importance of sequence

I am indeed in Stuttgart, Germany. I have been here for roughly 48 hours now, and have actually seen quite a bit, either directly walking or various aerial perspectives from higher elevations. My friend who is hosting me described the landscape of Stuttgart as similar to San Francisco. (She would know since she is a U.S. expat.) Anyway, it is a very green (many km of parks and vineyards within the metro city), and hilly, and abnormally (so I've been told) wet and chilly for August.

Yesterday, after I wandered my way to a church (for what we thought was a church the night before was in fact not), and so I followed the sound of church bells until I found myself inside a worshipping community (and was only 10 minutes late). By 1pm ish, the two of us left on a "walk". 7 hours and 20,500 steps later we returned home to lovely chili dinner. Our walk was almost entirely in green spaces. The only city site we explored that day was a monument garden museum that collected rubble in Stuttgart from the war. There were sculptures, tombstones, columns, and entablatures from 1500s into the 20th century; some really beautiful craftsmanship. Oh, and we did pause to eat some wurst and lintel soup and pommes (french fries). Quite a lovely day really. And then I attempted to understand a German TV mystery show (I guessed the wrong murdered).

Today looked very different. One, it's really cold. Okay, cool. But for a south Texan girl when a cold rain is falling heavily while I am walking about without an umbrella, it's pretty cold. In any case, today I wanted to get mein neu Handy (my new mobile phone for Germany). I was there twice, and it didn't happen. Apparently there is a sequence to these things when moving to a new country, and I am completely ignoring the laid out steps.

So let's say getting a mobile phone is step F (it probably should be lower in the alphabet, but oh well). Well, so apparently the mobile contract has to be tied to a German bank account. So off I went to the new first step. I now have a German account ... with some money in it (but I need to wire more over, soon). But when setting up the account, I discovered the bank wanted to know my visa residency number. But I haven't done that yet either because before that I have to register with Stuttgart. Anyway, I have to go back to the bank in a few days. So back I went to O2, my almost mobile phone provider. We went through all the contract info, everything was signed, SIM card in my possession. And then as my info was processing, I was told they could not accept me yet and had to put everything on hold because nothing shows that I am actually in Germany yet.

So after being so hopeful, tomorrow I need to wade through different bureaucracies to first get health insurance then to register in Möhringen, where I am actually living, (you can't be official without proof of medical insurance), then back to Stuttgart to get my full residency visa. And finally, I should be able to have a mobile phone. All this for a phone. Well, these things have to be completed soon anyway. And I am praying things work out. Especially when I begin every conversation with "Guten Morgen/Tag. Sprechen Sie Englisch bitte?" So far people have been very helpful, which makes the process seem less chaotic. I just want to get all this done before class begins.