{"id":1185,"date":"2014-04-01T18:58:46","date_gmt":"2014-04-01T18:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bittesuite.wordpress.com\/?p=1185"},"modified":"2016-03-20T19:28:08","modified_gmt":"2016-03-20T19:28:08","slug":"the-kvr-journeys-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ryankeelerlives.com\/bittesuite\/the-kvr-journeys-end\/","title":{"rendered":"The KVR: Journey’s End"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning was, as far as I can tell, the final hour I will need to spend in the Kreisverwaltungsreferat (the KVR) for a long time. As I mentioned yesterday, I had to return in order to correct an error on my visa extension<\/a>. Namely, the expiration date was three months too early.<\/p>\n

I blamed Cashier Lady, since she was responsible for taking my money and passing the print order through to Window Guy. I supposed it could have been Window Guy’s bad as well, but I was looking at the process from the outside. From there, Window Guy might as well be Cashier Lady. Naturally, then, I started this morning with Cashier Lady.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

“Good morning!” Admittedly, I’m projecting more patience than I actually possess. I’m missing another German class for this.<\/p>\n

“Good morning.” Cashier Lady slides her fingertips under the glass that separates us. There’s not a chance she wants or expects anything other than documents.<\/p>\n

“I was here yesterday,” I begin. Disappointment floods her eyes while her fingertips remain out of reach of my precious, precious documents. I press on, though. Get it all out before she dismisses you out of habit. “-and received and extension for my Visa. But, there’s a small problem with the new pass. The letter the office gave me says I have six months to confirm university enrollment. The pass, however, says that I only have 3 months.”<\/p>\n

“You have to go to the student area.” She’s pointing at the heading on the letter I handed her.<\/p>\n

Invalid command.<\/p>\n

“Well, the student office gave me the correct letter. The problem is that I received the incorrect pass down here, yesterday.”<\/p>\n

“There’s nothing I can do for you, here. You need to go back upstairs.”<\/p>\n

Oh, no. Not back upstairs. Anywhere but back upstairs. Upstairs is where I spent 2.5 hours of my day, yesterday. Upstairs is where Desk Lady lives. Don’t make me go back upstairs.<\/p>\n

“Ok. Thank you for your help.” For some reason, you always have to say that in these situations.<\/p>\n

I’m going upstairs.<\/p>\n

Remarkably, there are only 4 people on line upstairs. It’s a full hour after the KVR opened. Fearing that mentally questioning it will make it go away, I slide into line as fast as I can before I wake up and I’m behind 100 more people. I survey the staff behind the desk. There’s a new Desk Lady. And, Office Lady is standing next to her! Ha! Maybe she’ll remember me and will wonder why I’m here and then we’ll all share a hilarious laugh while she corrects the mistake on the spot. How fun that will be.<\/p>\n

The four people in front of me are having problems, getting pwned like proper noobs. I can’t watch.<\/p>\n

Soon enough, it’s my turn. “Good morning!” I smile.<\/p>\n

“Good morning.” Desk Lady’s not unhappy, but she’s not smiling. Smiling is for Office Lady.<\/p>\n

I tell her the exact same story I told Cashier Lady.<\/p>\n

“Is the problem with your Passport? When does it expire?”<\/p>\n

“2019. I have plenty of time before that one goes bad.”<\/p>\n

I hand her my documents. She looks them over for a few seconds, and finally hands them to Office Lady.<\/p>\n

Now, Office Lady’s talking. “Ah, yes there is actually a problem. Please find a seat, and I’ll call you in a minute.” A KVR experience without a waiting room is a pizza without cheese.<\/p>\n

A few minutes go by. The waiting room is outrageously full. I’m pretty sure Office Lady runs the bottleneck of this operation.<\/p>\n

And she’s back, smiling like it was yesterday. “I’ve arranged to have your pass fixed, now. You can just take this paper downstairs and the cashier will print you a new one. Of course, you don’t have to pay anything more.”<\/p>\n

I’m smiling again. “Thank you very much for your help. Have a great day.”<\/p>\n

“Likewise.”<\/p>\n

On my way downstairs, I’m feeling really curious about the new paper Office Lady just handed me. It’s just like the one I handed Cashier Lady yesterday, except that it says “0.00 Euros” on it. It’s extremely light on text, but it does sport a reference number and a fancy bar code right below the heading. Suddenly, it dawns on me: Cashier Lady turning me down without explanation, Cashier Lady sending me back to Desk Lady, Office Lady doing all the thinking, my text-light message for Cashier Lady, and its bar code and reference number. Cashier Lady didn’t make the mistake, yesterday. It must have been Office Lady!<\/p>\n

Office Lady! We had such a good thing, together. She smiled. She helped. She thought independently and needed no codified commands in order to do her job. She messed up.<\/p>\n

That bar code must be a reference to information in a database–information that Office Lady inputs when she asks you to wait 40 minutes in the hallway. Cashier Lady must pass the sheet of paper to Window Man, who then simply scans the bar code. Doing that must initiate an automated printout of the document authorized by Office Lady. Office Lady!<\/p>\n

Maybe, with “6 months” on the mind, she entered “Month: 6” into her system. Maybe the “9” in her head for “September” flipped itself without telling her, causing her to input the dastardly “6” instead. Maybe she liked my shoes and wanted to see them again.<\/p>\n

I suppose there are a number of things that could have inspired the mistake. Maybe they’ll find a cure for humanity, one day. In any case, as I remember the past 3 weeks and reflect on the KVR Process–emotional computers, endless wait times, invalid commands and human errors–I can’t help but continue to think of Office Lady fondly. I think that, in a world of processing and checklists and appointments and eligibility requirements, what matters more than anything is personality. I’ll take the warm, helpful representative over the 100% effective one any day.<\/p>\n

Not that I have any choice in the matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning was, as far as I can tell, the final hour I will need to spend in the Kreisverwaltungsreferat (the KVR) for a long time. As I mentioned yesterday, I had to return in order to correct an error on my visa extension. Namely, the expiration date was three months too early. I blamed … Continue reading “The KVR: Journey’s End”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-expat-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ryankeelerlives.com\/bittesuite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ryankeelerlives.com\/bittesuite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ryankeelerlives.com\/bittesuite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ryankeelerlives.com\/bittesuite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ryankeelerlives.com\/bittesuite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ryankeelerlives.com\/bittesuite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1841,"href":"https:\/\/www.ryankeelerlives.com\/bittesuite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185\/revisions\/1841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ryankeelerlives.com\/bittesuite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ryankeelerlives.com\/bittesuite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ryankeelerlives.com\/bittesuite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}