Yes, that’s right — it’s election day here, and it didn’t rain! And, as we found out when we made our trip to one of the neighborhood grocery stores, one cannot buy alcohol on election day either. My husband grew up in the South, so this was not strange to him, but Hawaii has no such laws. Alcohol is heavily regulated here — one can only purchase beer in the grocery store — wine and hard liquor is sold exclusively in Vinnmonopolet (Wine-Monopoly) stores. There are bars in town, of course, as well as cafés with liquor licenses, but drinks (especially mixed drinks) are astonishingly expensive. Think 15-20 USD a pop. No, seriously. I miss mojitos. Oh well, it’s not like I used to have them every weekend in my former impoverished grad student life. Still, there were some nice mojitos to be had where I was in the UK. Mmmm …

Anyway, my husband has been watching election returns all night (it’s a hobby of his, international election-watching) and he says it’s a close-run thing — much closer than the polls predicted. Nothing like a little suspense, I guess. My day has been full of housework — in fact, Tomka and I both skipped Norwegian class to stay home and do a day’s worth of work in the house. It’s amazing how long it takes to get even a small apartment clean, but we thought it was time well spent. I am still kind of moving in, actually, and although I have sorted out where to put my books, clothes, and computer, I haven’t hung up my pictures yet. It’s a process. I have already read through the rest of my Norwegian textbook anyway, so I hope I have a good sense of what’s coming next.

Well, it’s late, time for me to sign off for the night.