Obamarama and norwegian peaks.

At first I was wildly disappointed to be out of the country for the presidential election, but I think its been perfect. I was totally insulated from any Republican disappointment and got to feed off of and add to the joy that erupted afterwards. It gave me a chance to have some serious solidarity with my one American friend here, watch a truly American triumph through the lens of al Jazeera and Norwegian public television. I got to smoke a Cuban cigar (legally) and swell with a historical moment. And I felt special. I now feel like a proud ambassador and less like a rationalization machine. SO the election was fantastic and at 7am when it was called, I felt like I watched the moon landing without having to watch it with a group of disappointed Russians.

Other exciting happenings. I had an exam two weeks ago, which here entails 4 days at home to write a ten page paper whose question is posted at the beginning of the week. What does Alix do on the second day of the exam? Stress and read, and mash and edit? No! 24 hour road trip time! Terje and I drove to central Norway, which was fantastic, until the sun went down, we ascended 3,000 feet in elevation, and ended up stranded on a mountain pass with no lights in sight and -10 celsius outside. Once we established that we wouldn't die, but at worst could lose a few toes and perhaps fail an exam, we relaxed, turned the car lights off and realized we were atop a massive mountain under a perfectly clear night sky! Stepping out onto the road I could look up and see the Milky Way...it was amazing. And soon after crashing (or lightly tapping a hill of plowed snow) a semi truck trudged by and we got a working phone and a tow truck an hour later. He towed us almost to town and we snoozed in the cold car in warm sleeping bags. And when the sun rose we were in this idyllic mountain town covered with the first real snow of winter. I snapped some photos of a church erected in 1100, we drove to Lillehammer and then realized that the tires we were driving on were summer tires and this first snow had resulted in a traffic jam outside of Oslo. And when I say traffic JAM I mean JAM. Cars sliding all over hitting ditches and other cars so we stopped, lucked out, and got an appointment to get new tires put on.

And then cruised into town in time to finish my exam...We'll see how I do.