So what are the perks to being a student in a German university? Health Insurance, apparently. I took a walk down Landsbergerstaße to the AOK (Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse) and signed up for the government-based student insurance. Or so I thought.
At the moment I have Klemmer insurance for visitors taking German as a foreign language, which covers medical emergencies other than a toothache or GYN stuff. The government-based student insurance from AOK is about 50 Euro a month and better than the insurance I had in Florida for about $70 a month, but paid by my employer. German “staatlich” insurance covers everything (except for reading glasses and composite teeth fillings) and there is no cap for what it costs to stay well. My Florida BCBS insurance had a million dollar lifetime cap for everything…easy to reach with the common illnesses/accidents these days. I had to buy supplemental insurance to cover a rogue cancer or unexpected hospital bills…ugh, stress, another 100 bucks a month.
So get me connected with the good stuff that those 50% German taxes pay for, ASAP! Only the kind people of AOK didn’t understand me. According to Alex, they filled out an exempt form for the insurance which would have meant that I could never again get into government-based insurance. He had them rip the piece of paper and I must return to AOK today with the correct form. I should have asked questions, the foreigner genius strikes again.
parkay?? nein, buttah dishon another note more and more people are all of a sudden able to make our party this weekend. Um? Great!?! We need more beer!
At least, now I don’t have to worry about refrigerator butter; I finally have a petite, ceramic butter dish. Ja, big deal you say! But I love my buttah (ooh and bacon!) and there is nothing like a smooth spread of fatty goodness. Okay…sorry I had to share.
tiny bubblesSo another question? (Thanks to those who responded to the drill Q) Why are there bubbles in my flan? I suspect it has something to do with the egg white, but I made a flan with virtually no bubbles before but I can’t duplicate those results. It tastes alright. But German grocery stores don’t carry Vanilla extract. I had to use Vanille Zucker. It taste like artifical sweetener and fills the room with a funky vanilla fabreeze scent. Gross. Maybe I’ll have luck at the Asian stores. They seem to have the stuff you typically find at home.
Note to self: For 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, you also can substitute 1/2 vanilla bean, scraped, combined with the liquid used in the recipe. Strain liquid before adding to sugar coated pan.
Survey says:Bubbles come from either overcooking or not whipping it long enough.
Where in Florida? I am in St. Petersburg.
My insurance through my school is relatively cheap – $1500/year; but the cap is $200k/injury.
Flan looks good. Esp since i’m on a sot food diet – i got my bone graft done yesterday for my future tooth implant. i’m going to describe it in all it’sngory details later.
hi. got here via expat-blog.com.
yes, dr. oetker has bourbon-vanilla extracts, sold in packets of 4 vials, i think. and the bubbles, in my experience, it’s the opposite: bubbles come from mixing too much. i tried swirling it carefully instead of whipping, and it was bubble-free!