Small Town Survival

Sometimes I try to be a Good American. I don't go waving a flag around or declaring 100% support of the President or anything crazy like that, but I do try to keep up with what's going on in the US. In fact, I've probably read more news since I've been in Denmark than I did from September to December last year. I wish I was kidding.

Anyway, since I'm also not crazy enough to stay up late to watch the State of the Union Address (besides, who needs to hear all that applause.. it's not like I've never heard clapping before. Settle down, people! oh, and on another note - it's not like the officials don't have other chances to express their support of the President. They have all sorts of outlets so they shold shut up already with the clapping. I could see if it was the general public - if the American public could express their thoughts directly to Him while He's giving His speech, then fine. Otherwise? Enough. I'm sure some of us were expressing our opinions btw, it's just that he can't hear us yelling at the tv.). So, where was I?

Oh right, I read the State of the Union this morning and it was almost more than I could stand to get through at 7 a.m. I also managed to fit in some reading on what the different news sites had to say about what he said. It's easier to get a summary sometimes than read through those long speeches, and you know they're long even without the clapping (but I won't get started on that again).

So I'm a little proud of myself for taking time out to be clever or bored or an American, or just a little homesick and I'm thinking about the lecture in the afternoon because it's on Danish politics and I'm wondering a little bit about whether or not they're similar or if it's just going to be one big crazy mess than I can't understand. (Do I get an award for the world's longest sentence?) Instead of making it to the lecture before I'm hit with more politics I make it to about 9:45 during our first break during the language classes. You'll never guess where it came from. From the North - those damn.. er.. I mean it came from the Canadian girl, the one that wanted to talk about affirmative action, etc., at the dinner the other week. Yeah. And she wanted to tell me how we could improve the country and how things certainly worked better in Denmark and probably Canada for that matter than in the States.

Er, so Denmark is a lot smaller than the US - I mean, in case you hadn't noticed. I pointed out that it would be hard for fewer people to have cars (at least right away) because for example, I worked 30 minutes by car from where I lived and there wasn't any public trasnportation that actually went that way or even close to that way, or even a little out of the way. Car pooling wasn't an option because I didn't work with anyone that lived near me - or if I did (duh, my dad worked there) we worked different hours so there wasn't really anyway that we could go in together.

In the end I got tired of her saying the same things to me and trying to come up with creative ways to say the same things back to her so I suggested that maybe she'd like to come to the US and tell the nice people there how they should run their lives. Or maybe she should run for Pres.. oh wait, Canadian.. she can't. Hee. This isn't really about Denmark is it? I hate politics.

Oh but wait, it doesn't start there. After I point out that I don't want to talk about politics anymore what happens? That's right, Alfonso (the spanish guy) decides that it's a great time to talk about what? Yes, politics. I'm not kidding. So I spent a half hour talking about them, again. Again. Again.

This was followed by a lovely afternoon of listening to a lecture on Danish politics. I actually learned quite a bit about the way the system works and the different parties. It wasn't painful, then again people weren't telling me I should change the way the President runs the country. Instead I got to think about the decisions someone else made that affected another people. wee. Sometimes politics aren't that bad. And speaking of, this entry is why I usually stay out of it, look at me go on and on and on about nothing at all....

I should run for office.