What kind of other things? Well, a good proportion of it has been spent job hunting and house hunting. On the house front - we were initially in a hostel, but struggled to find a place to live longer term. However we were able to pick up a week pet-sitting a dog and cat (Nico and Babu) in the suburb of Moabit for their owner who had to go to the Phillipines for work very suddenly. While we were doing that, we managed to secure a nice apartment on the edge of Mitte (Central) for two months which bought us more time to search for jobs without the worry of finding next week's accommodation. I very much liked the area we were in - it was almost next door to a large park called Gleisdreieck, which used to be an abandoned train yard but is now a very nice park. In some places they have deliberately left the train tracks in place in amongst the trees and growth. There was a handy U-Bahn station there too (elevated above the park), and it was also the southern end of the tunnel that goes to Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) - so plenty of trains to be seen, sure but I liked it for many other reasons too! That came to an end mid-August and we are currently in a short-term rental for 5 weeks in the funnily-named suburb of Wedding. These two short-term rentals were practical in a sense that when we took them on, they provided us with natural "Go-home" dates should it become clear that we weren't going to make it in Berlin.
On the job front, it was very slow going. At first, it was fire off applications for any and all jobs which remotely looked like something that we could do. Everyone had said Berlin had a big Tech or IT 'scene' and that I should have no trouble finding work. Berlin does indeed have a big Tech or IT scene, with a lot of Start-Up software development businesses - but they mostly are after programmers, and there was less than I perhaps expected in my fields of expertise to apply for. For the first few weeks, it seemed like all we were getting were rejection letters and it was fairly disheartening - but then Sasha secured her first interview, and not long after I managed to secure a part-time job working in the IT Department in a School during the summer school holiday period (the Northern Hemisphere's equivalent of the Christmas summer holidays back home - since their school year is 6 months out of sync). They really just were after a few extra hands to move around some computers, set up laptops and do the tedious data entry stuff that needs doing before the new school year starts but it was a welcome change from the tedium of sitting at home sending off job applications and more importantly, would bolster our funds slightly. This also meant that we should be able to stay a bit longer in Berlin before having to consider going home if nothing else worked out - our initial mid-August leave date (which coincided with the end of our first lease) was pushed out to late September, which would enable us to attend Oktoberfest once again. I am happy to report that after a few interviews at different businesses, Sasha was offered two positions and took the much better of the two of them - this was important as it meant we were now able to stay in Berlin until the end of our visa's. My permanent job was secured a week or so later, and we both start tomorrow - September 1st. From our perspective its taken forever to get to this point job-wise, but as it was pointed out to us it has only really taken slightly under 2 months to secure full-time employment. What we only learned maybe a month into living in Berlin was that the job hunting process in Germany takes forever anyway - businesses don't hire people in a hurry, because apparently once employed it can be very difficult for a business to get rid of you so they make absolutely sure that you're going to be the right fit. Similarly, because the hiring process is so drawn out, the minimum notice each job wants for leaving the job is 3 months! When put in that context, I think Sasha and I have done rather well. Likewise our start dates are not something we have set - German businesses require their employees to start at the beginning of the calendar month. Both of our workplaces are English speaking environments also so that's rather helpful!
So that's the job and housing stuff. Getting set up here in Berlin otherwise with things hasn't necessarily been easy - in the UK, I had Britbound to help me with getting my tax number and getting an appointment with a bank, what you need to do and look out for and all of that. If only there was a German equivalent of Britbound - its been quite a mission trying to not only find out what we need to do, but get the various bits and pieces done. First and foremost, we had to get something called an Anmeldung - basically if you plan on staying in Germany, you have to register with the Government that you are living in a particular address. All Germans do this, not just migrants and without the Anmeldung, you can't get any of the other vital bits of information you need. The law says that you're meant to register within a week of moving into a place, or in Brandenberg (which Berlin is in) its 2 weeks. You have to make an appointment to go to a Buergeramt, which is like a City Council office thing. Sounds simple, but its not - you could book an appointment online, but the only available appointments were a month away. You could call a telephone number, but it was in German and we couldn't understand what the automated voice was saying. So after getting some advice, we decided to try our luck by going to a Buergeramt to get an appointment. The first time we went was a Friday about 10am, the queue wasn't very big and when we got to the counter they said yes it was possible for us to just come in on the day but their computers weren't working that day and to come back Monday - the place opened at 8am but the lady suggested we arrive at 7.30am. So on the Monday we arrived at 7.30am only to find a huge queue, and at 7.50am the staff arrived and announced something in German to which the whole crowd groaned and half left - it seemed the computers were still not working. So we went to another Buergeramt in the central city, arrived there at 8.30am and queued for an hour before getting to the front desk. All seemed good until the lady behind the desk said that the earliest we could be seen was a month away - in fact the appointment would be after our lease for the residence we were trying to register for would finish! So although we had appointments, we decided to go super early to the first Buergeramt the next morning and try again. We arrived just before 7am, and were still not the first in the queue - not even close, but there were maybe only 15-20 in front of us. The reception opened at 8am, we got to the front desk about 8.30am and secured appointments for that morning at 10.15am. We left and had coffee, came back, at the appointed time our number was called and we went to the room, and the lady had it all done for us in 5min and we were back out the door. So much hassle for one little piece of paper each, and so much for so-called German efficienty!
When you get your Anmeldung you're supposed to get your Tax number in the post 1 to 3 weeks later. Ours never came, but without it we couldn't open bank accounts so Sasha went to a Finanzamt and got our numbers for us rather easily. We also got our Social Security numbers (or "Sozialversicherungsausweis" - such a delightfully long and thoroughly unpronouncable name!) which are needed for our jobs, and were also needed by the Bank. We have only just managed to open up German bank accounts, but that is now done. We have been getting by during the interim using our Revolut travel cards which are amazing, hooked up to our UK bank accounts and controlled through a very handy app on our phones. With the Revolut card there are virtually no foreign currency fees and money is exchanged at a much better rate than if the bank does it or money machine - we have been able to pay for things in Euros with virtually no penalty. In fact just before the Brexit vote, I transferred most of my remaining UK pounds onto my card and was able to exchange it all from Pounds to Euros on the card at a good rate because I needed to at some stage and seemed like a good idea just in case. Which it was, because I ended up with a few extra hundred Euros than I would have had I transferred after the rather incredulous "Leave" vote for Brexit. The Revolut card also has saved us much money while travelling in other foreign currency countries, I wish I had one much earlier!
We've also been a bit further afield than just Berlin - we've had 3 trips to Potsdam, the nearby town which was home to all the Royal Palaces. Two of these visits were to visit 2 of the 3 main parks in Potsdam, while the third was when we went for dinner there following going to one of Berlin's swimming lakes for the afternoon on a rather hot day. The visits to the parks will be subject to a blog post in the future - once we have visited the third park! Slightly further afield again was a day visit to Szczecin, Poland which was a 2-hour train journey from Berlin - because why the hell not? Szczecin (awful Polish spelling, isn't it? in German its spelt Stettin, and said Schtettin) will also be the subject of a future blog post in the not too distant future. We've also been further afield - Spain has already been covered by two posts, but there has also been a trip to Croatia (with a side trip to Montenegro) and also a trip back to the UK, specifically Edinburgh for the Fringe festival. These too will also be the subject of upcoming blogs, its just a matter of finding the time and working on the photos! Many of these trips were planned or conducted before we knew whether we were staying the length of our Visa's or whether we'd have to return to the Southern Hemisphere after a few months - we figured that if we didn't make it in Berlin, at least we would have seen things and been to some places, some that we definitely wanted to go back and do. Now that we're staying, we can plan trips in the future - however the bank account need to look healthier before we venture on any big trips. This was the same when I started working in London, and I drew up a list of places within easy travelling distance of London that could be visited in a day. I intend on doing similar for Berlin - however there is a greater number of interesting places that can be visited than was the case with London, and as Szczecin has already demonstrated some of those destinations could easily be International! So we will see - I still hope to adhere to the "Two Trips a Month" aim even if some of those trips are not very far afield or even just within Berlin.
Last but not least - how's my German? Pretty blimmin terrible to be honest. We did start trying after arriving initially and we did start going to some "Survival German for Beginners" lessons which were quite helpful, but the tutor has been away and we haven't been bothering to keep up with learning German through Duolingo in the meantime. The thing is here in Berlin especially, there is very little need to know German - most people speak English (very good English even) and on the odd occasion that I have plucked up the courage to try ordering food or drinks in German, they've always replied back in English. We do know a lot of key words, which help us get by in day to day life (especially when going to the supermarket) but to be able to build on that and start having conversations in German will be the key. I still want to get to the point where I can speak German and understand it - but for now its kind of an every day background noise.
That's enough for now, I think I've covered most things - overall, yes I'm really enjoying it here so far and will enjoy it even better when the bank account is healthy. I'm looking forward to more travels to places not yet visited, perhaps returns to places already visited and enjoying the nice city that is Berlin. No photos in this post I'm afraid - but the next couple will undoubtedly have some!