Business – Writer Between Worlds

Ce vrăji am mai făcut în ultima vreme…

Mă bucur şi mă laud dublu astăzi. 1. Pentru că mi-a apărut pe LiterNet.ro jurnalul de călătorie din Malcesine, de pe malul lacului Garda din Italia (multumesc, Răzvan Penescu!) – iată-l aici: http://atelier.liternet.ro/articol/15902/Andreea-Sepi/Malcesine-Lago-di-Garda.html şi 2. Pentru că îmi va apărea, în 3-5 zile şi pe Amazon Europe, micul ghid pe care l-am pregătit pentru proaspeţii imigranţi…
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Deutschland – Servicewüste?

Another glorious day for German sales services and German sales people. So I’ve been sick for a week and I’m entering the pharmacy to get some vitamin gummy bears and maybe a nose spray. The only shop assistant present is busy going through the entire cosmetics product range with a middle-aged woman. Besides me, there…
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A few things that get on my nerves

1. Excessive proliferation of technology. Do you know that old engineer joke? 😉 What do engineers and dogs have in common? They both have intelligent eyes but can’t express themselves… And what’s more, they’re trying to change the whole world in their image. Applications, gadgets, the “Internet of things”, remotely operated toilet paper rolls… They…
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What’s up with the German labor market?

News and interesting statistics about Europe’s strongest economy. As most of Southern and Eastern Europe as well as Great Britain struggle with a double-dip recession and the German economy continues to flourish, many in the beleaguered EU states are packing their bags for the Bundesrepublik. According to Spiegel Online, half a million people immigrated to Germany…
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Life in plastic, it’s fantastic…

Is all this packaging really necessary? I ask myself that every time I go shopping. It gets on my nerves. I buy groceries and then spend half a day separating waste. Waste that I neither asked for nor need. Plastic, paper, aluminum foil, the works. Dozens of euros’ worth of useless packaging which most of…
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Discrimination, my love

We’re in the process of moving to the Bavarian capital, and the rent is crushingly high, so I started to look for a second job. I was pretty happy when I actually got a few replies, but then it all ended the way it often does: the person on the other end looks at my…
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A fine and healthy debate

Adam and Eve were living in a world of plenty. They were in the Garden of Eden and everything was taken care of. They could have: had long, revealing conversations with God deepened their love and understanding of each other lived in harmony with their environment while exercising a minimal self-restraint contemplated, cultivated and created…
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Automotive darwinism

I am naturally wary of any car that is either: a) big enough to flatten my house or b) fast enough to break the sound barrier. 😛 Which is why I try to stay out of their way if I can help it. I (almost) always give Porsches, Hummers, and even some BMWs the right…
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Penny-pincher extraordinaire

Advertising has got to be the easiest profession on Earth in Germany. You start out with a comprehensive technical description of your product, and then you just add “BILLIG” ( CHEAP) in large, bold capitals on top of it. Or the “creative” version “SCHNÄPPCHEN” (BARGAIN). Heck, you can sell any rotten fruit, any withered vegetable…
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Latest ownership craze

I remember my mother raising me with that Central European sense of politeness, where she would constantly nag: “What does it cost you to say hello? What does it cost you to say thank you?” It used to cost nothing, and so we grew up always politely saying hello and thank you. But what do…
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Prozedur über alles

Would it be possible to write a piece about the periodic absurdity of German life? The eye-popping, mind-boggling, neuron-grilling absurdity of the bureaucratic mindset? I don’t think so. See, I can’t even come up with the right adjectives… Remember those Tom-and-Jerry cartoons where a desperate Tom pulls his own tongue, hits himself over the head…
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Europe – Endrope?

I opened the ‘Shares & Stocks’ section of the paper today and an ocean of red met my eye. All the indices were down, except maybe two or three (surprisingly enough, Nokia shares were up. Well, not a lot of place to fall once you’ve hit rock bottom, I guess :-)). So what is the…
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Category: Business