DAAD People
Hallo!
So far this has been a rather busy week.
Monday evening I met my DAAD mentor, a DAAD-scholarship alum who spent a year at UW Madison, who is supposed to help me get settled in Bonn. Of course it would've helped if we'd met about two months sooner, but never the less, it's always good to know more people. She is actually very nice. We had coffee and discussed various things about Germany and the US.
Last night I attended a meeting of DAAD scholarship holders in Bonn. First of all I was surprised by how many there were. There are around 50 in Bonn alone, and of course many more in other german cities. My second surprise was how many different nationalities were represented. I should perhaps preface this by saying DAAD is an organization funded by the German government to send Germans to study in other countries and bring people from all over the world to German universities. Last night there were around thiry "Stipendatin" from (but not limited to) US (duh), Italy, Poland, France, Sweden, Venezuela, Kenya, Philipeans, Pakistan, India, Egypt, and China. Of course we did the whole big-group, round-robin introduction with our name, country, field of study, etc, and there was a somewhat akward moment for me. The second or third person was a student from Venezuela. After he was finished a man in the corner asked what he though of Chavez. The Venezuelan explained in a very "ya, ya...ok" tone that Chavez is known for being a loud opponent of Bush. And cheers came from a couple guys in the corner. My though: Uh oh. So I was about five people later. I stood up and said, "Hi, my name is Laura. I probably shouldn't admit this, but I'm American..." Fortunetly the guys in the corner didn't say anything. It turns out they were from Pakistan. Later that evening the guy from Venezuela apologized for putting me in that position even though it wasn't really his fault. Several of us agreed that even though the governments of two countries don't get along, the "normal" people can work together and learn from one another. I think this is my big cultural eye-opening experience.
Otherwise work has been frustrating. My current task is to find some way to read data in and out of my FPGA, and we want to do it through ethernet. The lab has a little ethernet module which one can connect to microcontrollers and communicate through TCP, but I have NO idea how to do it. Thankfully I like challenges.
As far as politics goes, the German coalitions have finally come to an agreement, and it looks like Germany will have its first Kanzlerin on the 22nd. Part of the agreement is that in 2007 the Mehrwertssteuer, which is more or less analogous to our sales tax, will increase to %17 (or %19, I can't remember exactly). Compared to the typical value of %5 or %6 in Iowa, that's pretty crazy. Right now in Germany it's %7 (I think).
On Monday it was reported that Bush's approval ratings continued to drop. I must admit I find this rather satisfying. It's good to know that eventually people start to wake up and smell the coffee. If only the election had been this year. I just hope the rest of the world is noticing this.
Anyho! I should probably get back to work.
So far this has been a rather busy week.
Monday evening I met my DAAD mentor, a DAAD-scholarship alum who spent a year at UW Madison, who is supposed to help me get settled in Bonn. Of course it would've helped if we'd met about two months sooner, but never the less, it's always good to know more people. She is actually very nice. We had coffee and discussed various things about Germany and the US.
Last night I attended a meeting of DAAD scholarship holders in Bonn. First of all I was surprised by how many there were. There are around 50 in Bonn alone, and of course many more in other german cities. My second surprise was how many different nationalities were represented. I should perhaps preface this by saying DAAD is an organization funded by the German government to send Germans to study in other countries and bring people from all over the world to German universities. Last night there were around thiry "Stipendatin" from (but not limited to) US (duh), Italy, Poland, France, Sweden, Venezuela, Kenya, Philipeans, Pakistan, India, Egypt, and China. Of course we did the whole big-group, round-robin introduction with our name, country, field of study, etc, and there was a somewhat akward moment for me. The second or third person was a student from Venezuela. After he was finished a man in the corner asked what he though of Chavez. The Venezuelan explained in a very "ya, ya...ok" tone that Chavez is known for being a loud opponent of Bush. And cheers came from a couple guys in the corner. My though: Uh oh. So I was about five people later. I stood up and said, "Hi, my name is Laura. I probably shouldn't admit this, but I'm American..." Fortunetly the guys in the corner didn't say anything. It turns out they were from Pakistan. Later that evening the guy from Venezuela apologized for putting me in that position even though it wasn't really his fault. Several of us agreed that even though the governments of two countries don't get along, the "normal" people can work together and learn from one another. I think this is my big cultural eye-opening experience.
Otherwise work has been frustrating. My current task is to find some way to read data in and out of my FPGA, and we want to do it through ethernet. The lab has a little ethernet module which one can connect to microcontrollers and communicate through TCP, but I have NO idea how to do it. Thankfully I like challenges.
As far as politics goes, the German coalitions have finally come to an agreement, and it looks like Germany will have its first Kanzlerin on the 22nd. Part of the agreement is that in 2007 the Mehrwertssteuer, which is more or less analogous to our sales tax, will increase to %17 (or %19, I can't remember exactly). Compared to the typical value of %5 or %6 in Iowa, that's pretty crazy. Right now in Germany it's %7 (I think).
On Monday it was reported that Bush's approval ratings continued to drop. I must admit I find this rather satisfying. It's good to know that eventually people start to wake up and smell the coffee. If only the election had been this year. I just hope the rest of the world is noticing this.
Anyho! I should probably get back to work.
posted by laura s at 9:13 AM
4 Comments:
I was surpised that it was so low to begin with, so after some research, this is what I learn:
Standard VAT (value-added tax) in Deutschland is 16%, and EU requires a minimum VAT of 15% in all member states. However, member states often have a specially negotiated "reduced VAT" (7%) in Germany for certain "essential" goods such as food and clothes. Presumably that's what Germany is talking about increasing.
Ok. The 7% I quoted came from my grocery reciept. So maybe an increase to 19% MwSt isn't so drastic. I really haven't tried to understand the intricacies of Germany's tax policies, as it is German and therefore must be compicated, and I don't know all that much about the US's. Lastly it's rather boring.
Thanks for the clarification.
Heres the Last Polling on Bush, republican and Demacrats, I don't think. From these number I don't think anything would have changed from last year. but I might be wrong Mean Bush is 34% posivtive and Demacats 25% posivitve. =).
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB113216347138199155-rtKU3yoUjFAEzJvNM1aErll12qk_20061117.html?mod=blogs
Here's what my mom had to say about Bush's polling numbers.
The big difference is that Bush's ratings are dropping big time in the areas of Ohio that carried the state for him and won him the election. But the significance to this is little because the election was last year and that is that.
I've made it a policy to believe my mother. It makes life much easier. :-)
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