The government

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Today we had a presentation in class about the US government. The lectorer Lee Ann Potter went through the contitution and what the different sentences mean. This were a very educational and interesting lecture because it´s not something people in norway useally know, unless they are especially interested in the American contitution. Mrs Potter made the lecture inspiering, fun and easy to follow.

Milk

The movie Milk is a biography about Harvey Milk. He was a gay rights activist and the first gay politician to be elected to public office in California.
The story begins on Harvey Milke´s 40th birthday in New york, before he had moved to San Fransisco. We get to ee the first meeting between Harvey and his much younger lover Scott Smith.

The winner takes it all

Politics is about power. The power to say something about how the country are being runed. In British politics you either win os you loose when you run for election. If you loose you arn´t alaoud to sit in Parlament.
The Parliment are made up of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Both houses meet in the Palace of Westminster.

On election day(wich always is a thursday) the polling stations are open all day so as many people as possible can vote. In England you can also vote by post wich makes it a little easier for the once that can´t get to the polling posts. Theres only one person who´s elected, the person with the most votes. The winner takes it all.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr.(Januar 15 1929-april 4 1968) was born in Atlanta, Georgia and was son of the reverend Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. Hewas a smart kid and entered college at an age of fifteen.

King is the most known activist in the African-American civil rights movement and today he´s become a human rights icon all over the world. He had followed in his father King Sr´s. footsteps and his actual job was as a reverend at the batiste church, but he started early as an activist. In 1955 he led the Montgomery bus boycott and he also helped to found the Southern Christian leadership conference in 1957.

The speech king made in Whasington in 1963, named "I have a dream" is one of, if not the most known speech worldwide. With this speech he established him self as one of the great orators in U.S history. Martin Luther King Jr. recived the Nobel peace prize in 1964 and was the youngest person to recived this award.

April 4 1968 King was assasionated. He had travelled to Memphis, Tennessee to support the black sanitary public work employers in their strike. He stayed at Lorraine Motel at room 306, wich also is known as the "king-abernathy suite". Martin Luther King Jr. was shoot while standing on the balcony at 6:01 p.m april 4 1968. He was later pronounced dead at Joseph´s hospital at 7:05 p.m.

Norwegian weather

In norway we have four different seasons: Summer,autum, vinter and spring. In the vinter the ground are covered with snow and its freezing outside. Useally the temperature is below 0 and its ice everywhere! In the summer its around 30 and the sun is shining. This summer it was raining a lot, but we had a few good days at the beach too.

Right now its autum. The sun is shining, but its freezing outside, and its a lot of wind..

Poem: Does it matter?

Does It Matter? (1916)
by: Siegfried Sassoon

Does it matter? - losing your legs?..
For people will always be kind,
And you need not show that you mind
When the others come in after hunting
To gobble their muffins and eggs.

Does it matter? - losing your sight?...
There´s such splendid work for the blind;
And people will always be kind,
As you sit on the terrace remebmbering
and turning your face to the light.

Do they matter? - those dreams from the pit?...
You can drink and forget and be glad,
And people won´t say that you´re mad,
For they´ll know you´ve fought for your country
And no one will worry a bit.


g) Three effects of the war are mentioned in the poem:
- Getting hurt physically (losing your legs)
- Losing one of your senses (losing your sight)
- The dreams and thoughts you gain from being a soldier in which you will never escape (those dreams of the pit)

h) This poem reflects the attitude that whom you fight for are more the enemy than the people you fight against. It does so by explaining how was can destroy you both physically and mentally and afterwards saying that “no one will worry a bit.” The people you fight against are often more your friends if you do not consider they are fighting for your enemy. All soldiers are in the same situation even if they fight for different teams.

i) The poem has experienced a revival of late. The reason is because of the glorification of war has been condemned in the previous decades. We now care more about how terrible it is being a civilian in a war. Additionally wars are still happening making this topic relevant.

j) “Does it matter” appeals more to us than the other one because it is easier to understand the content. It is easy to put oneself in the position of the soldier spoken of in this poem whereas in the other poem they speak more of England and the effort and consequently the lives given for the sake of England by the soldiers.

About me

Hello, my name is Pauline, I´m 19 years old and my hometown is Bærum. By car, it lies only 20 minutes away from Oslo, wich is pretty convenient if your going shopping, out to eat, going to the movies or one of the big concerts. Its a great place to live if you don´t want to drive for houres to get to the beach, the town or mall.
Its my last year at high school, and next year I´m hoping to studie International relations, politics or somthing else if i change my mind by the end of the school year. I´m glad I still have some time to figure out what I want to do for the rest of my life. At least I know that I want to work with something international and not just something that has to do with Norway. And something more than to sit behind a desk.
When I´m not at school, I like to spend time with my friends and do different things. We go out dancing, stay at home and watch a movie, exercise, go to the mall or just hang out and do absolutely nothing at all..!
Two days ago I watched Stephen Lynch i Oslo, on "sentrum scene" with two of my best friends. He´s so funny and I love his humor. It was a "going away gift" to one of my friends, she´s going to Italy to work on a farm with mistreated horses. It was a great night with a LOT og laughter! I can ´t wait to watch him again.