Diskurswelt.de

As promised earlier, here are some impressions from my trip to the lovely town of Bamberg two weeks ago.

If you think that I spent all the time eating, you hit the bull’s eye. One spare rib all you can eat, three barbecues…

Today, I had a little accident with my clipper. I wanted to cut down my magnificent long hair to about 7mm. Well, see for yourself.

I do not know about you, but I had a really awesome Easter break. The first week my family came over and we travelled a bit. When they left I packed my bags for a one week trip to lovely Bamberg where I met friends I haven’t seen in months and enjoyed a first preview of the coming summer. Leaving this morning was a bit of a pain – not just, because I had to get up at ungodly 03:45am.

After hours of waiting and travelling by train, plane and bus I’m finally back in Dublin. The bad news: quite a lot of CAs await me and the next seven days are going to be horrible. I’d really love to pick some nice photos from the last two weeks and write a line or two about them, but I am afraid that I cannot. Hopefully, I will find the time and quiet soon.

Some lecturers seem to have a never-ending supply of wit and banter. Luckily, I’ve got one of them in economics. Here are some examples:

„Global heating is not a problem, it’s the symptom of a problem: overpopulation. We’re not killing each other quick enough. There’s no politician, who says vote me and I’ll kill half your family. Casual drive-by shootings are not enough. Aids was great, but didn’t work.“
Live misanthropy.

„Inflation brings nasty people into power. Will we have hyperinflation in Europe again? Not if the Germans have a say.“
A little history lecture.

„Maastricht is not in Belgium, it’s in Holland. Germans tend to know it, because they keep invading that place“
A lesson in geography.

„What’s $750bn? You work a couple of weeks in Dunnes Stores and have that amount.“
Work for Dunnes, Mr Obama.

„More stuff around, you’re better off. Less stuff around, you’re worse off. Money terms just don’t matter.“
By the way, this is a good example of one of the most extensively used words in Ireland.

„The big players decide on the interest rates. What if the Irish would run the European Central Bank? Haha. Can we run a bank!?“
More on this topic here and here.

„All the world’s legally sold Viagra is produced in one Pfizer factory in Cork. Just imagine they would shut down that factory. Now that’s what I would call a depression.“
Things could be worse.

„My name is Bond, Government Bond.“
Nothing is holy.

„Every year on Paddy’s Day the Taoiseach get to meet the US President and says ‚Here’s a bowl of green stuff I grew in my backyard‘ and Mr President says ‚Great, thank you very much‘ and we’re worried about the costs!? That’s a privilege. How much time and effort do you think does it take other nations to meet him?
Questionable Irish-American traditions.

„Will we have more green taxes with the upcoming budget? We’re gonna get all the colours of the rainbow…“
Irish tax regime in a nutshell.

„Don’t drink and drive. You’re gonna spill it.“
Experience of life?

Disclaimer: my memory is certainly not perfect.

Thursday afternoon Chris, Carmen and I went into the city centre. See what happened: