Every incident happens, I’ll first feel nervous, then seek for solutions, if nothing goes right, feel bad, and change to a different angle to see the same incident. Or talk to somebody, settle down the emotion, sleep it overnight. The next day, everything is new.
Actually, no big deal. (shrugged)
05 Jan, 2021
Installing Wifi Twists and Turns
About 2 months ago, I saw someone posted on Facebook saying that you should not forget to apply for the network in advance when you move, because sometimes you may have to wait a month! I thought to myself: It’s 2020, what kind of game is it to ask customers to wait for a month… But I have been in Germany for 3 months now, and I understand that slow speed is the new normal.
After we’ve successfully rent an apartment, I urged Curry Boy to pitch a network provider. We also asked a German friend, “Hahaha! Every network service provider is bad here, so I can’t recommend!” Facebook group, “Vodafone is too bad, don’t use it!” Later, we selected one which has relatively less bad reviews – Telekom. We applied to Telekom immediately after signing the contract in mid-December.
Who knows that the earliest installation date fell on January 5, 2021, which was more than 2 weeks later. Many people said it’s an early appointment, we’re VERY LUCKY. It seems that encountering “surprises” is really common in Germany, but everything goes well, you almost have to pop champagne to celebrate.
Well, when it was time to install, the router was operating normally, and I thought: “Eh?! Should I prepare champagne now?” Then the technician said that he would go to the dungeon to make a connection. After 10 minutes, he came back and said that he could not find it, while the management company told us it was there, just he couldn’t find it. We called the manager again, and after some chatter between the manager and the technician, the conclusion was, “I don’t know.”
Oh my God.
The technician is gone. The manager said to ask the responsible electrician. What about the network? Nobody knows. (shrugged again)
(Need to spend 20 euro for a temporary wifi for 1 week.)
02 Jan, 2021
Amazon Delivery Status, Can You Believe It (Completely)?
We bought a mattress on Amazon on December 10, 2020, and the expected delivery date was showing from December 22 to January 2. The shipment was sent on December 12th, and the shown delivery date is January 2nd. At the same time, the delivery of Ikea and sofa is delayed, we prayed to God that the mattress must be delivered smoothly, otherwise we will have to sleep on the floor! We kept an eye on the delivery status, “Arriving 2nd Jan by 8pm” had not changed, and we were very confident at first, “Amazon should be reliable, no problem.”
Coincidentally, a few days later, Curry Boy found a voice message on December 22, and he had not checked it. The message was in German, and we could only hear, “This is XXXPaketshop, at XX Duisburger Street. You have a package, please pick up as soon as possible, thank you.” We replayed many times, which paketshop is it?? Curry Boy heard dpd, I heard DHL. “But we have received all the items, could it be a mistake? It should be a mistake!” After that, nothing happened.
Few days later, Curry Boy accidentally saw the mattress company’s website, mentioning there are 3 cooperative delivery companies: dpd, DHL or GLS. So we used Amazon’s tracking number to check one by one, and finally found out the mattress was delivered by GLS. The most amazing thing was that the package has been delivered on December 12th! ! ! So Curry Boy connected all the evidence together, “The mattress has been delivered, but we didn’t go to pick up. The message turned out to be the mattress!” My initial reaction was, “How is that possible? Amazon said it will be delivered today. We bought it on December 10th, and they delivered it within 2 days?”
We went to that shop with countless question marks in our heads, “We seem to have something that has arrived…” The staff also said, “You guys are finally here! After waiting for many days, I wanted to send it back!” We showed him the Amazon ordering screen, “Look! Amazon said it will be delivered today! We are new to Germany…” “Welcome to Germany!” After chatting for a while, we carried the 26 kg mattress to 5th floor of our home, feeling “Germany is amazing!!!”
28 Nov, 2020
Sent a Letter to Myself
The owner of the short-term rental apartment had an urgent letter and wanted us to forward it to him, so we sent it accordingly. But I opened the mailbox the next day, huh? ! The letter was back! The To and From wasn’t clear enough? When we got the post office to ask, the clerk said, “You wrote at the wrong location. The recipient’s address should be written in the lower right corner, and the sender’s address is written in the upper left corner.” We thought the postman didn’t see it clearly…
We sent a message to inform the owner, he said that all mails are read by machine, so the location of the address is the key, and To and From doesn’t matter. Then we checked on the Deutschepost post office webpage, and it is clearly written there. Oh, we were so careless, just assuming “it should be like this”. Now we know, there’s no “should”, so it’s better to check and find out!
07 Nov, 2020
A Honest Fine in Germany (darn it!)
There’re no gates at Germany train stations. In other words, you can hop on a train without buying a ticket. When we first came to Germany, we were aware that ticket needs to be validated at the platform or in the train. One colleague of Curry Boy, David, who has been living there for 9 years, and he told us, “If the time is already printed on the newly purchased ticket, you don’t need to validate again.”
So, I bought a 4-er ticket (4 trips ticket), and the time was already printed on it. Luckily I was bumped into a conductor who came to check the ticket, and I was caught on the spot. He took out a black machine from his tools-bag, while speaking in German with other conductor, seemed like showing, “See! I got them!” Oh no, I’m screwed. We immediately explained that we didn’t know since we were new to Germany. The ruthless staff only spoke German. They knew that we couldn’t understand and still spoke German (maybe they don’t speak English, whatever). They asked me to show my ID and gave me a long invoice for 60 euros! Oh c’mon! I have a ticket! I was furious, why should I pay a fine even I bought a ticket? ! I cursed them, deeply. The ruthless staff told us that we could go to the customer service counter to explain. Well, I did so. But we were told that we should not go to the CS, but wrote an email to explain the incident, maybe no fine, maybe a lighter one. Okay, I did that too. I wrote another long email to explain, but the result was still a templated reply saying that we should clearly understand the rules blah blah blah, please pay 60 euros within 14 days.
Fully paid new ticket came with a fine – a well learned lesson.
But, The Bad Day Not Yet Finished
That night, I cooked a pot of comfort food – Chicken meat ball with cabbage glass noodles soup. I reheated the leftover for next day, and went to watch “Planet of the Apes” movie for a refreshing mood. 2 hours past, the movie was nice, and a burnt smell started filling the room. I sniffed, like a doggy, WHAT THE HACK?! I rushed to the kitchen, looking at that pot, OH MY GOODNESS! It’s all BURNT! Curry Boy grabbed 2 mitts with instinct, quickly removed the pot from the electric hop, then he realised it’s too hot and couldn’t bear it any more, then he put the super hot pot on the balcony floor which carpeted with a synthetic grass. Everything became slow motion, I wanted to stop him but I was too late. Smoke run out from the pot, and there we had a full moon on the grass. It’s a temporary rental apartment.
Don’t think too much, ACT! I stared at the dark pot, calculating how much we have to compensate, while Curry Boy immediately started rubbing and washing continuously 30 mins. I stood by his side, amazed by his heroic rescue. That’s my husband! And he really did saved the pot (applaud)! He even made a joke, “Now you have a lot of materials to blog!”
