German government at work...

[aworldnervelink]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070205/od_nm/germany_housing_odd_dc

[error]

Note the devil in the details: The town is rationing housing to welfare recipients, and recently reduced the ration.

[Rochelle]

Lol. This is so typical of German bureaucracy.
When I did my study abroad in Germany (Berlin, incidently), I went to go get my visa from their Ausl?nderamt (bureau of foreingers??) and not only had they lost my folder, but when I showed the guy there the note from my dad saying that they had provided this much money for me for my support, he complained that it was in English and that he couldn't understand English. I responded that my parents didn't know German and hence the note. Then he complained that it didn't have a monthly stipend but was just one single amount and that I needed to have a monthly amount and and then have them sign it and have their Passport with me so that they could compare the signatures and make sure it was valid!
I was livid and asked him if he expected that every student studying abroad should bring their parents with them because that's impossible, but if he wanted me to i could go get mine since they were visiting.

Long story short, I got my visa. But that's how it went....

[KBCraig]

Lol. This is so typical of German bureaucracy.
When I did my study abroad in Germany (Berlin, incidently), I went to go get my visa from their Ausländeramt (bureau of foreingers??) and not only had they lost my folder, but when I showed the guy there the note from my dad saying that they had provided this much money for me for my support, he complained that it was in English and that he couldn't understand English. I responded that my parents didn't know German and hence the note. Then he complained that it didn't have a monthly stipend but was just one single amount and that I needed to have a monthly amount and and then have them sign it and have their Passport with me so that they could compare the signatures and make sure it was valid!

There's no *amt like a Deutscher *amt.

I love Germany and Germans. But I do understand why their neighbors are still nervous after all these years.

[Rochelle]

Meh, I'd be more afraid of the Russians than the Germans. The Russians aren't tripping over themselves saying "Yea, remember that whole invading you and killing off __% of your population? We're really, really, sorry about that. We're so sorry we're going to make 15 zillion different memorials ALL over the place. And that's just in one city." No one knows the RIGHT way to do things like the Germans and they're feeling guilty about WW2 in that right way. The Russians on the other hand, as far as they're concerned, Eastern Europe was their rightful domain and they're going straight back towards the dictatorships that gave it to them in the first place.