Progress

I feel like we really are beginning to settle in here. We registered this morning at the Hamburg Welcome Center, so I have a shiny-new 5-year residence permit, which is quite awesome. Normally when moving to Germany as a foreigner you have to register twice, once with the city office to register your address and once with the foreigners' office to get visas and such. Hamburg has a new, consolidated office where we were able to get all of that done in one place, including tax cards and information about driver's licenses. Of course, it's only for what I've taken to calling fancy people (business people, researchers, academics) which seems somewhat unfair (also bizarre that we fall into that category), but it was quite easy and now we're officially residents of Hamburg. To celebrate we got pastries and cappuccinos at a bakery (Dat Backhus, one of the bakery chains here) while waiting for the stores to open so we could buy SIM cards.


We haven't had many problems (yet - knock on wood) with the bureaucracy here. There certainly is a lot of paperwork to do anything official but all of our interactions with the people helping us have been really positive. They seem to have a certain amount of ironic amusement about the whole thing, recognizing that it's a lot of paperwork and that we might not be used to being required to present documents showing that indeed we have our doctorates or are married or what-have-you. I keep thinking about people moving to the US in a situation similar to ours (not speaking the native language well, not really understanding quite how the system works) and wondering if they would be treated as respectfully and helpfully as we have been treated. I hope so but I have my doubts.

Most people have also been very willing to explain how things work - for example when we opened our bank account the man helping us spent over an hour (going into his lunch break) explaining our options, what he thought would be best for us and why, and then going over some of the differences between the US and German banking systems. (He also reassured us that the German government had insured our money so it was safe despite the economic craziness. That's been a real concern here because Germans have one of the highest savings rates in Europe. The government was quite concerned about people queuing up to withdraw their money so the federal insurance is a big deal.) He was very patient and thorough, making sure we understood what we were signing and that we knew how to contact him if we needed help. During the process of entering our information into the computer he needed to see documentation of our degrees in order to put the title "Dr." on our names since that wasn't in either of our passports. Neither of us had that with us (silly us) so we were forced to forgo the Dr. title for our bank account. He seemed quite concerned about it and assured us that if we brought him the documentation he could add it to our file. When I asked whether it actually mattered for anything in terms of the account he very cheerfully said "No, not at all," so I guess it was just our egos at stake.

To celebrate our new-found residency (hey, it's exciting!) I baked cookies.


Chocolate-almond, with lots of salt. As I was walking home earlier I started absorbing that we're really HERE - this isn't vacation, this city is home for the next three years. It still feels scary and hard but also really fun and exciting. More fun and exciting than scary at the moment, despite my pathetic German skills and current lack of job. So that seems like progress. We'll see if a trip to the laundromat changes that.


Chocolate-Almond Residency Cookies
adaped from this Nigella Lawson recipe

The original recipe calls for salted peanuts, but I had unsalted almonds around (and frankly haven't seen peanuts since we got here). So I just added some salt to the dough to make up for it. I didn't measure it, so just add a little and taste to see if it's salty enough.

85 g (3 oz) butter, melted and cooled
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c granulated white sugar
salt to taste
1 tsp vanilla extract (or small portion scraped vanilla bean)
1 large egg
1 c plus 2 tbsp. all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
50 g semi- or bittersweet chocolate, chopped (about 1/2 c)
small handful of almonds, chopped (about 1/2 c)

In a medium bowl combine melted butter, sugars and salt and stir to thoroughly combine. Taste for salt and add more if necessary. Add vanilla and egg, beating thoroughly to combine. Add flour and baking powder and stir until no streaks of flour remain. (Taste again for salt if you don't mind raw egg.) Fold in chocolate and almonds. Refrigerate dough for 20 min.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350°F (176°C) and line a cookie sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. (Or use aluminum foil, but grease it if you do. I was lazy and I didn't and it was a mistake.) Plop large spoonfuls of dough on the prepared cookie sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart (they spread). Bake for 10-15 minutes, until brown around edges but still soft in the center. Cool on the cookie sheet for a minute or two and then on a wire rack (if you have one - if not a plate worked for me).

Yield: 10-15 cookies (I think - I made slightly less than half the dough and got 5.)