Astronomy and Coffee

So! Trip to Goettingen! For the first time traveling alone with Matheus. We've got to Goettingen, all under control, until I realized that Matheus' bag was left on the train, with toys, dippers, bottles, some documents, ... everything. Well, I just went down ...

Contacted immediately the info-desk, that called someone, that would call the train and make people locate, "capture" and send the bag back in Hannover, something that could take about 1-2 hours. Well I waited and heard that the bag was not located, even though I gave them the exact sit and car I left it ... they would keep looking and contact me, after filling several forms. Well ...

Gave the flat back, saw some friends, Matheus had a lot of fun at Silke's, sad goodbye, back home.

More unpacking in the house and calling the train company daily. Filling contract and forms for several things. A little discussion with the landlady about humidity and changing the heating knobs. All settled.

Time to look for my unemployment insurance. Miguel, who's chilean, tried it and could not get it for the end of his PhD thesis because his visa didn't allowed him to work on anything but his PhD, so he didn't qualify to the implicit "job searching" of receiving the unemployment insurance. On the other hand he would not receive what he paid unnecessarily and compulsorily for this insurance. I would have the same problem as Brazilian, now, as portuguese, I don't need a visa, so I qualify! Informed myself with friends and internet and the minimal condition is having payed 12 months of unemployment insurance in the last 36 months . I had payed 13.5 months, great. The time at ESO doesn't contribute to that and the last unemployed months either ... specially because I was not sure we'd stay in Germany and I'd become portuguese, and both were mandatory conditions for this unemployment insurance.

Well, turns out the rules changed in 2005, before I started contributing, and now it's 12 months of unemployment insurance in the last 24 months. In this case I have only 1.5 months paid so ... no unemployment insurance for me ... but I still needed to take the pay slips there so that they were 100% sure I couldn't have it.

Also called for the residence permit, in advance, to know if it was all "running properly". Turns out the protocols haven't arrived from Goettingen yet. I would have to call in the following wednesday. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

The surprising thing, was ARCOR. Now VODAFONE. I forgot to mention that they contacted me in the last week in Goettingen and I sent the forms by fax, so I was expecting internet and phone in January (4-6 weeks). We were being saved by the mobiles and tethering. Arcor set the instalation for the next monday (Dec 14th). Amazing, 2 weeks. Let's see.