Money is the root of all evil

Boy, it's been a long and crazy week - already - which I am starting to get used to. (Is that good or bad?) Of course, part of that feeling of being long may have had something to do with last weekend - I really outdid myself this time. Because I have Fridays free of classes, I spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights in the clubs of Trier. Saturday morning, I was especially proud. I was able to take the bus home after clubbing... at 8:30 am. No worries, Uncle Scott: I was safe and in bed by 9. :) Besides, the evening was well-spent: after the club, I went to a little bar with a group of friends of mine from Mexico City, where I met the cutest little old 72-year-old man who spent the night boogie-ing away to Elvis and The Doors tunes. I also met a dude who looked like he came straight out of the BeeGees - long, straight, gray hair, the beard, the wide-collared button-up shirt and leather vest. He taught my Mexican compadres how to play spoons along with the music.

Throughout this week, a few of my classes got switched around or cancelled for the year, so I am now only taking my German speaking course, Spanish, Literature and Culture of the Weimar Republic, and the German history (Landeskunde) course. I'm also considering adding an intercultural communication class tomorrow, as it would hopefully transfer back to Hamline and count toward both my German and my global studies majors. So far, classes are going beautifully - in two of my courses, my teachers are people I know/friends from my summer course and orientation!

Things are starting to gear up a little more with my job, as I received my first task (critically proofing a summary text about a book... in English) and as our election night event draws near. The Trier Center for American Studies (where I work) is hosting an American election night event/celebration, in which my role is to both be interviewed on my opinions and my current research and also to interview an expert from Uni Trier, who will be leaving on November 8 to America to work on her Master's thesis regarding responses to terrorism post-9/11.

Interestingly (and awesomely), I was also contacted by my boss at Hamline, JacQui, who offered me another job during my duration in Germany. It would involve writing blog posts for Hamline from my perspective as a Hamline student studying abroad. I would get paid the same rate as I earned for my job at home with media relations... which would equal roughly an extra $100 a month for me! This is crazy... I'm just having jobs fall in my lap! I know it won't always be like this... which makes me even more grateful (and disbelieving)! What's even nicer is that the work consists of things I already enjoy doing. :)

So, I had a bit of excitement this week involving money. Yeah, that was slightly sarcastic. Last Friday night, I headed to the ATM near my apartment to grab a little cash for the night. I had recently been using my German bank account, but that night, I chose to withdraw from my American account, as my German account had very little money within. Well, intelligent me, I typed in my German PIN number instead of my American... then, on my second try, made a mistake typing in my American... so, on the third go, the ATM whirred and whistled, then the most beautiful words I've ever seen appeared on the screen:

"We have been instructed to retain your card."

WHAT.

It was true. The ATM ate my card. As it was a Friday night, and Germany does not believe in having anything open after-hours or on weekends, I was pretty much - well, to be blunt - screwed until Monday. So, the second I got back to my room, I started the process of transferring money from one American bank account to the other so I could withdraw from there.

Yeah. I was informed that would take 3-5 business days.

So, I figured, hey! I can always take a cash advance out through my credit card! I plugged my credit card into the ATM (a brave move, considering it was the same machine that ate my last card), punched in my PIN number... and no luck. Not a surprise, considering I'd never used my card for cash advances before (and never really want to), so why would I actually know the PIN number? I quickly withdrew my card after one attempt, not wanting to be out two cards.

So, I went home again and called the credit card company via Skype to change my PIN number. I wasn't aware how to use touch-tones with Skype, so I waited to talk to an operator... who didn't have the security clearance to change my PIN and transferred me to her supervisor... who also couldn't change my PIN, but found out there was a security hold on my card, so she transferred me to security... who took the hold off after finding that it was I who was attempting to take out a cash advance with my own card... but they still couldn't change my PIN number.

After a little playing around, I discovered the touch-tone pad on Skype, recalled my credit card company, went through the game of changing my PIN, and at the end of dialing in 8,457 digits, received the message:

"We will mail your new PIN number to your home address in 7 to 10 business days."

WHAT.

Yep.

Hoookay.

So, Tuesday afternoon, I wandered around for 2 hours by foot, looking for the local branch of Sparkasse (my German bank) to explain my problem. (Germany's roads are worse than Detroit Lakes's.) I had prepared all weekend, learning all the possible words for "The damn ATM/Geldautomat/horrible money machine from Hades stole/ate/retained/took/withheld my credit card [and is evil]." The cashier's eyes grew wide as I explained that it is my only source of cash at the moment, and she took my name and headed back into an office. After a few minutes, she came back out to ask my card number. I explained very politely to her that I only knew the last four digits... the entire number is on my actual card... which was "retained." (In my stress, I had forgotten that I actually have the numbers in safekeeping, just for such an occasion... oh well.) She left again and returned shortly, saying, "One of my colleagues is actually at the ATM right now... you should go back there and meet him." So, I book it schnell back to the ATM (a 10-15 minute walk), where I met the guy from Sparkasse, who checked my passport, returned my card to me, and proceeded to berate me and attempt to browbeat me into getting a Sparkasse account, that it would benefit me so. I didn't even bother telling him I already had one.

Thus, my precious card was returned to me. Le sigh.

Except...

My money is currently somewhere in cyberspace, between my two bank accounts, and is thus: unattainable. Huh. How ironic.

Luckily, when I checked my Sparkasse account today, just to see if I had 10 Euros left to buy bread and milk... I saw the beautiful number of 257,-€. Thank you, Uni Trier, for giving me my stipend at the most beautiful time! :D

But, hey... it makes a good story, right?