Random News of Norway.

Right, here's a quick update of what's going in Norway (It's still rainin', so I'm still bloggin'.)

-The Norwegian daily paper Dagsavisen has started including the New York Times as a special inlay feature in its Saturday edition. It's a 10-page issue with the highlights of the week - mostly editorials, essays and short feature stories - and the articles are straight from the American version, which is very nice. Getting the New York Times in Norway is otherwise close to impossible: You can only get the "International Herald Tribune", which is kind of a European edition of the Times, but - as with other International editions of American publications - it lacks most of the edge and grunt the American edition has, in addition to being nauseatingly expensive. (Is that a word? If it is, I probably spelt it wrong.)(Is spelt even a word? It's kind of embarrassing if I spelled spelt wrong, of all words.)

It's strange, but reading the international editions of magazines like Time or Newsweek is the same thing: They're simply too airbrushed and rated G to be any fun to read. So here's to Dagsavisen (Which in fact is a pretty good paper itself.)

-In other news, I got my American Visa for another year! The Visa interview apparently went pretty smoothly, and the consular clerk spent most of the time talking about the two best things about Columbia, MO., namely "Tony's Pizza" and the fact that there's a 5-cent refund on bottles and cans there. I guess I pushed my luck when I pointed out the anachronism and inexactitude of these two points, but I still got the Visa. I'm also white, blond and have no detectable facial hair, so how can I be anything but a good guy?

-When your mom told you never to scare goats, she was damn right. This video proves her point. From now on, always listen to your mom in goat-related issues.

-Guess which school is the hardest to get into in Norway after high-school? I know it sounds bizarre, but it's photo-journalism. The Norwegian grading system is similar to the American, where a Norwegian 6.0 GPA corresponds with the American 4.0. Photo-journalism requires a fairly impressive 8.1 (!), similar to a 6. something in U.S. There are obviously various ways to improve your GPA in Norway, but 8.1 is still insane. In comparison, Medicine in Oslo requires a 7.12 average, and Journalism in Oslo a 6.5.

-I'm getting a visitor from Guatemala! I know this sounds a little bizarre too, but a fellow Fulbrighter I met at a New York seminar this spring decided to come pay me a visit in Oslo, which is very exciting. Needless to say, I only rarely have visitors from Guatemala, even though my apartment in Oslo is just a few blocks from the Guatemalan embassy. Coincidence? I don't think so. Anyway, this is what I know about Guatemala:

-It's a country, and I assume it has a population. That is unless my friend Ramon is the only inhabitant. This intuitively seems a little unlikely, but if he is, the entire population is currently on its way to Norway.
-The flag has a statistically significant amount of blue in it.
-The capital is Guatemala City (It has the 'City' phenomenon in common with two other Latin-American countries: Which two? Answer is on the bottom of the post.)

-Finally, I need to admit that I've - along with everyone else in Europe - become addicted to Su Dokus. A Su Doku is a Japanese puzzle thingy, which has been all the rage in European newspapers this summer. It's not exactly a math puzzle, it's more about thinking logically, and it's only slightly more addictive than heroin (Don't ask me how I know that.) In fact, I think it could be a pretty cool thing to have in the Missourian: Keeping in mind the fact that the average Missourian reader is fairly adult and well educated, I seriously think it can be a hit there too. If the Missourian bureaucracy allows it, that is. Here's a quasi-academic story on Su Dokus, and here's a great site for learning it.

(The two countries are of course Mexico (Mexico City) and Panama (Panama City).)