Voting, and Chocolate

 Last weekend I went to the main library branch, and got a library card: yay, books!  This is a statue of Deichman, the founder of the library system:

In case you're wondering: I think that's his goatee, though it does look an awful lot like this statue is a cannibal who hasn't quite finished off that thumb.

On the way to the library, I passed the square where bombs set off on July 22, 2011, destroyed government buildings and killed 7 people.  In the same terrorist attack, over 80 people were killed at a political-party based summer camp.  This stand holding those day's papers has been left up, and the surrounding buildings are still being repaired:

 The attacker, Anders Behring Breivik, was a right-wing extremist who believed that Norway was threatened by an influx of Muslim immigrants.  This summer was the one-year memorial of the tragedy.  After 9/11, American security and cultural climate changed drastically-I don't know how much has changed in Norway, only having experienced the after-effects.  People do awful things in the name of "right".

That day, I got a package from home: peanut butter, popcorn, and Reese's-joy!

It's very surreal seeing all these things telling/reminding people to go vote-mostly because I voted weeks ago.  In fact, I had to prepare for voting back in August (wow, it's November already, how long have I been here?), because I had to fill out my absentee ballot request form.  Then, I was sent the ballot, and then I had to send it in 2 weeks ago, at the latest.  I think it's actually a bit easier to vote when you can send in an absentee ballot-there's no need to get time off from work or school when the polling places are open to go vote (and, for my international friends, polling places are only open until 6pm-not that late!).  Plus, my district's voting station is in a left-turn only retirement community, making for interesting traffic jams.  Finally, I don't have to deal with the political mudslinging ads on the tv, or constant robot calls.  At home, the week before an election you don't answer the phone before the answering machine picks up.  Stop trying to foist your opinions on me-repetition will not make me vote for someone.  It's much more relaxing voting from home.  There is one drawback, though: no stickers.

This was my first chance to vote in a presidential election; very exciting!  Lots of other students here are interested in the outcome of the election-one person today asked me if I knew when the results would be known-probably very early morning/middle of the night.  However, several of my friends say that they've never voted in their political elections, even though they could-different systems/expectations, I suppose.

Anyway-Chocolate!  Today I went on a tour of the Freia chocolate factory.  No Oompa-Loompas, though we did have to wear some stylish coats and head gear:

But, I'm getting ahead of myself-first, we went through Freia-Land, a tour through the origins and history of chocolate and the Freia brand.  It was originally named after the owner's wife, though now the company is owned by Kraft.  When the company wanted to sell in Sweden, they found that the name was already used for a different brand, so in Sweden it's called Marabou.

Also, there was a time machine.  And a series of hilarious commercials for Japp, one type of candy bar-sort of like a 3 Musketeer's with a layer of caramel:

 

Is that song stuck in your head yet?

You also get to see a series of Munch paintings (not as depressed as the Scream): according to the tour guide, the workers were not pleased with the paintings,  complaining about, for instance, the lack of eyes:

You can sort of see their point: I mean, there's 4 people, but only 1 eye.

Anyway, as part of the tour, you also get to make your own chocolate bar.  Here's mine:

In case you can't tell, that stick figure is definitely a skier, something which I hope to do before I leave.  This hope is looking promising, especially since it looked like this today:

I spent most of the way back home cradeling a pumpkin, but I still saw this nice sunset: