I've always wanted to blog about this, but I just couldn't find this amazing image.

In german Inter-City Express trains, there are special wagons where it is forbidden to make noise. You are not allowed to speak, you have to mute your mobile phone and be as quiet as possible. Due to the perfect isolation from the outside, these wagons are really quiet although the trains reaches speeds of over 300 km/h.
These special wagons allow you to work like magic.
My friend Kevin actually used to say that he worked better on train than in the office, during his remote visits. I agree, they are really nice :)

German grade conversion formula

Today, I got my first result from a German exam. If you didn't know, the German grading system is a bit different from the Romanian one: the grades are from 1 to 5, where 1 is the maximum grade and 4 is the last passing grade (5=failed). So, if you get 1 at your exam in Germany, you don't have to cut your veins, or jump from a building - but rather go out and buy your friends some beer, because you're da' man.
Also, you can have grades with fractions, like 1.3, 1.5, and so on.

Today I got a result that didn't tell me too much, because where I come from, the grading system goes from 1 to 10 (where 10 is the maximum grade). So, I came up with a formula to convert from German grades to Romanian grades:

RomanianGrade = 5/3 * (7 - GermanGrade)

If you want to have fun converting your grades from Romanian to German grading system, use the following formula:

GermanGrade = 7 - 3/5 * RomanianGrade

Wrap-up

One year ago, I have planned to keep this blog up to date, but apparently my plan didn't work. Now, I am planning to do that again, so... I will start with a little wrap-up of what happened in the last year:

July 2006 - Got an internship in Germany, moved from Iasi to Bonn
July 2006 - Travelled to Belgium, visited Bruxelles
July 2006 - Visited Cologne (Köln)
August 2006 - My first visit to Berlin
September 2006 - Travelled to Czech Republic, Prague
September 2006 - Travelled to Münich, at Oktoberfest
October 2006 - First time OC (Organizing Commitee), Bielefeld, Germany
November 2006 - OC at NaLDS, in Harz Mountains, Germany
January 2007 - Visited Loredana and Sebi, in Helsinki, Finland
February 2007 - Conference Commitee member, AIESEC International Presidents Meeting 2007, Egypt
March 2007 - Travelled to Sinai, then Giza

Well, a lot has been going on. I have written some words about all this in my romanian weblog, and from now I'll also try to keep up with my posts in English.

Mino, you'd better read this, you were the one who pushed me to do it :D