German Bureaucracy

There are so many things that I love about Germany: how everything is always on time, how delicious the food is, how crazy obedient dogs are (none of them are on leashes, but yet they never run up and try to sniff you), but the one thing I will never understand about Germany is their crazy bureaucracy.

Germans are stereotypical for being punctual and orderly, so their bureaucracy will never make sense to me. Today I had to go to student services and turn in some forms. I got these forms in the mail 3 weeks ago about moving out of my apartment. There were 3 of the exact same form that I had to fill out with the date I was moving out, when the next person could move in, and then sign and date all of them. I was already confused about what these forms were asking for and why I had to fill them out 3 times, but I did it anyway. Then, they had to be returned to student services by Thursday. Of course that was a difficult task too. The student services place is only open certain days a week, and the guy we needed to see to hand them in is only there on Tuesdays and Thursdays for half an hour each. We walked in the building and there was a weird light in the shape of a flower. If the light was red that meant office hours weren't open, green meant he was in. The light was thankfully green, and we were led through a set of double doors, and then up a staircase and down the hall to this guy's office. Of course, there was already a line waiting because of the limited amount of time he meets with students. When we finally got in, he basically told us that these forms we filled out in triplicate and signed were really just guesstimates and actually didn't mean anything. We're going to get the REAL forms in the mail once the end of the semester comes closer.

I
Don't
Get
It.