Crawling the Facebook timeline

Crawling the Facebook timeline

Facebook tries to adapt the personal stream in such a way that we like it. However, the result is not perfect.

I confess: I spend too much time on facebook. How much? It does’t matter, every moment seems too much. There is not only Spam (sometimes referred to as promoted content, read: commercial, payed content), but also Hoaxes, Scam and selfies.

Stories from Berlin: At the Beach Bar in Mitte

Stories from Berlin: At the Beach Bar in Mitte
Strandbar Berlin Mitte.
Strandbar Berlin Mitte.

This is a post about payment systems, bottle deposit and pragmatism of the people from Berlin at one of the very original outdoor bars in the heart of the city of Berlin. What happened?

If you have ever been in Berlin, you remember the name of its central district, Berlin-Mitte (engl: Berlin-Centre). Alexanderplatz, the television tower and the Humboldt University of Berlin (where I studied) is located there. You get off the train at station Alexanderplatz and walk towards Hackescher Markt. In 10 minutes walking distance, you reach Monbijou Park. The park is bounded by the river Spree. Boats with waving tourists pass by. Right across the river, one finds the Museum Island with, among others, the Bode Museum.

Right at this place, the Beach Bar offers throughout the summer open air balls for Tango Argentino, Swing and various other dances. That’s why I’ve been there!

Impressions from Romania

Impressions from Romania

Back in February 2015, I was overtaken by school holidays: My French collaborators have been well prepared and prepared their vacation ahead of time. I didn’t want to be the lonely guy in the office and decided spontaneously to leave as well: to Romania!

Back in February 2015, I was overtaken by school holidays: My French collaborators have been well prepared and prepared their vacation ahead of time. I didn’t want to be the lonely guy in the office and decided spontaneously to leave as well: to Romania!

Prolog

Why Romania? I used Kayak Explore to find cheap flights from Lyon, Saint-Etienne and Geneva. Porto would have been an option and surprisingly Bucharest even though its quite far away. Both countries I have never been to. A friend of mine from Bucharest was very enthusiastic about my intentions and rescheduled his week and took care for my accommodation. A week later, I arrived at Bucharest Otopeni Intl. Airport. I decided to take the bus to go down-town Bucharest. In the bus I met a father with his daughter that has worked for the German cruise company AIDA. Both are fluent in English. Also when I missed to get out of the bus, I could ask locals in English without any issues – and not only the young (Erasmus) generation.

Model EU Highlights

EU Parliament in Strasbourg
EU Parliament in Strasbourg

I wrote already some posts about my recent experience as a participant in the 2015 edition of the Strasbourg Model European Union simulation. I got attributed the role of an ECR deputy from the UK.

During the conference, I took some notes on things I found remarkable. Altogether, we have been quite creative to make our one-week adventure as out-standing as possible. Sometimes, I thought that we have created an atmosphere close to the reality, sometimes it felt like a parody. I enjoyed both!

If you have been part of the adventure, what was your personal highlight? In the following, I will share mine with you (in no particular order).

The Schedule of an MEP

Parliament Session in the faction room of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Parliament Session in the faction room of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Copyright by MEU Strasbourg on Facebook.

It’s Sunday and it’s already two weeks that I’ve been in Strasbourg. The simulation of the EU parliament has been great. I thought initially that I would blog every day of the week, but I resigned from this idea already after my post to day 1 in favour of sleeping at least five and a half hours per night which have been in any case too few.

I wont try to reproduce in detail what we have been doing. There has been an enormous schedule of sessions in the parliament and a social program in the evening. Usually, we got up by 6:20 am to pass the security at the European Parliament entrance before 8 am. We left the parliament around 6 pm. So what happened in between?

Pagination