Astronomy and Coffee

Monday started with Fernanda going to her group meeting at work, even without the contract. The boss had been absent for personal reasons also.

On the end of the previous week I've been to the equivalent of a "day care pool" from the city government. Actually, after visiting a couple of kinder gardens Matheus could go we found out that, for the city kinder gardens the waiting list is of about 1-1.5 years. Considering that german women have 8 weeks of maternity leave (they can also spend the next 2 years at home, partially paid by the government) a couple has to sign up for a KG about one year before actually getting pregnant. Then they complain that the countries population is getting old and all the economic implications of that. You just CAN'T HAVE A KID HERE!

Back to the pool. The option is Tagesmutter, as we had in Goettingen. And looking for one must be done thru the government since I myself require certification for that. Good. On monday I visited them at the proper place and time, got the name of a hand full and started calling. Not many options actually.

On tuesday we visited one that we liked it. She actually was raised in Uruguay and also lived in Brazil, so communication was much easier, even in german. We thought over night and called here today to say we're in. So Matheus starts on Jan 4th. Paying is another issue :-) There's governmental help for that, we just have to set the paperwork for that. Next monday.

Got to the social service, got a huge form that I need to translate and fill ... and tried to contact the city hall again ... no contact.

BTW, on monday we woke up with some 15-20 cm of snow at the door. For my surprise, the street and the sidewalks still had snow at 11:00 AM!! Even in Goettingen they would have been already clean! Even the avenue had snow on it yet! More complaining about the city hehehehehe

Tuesday, we decided to go to the city hall and see what's up. The provisional visas would end the 27th (sunday) and this is a short week. Got there, waited, got to talk to the nice guy there, who looks at the computer screen and say "you're both researchers, so you have to go to our section of 'students and researchers', not here with me", called someone and turned to me saying "it's gonna be quick there".

They have a special section for us, but no one told me that, actually I think the TUM's personnel department should have told us that. BTW, when I say TUM's personnel department I mean the TUM's hospital personnel department. No extrapolations here.

We went to the other section, got there and another nice guy starts asking all the papers again. All that the other wanted and had processed, this one wanted again. Gotta say, people at the foreigns department of the city hall have been EXTREMELY nice to us!!!! When he noticed I was not getting 100% of what he was saying, he switched to english :-))

At the end he tells me "you gotta bring one picture each, this declaration filled and signed, proof of health insurance until Dec 2010 and come back tomorrow at 10:00 AM, only one of you, no need for both and kid".

Health insurance is one of those loops, as I could see. You need it to get the residence permit, that is needed to have the work permit, that is needed to have the contract signed, that is needed to have the health insurance :-) We are with a provisional insurance for visitors, but Mawista is nice (if you ever need a short science visitor health insurance use Mawista - cheap, easy and simple). They extended our insurance until the end of the year and sent it right away to my e-mail, so I could print it when I got home. And we can cancel anytime.

Things seemed to be working. I needed to be downtown at 10:00 AM and in the west part of the city before 12:00 PM to get the contract for the Tagesmutter ... this was solved by phone and I'll get it on monday.

Got to my meeting at the city hall, gave documents, papers, pictures ... and then the person I was dealing with gets to me and says "what about your passport", and I point to my portuguese ID that he had in hand and say "I'm portuguese ... and brazilian" ... then the mess starts ... they always have problems with multiple citizenships. I understand, those laws are too complicated and too new!

Asked me to wait outside, went somewhere to gather information, after some 10-15 minutes he comes back with the "problem solved face". Then the forms started ... not many, but enough for me, Fernanda and Matheus. Remember when I said it was too easy for the first week? No forms, all digital ... well they got to me :-) Well, not so hard too, at 11:00 I was given things to pay and explanations.

So, now I have a permanent residence permit in Germany. I don't really need it, being portuguese, but Fernanda and Matheus do, and for them to have it, I must have it too. So now we have permanent residence permit in Germany with no restrictions whatsoever. Matheus has to come back in 5 years to renew it (don't ask me why). So, the instruction was "you go, pay and they will give you all there, merry Xmas". Then I asked, "what about the work permit?" and the reply was "for this you have to go to the Work Department" ... ooooooohhhhh crap!! We needed it today, so that Fernanda can sign the contract on the first working day of january (yep a month late ... no comments).

Fernanda was at home and I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to do it for here ... so comes the "emergency call" while I was waiting for the papers to be issued ... "get Matheus and so to the Goethestrasse station, as soon as possible, I'll meet you there, we need to be at the Work Department before 12:30 PM", chaos, ... got the papers, got to this station, they arrived, we managed to get to the person we needed 12:25 PM.

Explained the situation, the person there tells that researchers don't need "work permits". Then we comment that the university was asking for it he researched his folders, some stuff on the computer, and printed the law that says that :-) Then I asked what would she need to do if she wanted to work with something else. He looked at Fernanda's brand new residence permit and said "nothing, here it has no restrictions, so she can work with whatever she wants without any special permit, this dashed part is canceling and need for work permits". Problem solved!

So excess of pressure was unnecessary, but we didn't know that before. TUM contacted, paperwork processing, documents handed, contract will be signed on Jan 4th.

And yesterday I've got a message from the train company that Matheus bag was found and is being sent via post to us! This is also good news!!!

So! That's all folks! The saga is not over, but will be reported more often hehehehehehe

Tomorrow is Xmas eve, so merry Xmas to all possible readers. No new before monday! :-)