Doctors, Fridges, Water Heaters and New Year's Eve

DOCTORS
I started typing a long, detailed explanation of my medical care troubles just now but decided that it was too boring.  What I really want to say is that German medical red tape is even worse than US medical red tape.  I've been trying to get referrals and prescriptions and running afoul of all kinds of missed deadlines, improper forms, doctors being on vacation and then sick so I can't get the proper forms and renewed prescriptions.  It's almost enough to make me create a stereotype and then vent my frustration on it.  But that wouldn't be fair to all the really nice, helpful doctors and pharmacists I dealt with.  And none of this can be done by phone or email.  It always take a good part of the day to drive around and run into walls and in the end accomplish absolutely nothing.

On a lighter note they have some interesting waiting room systems that at first put me off but now I don't mind it.  In many bigger places, like a hospital, you go to the waiting room and take a number.  Then you sit in a big room and watch the LED sign for your number to come up.  When your number comes up it will have a room number next to it where you're supposed to report.  (During my recent medical care troubles I went to report to my assigned room and I couldn't get the door open!  I tried pushing and pulling and knocking and I wasn't getting in.  Finally a lady came out of another door and showed me that I just had to slide the door to the left.  Egg on my face!  Again!) 

Another system by my regular doctor uses is that we all sit in the waiting room with the door closed.  Then she calls someone over a PA system in the waiting room and the called person obediently gets up, says "Wiedersehen" to everyone else and goes to her office.

FRIDGES

I think I can just post these pictures and you will feel my pain.  A normal gallon of milk wouldn't even fit in here.  And how about that freezer!!

WATER HEATERS

Our hot water has been gradually fading since this summer but I haven't known who to call or what to do.  There is what looks like a water heater in the utility room but no dial on it to turn up the heat.  And the utility room is so complicated that you don't even know what is what.  There are pipes going everywhere.  The owner has solar panels on the roof that heat some water in the summer and a huge water tank under the driveway that collects rainwater and is used for non-drinking water.  The fireplace heats some water but mostly for the under floor heating system I think. 

Anyway, it finally went completely and I wasn't even getting a lukewarm shower at 5:45 in the morning.  So I tried to call our landlord but coudn't reach him so I had to walk over to his mother's house, which is down the street, and she called him and he called a repair person.  (I tried to figure out who to call in the yellow pages but there wasn't anything under hot water, warm water, water heater or anything else I could think of.) 

The repair person came and we tried really hard but I just couldn't understand him.  My next door neighbor who speaks English wasn't home so I went across the street to try and get a lady who has been nice and has a little English.  I didn't know her last name and three people live at that house so I pushed all three buzzers.  Someone came out that I have never met and I was trying to explain that I needed the lady who owned the house because she spoke English.  He said he spoke English too and said he would come over to help me understand the repairman.  Then the lady I know also came out and so she came over too.  Between the four of us we figured it out.  My neighbor guy said the repairman spoke Bayerisch, which is a dialect (Bayerisch = Bavarian), so it was no wonder I couldn't understand him. 

I was so grateful for kind and helpful neighbors!  And we finally had hot water again.  Rand was refusing to shower and the general odor in the house was deteriorating.

NEW YEAR'S EVE

Ryan and Tracie and their kids came over for New Year's Eve and we did some minor fire crackers for the kids before they went to bed.  I couldn't stay up 'til Midnight but apparently everyone else did and Jason found my camera and took some movies.  At midnight everyone did their fireworks and it goes on and on and on!  Don't watch this whole clip because it's too long, but watch the first bit and you'll see how every single person in Munich must have been lighting fireworks.

Oh well, the video clip wouldn't load.  I think it's way too big but I don't know how to edit videos yet.  But Jason just walked down the street and everybody was out lighting major fireworks.  There were people every 10 feet on our street and on every street he walked down.  No matter where he pointed the camera there were fireworks going off every few seconds.  It was absolutely amazing!  It's like everybody's chance to walk on the wild side!