Last Days...

The last few days in Germany seem so far away (roughly 4500 km and 4 time zones), so long ago (three days), it's hard to remember what actually happened. Some things do stick in the mind though.
Carrot&Bush excelled themselves with their organisational skills. I tried to reclaim some travel expenses, but couldn't log into the system. Wondering if I'd already been delisted as an employee (is delisted a word?), I phoned the HR department. When I say I phoned them, I mean I exchanged e-mails and telephone calls with a number of help desks in Germany, Poland, India and the US, over a number of days, before somebody finally said: "You're leaving? We have nothing in our records saying that. Have you informed Carrot&Bush of your decision to quit?"
Gnnnnnnnh.
Cretins. And I never did manage to reclaim my travel expenses.

I also received a slip of paper confirming I'm HIV-negative. I was fairly certain, but it's nice to have it officially certified. But apparently I'll need to be retested in Kyrgyzstan as they don't trust German doctors. Maybe they've been spying on my blog. I'd better be careful what I write.

The day before I was due to leave, I collected my visa. Phew! Then I had to pay for it. Owch. 240 EUR including all fees. And it's only a single-entry, so I can't even pop over the border to China or Kazakhstan and back. It would have been much cheaper if I'd not needed the visa so urgently, but from receiving confirmation that I'd been accepted on the placement in Kyrgyzstan to actually landing in Bishkek was 14 days, so everything had to move quite quickly. As soon as I work out how to get photos off my Carrot&Bush digital camera and onto a computer here, I'll add a photo to this blog of the little sticker in my passport that says "normal visa" and cost the equivalent of a month's salary in this Kyrgyzstan.

And then it was time to leave. Up to Berlin for my 1am flight. More about that in the next post.