Please report!

August 8, 2017

From today we are Berliner. Of course, not really after three weeks, but only officially.

From our past in the Reich, we naturally know how bad the various offices of the city are here. Accordingly, we approach the matter with caution: book an appointment on the internet. Actually! The first appointment is September 19, but at least still in 2017. We of course take that before it becomes December.

At some point, however, we have to postpone too many things because we don't have a registration confirmation. We go slightly worriedly to the nearest Bürgeramt Blaschkoallee, prepared for the worst.

'You will be called at 12:15,' a cheerful colleague at the reception tells us. I refrain from asking 'Today!' It can't be, can it? Just one hour and then exactly announced? In Cologne, there was a number and we could then follow on a screen for two hours when it might be our turn.

Indeed, we are called at 12:20 and are out half an hour later. Well. What other disappointments does the day have in store for us? To calm our nerves, we get a plate of doner with everything but without bread at the Neukölln eating station.

To celebrate the day, we go out in style in the Bar jeder Vernunft in the evening. We save on the entrance fee because we won the tickets in a telephone quiz on Radio Berlin 88.8 and invest the savings directly in a bottle of wine.

Idil N. Baydar, as Iliit Ayse, is a rising star on YouTube. We don't expect much, just like with the registration, and we are disappointed again. The woman is great and the evening is a party. She explains the difference between 'Kanaken' and 'Kartoffeln' and why so much is misperceived by the other side. That's how it can stay.