Ich bin...

The road to legal status in Germany is not an easy one. Im sure thats not a shock.

There are hassles with registration and health insurance. They want to see your diploma, your resume, your bank statements. They want you to prove that you really want to be a part of this place. I started the process in April last year and the Ausländerbehörde has had my full paperwork since July 2nd. Over the course of this process of trying to prove that I am worthy, I actually started to question whether or not I am . But after countless pages of paperwork in German, visits to the visa office, taking a number, standing in line, paying processing fees, visits to the insurance guy, buying the wrong kind of health insurance, buying some more, registering and re-registering my address, a million conversations that began with, "do you speak any english?", worrying and waiting...

I got it.

My visa.

On Jan 4th 2010, Berlin told me I could stay.

And after I did a little dance in the visa office hallway, so joyfully that my friend Marc literally had to pick me up off the floor, I knew what I had to do... currywurst. Something I have come to know as a Berlin speciality: sausages in a curry ketchup sauce with fries. I like mine rot/weiss (red and white- ketchup and mayo) on the side. I sat there with my victory meal drinking a Berliner Pilsner and breathed a looooooooong sigh of relief as I gratefully uttered the words:
"Ich bin ein Berliner!"