so I believe that it would be wiser to utilize the time as well as possible, which the only thing I could figure out is either checking out my virtual social gathering forum on Facebook or simply travelling around the district where I am currently staying with the free semester ticket given by the campus.

The story begins two weeks ago as I stepped on the marble floor of Frankfurt International Airport for the very first time. After crossing the immigration and custom counter, picking up my baggage, the freezing weather of Frankfurt welcomed my arrival with a shuddering temperature of -2 degree. It was therefore preferable to hop immediately onto the warmly air-conditioned bus which transported me to where I stay with my colleagues. The next destination is a city called Soest, about 3.5 hours drive to the north-east direction of Frankfurt/Main. Students which are on the administration process of the internship program, either because of paperwork issues with the foreign office in Germany or being hung-up by the company where they are applying, have to stay in this city for quite sometime. During the period of internship, students are registered as a student of Fachhochschule Südwestfalen Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft and there is of course an exam to determine whether they are eligible to hold the well-known German degree for engineering students, the Dipl. Ing degree. For the very first week, students have to take care of their paper works, such as bank account, cell-phone number, internet connection if necessary and some other minute details.

One thing that I find amusing that most stuff related to paperwork in Germany should be taken care of by ourselves and yet, the progress runs very smoothly and quickly as well, very German and as it should be. For instance, unlike in Indonesia where the PIN number of your debit card can be changed every time when you want to, the same thing doesn’t work here, well at least for the bank where I have my account. Once the PIN number is issued, it can not be modified at all, even if you accidentally forget your PIN number, there is nothing the bank could do instead of resetting your account. I do believe that the word “reset” will be accompanied with a mind-blowing number of fine and puzzling piles of paperwork, they say that it is done to safeguard the security and secrecy of customer identity or whatever. Anyway, our card was issued by a local bank in Soest and my colleague, who happened to live far away from Soest and had once wrongly inputted the PIN number of his bank account up until three times, which resulted his account to be blocked. As a result, he had to travel hundreds of kilometers back to Soest and claim his card to the bank where the card was initially issued. There was no additional charge by the bank, but it was presumably uncomfortable, time-spending and of course a not-likely-to-be small amount of money on a train to Soest. Bottom-line is, just be careful and avoid any short term memory when it is related to your PIN number or password of some important documents. One more thing, never sign any contract papers if you haven’t read the contents or if you don’t understand them. Further claims are unacceptable once the contract is signed and either parties is obligated to follow the rules.

"The progress runs very smoothly and quickly as well, very German and as it should be"

Also when it comes to have a cell-phone number or internet connection account, the system here is also quite different compared to Indonesia. Here, you could have a cell-phone which costs around 3 millions Rupiah in Indonesia for just about 1 Euro, yes… 1 Euro in Germany. But, it is bundled with a specified local cell-phone provider and customers should use the product for a period varied from 12 to 24 months. The provider will charge a minimum amount of usage fare and it increases along with your usage, then they will send the bill to your address at the end of the month. Meanwhile, I brought my own cell-phone from Indonesia and jammed it with a pre-paid cell-phone provider by Vodafone, the service is agreeably satisfying. I get a clear voice during calls, a great coverage in all cities I have visited and it is also reasonably priced. Sending a short message to the same provider is just about 5 cents, meanwhile sending a short message Indonesia costs me around 25 cents, phone calls to the other Vodafone customers is free during weekend. There are two options how much you want to charge your account: 15 Euro or 25 Euro. Please be advised that an international call is somehow quite expensive here and it would be better to use the VoIP or internet call.

The rest is mostly related to customs and habits, which I found the most interesting part during my first several days in Germany. Some facts that I could observe are: Germans love eating pork (they refer it as Wurst), mainly because it can be found everywhere and in various types of packaging methods; Germans love to drive fast and yet, they are very safety conscious and respect each other street users, such as pedestrians and cyclists. They will completely put their cars into a halt when you are about to cross a street, or even just a small alley, pedestrians trump car drivers here but don’t try to cross the street when there is no street signs which allow you to do so, never cross any streets if the pedestrian light still shows read, they won’t slow down and it is of course for a very sensible reason. By the time of winter, snow covers the street and it makes the road completely slippery. So, if you don’t want to be hit by a car which slips because of a sudden breaking, don’t even think to cross the road carelessly. 65% of German’s Autobahns have a strict rule of speed limit, meanwhile the rest 35% are the sheer paradise for the biblically fast-car driver, which means you can go as fast as you like. The car driving license from Indonesia is also valid here for a limited period of just six months, more than that a local driving license is necessary; Germans are nationalists, they are very proud of their country and local products, most Germans only drive a car which is produced by a German car manufacturer. My friend once said to me, you would be isolated by the Germans around you if you tell them that they don’t make cars better than other nations.

That’s it for today, considering up until today I haven’t got a job. I would therefore allocate some of my time to find one. Until then, enjoy.