Samuelosborne's travel blogs:
|
|
  | |  |
4th week in Germany
Entry 13 of 58 | show all | print this entry |
On Thursday Claudia and I drove to Landau, which is about 25km away from Hagenbach, to visit her University and check out the city, which is very beautiful. It was about 5 degrees cel. but we were happy to walk around the city markets and streets. This was also another great day because I received news that my sister, Sarah, gave birth to a girl, Sienna Margaret, so now I am an Uncle! Uncle Sam. We want YOU! The day before was also a top day because I was given my residence permit (for 12 months) which can be extended later. Claudi and I drove to Gemersheim to wait a painless 30 minutes for the admin crew to give us the okay and appropriate sticker to put in my Passport. So now I can apply for work! We celelbrated by going out to dinner in Kandel again at Sto Castello, the restaurant Claudi and I went to in Kandel the first week I was here. However this time I had a killer headache, probably from all the Ashtanga Yoga we are doing almost each morning, and I also think there might have been something wrong with the fish I ate, or the fact that we ate so much and went to bed to early, because for the next two days my tum tum didnt feel top notch. Didnt know if I needed to vom or allow my digestive system to attempt a rebalance of the situation. Fortunately, today I am feeling better. Oh and by the way, as part of the process of getting the residence permit, I needed a bank statement to show how much royal credits I had to support myself while in Germany, and a health insurance policy. Claudia was nice enough to organise for a lady to come to our house go over some options for me. However we soon realised that the offer was way to expensive, some 187 euros per month, which was out of the fuckin question. Fortunately I remembered seeing health insurance for travellers on travelpod.com and checked it out. World Nomads.com is the place to go! After a phone call to Australia to see how quickly I could receive confirmation of the policy (because as part of the residence permit process, I needed to submit it within 10 days and Claudia was freaking out), we signed and paid for 12 months, but of course we read the entire policy document, and paid $AUS 467! Nice. I even found a promotional code through a simple Google search and entered the numbers to receive a discount (and quickly checking out an online forum on which other people had made comments about worldnomads.com health insurance, all comments being positive.)
Last night we went to a party near Hagenbach, in Maximilliensau, of some friends of Claudia, the twins, Phillip and Andre, two very laid back and polite young men with Dutch relatives. I met a whole bunch of Germans and practiced speaking, but most spoke English. A couple also gave me some advice on where to go to find good Drum n Bass clubs in Karlsruhe. I gave a spiel about dmt but Claudia wasnt happy, because I have the ability to make it sound great, without balancing it with any negatives. I have been thinking about going to Burning Man next year also.
Also, yesterday, Claudia´s sister, Carmen arrived. She is a really nice girl, studying Computer Science at Uni. We got along fine.
All is well, still waiting for my XBOX to arrive, on break from language course, go back 8th Jan. Claudia and I are planning to visit a friend in Sweden in Feb. We checked out flight prices, and together we can get there are back for 79 euros. The cost of the flights was 0.99 euros there and another 0.99 euro back, most of the cost comes from airport and govt taxes.
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries by samuelosborne, from Germany or try a new search. |
| |
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
5 votes 
