Registration at the "DMV"

When Jack told me that we had to get a Meldebestätigung ("Meld a be schtate a gung) at the Bürgeramt ("Burger amt"), my immediate response was to say "Gesundheit!" It was such a mouthful to say that I could only assume that he sneezed in the middle of saying something about the middle of a state and getting a burger. Turns out, I was wrong. The Bürgeramt is, essentially, like a DMV experience, and the Meldebestätigung is a registration paper. Basically, we had to register that we are living here. Luckily, Jack had an appointment with the Bürger-place to get the Melde-thing.

Unlike the US, you can make appointments at the Bürgeramt, and Germans are timely. We had an 8:20am appointment and we were out by 8:40. Talk about efficiency! Had we been in the US, it would have taken an hour just to get through the line to tell the people what we were there for, and then another hour waiting for the teller, followed by 30 minutes of trying to figure out what to do, only to find out that you don't have the right paperwork and had to do it all over again. We didn't have one piece of information for the "Frau" at the Bürgeramt, but were we turned away? No! Instead, we could email the information that she needed. We left with a Meldebestätigung, which allows us to open a bank account, get a cell phone, and a Visa. I also left with being able to pronounce Meldebestätigung and Bürgeramt. That was a proud moment...