I finished my Erasmus studies today. - So what?! You came back in January, didn't you? - Yes, I did. But I filled in the reporting form today. That was the final step.
But isn't being an Erasmus student like being a boy scout? I will always be an Erasmus student as I will never forget to be a boy scout (or girl guide).

Link: sevenload.com

Still love it! :D German politicians don't seem to use the web.

Source: ARD Morgenmagazin

David Leonhardt (NY Times) on the latest happiness research from US-economists Alan Krueger, Betsey Stevenson, and Justin Wolfers. I guess the "problem" is also true for Germany and Europe but the question is how to solve it. Back to the roots - back to kids and kitchen? For myself, unthinkable. At least as the one and only solution. Another question: Are men afraid of tougher women?

Link found on Greg Mankiw's weblog. Very recognizable for people interested in economics. ;-) I simply like him.

Warum - zur Hölle! - soll ich ab nächsten Monat doppelt so hohe Abschläge an die Stadtwerke Trier zahlen wie bisher, obwohl ich fast die Hälfte der von März bis September gezahlten Summe zurück bekomme?? Kann mir das mal bitte jemand erklären!

Das Gebührensystem der SWT ist noch undurchsichtiger als sämtliche Handy-Tarife Europas zusammen. Warum fühle ich mich angesichts der Abrechnung eigentlich immer verarscht oder strohdoof oder beides gleichzeitig? Mit dem Taschenrechner umgehen kann ich eigentlich so gerade noch. Arg!

... or what Trier definitely needs:

• sunset not earlier than 10 p.m.

• a suitable coffee bar offering delicious Latte Macchiato

• day temperatures not colder than 22°C

• less people with huge Müller drugstore bags

• a local quality newspaper

• more tourists younger than 65

• sea shore - or at least a proper riverside with a beautiful boulevard

To be continued. - And off to Vienna. :-)

100 years Scout Movement - One World, One Promise

"The world's greatest living filmmaker" (Time Magazine) is dead. According to the Swedish news agency TT, citing his daughter Eva, Ingmar Bergman died peacefully in his house on the island Fårö in the Baltic Sea. His older works showed a great fear of death, but in recent years he called death "a very wise arrangement". Ingmar Bergman was 89 years old.

It's less than 10 months ago that I myself saw him for the first and the last time in the Filmhuset in Stockholm. He was in the crowd of a cinema event, talking with some people around him. In the filminstitute it was said that he was quite open for students to talk with them about his life and his works. A pity, he already went of. But how nice for him the way he went of - no reason to be afraid.

Obitury in Upsala Nya Tidning

Das Semester ist fast zu Ende, Klausurenstress und Ferien stehen vor der Tür. Fehlt noch der Höhepunkt des Semesters - die beste Party des Sommers: die SommerMewinale am Donnerstag. Don't miss it!