Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Tough

Ok, this is a lot harder than we bargained for. I think we have contacted about 50 landlords in the Freiburg area and still no place to live (besides the rubbermaid containers we are taking on the plane). The market is completely in the landlord's favor, as people line up and even 'apply' for apartments in Freiburg. So, we have a huge disadvantage to start with as it is much easier to deal with someone you can meet personally than a flight risk from Kanada. We gave up on trying to do it ourselves and through rental 'agents' in Germany, and employed the services of one of Peggy's friends and a guy from the Uniklinik - where I am going to work. We found a pretty nice place about 5 km from my work and we have our application in the pile of ten, so 10% chance. Here's hoping...
Oh, and the visas. So the guy at the consulate says "apply when you get there, not here" even though everything we learned said to do it now. So, he reluctantly agreed, and made a couple of calls to make sure we would get them in time (we fly out on May 17). Then, he takes our passports, and attaches them to the paperwork for the visas. I was a little stunned, but after a short assurance from him, we all walked out sans passports, and a receipt Erika could have made at the craft table. Who gives away their passport to some stranger from a hole-in-the-wall office? I still can't believe we agreed to it. Not to mention the $360 price hike from the quoted internet price of $90. But we did get some cheap paper Bavaria/Germany flags out of the deal. I think it was the single worst case of consumer responsibility I have ever had. Here's hoping...
Jeff

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Visa Day

So tomorrow is visa day. Should be a good time, standing in the consulate filling out forms with our good little kiddies. I am hoping everything is simple and that the turnaround time is short enough that we get them before we need to leave on May 17th. Oh yeah, we booked flights for all of us for May 17th on Air Transat. I've never flown Air Transat before. The flight is 9.5 hours long and we have to be at the airport three hours early for some reason or they may give our seats away. Add to that an hour or so for collecting luggage in Frankfurt and getting through immigration, and we will have a 14 hour airport/plane excursion that I am sure Reese and Erika will just adore.
I was reminded yesterday of how close the end of my degree is when we had a little farewell to another Ph.D. student, Yusuf. Most of my friends from the Biomedical Engineering department have moved on in the past year or so, and me and Rob are pretty much all that is left from our original cohort. It's sort of sad, I suppose, Edmonton and U of A were pretty decent for us, except for living in the projects.
Jeff