We woke up early, went to the Buergerdienst as soon as possible, registered with the police, and made appointments to get unsere Aufenthaltserlaubnisse (our residence permits). They didn't have space for another two weeks, but it was all ready to go. We then made our way toward the HS to get our Semester Tickets, but first wanted to see if Frau Messle was in the Auslandsamt (Foreign Student office) so we could make sure. She wasn't there until 1, but we did speak with Frau Kraut, who told us we needed to go back to the Buergerdienst to receive free semester tickets! I was right! I take good notes. :3 We went back and got our tickets with ease! We didn't have to pay 138 euros! It was such a relief since we still had to worry about the write-up we received.
We went home, had lunch, then made our way back to HS to meet up with one of the student helpers to open a Deutsche Bank bank account, which we needed to pay rent from, and for me, to receive pay checks to. We met other exchange students, at first we didn't realize that they were who were supposed to meet because they seemed a lot better dressed than us. We realized that they were. Five of the girls were from Sweden studying Social Work, which is apparently being taught for the first time in English at HS Mannheim, and another girl was studying Industrial Engineering.
It was such a relief that we didn't have to open the accounts on our own, and it was over with pretty quickly. We then needed to go back to meet with Frau Messle. We met, showed her what we had done and told us we "cheated" with the free semester tickets. I couldn't tell if she was joking or not, especially since two other faculty members said we could get them for free. We turned in a few papers and then went on our way.
I decided that we should probably pay the write-up tickets. We hoped that they would be kind to us and maybe somehow reduce the fee. I am pleased to announce that, after showing the man our semester tickets, the kind man said we only had to pay 7 euros! What a relief. Our semester tickets were still relatively "cheap" at this point! With the 24 hr tickets and our little mishap, we only paid ~21 euros to be able to travel not only in Mannheim, but in the whole Neckar-Rhein area for the rest of the semester!
We left, bought Bretzels, went home. I had a very boring and relaxing evening. Murphy's Law is nullified with persistence!
Schliesslich haben wir unsere Semestertickets bekommen! Der beste Teil ist sie total kostenlos war! Wir haben auch unsere Tickets bezahlt. Es freut mich, dass sie nur 7 statt 40 euros waren. Was fuer einen Tag. Mensch.
Hi, Danielle. Thank you for your nice posting.
ReplyDeleteI am Kimmy from University of Seoul, Korea. I am going to study at the University of Mannhaim as an exchange student for since next semester. I think you got a semester ticket for free. If it is true, then is it available for any exchange student? or Do I need something to get it? :)
Your blog has lots of great information! Thanks again.
I'm sorry I've been very busy with my classes and the end of my semester and I haven't been on until now. I was told by the Hochschule that students' IDs that don't say your exchange students means that you can go to K7 (The building where you have to register for the city) and there will be a desk where you can receive a free Semester Ticket. I don't know how it works at the University, sorry!
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