This didn’t really fit with the previous post, so I’m splitting them up.

American politics have been breaking my heart lately. I really thought that after Bush failed so universally Republican leadership would be forced to come to grips with this unforgivable trend of corruption, inflated government, warmongering, racism, hypocrisy, and general close-mindedness within the party. I actually thought they — or at least one or two candidates — would propose a change of course.

Not only is this not happening, now Redstate.com has blacklisted Ron Paul supporters for being “not Republican enough.” Hell, if those pro-life, creationist libertarians aren’t even Republican then I’m nowhere close, and if the mainstream is actually ignoring comments from other Republicans they disagree with, then my “seek representation from the inside” philosophy is bogus. They don’t want to represent rational people like me.

As a result I’m seriously considering registering Democrat and voting for Obama. It’s a lot of paperwork to switch parties and vote from Norway, and Oregon doesn’t pack any punch in the primaries, but he is the only person on the table who doesn’t make my skin crawl just a little. I’m just so depressed for our country right now, and I think it would make me feel better to cast a vote rather than abstain, which is what I’d have to do in the Republican primaries. I’d vote for Hillary before I’d vote for one of those slimies.

I’m sorry for bringing politics into the blog, I know it’s a touchy issue for people in general, friends, people in my family, etc. but it’s driving me crazy. I don’t think of myself as a Democrat, but I actively disagree with the Republican party at the moment. And I want to have a voice in the primaries.

It is hard to be this far from home at any time, but this is an especially difficult time to be an American in Europe. Iraq is in shambles, not to mention the mortgage crisis, health care, immigration, social security, education, the Patriot Act, women’s rights, environmental degradation, international diplomacy (or lack thereof)…I can’t defend criticism on these issues, because they are real problems. They cannot be solved outright, but they can be approached and discussed in a rational, proactive manner. I just want a presidential candidate who can do this convincingly. Even if I disagree with some of Obama’s solutions, I feel like I could trust him to implement some. All I can trust the Republicans to do is assault more Middle Eastern countries and make abortions more dangerous. Awesome.

Alternately, I’m thinking of starting a new political party. We’d have to have a snappy, original name like Demoricans. Or Republicrats. Thoughts?

I just finished my first-ever shift at Uglebo’s waffle cafe, which is open every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. We serve crisp Norwegian-style waffles with delicious fixings like jam, sour cream, and geitost. I’ve also worked twice at the Friday night pub (and will again this Friday). It’s fun and a great way to meet people, not to mention improve my Norwegian. I’ve got “to vaffler og én kaffe” down pat! Now if only that were more useful in everyday life.

Life is going quickly slowly. I realize that doesn’t sound very sensical, and sensical may not even be a word, but that’s exactly what it feels like. We lost our daylight savings a week earlier than the US and that’s helped a lot. Before I wasn’t able to wake up until noon, but now I can get up at 11 or, if I try really hard, 10:30! This is a vast improvement. Still, the dwindling sunlight hours throw my brain pace off. I’m never quite sure when to eat or sleep, and study hour somehow slipped out of the schedule entirely.

As many of you know, I met with the cell phone company Aspiro again on Thursday and things are looking good for collaboration. I’ll be meeting with them again on Friday to plan out exactly what form this collaboration is going to take. This is great news because they have access to a whole slew of demographic information and market research that should be useful to me as I write my paper. Not only that, but the people I’ve spoken with have been very friendly and energetic. Anything to keep me busy and in human contact is a good thing at this point. Even better if I get paid.

This is actually a busier week than most, so I’m hoping it’s a trend. Wednesday night there is a Halloween party, but I don’t have a costume yet. I’ll probably go shopping tomorrow morning, although I might just buy a new pair of pants instead of a Halloween attire. The super-strong velcro on my new messenger bag tends to rip holes in the outer-thigh region of whatever clothing I happen to be wearing. I’m hoping it calms down after it’s eaten its fill of denim thread, but I can’t really wait for that to happen. Cold autumn wind + threadbare thighs != awesome.

Another sad development is that our dear Norwegian teacher, Frode, is leaving us after this week. He is in charge of some exchange program in Georgia (the country) and he has to go down there for two months. We’re not exactly sure what is going to happen with Norwegian class, but he’s supposed to tell us tomorrow. Yet another example of this bizarre education system that nobody seems to take seriously. How many teachers have quit on me? Three now? Out of two classes? I’m not sure how I’m going to adjust to life back in real academia.

Bergen was great and the best parts of it involved fish. We met up with Bergen Fulbrighters Laura and Kristin for dinner on Friday night. Kristin had just returned from a research voyage so we ate all the fish samples she’d been testing, some kind of delicious whiting. It was nice to chat with those girls a little, as I don’t remember people very well from our brief 1-day orientation in August.

The movies were all great. In addition to the three that I had tickets for I also saw “Fay Grim,” which…I don’t even know how to describe it exactly. It was part humor, part social commentary, part espionage thriller. The aesthetic was intense in this self-aware way that was somewhere between funny and uncomfortable. Most notably, the main villain was named Fulbright, and the entire row of us burst out laughing every time it came up. This film will almost certainly feature prominently as a drinking game at the Fulbright ski retreat in February.

I spent the extra money to stay in hotels rather than hostels. It was quite a bit of money, but in this one case it was entirely worth it. I slept comfortably. I had a place to retreat. I took warm showers. I ate warm breakfasts. Most luxuriously, I was able to pack very little.

The second fish-induced euphoria happened later Friday night. Jeff, Lauren, Abbey, Jonathan, Laura, and I went out to the bars together. After we’d imbibed our fill we ran to the waterfront and Abbey bought us a giant greasy wonderful cardboard box full of fish and chips. We gorged ourselves, spraying creamy dips and french fries all over the dock.

Saturday night featured a special treat, too. Apparently the Bergen football (soccer) team played in some championship that evening, and the streets were absolutely swarming with drunken red-clad football fans from 10am onward. A huge screen was erected in front of the artificial octagonal city lake and everybody from miles around gathered to break bottles, throw up, leer, cheer, and, eventually, lose.

I thought the train right might have been over-hyped — how could a 7-hour train ride be that amazing?? — but it was in fact very pretty. It started out with typical lake-and-forest type stuff, but then it climbed to the highest point in the entire European railway system and we saw glaciers and snow. Lauren and Jeff ran outside to play and take pictures. Even the Norwegians went all silly and paparazzi, so it must have been special.

Now I’m back in Oslo. Morgana is gone — she was unhappy and decided to head home before we lose daylight savings next weekend. The Erasmus crowd (this is Europe’s big student exchange program, like in the film L’auberge Espanole) has offered to adopt me, but they drink like fish and watch a lot of soccer. Still, they’re very nice kids, so that’s something. It’s still relatively sunny, but it’s cold. I will need to buy sweaters and jackets and scarves. I have another interview at Aspiro on Thursday, so if any money comes out of that I might be able to afford nice new winter things! Not going to get my hopes too far up. This is about research, after all, not about luxury items. I can always get perfectly good hand-knit Norwegian sweaters from the Salvation Army.

I’m about to head out to catch my 8:11am train to Bergen through what is supposed to be one of the prettiest stretches of track in Europe. I’m not bringing much: a few t-shirts, my toiletries, books, iPod, snacks. I decided not to bring my computer after much deliberation, and that decision is in jeopardy right now as I hold it on my lap.

I really do have a severe computer addiction. Two 7-hour train rides plus free wireless at the hotel both beg me to bring it, but there’s all that carrying and worrying about theft and stuff that I hate dealing with. We’ll see how heavy everything is when I lift it up. There’s always my cell phone that people can / should call!

Computer or no, it should be a fun trip. Will be meeting up with Leslie and Kyle and the Bergen Fulbrighters in addition to the Oslo Fulbrighters who are traveling this weekend as well. Jeff scored a ticket to Sigur Ros through some sort of feat of amazing, but I’m not optimistic about my chances. Oh well. See you on the other side!

After a night of working at Uglebo, drinking until close, and then playing computer games with Brendan into the wee hours of Saturday morning, it was everything I could do to drag myself out of bed a few hours later to meet Lara in Sandvika for a loppemarked (flea market, literally). I’m very glad I made it! I got a great deal on a sovesova (sleeping couch) and a pair of cross country skis. All very good, although now I won’t have any excuses not to learn to xcs…

The market was crazy. These things are put on every year by school children to raise money for after school programs like bands, and there were whole rooms devoted to each category of object: clothes, furniture, kitchen supplies, books, sporting goods, electronics. In the furniture section dads put on red vests and went into super-salesman mode, hyping and heckling like pros. We were there early so there wasn’t much bargaining to be done, but the prices were low enough that I felt awkward arguing anyway. I saw lots of things I would have liked to pick up — dishes, dvd players, bicycles — but I’m very happy with my two purchases and I’m glad I didn’t go overboard.

My sofa is delightful, if a little homely. Definitely endearing. It has a wooden frame with green, red, and yellow plaid cushions. The slats are interspersed in such a way that you can slide the bottom part of the frame out and transform it into a small double bed. Now I can host two visitors at the same time! Even three (although that’d be tight) since Lara spotted a perfectly serviceable mattress-sized cushion near the dumpster on the way out, which we scored for free. The sofa fits perfectly along my empty wall and the room is now an ideal spot for small social gatherings.

I can’t thank Lara and her mother enough. The whole process Saturday, from telling me about the flea market to meeting me there to driving me all the way home with my tartan sofa dangling out the back, was beyond generous. I’ve been looking for a used sofa online for weeks, but the combination of my lousy language skills and my lack of immediate transport made it difficult. I paid half as much for this couch as anything else I’ve seen, and I’m pretty giddy about the ugly little thing.

Saturday night I met Morgana at Chateau Neuf for the Octoberfest celebration. There were at least 40 different kinds of beer available and the tables were full of boisterous Norwegians chanting drinking songs. Dad would have loved it. When the traditional chants swapped out for a dj we all got up to dance. This was fun for a while, but as the crowd thinned out and the remaining population got drunker the dancing devolved. At one point a particularly aggressive young man decided that “dancing” should entail pinning me against the stage and humping at my leg. A larger male friend had to pick me off my feet and spin me to safety. At that point I decided the remaining dancefloor population consisted of social backwash, so I removed myself from it and instead chatted with some kids from my Norwegian class.

After hanging around outside with Morgana and my Norwegian class friends, we all decided to walk back to my room and drink wine, which I keep for just this sort of contingency. It was fun to have my room full of nice people and for my sofa to be so immediately useful. Federico is Italian and Romain is French, and we talked about Norway and language and our homes. Some of Romain’s friends joined us later, and they were very pleasant, too. I don’t know why, but ever since I’ve been here I find myself really eager to befriend the French students, maybe because understanding every third word of their language makes me feel less stupid. I don’t know. But it was nice.

The weekend rounded off with our traditional Sunday Fulbright dinner. Jonathan was off roving, so we decided to feature a meaty meal (he’s a vegetarian). Abby made Cincinnati chili, an oddly delicious concoction of spiced meat, spaghetti noodles, mustard, onions, and cheddar cheese. Lauren made a decadent baked good as usual, this time a fluffy cake with chocolate frosting. We finished the evening by gathering in Jeff’s room and watching Britney Spears’ “Gimme, Gimme” music video, which both Jeff and Lauren are thoroughly enamored with. I was really impressed with Jeff’s room in Bjolsen, which is very new and nice, but I still prefer mine if only for my proximity to campus…and my rockin’ couch.