Biddo and the Chocolate Factory!

Hi All

Sorry about the delay between posts, but in my defense I've been busy. University is currently in full swing as I've had 6 hours of lectures today - one on the monetary policy and economic integration of the European Union and the other on business and economic structure of Germany (Germany apparently has a large manufacturing sector, who knew?).

Classes can be interesting as we have a good group of students (a mix of German and Australian students), but when you're studying international tax law, well...

We've been on a lot of tours and have visited both Bonn and Frankfurt, and after experiencing negative 15 degree Celsius in Frankfurt, I'm never going to complain about an Australian winter again. Frankfurt was, apart from the cold, very interesting - we had a meeting with Deutsch Bank (Germany's largest bank) and the German Share lobby group who spent the entire time calling Germans idiots for nott owning shares... which I thought was a big call when the market has just fallen 40%, but hey - it's not like he has an invested interest or anything.

Just recently a person you may know has become a man (Hey, I resent the implication I wasn't beforehand -Dan), yes Daniel Wong who just a few years ago managed to enter a movie as a child (or maybe it was last week) turned 21. This had to be celebrated and the remainder of the Aussie contingent agreed that despite it being a thursday night with an early start to uni the next day, we would have a fairly significant night. While I will not state the time we got home (my grandmother is reading this after all, Hi Judy) you can't just end a night like this early and we went to a Karoke bar to start (I'm currently taking orders for the video of Daniel and I singing Cant Stop by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Intergaltic by the Beastie Boys) and then to a nightclub called Das Ding - which played every type of music imaginable. Seriously, if someone can find me a nightclub that will in the space of a few hours play both Hanson's 'mmm Bop' and Heavy Metal I will be quite suprised.

Despite our extensive uni commitments, we have found time to enjoy a few attractions inculding go karting, which was fun if not a bit annoying for me as I discovered that I had a 20kg handicap to everyone else in the race (never thought I'd ever see the day where I was the fatty of the group). Despite this, it was good fun - even though I never was able to place anying better than third out of five and had to endure the humliation of being being overtaken by an Asian (I'll get you Daniel, just wait).

The most exciting attraction and the reason for this blogs title was my visit to the Colonge Chocolate Museum, which was both informative and entertaining. They also have a chocolate fountain which you are given wafers, which have been dipped in said fountain. I may have had more than one.

Hope you are all in good health.

Cheers Michael