Norway

Yes, the thing that is most frequently in my train of thought today is Norway. Well, that and my broken desk, but that is another story. My contemplation of Norway is not quite as strange as it may seem. We work with a Norwegian company at work. Hardly a work day goes by that I am not talking with someone from Norway. Well, there was the one day they were all out on a boat and I couldn't get in touch with any of them... Does anyone know if sailing is a traditional way to celebrate in Norway? Has anyone been there before? I'm sure it is quite beautiful. If only I could think of a reason for a business trip out there.

Getting back on track, now that we've established that it is not unusual for me to be thinking about Norway, why a blog post about it? Yesterday I was reading an article on http://www.bbc.co.uk about the EU. The most shocking thing about it was that Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein are not members of the EU. I had no idea! I assumed because Norway used the euro that they were part of the European Union. I guess there is some sort of economic agreement, but not a full political arrangement. You learn something every day!

By the way, another interesting thing I learned about in the article is that one of the major reasons that Iceland is not part of the EU is because of fishing laws. What an interesting sticking point in the negotiations. Want more information on the EU and non-member countries? Here's an interesting article on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlargement_of_the_European_Union