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dragonlady7Today's picture of the day is courtesy of my cousin Aleksander. I'll let him explain it.
(Having said all that, he then forgot to include the picture, which confused me until his next sheepish email arrived.)
As usual, full-size version behind the cut. :)
Explanation: Military service is mandatory for all Norwegian males. They can be called up for two years any time after they are 18. Apparently it's easy enough to weasel out of it, but my older two cousins at least both felt weaseling to be wrong, and so served. I don't really know how it works, and don't know any details, but I do know there was a bit of nervousness over whether anybody was going to have to go to Iraq: Norway is heavily involved with NATO, and what the US does, NATO does, and we're loyal allies and all that, and in the post-Cold War world it's all a bit confused (Russia's in NATO now...) but I do know it means that Latvia (Latvia, people) has had to send people to Iraq and has even lost one or two.
The world is a small place.
And my cousin cannot resist mugging for a camera. He so big and buff. *giggle*
I was in Germany this september with the Army. It was great! It was like
an extra few weeks of summer. I spent most of the time reading maps on
the Autobahn (I don't have a licence to drive the big trucks we drove
around). And that's why we spent som much time backtracking. Mostly in
the dark: "uhm... I know you don't to hear thsi again, but that exit we
just passed... that's where we were supposed to get off."
Oh and the picture is from the day before we left. I was very pleased.
(Having said all that, he then forgot to include the picture, which confused me until his next sheepish email arrived.)
As usual, full-size version behind the cut. :)
Explanation: Military service is mandatory for all Norwegian males. They can be called up for two years any time after they are 18. Apparently it's easy enough to weasel out of it, but my older two cousins at least both felt weaseling to be wrong, and so served. I don't really know how it works, and don't know any details, but I do know there was a bit of nervousness over whether anybody was going to have to go to Iraq: Norway is heavily involved with NATO, and what the US does, NATO does, and we're loyal allies and all that, and in the post-Cold War world it's all a bit confused (Russia's in NATO now...) but I do know it means that Latvia (Latvia, people) has had to send people to Iraq and has even lost one or two.
The world is a small place.
And my cousin cannot resist mugging for a camera. He so big and buff. *giggle*
