Die Meldebescheinigung

Ich bin angemeldet! I am registered!
Everyone in Germany has to register their residence with the police/government. You are supposed to do this within 5 business days of moving into a new place. Whoops. It's kinda been two weeks. I gather, though, that many foreigners don't even know about this, and don't do it for months or even years, if they do it at all. The woman I saw today didn't even mention that I was a week or so late.
I was absolutely terrified of German bureaucracy. Wouldn't you be? Luckily there is a smaller, less crowded Bürgeramt in my neighborhood. My flatmate Eric directed me to it, and I went with my other flatmate Josh, who still hasn't registered even though he's been in the apartment since April (see what I mean?). We asked at the desk, and they provided us with three long forms with lots of complicated German, then gave us a number and told us to go to the waiting room. The form was bewildering (if you hate legalese, imagine it in German, or any language that you are not fluent in) and I didn't want to fill it out wrong, so we took it back to get Eric's help, since he's fluent. Turns out you only have to actually fill out maybe 5-10 of the many, many little boxes on the form. Really all they ask for is your name, birthday, and new address. You also need a Mietvertrag (rental contract) or separate form for subletters (Untermietervertrag, that's what I had). Sorting all this out, what with one thing and another, took me about a week but today I finally went back to the office and it was pretty much a piece of cake to turn in the forms and get my stamped "you are registered" bit of paper.
So now I can open a bank account and get a library card. Huzzah! Take that bureaucracy. I totally figured you out.
Bis bald,
D.