I never left the States?

What happens if the green Departure Record is still in your passport when you return home from the US? Well then you have never been registered as leaving the country! This may not sound as a problem to you, but since the normal visa allows visitors to stay for a maximum of three months, not registering your leave means that after three months you have exceeded the maximum stay, and may face serious trouble next time you want to apply for a US visa!

The good news is, that if you did not need a special visa in the first place, e.g. if you are from EU, and you left by scheduled flight, your passport number was registered with your boarding pass, so it is easy to show that you did indeed leave the US before the end of the three months.

Read more at the US Customs Border Protection

Parkside on Ellery

Last week I was in Boston for a conference, and I stayed at an excellent Bed & Breakfast in Cambridge. Parkside on Ellery is located off the beaten track, in a residential area, at walking distance to Harvard Square and Harvard University. For transport you can either take the subway from Harvard Square, or, on weekdays, the bus line 68 on the corner will take you straight down to the centre of town. The place is quiet and the rooms are homely and comfy.

If you ever go there, please send my regards to David, your host. He is very hospitable and gave me lots of helpful local advice during my stay.

Congratulations to all Americans

To all Americans,
I would like to use this historic opportunity to congratulate you with your new president. You made the right choice. Now all you have to do is stand by your choice and support the government initiatives to bring the US back on track again. I believe you can do it and now is your big chance.

Best wishes,
-glyn.dk

Biden versus Palin

Saturday night live made an excellent remake of the latest vice-presidential candidate debate. Check it out on NBC: Saturday Night Live VP Debate Open: Palin / Biden

Obama versus McCain

Obama is an idealist and I like his ideals. McCain is indeed a "maverick", but in the negative sense of the word - from the behaviour he is exhibiting I just do not trust him.

Buy your Obama t-shirts online at CafePress.com

Jacob Holdt in the news

I am a big fan of Jacob Holdt. When I was in elementary school he was touring the Danish schools with his dias-show "Amerikanske billeder". These pictures of ghettos and racist confrontations made a big impression on me. Both the pictures themselves, but also the story of this self-declared tramp, who went on a journey to places where most people would be afraid to go, and in these places portrayed the faults of the American society.

Jacob Holdt is now making headlines again with his new photo exhibition "The Ghetto in our Hearts" where he declares that Denmark is more racist than present-day USA.

Read also:
Wikipedia about Jacob Holdt
From Politiken: "Danmark har overhalet USA i racisme" (in Danish)
The new exhibition "Ghettoen i vore hjerter" (in Danish)

Sustainable consumption

I saw a very inspiring talk by Sir Brian Heap yesterday. The subject was consumption and happiness, and it was well off the topic of the rest of the conference which was focused on genomics. Anyway, he showed one plot which made a big impression on me, the generation and recovery of plastics in the US (see illustration). Your first question might be: "Then where does the rest of the plastic go?", and then you will realise that it is either burnt together with the rest of the house waste, or left in the roadside... So it is either consuming energy once again for its decomposition or polluting our environment. He also showed other examples that made me think twice. Now I feel like I should be looking more into sustainable choices for my everyday life. I do not want to be contributing to energy waste or pollution of our environment when there are other choices available.

Illustration courtesy: Earthcycle.com