
I'm a simple emigrant, and the doorman syndrome is an international thing
I recently found an active health insurance card. In Germany it looks roughly like our rights. The card belonged to a young woman, let's call her Lalya; the first thing that shocked me was the birth year 2006, because the photo wasn't of a three-year-old child. Long story short, I thought the young woman would surely be found online in two clicks and I would return the card. How wrong I was. I spent the entire evening searching for Lalya on all social networks, you understand, there was already a sporting interest. And here's what I want to say about this: firstly, where are the promised AI algorithms? There were so few options that I started to think German data privacy laws had deleted everything about Lalya from Google. Secondly, please stay unique, at least a little. Of those I found, honestly, they all looked the same. I couldn't identify Lalya among them. Then I came up with contacting the insurance company and offering to pass my phone number to Lalya. They thanked me warmly and said that if she doesn't call me within 24 hours, I can destroy the card. I waited almost like Hachiko, only nine years younger. But no one contacted me. I didn't want to destroy the card, because restoring documents in Germany is a pain. I decided to go to the lost-and-found. In Frankfurt it's a real way to find your lost belongings. The nearest office turned out to be in the Immigration Office, which here consists of two buildings. At the first building there were guards; with the younger one I just confirmed that the lost-and-found is in the next building. He confirmed this info, but the older guard, who was busy with another visitor, decided that our dialogue was somehow too smooth and invented asking where I was headed without an appointment. To which I politely told him: βAre you serious? What appointment, if I'm only here to drop off a found item?β But he was convinced of his own right that I had simply ignored him; I smiled politely and went to drop off the card. A minute and a half later I had already handed over the card and returned to tell him not to lie to other people. Apparently, at first he thought I was asking something again and the heat of victory was already coursing through his veins when he repeated again that you can only go there with an appointment. And then I abruptly cut him off and said that this is a statement, not a question, because I had just handed over the card without an appointment. Then he decided that he should shout after me about how imperfect my German is, and, of course, wish me a good day. #curiosities