Recently in USA Category

Happy Thanksgiving!

By
Patrick
on November 27, 2008 9:54 PM | | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
For all the Americans who read this, I hope your Thanksgiving brought you lots of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and all the other trimmings.

So, the holiday season has begun, even in Norway.  So I'll get to find out more about Norwegian holiday traditions like PepperknΓΈtter, which seem, more or less, to be gingersnaps, although the kind I tried didn't quite have that nice spicy taste.

New Posts Coming...

By
Patrick
on October 28, 2008 10:38 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
...I promise!

I've been sidetracked lately trying to keep up with American politics.  Ok, that along with things like the gym, floor hockey, cooking, and other activities.  But really, when I'm in my apartment and not cooking, cleaning or sleeping, I'm checking news sites way more than is healthy.  The good news is that we're only a week away.  And I do have pictures to write posts about, so things aren't dead here.

American Embassy

By
Patrick
on September 10, 2008 9:01 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
USEmbassyOslo.JPG
The American Embassy is a very unique building, especially given it's location.  As you can see by the picture, it's very black, triangluar, and pretty much across the street from the palace.  And it has a tall, very ugly fence surrounding the place.  To say that it's uninviting is an understatement.

Now, first off, I don't have complaints about anyone working at the embassy.  The times I had to go there, none of them were ever rude to me, and they were took care of my request for more passport pages quickly.

However, I have to be honest and say that I'm not proud of the embassy.  I realize the current government feels the need to do a lot to "secure" the building, but I believe that they could secure the building without making it feel like you're trying to enter a fortress.  Not only that, but they want to build a new embassy, way out of the center of the town, and at a location that the residents claim would destroy the last green area they have near them.  The embassy has upset Norwegians by trying to get the process expedited and attempting to circumvent the local government.

So, when I visited the embassy around 9am on a Thursday, I think, there was already a long line.  Luckily for me, they have a separate line for American citizens, and nobody was waiting there, so I only had to wait around 5-10 minutes.  You first go into this guardhouse, where you get searched more thoroughly then you do at the airport.  You can't take much in with you - your ID and documents you need, and your cash.  Then you head to a side entrance and come into a pretty small, dingy area where there are one set of windows for Americans, and another set for everyone else.  Since there was only one American ahead of me, I didn't have to wait there long.  I was able to drop my passport off and pick it up later in the day after they added the extra pages (of course, I had to go through security again, and it was just as much fun as before, although I left some stuff behind so I was able to get through faster.

My problem is that the embassy isn't a place you want to go.  Although the people are polite, the environment doesn't encourage you to make use of their services unless you have no other choice.  Back in the UK, some Australians loved to talk about how the Australian embassy in London have wine tastings and other events.

In case you're wondering, the other embassies I've passed in Oslo tend to be more traditional looking buildings, and if they have a fence, it's usually more ornamental.  Even the Israeli embassy doesn't look like a fortress!

I can't help but wonder what things were like, say, 10 years ago...

American politics

By
Patrick
on August 29, 2008 7:11 PM | | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
Almost every Norwegian I've talked to since I arrived has been to American at least once.  They like the States, and have found Americans to be friendly people.  However, they do wonder what on Earth the country was smoking when we let George W. Bush into office.

What's really scary is that after eight years of Bush, McCain actually has a chance at winning the election in November.  What will Norwegians think of us then, knowing that there will be at least four more years of Bush's failed policies?

Now, McCain is trying to make history.  He chose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.  Unfortunately, he chose a woman who is mired in a scandal.  Palin is being investigated, both by an independent investigator hired by the legislature, and also by Alaska's Attorney General (at Palin's request, after the legislature voted to hire the independent investigator), for firing a state official who would not fire her former brother in-law from his job as a state trooper.

Now, whether or not Mike Wooten is fit to be a state trooper is a valid question.  He admits to using a taser on his 11 year old stepson, although the boy agrees that he requested it, and it was a very brief instance, and he shot a moose when it was his wife who had recieived the permit, not to mention several other troubling incidents.  However, Palin was not a neutral party.  Palin's sister and Wooten continue to have custody and visitation disputes and it is a conflict of interest for Palin to have acted as she has.

During their speeches, McCain and Palin both spoke about ethics, but it's obvious that neither of them understand the concept.
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