Summer and bureaucracy

My head is spinning whenever I step outside because all the trees are blooming and it smells incredible; like summer and childhood. Today the weather is fab, +24°C, which for a Finn definitively is summer – compared to Ireland, I don't even know what to call this. We enjoyed breakfast/lunch at the corner bakery, sitting outside, then took a walk around Falkplatz and Mauerpark. I love working part-time!


A signed a lease for his very own studio space today! He's really excited and I really hope it will be great.

We're also looking for a new apartment and we're seeing our first one today, here in Prenzl'berg. I don't think we'll take the first one we view, but it feels exciting to actually go out there and see something. This one is 62m2 and the warm rent (includes heating, water and so on) is only €462. But it would make a lot of sense for us to try to find an apartment near Volkspark Freidrichshain, since it would be close to the studio, and an equal distance from both our jobs. I emailed four other places today, so hopefully we will find our gem in a few weeks!

Another weight was lifted off my shoulders: I finally have German health insurance! I got my employers to put me on pay roll and now I don't have to worry about hardly any bureaucracy at all. I only needed to get my Lohnsteuerkarte at the Bürgeramt and to go to a Krankenkasse to sign up, which was all fairly painless. Because we want to move, we will face more bureaucracy: we need a Schufa paper (credit rating), a Mietschuldenfreiheitsbescheinigung (statement from our current landlord that we don't owe on rent) and copies of our passports and bank statements...