A Bad Start to our Trip

I'm very happy to be in Germany, but this has been a horrendous couple of days. Let me tell you why...

We love our landlady dearly, but we were shocked at how small the apartment is, especially for the price. Even for Europe, it seems a bit steep (a lot of it probably has to do with the area, which is one of the nicest spots in Berlin). I'm shrugging this one off, but it still irks me a little.

Then, we found out that our power converter doesn't work anymore. Not a problem for our laptop AC adapters, which can handle up to 240 v. But Michelle's hair dryer and straightener won't work without the converter. No problem, I say; we'll go and buy one here in Germany. But we can't find one. When we finally do, it costs more than 200 euros. That's about $300! So we had to buy some new European small appliances...

Yesterday, I learned that I should have brought all my diplomas with me, from high school on, to register at the university. This, in addition to official transcripts, my passport, 2 new passport pictures, my residency registration, a letter from the Fulbright commission, my first-born child, and the bathroom sink (clearly, the kitchen sink is too easy to pull out; anyone could do that!). Why do they NEED my high school diploma?! So, now I've had to set my Mom scrambling to gather these things.

And I had to call her back to find yet more papers for me. I got a nasty email from the university that I never filled out my FAFSA and a New York financial aid document called the "TAP." I could have sworn that I did this last spring, but they have no record of it. They'll give me a few days to file, but now I need last year's tax documents. And the computer we filed them on went kaputt about two days after we filed with the IRS. Who knows where the back-up disks are. Now my mom (and/or my sister-in-law) is going to have to find the folder with our returns and W2s. Sorry about this, mom. Again, notice that this is unnecessary stress. Why should I have to file a FAFSA? I have zero chance of getting any aid, based on Michelle's income last year.

And then, the worst thing in the world happened last night. Short of, I dunno, somebody dying or my committing a crime, or my fellowship being revoked (or a combination of the three), this was absolutely the worst (or close to it): I spilled a full, steaming mug of hot chocolate all over our new laptop. The power shorted out instantly. We ran it to the kitchen (which, thankfully, isn't very far) and paper-towelled every nook and cranny we could see. I don't dare to turn it back on; that could be the end of the whole computer. Then we called my brother-in-law, who helped us buy the thing and does a lot of business with Dell. We do have a pretty good warranty, and he's looking into whether we have accidental coverage (the language in the contract isn't clear). But even if they can fix it (and I have many doubts about this), I've just created a gigantic headache. We haven't taken the time to set up any kind of auto-backup yet, though I know we should have, and I don't remember the last time we saved our files. If the computer doesn't turn back on, we may have lost a lot information, as well as many of our pictures. If it does, it may never work the same, and it's all my fault. Grrr.

If you would like to leave some good news in the reply section below, I'd be thrilled. Right now, just about anything counts as good news in my book, from the abolition of country music down to the re-introduction of Fanta red cream soda. Whatever I can get.