Germany | Dominik Mayer – Products, Asia, Productivity

Treptower Park by Andre Wagner on Flickr.

Pandora isn’t allowed to provide its service outside the US:

Using Tor sometimes loads the application without playing the music. And sometimes doesn’t:

Five times curry rice in one week…

German news site Spiegel Online cites Tongji professor Xie Weida, deputy director of the Railway Institute who says it’s “unlikely” that China will buy the Maglev technology.

An English article can be found at The Earth Times.

I’m feeling like an old man. Elbow and jaw are getting better but now I can’t put pressure on my left ankle. Last night, I had to turn off the air conditioning because I didn’t know how to tell it that I wanted hot instead of cold air (works now). It got ice-cold, my cold that’s been on the mend got worse again and I got a cough as well.

I know I was completely healthy when I left Germany.

Angela Merkel shows us the Bundeskanzleramt. It’s a real pitty that there’s no English version.

Thanks to Frontal21 for digging this up. They also have links to other politician’s videos on their site.

My calendar shows the next four weeks. That’s the time left, here in Germany:

I don’t know if it’s really that hard but in Germany we drive on the right side of the street. So if you’re the slowest car on the Autobahn your place is the inner lane and only the inner lane!

1. About half of the way from Freising to Frankfurt/Hahn is covered with construction sites.
2. Most parts of the Autobahn have a speed limit.
3. Swabia is a very hilly region.
4. Nicotine gums help a smoker to smoke less, and the fellow travellers to avoid health hazards.
5. Don’t eat pizza at Frankfurt/Hahn.
6. While landing, the pilot has to turn off the cabin lights to comply with safety regulations.
7. Flygbussarna bring you from Stockholm-Skavsta Airport to the city. No idea if everyone finally got a place.
8. There still are subways on a sunday at 2:40 am.
9. Fried spaghetti with barbecue spice taste good… despite a massive amount of salt.

Preparing for our trip to Stockholm a friend and I ate at IKEA. The man at the table next to us had a yellow toothpick flag in his meat. The text – “Knut” – was quite funny though it was refering to St. Knut’s Day, not the famous polar bear.

Unlike Nanx I was only two hours without water and it was because of renovation works two floors below. But I don’t think that in her case a worker appeared every thirty minutes to look whether the water is finally turned off or to tell that from now on the drain mustn’t be used as well. And I had planned not to stand up until they’re done.

Update: Arrg, there’s no hot water anymore. The best I get is lukewarm. :(

When the lady at the doctor’s office had learned that I’m at a private rather than the compulsory health insurance two weeks ago, the next appointment was no longer in January, it was yesterday.

Another one at another doctor today, but the outcome was similar: They didn’t send me into the waiting room where others have been sitting for some time. I was offered a chair next to the reception and led into the doctor’s office soon.

Moral: All humans are equal, as long as they’re at the same health insurance.

Since November 1st you don’t only need a mugshot to apply for a German passport, they also scan your fingerprints…

The fact that Tongji needs the serial number of my passport revealed a minor bug in the passport application software. The number on the screen was not the same as on the print-out and no one knew which of them was correct.

After a while we found out that the field isn’t long enough, the missing characters are just hidden and it’s possible to scroll to the end and show them. So I hope I have all the things they need for the visa.

Same wrong way, same traffic jam, but this time I took the right road back and only lost twenty minutes. So how could that happen again? I usually take the highway when driving home from university and the autobahn when I go to Munich. The problem is that they closed the highway due to road works and I have to take the autobahn in the other direction. Well, I’m not used to that, followed my habit and took the wrong ramp…. twice…. 🙄