There are a few details

Which you only find out afterward... For example, I should have registered my phone at the airport, especially since I now have an Egyptian SIM, otherwise it will be blocked after 90 days... Fortunately, I will be in Barcelona in October because Amma is coming, and then I can take care of it. Unfortunately, I can't make an appointment in Germany because I also need to take time off; I can't just take vacation since we already have all the school holidays off, so there's no extra time.

That's not all; the SIM card is registered to my visa. I always get a tourist visa because the work visa is very complicated. It’s usually valid for 30 days; after that, my employer renews it and pays a fee for each renewal, and I need a new SIM card again because they want me to be reachable. They also really, really want me to be in the WhatsApp group. It was quite exciting that I wasn’t already there on the first day because how am I supposed to communicate with them? Of course, I also already have a work email; we have a team meeting for an hour every morning before we start. I wonder why we even need an extra group or several at all. Unfortunately, this also results in the colleagues constantly being on their phones because they're supposed to be. Personally, I prefer it when the rule is strict: no personal phones during work; there’s a team phone at most.

As far as the employment contract goes, it seems to take them more time for me to finally be in this WhatsApp group. Let’s see if I get it on Sunday; on Wednesday, they said Thursday, and now Thursday means Sunday (because Friday and Saturday are the weekend here).

As I now know, there is a time tracking system, and my fingerprints were even taken for that. With this fingerprint, I can personally clock in and out. If I arrive a minute late, there is a designated person in the team who keeps a list. After a certain number of times, it gets deducted from the salary. You get the chance to make it up, which is then called a late shift. That’s the person who stays longer if a child is not picked up on time.

So far, I always bought the metro tickets individually at the counter but then learned you can also buy a card that can be recharged. Sometimes the machine doesn’t work, sometimes credit cards aren’t accepted, and sometimes you can’t buy a card for recharging, but you can buy several single ones; I have that sorted now.

My German colleague warned me that people would find it uncomfortable here to leave a question unanswered, preferring to tell something instead. I’m looking for a thermos cup because I packed away my small thermos and didn’t have time to search through more than four boxes for it.

The woman who prepares breakfast at the hostel recommended a larger mall; I searched for it longer today. It was a nice search; I saw many shops and even bought three new clothing items and had the interesting experience that Google Maps changes the location—sometimes the mall is marked on the right side, sometimes on the left, and sometimes even the intersection changes—then I consulted Maps.me. That worked then. The mall is multi-storey and consists almost entirely of clothing stores; there were no kitchen utensils on any floor.