financial world

many people lately have asked me what germans / europeans think about the financial crisis in the US. honestly, i have no idea. i can't understand the german news, and quite frankly, i'm not really seeking to read their opinions in english. any conversations about the US have centered around the election rather than the $700 billion bail-out. or is it up to a trillion yet? it's so freeing not to worry about it. i imagine a lot of my former contacts are pretty stressed out these days. not here. most of the people i come in contact with each day don't have any idea about what i used to do or that i was involved in finance. most probably don't even care.

one thing is ironic, however: in my last german class, the closest thing we learned for professions to what i did was "bankauffrau" which basically means female banker. when i said that in class one day, frau hadidi said "ohhh, she is very important and makes a lot of money" but in german. i didn't correct her, so my old classmates still think i'm some important financial person. it's kind of funny because i clearly do not look like a high-profile person. i imagine that they imagine i am an undercover financial spy who traded billions of dollars in bad debts and now has to hide and has chose to do so in berlin. or something like that.

so, i guess the moral of this story is that i know nothing. i have no opinion on the financial crisis and am not really in touch with anyone to tell me. don't get me wrong, i understand what's going on and am vaguely curious, but it's not consumming my life like it would have in the past. once i am getting ready to go back to work, i'm sure i'll follow more closely.