Austria is obsessed with their Banks

Today marks ten days into my new life in Austria. Unfortunately, I wish things could be more exciting to report.

So far, I've learned the importance of organization, the kindess of strangers, and the strength of family.

This country is so obsessed with bureaucracy and paperwork, it's not funny...not even a little. The hardest thing has been paying my tuition and getting registered for courses (which still has not been done despite them beginning on Tues Oct 1). In hindsight, I can easily organize the process for you. In order to register for courses, I must first pay my tuition. To pay my tuition (which was finally done today), I needed a bank account. There are three things required of me to open a bank account: Letter of Acceptance from the university, Meldebestätigung (Registration with the city of Graz), and my Passport. Obviously, I had my passport. The others were much more complicated. My letter of acceptance was online for me to print off, but I can't use the university printers until I pay my tuition. Registration with the city isn't difficult, however there was a severe language barrier. The form I needed to fill out was called the Meldezettel, all of my school orientation sessions told me to bring this form with me. So, I held off registering until after orientation (bad idea). In reality, they wanted the Meldebestätigung. I was wrong. It wasn't until Monday that I finally was seeing the light.

On Monday, I was registered with the city and opened my bank account. Another snag, I can only take out 400euros PER DAY with my AAA TravelMoney visa card. My tuition is 700euros. Adding insult to injury, the (very nice) girl who helped me open the bank account processed my tuition payment BEFORE all the money was in my account. So the payment bounced back and thats why today it has finally been processed.

Austria is obsessed with their banks. I can't do anything unless I have a bank account. My university, dormitory, cell phone company, and health insurance all REQUIRE that payments be made directly from this bank account. So, you can imagine my relief, when I finally opened the account on Monday.

Things are finally getting settled, however, I still need to be fingerprinted for my residency permit and register for courses.

I MUST thank quite a few people for all of their help throughout this headache. First, to anyone on Facebook who let me B!+$H to them about this...I thank thee. Second, my FATHER has been such a great assistance in settling my finances both here and in America, so THANK YOU DAD! Third, quiet a few Austrians who've let me borrow computer, printers, and other things. As well as my new Austrian friend Matthias. Not only has he been "my personal translator" (Austrian accents are THICK!), but he's provided me a better perspective on this bureaucracy, introduced me to his social circle, and shown me how to get around the city better. I truly believe an angel sent him to me to keep me sane and calm.

Now I'm off to eat leftovers and ponder life on this rainy day. I promise my next post will be uplifting and full of PICTURES (since I know you all love them so much ^_^)!!!!

Tschüß!
Karl