Miscellaneous

This has not happened in a while, but I haven't been on any major trips since my last blog. However I have been slacking in the blogging department, so today I am catching up on a couple of smaller trips that I made the weekend before Easter weekend.

On Friday, April 3rd, the two economic classes in our program took a bus (early) up to Frankfurt, the seat of the European Central Bank. What the Fed does in America, the ECB does (for the most part) in Europe for all the states that use the Euro for their currency. Both speakers that we listened to frequently repeated two major differences between the Fed and the ECB. After WWII the Germans went through a terrible period of hyper inflation, permanently engraining in the politicians' minds the above-all goal of controlling inflation (the Fed targets inflation, GDP growth and unemployment; it sounds nice but is near impossible to control all three). The second difference is the independence of the ECB from politicians. The Fed works with politicians, coordinating and advising. The ECB was founded on the belief (taken from the distrust of politicians when it comes to money and the incentives to spend it) that monetary policy and politics should not intermingle. Recent examples throughout the world illustrate how it can be too tempting for politicians if the central bank is under their control.
After the visit to the Central Bank of Europe, I separated from the group and took a train north to Bonn, Germany to visit Konstantin Richter and his family. Konstantin studied in the US with me at my high school in Rochester and two years ago Dominick (another friend from high school) and I visited him in Bonn on our trip to Germany. It's crazy but Konstantin also studies in Freiburg, so I've met up with him a few times already, but it had been awhile since I'd seen his family. On this trip Konstantin and I made the rounds of the old governmental buildings of Bonn where the West German government was located for about four decades before returning to Berlin after the reunification. It was interesting to note how many headquarters for German firms are in Bonn, partly because the government was here, but also partly because it would have devastated the city of Bonn to lose the seat of government without any new businesses coming to fill the void. 
On Sunday I went with the family (not pictured is Konstantin's sister, Theresa) to their church (the first half of the service was in a building over 1000 years old!) for Palm Sunday services. This was especially meaningful because I have now been to Palm Sunday services in the Crystal Cathedral and in Europe. Afterwards I picked up a train back to Freiburg. The weather the whole weekend was perfect. On Friday we were able to eat outside and on Saturday Konstantin, Theresa and I went to one of their friend's house for a bar-b-que. 
Lastly, I wanted to show you all a picture of our building in Freiburg. This is where I have all my classes. Originally built by a wealthy French wine-making family, it served as their residence for 200 years or so before being given to a French organization in Freiburg to use as an institute. IES bought it from them 3 years ago and had it modernized and renovated. Very nice! One evening, when we hosted teachers from the US, IES opened some wine from the family who used to own the house. So much history for one building! 

Long blog, sorry, but now I must go buy groceries for tomorrow night. The roommates and I are making burritos :)