Day +5

Jumping off into a mini retirement (to avoid saying unemployment) gets you actually pretty busy.

Packing up and leaving a country is one thing - actually arriving in your old,old place and establishing yourself another, even so only temporarily is a complete other thing.
Some of my first steps were going from office to office,

In the order in which I tackled these tasks:
- setting up new phone and internet access.
- registering for unemployment,
- checking for health insurance,
- arranging bank affairs and freeing money to be able to live during this mini retirement.

Phone Adventures
Getting a SIM card was easy and $50 later together with the USB Stick Internet Modem I was on my own again. Setting up your phone isn't that easy when you have an AT&T I-phone. Actually nearly impossible -
first I unfortunately had updated my i-phone to the latest software 4.1 and thus this task has become much more difficult. Still need to Jailbreak the phone - but this may become a blog on its own.
Just to mention that the USB Stick Internet forced me to Reboot my new netbook from disc and reinstall the OS. - looks like its working now decently.

Unemployment
This was a small task and didn't cost much time as I wasn't much interested in the monetary benefits as I knew that I wouldn't get any anyway. I therefore set-up an appointment with one of the advisers for sometime in December to hear about workshops and job training possibilities they may offer.

Health Insurance
Lots of paperwork to document my time away from home is necessary to get back into the German Health Care System. Though worthwhile, as much cheaper than what I may have to pay in the US.

Banking
Well everything costs money and I am lucky that over the years I set aside a few cents for such a situation. While I regularly paid I figured out that the investment fond I used didn't provide me with much benefit. I not even get back what I paid, still I not have to sit at the street corner and beg.

So having accomplished most of these things, I am happy and relaxed.

Everything is good.
Especially the food. Good German Cuisine - Herzhafte Schmanckerls and lots of goodies cooked by Mum.

Trust all of you are well and I will report shortly again from more southern latitudes.
Off to South Africa on Monday.