#germany problems

So I went to register with the town of Hoppegarten today.  And I had a bit of a panic before I headed out, and let me tell you why.

In Germany, when you move to a new place, you have to register.  It's part of the German law, and it's just something you have to do so you can open bank accounts etc.  I had done this the last time I lived in Berlin, in 2005.  But the thing is, you're supposed to de-register (abmeldung) when you leave the place.  Well, no one told me this, and I ended up leaving Berlin in 2006 without deregistering.  I never really had any intention of coming back here, so I didn't think it was that big of a deal.

Well, today comes around and I see all these horror stories online about people being fined 500€ for not deregistering.  Cue me having a panic and planning out in advance what I was going to say to the people at the registration office.

So I cycled over to the town hall.  And I got my 'ab' and 'an' mixed up, so I ended up telling them that I wanted to DEregister, instead of register.  Scheisse.  Anyway, eventually I went to where I needed to be, and sat down and then registered...without any problems at all?  I just told them that I'd lived in Berlin years ago as part of my university course, and that was that.  No fines, no nothing.  Just a really friendly lady who could speak a little English for the bits of German that I couldn't understand.  I guess it *is* really important to remember to deregister this time, as I am actually earning money in the country, whereas the last time I wasn't getting ANYTHING at all, just a free place to stay (and even then, it was living in a hotel, which is more rubbish than it sounds.)

I then went to Sparkasse to set up a German bank account (it's easier for my host family to transfer money to, instead of my English account) and then I went to Rewe to buy things like Haribo and Milka.