JOB SEARCH / PAPER WORK / DOCUMENTS
We had our meeting in the Ausländerbehörde / Immigration Office with the Aufenthaltstitel / Residence Permit people last Thursday.  We where very worried about the meeting and how it would turn out.  We have heard stories and read on-line about how the officials will turn people down and make them leave the country if they don't like the answers to the questions they may ask you.  It all turned out just fine though.  We had Andy and Peter from the office go with us and that must have helped our results.  I had to fill out an additional 4 page questionnaire in which they only had one complaint that I had to correct and that was because I put my height down in feet/inches (automatic for me, not thinking metric).  I happened to have a metric measuring tape in my purse so I whipped that out and had Steve measure me in cm and correct the form.   We had to do finger prints of both hands, index fingers and paying a large fee of I think 250 euros.   At the end of the meeting and some sit time in the waiting area we where approved for a residence permit and Steve was approved for a work permit (he now has a temporary one) both which should arrive in the mail in a few weeks.  I can't leave the country until my residence permit arrives.  Or at least they said if I wanted to leave I'd have to tell them and pay them some euros for a temporary form of paperwork.  

I have not applied for my work permit yet as I think the best order of the process is to get an offer and have the company help sponsor me.  I think getting my residence permit will help in my job possibilities.  But not knowing the language is going to make getting a job very difficult.  A non German has the lowest priority in getting a job.  The job has to be open and offered to Germans and with no person found to fill it it can then be offered to a European citizen, then if no one fills the position, it can be offered to me.  Also I have to be offered a salary about about 45K euros or they won't consider it and I can't get the permit.  I am looking into taking a German language class as soon as I can get into one.

Steve's office

Steve's office

Steve moved into a new office down the hall.  In this new one he isn't sharing it with anyone yet.  That makes the conference calls and presentations on-line easier and more quiet.

Steve's new office

Hi,
I'm in Steve's Mannheim office this afternoon to catch up on computer stuff.  Later we are going to a fair with Andy and other office mates.  The weather is raining and chilly but not too bad.
The kitties are doing fine.  They are pretty friendly now and only have one place to hide and that is the cargo carrier that they arrived in.  They like to go in it and sleep, maybe thinking they will wake up from this dream and go back?
Steve and I went with Andy to look for another bed today for the apartment.  The twin beds that we put together are not that comfortable for us so we are going to get a single mattress and/or a frame that can hold two twins closer together.   If we get a new frame and mattress then we will put the twin beds into the guest room.
 I made a chicken stew yesterday for dinner.  Soups and stews are comforting in chilly weather.  I have been shopping at the local stores again for food and things for the apartment.  Germans don't eat peanut butter I'm told.  But I can buy it on-line if I want it.  I have been trying to translate cooking amounts and directions for things I find in the store.  It takes a long time to make some things when I have to look up almost every word and half the words are not in the dictionary.  I'll have better success when I have the computer running on the internet after the 17th.  The translator works pretty good on it.