A Medical Student's Adventure in Heidelberg, Germany: January 2014

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Computer is returned

After 5 months and dozens of emails I have finally got my computer back. The story basically begins with me arriving in Germany. About a week in, my wife and I traveled to the Rhine Valley. Naturally i left my computer at home, or rather the place we were staying in. Needless to say, I returned to find my computer utterly dead. Nothing. Not even a blip. Contacting Apple support and my university I had the options to: 1) Travel or send the Apple Store 2) Go to an authorized apple repair store 3) Send back to my university. I really wanted to avoid the last option. So after I got into Heidelberg I went to Theile, a local authorized apple retailer and repair shop. After quick inspection they told me that there seemed to be some sort of water damage and that AppleCare warranty would not cover this repair. That left me with no choice but to send it to the United States. After some difficulty (not being able to send a lithium ion battery via USPS) I finally got it out. Took a while for the University to even begin with the repairs even though I had asked they expedite it as this had most of my data on it. Either way, they determined also that the repair needed to be taken out via the insurance plan I had on it. After the insurance replaced the logic board and other components they sent it back to my University. However, when they replaced it they only substituted 2Gb of memory in the laptop instead of giving me back the original 8Gb that I had installed prior to the shipment to the US. This of course delayed things more as the laptop needed to be reshipped to the repair facility, memory replaced, and then sent back to the University. It wasn't until Christmas time when all was said and done. Even then it took forever to figure out how to ship this laptop back to me. Only via assistance of my brother who drove an hour into Worcester to pick it up, did the laptop even get shipped. Now the story didn't end there. As after almost 3 weeks in transit the Zollamt (Customs office) got a hold of it. They tried to make me pay a 19% tax on my own laptop that was being returned to me. Fortunately for me, I had some documentation. If I would have any advice to anyone, talk to the Zollamt directly so as when you recieve something back you won't have to pay custom duties on it. Frustrating, annoying, and just an overall terrible experience. But hey I got it back. At least the post didn't lose it!

Monday, January 6, 2014

Weihnacht (Christmas) in Heidelberg

Growing up I believed in Santa Clause or at least the Russian version called "Dyed Moroz" (Uncle/Grandpa Frost). I always thought that Santa Clause was strictly an American creation. Growing up we sang carols, went to church, and saw the bright lights. When we were still deciding to go to Germany, my wife remarked on how famous European Christmas markets are and especially the German ones. The descriptions she gave me excited me. I was very much looking forward to it. Unlike in the US though Christmas is truly a time of year and not a two day holiday. Yes I understand that in the US there is a Christmas season, but it pales in comparison to how these Europeans celebrate Christmas. Cities light up with decorations, advertisements everywhere, special Christmas candies in stores all serve as a introduction to the Christmas season. And finally almost every city erects their own Christmas market. Which is basically a large amount of booths serving all sort of food, drinks, and crafts. It runs rather long, from Nov just up until Christmas Eve. But it is a wonderful experience. Seeing lots of people gathered near the Gluewhein stand, kids riding the carousal, and of course the smell of bratwurst in the air. A very memorable experience at that. We we fortunate to attend Heidelberg's Christmas market several times, as well as the famous Nuremburg Christkindmarkt (Christ child market), and the ones in Rothenburg ob die Taube and Stuttgart.

Nuremburg Christkindsmarkt