An Exam and a Pub

I took an exam last Wednesday in International Monetary Economics. It wasn't that hard, I didn't think. I just hope I'm not overconfident about it. The funniest thing about the test, and this was something I actually expected to see, was that every sentence in every question ended in an exclamation mark or question mark. There wasn't a period on the question sheet. Well, at least not in the questions - though, I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't one on the entire sheet.

After the test, I asked my professor why they teach the IS-LM model. He told that it was well known and simple. He also said it was the first model they teach but that in upper level classes they also teach the AS-AD model. So I suppose that in MU's equivalent to ECO 202 they teach the IS-LM and in what would be ECO 317 they teach both IS-LM and the AS-AD. I was just thinking about a conversation I had, which I wrote about earlier, with a guy from Holland. He was telling me that they were using the IS curve to derive the AD curve. Aren't they the same thing? I don't understand how that works.

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For something completely different, here's a picture of a phone booth:
That one's from London. There are quite a few of them there. But here in Vienna, we have them, too:
This is the Hundertwasser House with a British phone booth by it's side.
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After the exam, Gregoire organized a trip to Charlie P's, a nice pub on Währingerstraße near Schottentor. Gregoire and I got there at about 7:45 and were expecting people to arrive around 8 to 8:30. Turns out, we should've gone to Charlie P's at about 9. People take their time showing up. While we waited, Gregoire told me about a bachelor party he had to plan. The party's taking place this weekend. He organized some role playing thing were the groom-to-be had to run around getting weapons and accomplices to stop some evil wizard from raping his wife-to-be. We also talked about politics. Gregoire is an easy guy to talk to about this subject because I'll say something like, "I don't think Bush was stupid," and he'll respond with, "Well, from what we hear in Europe, it really characterizes Bush as stupid, but I don't know what you see in the US." This is opposed to Tom, who told me categorically that Bush is a dumbass and there's no way anyone could have a different opinion. Since the media knows all and is always right, or whatever.

Gregoire also told me that Jacques Chirac is a very sympathetic figure in France. Apparently, Chirac's stand against Bush truly endeared him in the hearts and minds of the French. So what if his administration was incredibly corrupt? He stood up to America. Though, the way Gregoire says it is - and he's the one that told me that Chirac was incredibly corrupt - that Chirac really did make the French have pride in there country by standing up to Bush. It was a way for them to say that yes, the US is a major power, but France is powerful as well, and we won't cowtow and do whatever the US wants.

When Arno arrived, another guy from Kolping, we started started about Westerns. I didn't know this, and I don't quite remember all the directors names they were mentioning, but apparently the best Westerns are Italian. I'll need to look into this, even though Westerns are really my thing.

There was also a conversation with the waitress (yes, a waitress in a Pub - Gregoire didn't think that was right) about parents. Arno's parents are from Italy and Germany (or Austria, I don't quite remember). Both Gregoire and our waitress said it's a waste to have parents who are of the same nationality because you don't get the mix of cultures. I also think I should say that at this time I was the youngest person at our table. Gregoire is six or so years older than I and he has a Ph.D. in some sort of biological field. He's worked with horse and dog DNA. Arno is 40 and we don't know why he's living in a student house. It's gotta be pretty hard for him. He works in the Staatsoper doing the lighting. Apparently, there are 30 or 40 people working lighting in the Oper at any one time.

The other notable conversation I had was when all the others arrived - Kirstine, Erkal, Mara, Berk, Adela, and Ozan (which made me slightly above the median, agewise). I spent most of my time talking with Kirstine and we talked about the drinking age and drinking laws in the US. I told her that it was illegal to walk down the street in the US carrying an open container of beer. She told me that a five year old could walk down the street drinking a beer in Denmark. It's frowned upon, but it's not illegal. We also talked about drunk driving and she said that she thought the incidence of drunk driving was probably higher in Denmark. That maybe true, I don't know. I just think the legal drinking age in the US should be, well, nonexistent.

After that, we went to a party at Gregoire's university (I think he teaches there or does research). The best thing about these parties is the music. I heard London Calling by the Clash, Self-Esteem by the Offspring, and Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. There is no possible way I would walk into a party in the US and hear any of these songs. It would be either rap/hip-hop, country or something like the Backstreet Boys and that would be more of a joke than anything else. I also went to a club with Erkal, Ozan, and Berk a while ago and the club was playing oldies music - stuff I know - and the crowd was about my age, maybe a couple years older. Why can't the club scene be like that here? There are, of course, the clubs that play the normal type of music, but at least there's diversity. Or maybe not diversity, but they're playing stuff I'd want to hear.