a collection of notes to help new members to our group get settled

The first thing you should do before (or when you arrive) is contact the Welcome center in Potsdam. The purpose of this organization is to help foreign researchers get settled in Potsdam. They will help arrange many of the thing listed below. They are really nice and answer to a lot of question: http://www.welcome-center-potsdam.de/. They also make monthly meeting to help people finding contacts and schedule regular outings.

• News: http://www.thelocal.de/ http://www.spiegel.de/international/
• Forums and events: http://www.toytowngermany.com/
• Magazine: http://www.exberliner.com/
• http://www.dw-world.de/
• Berlin Police info: http://www.berlin.de/polizei/english.html

• Our administrative assistant - Frau Tholen
• HPI Human Resources contact - Frau Zenig
• Computer/Network Administration - contact Admin@hpi.uni-potsdam.de
• Also lots of network admin stuff here (mostly in German) https://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/intern/hpi_informationen.html
• need more here

There is lots of administration information available here: http://www.berlin.de/labo/

If you are from the EU, it will be quite easy for you. The first thing you have to do is to register to a city hall (Bürgeramt), saying you are living in Germany. They will give you a piece of paper (called an Anmeldung) that you can open a bank account in Germany. You have to know that in Germany there is another card system, called EC card. Many shops take visa, but not all (for example Ikea and MediaMarkt do not).

Some conventional banks have cheaper accounts:

• Berlin Sparkasse has accounts without fees
• Deutsche Bank has a student account with no fees but only if you are younger than 30

There are a bunch of Direktbanks without physical branches that serve us modern computer-friendly folk well. One suggested was http://www.comdirect.de/ particularly because is part of the Cash Group that has a lot of ATMs with free withdrawals.

You can get the Anmeldung as soon as you arrive by giving an address of someone in the team if you don't want to wait to have found a flat. But you are obliged to update your address with the Bürgeramt within a couple weeks of moving.

If you are not an EU citizen and staying longer than three months then you must obtain a residency permit (Aufenthaltserlaubnis) from the foreigner's office (Ausländerbehörde). There is one is Potsdam and in Berlin. More info here:
http://www.berlin.de/labo/auslaender/dienstleistungen/bes_staaten_en.html

If you wish to drive in Germany a foreign driver's license is only valid for six months. After that you must exchange it for a Germany “Führerschein”. The process is called “umschreiben” and is done by application to the Führerscheinbüro. More info here:
http://www.berlin.de/labo/fuehrerschein/dienstleistungen/fuehrerscheinumschrausland.html

For finding a place, Berlin is quite cheap. I can recommend you a collocation (called WG or Wohngemeinschaft). If you enter WG Berlin in Google you will find a lot of websites. It is convenient because you don't have to take care about internet etc, it is nice to find friends at the beginning and you can share a place with German people (if you want to learn German e.g.) … But if you want a flat alone, I'm sure Germans from the team can help you calling etc.

http://www.wg-gesucht.de/en/wg-zimmer-in-Berlin.8.0.1.0.html

Options

• AOK: You can go there: https://www.aok.de/nordost/kontakt/e-mail-schreiben-156166.php and send a message in english explaining that you need a health insurance and a person speaking english will contact you back and tell you how to proceed. What you will need to send is only a photocopy of your previous health insurance contract.

• DAAD: http://www.daad.de/deutschland/service/versicherungen/04703.en.html

• Before coming to Germany: The Goethe Institut (http://www.goethe.de) is present throughout most countries. Thus, if such a school is nearby, you can start learning before hand. The recommended course for absolute beginners that are moving to Germany are called “intensive 4 or 8” (See http://www.goethe.de/ins/de/spr/int/enindex.htm for courses). Furthermore, there is a course denoted as “intensive 2” for learning German Culture, which is advised for those interested in cultural aspects of Berlin life. The courses are expensive, since the institute is very well know, usually between: 750 to 2.000 euros (see price table at their website). There is also one small course dedicated for “communications in the workplace”, priced at 600 euros.
• In Berlin: Besides the aforementioned Goethe Institute (which is also in Berlin), there are a lot of schools to learn german (class of maximum 10 people I would say). The best thing is to choose something close to the place you will live in. Prices are around 190 euros/month but there are cheaper places. (Anne's Note: I'm not sure but may be the first 6 months you are there, if you are a student, you can be reimbursed or half reimbursed … not sure.)

Common for all new students:

1. Give access to wiki (new member can do it him/herself with HPI account name/pw)
2. Give access to SVN repository: new member logs in once to https://svn.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/, then we can give him/her permission to the 'hcilab' repository.
3. They can add themselves to the wiki once they have a normal HPI account

For new PhD students, postdocs and interns:

1. Create computer account (ask Admin)
2. Add to wimi-baudisch mailing list (ask Admin)
3. Add to “Fachbereich VII” security group (ask Admin)
4. Key and keycard (ask Frau Tholen)

For new Master's students

1. Add to S-FB07-Students security group (ask Admin)
2. Add to master-baudisch email list (here: http://lists.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/admin/master-baudisch)

For new seminar students or other:

1. Add to S-FB07-Students security group (ask Admin)
2. Add to hci-baudisch email list (here: http://lists.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/admin/hci-baudisch)