Well, me too. But if I was going to marry someone from another country and live there for the rest of my life, I’m not sure I’d bother. Absentee ballots for 20 years?
And these person wasn’t even organized enough to know how much it would cost to get her luggage to Norway.
Oh, I read it. It was just wrong.
I don’t get why you think that’s relevant. I’ve flown without money before when I knew I had somebody waiting for me at the other end.
[further hijack]
This isn’t true. You can lose your US citizenship if you acquire a foreign citizenship with the intent to renounce your US one, but it’s not automatic. Desire to retain US citizenship is presumed in all cases of potentially expatriating behavior – you have to swear in front of a US consular officer to lose US citizenship.
[/further hijack]
I’ve lived in Germany for 12 years and voted in each presidential election since I moved overseas. I didn’t stop being an American when I changed my address. It’s no more bother for me to register to vote and request an absentee ballot than to, oh, put a vacation stop on my newspaper.
shantih, have you had to re-register for each election? I expected to have to re-register for the general election this year and was pleasantly surprised to find my absentee ballot arrive on the day I was going to mail my voter registration.
Note that I’m not questioning that it can be done. But just changing mine when I moved this summer was a lot more trouble than the vacation stop on my newspaper.
First impressions: Ok, the chickie poo doesn’t sound real stable–who moves to another country w/o at least a credit card or some cash? Who bursts into tears at the baggage check in?
Ok, given that, wait a minute…
I’ve been tempted to cry at check in, so there is that. Sometimes they’re real nice people and sometimes I think they hire Bitches just because (like the driver’s license facilities–not a nice person in the place).
But also, she was probably somewhat upset and anxious about starting a whole new life in a foreign country (no matter how much she looked forward to it–it is daunting) and was emotionally labile during the trip.
I don’t understand a 31 year old woman in 1988 being w/o a credit card. I just don’t. If it were 1978, maybe–women had a hard time getting credit cards in their own names back then (even that might be pushing it–the early 70s were when it was hardest, IMS). I have no idea why Obama would have been at that airport then. In college, I traveled at all sorts of weird times for various reasons (family weddings, funerals etc).
Being w/o cash, I do understand–I don’t normally carry large sums (would that $100 were a large sum today. It was in 1988) because I worry about pickpockets, and what good are dollars where she was going?
The conversation probably went something like this: “honey, I’m going to move us into our new place in Oslo, and you come in a week’s time. Bring your 2 suitcases, but don’t bring any cash or credit cards–we’ll set you up once you get there.”
Or maybe she’s a ditz. I have no doubt she’s remembered things incorrectly (the Kansas address? why?), but if she sent the money there, it obviously got to him because he sent her that letter, so maybe he gave her a relative’s addy or a friend or neighbor’s. So the KS addy is irrelevant.
But Norway is not the back of the beyond–they have currency exchanges (whatever they’re called–the place you can buy foreign currency) and lots and lots of people who speak English. I don’t get the no taking money/credit card with you. Good thing someone was there to help her out–there aren’t many Obamas in the world.
Because stuff happens! Like needing money for luggage, or an emergency landing in a foreign country, or a number of other scenarios…
It’s called being prepared.
On the Kansas address thing:
It’s possible since he was leaving one job and about to start law school, his own address was up in the air. It said the Kansas address was his grandparents - both sure not to pick up and move any time soon and sure to send the money to him once he was settled in.
I don’t know where you live, but registering has been a piece of cake for me in multiple states. Just do it when you go to the DMV to get your driver’s licence. It takes like 9 seconds.
His grandparents lived in Hawaii at that time, I thought.
I used to have to, but they did change the rules in the past several years; now, your registration remains valid for (I think) two federal election cycles. I’m slightly fuzzy on the details because I checked a couple of months ago, saw that I was okay for this year, and put it out of my mind again. I did get a postcard saying that I would receive my absentee ballot 3-4 weeks prior to the election, so it should be arriving any day now!
The possibility of stuff happening is not going to put money in your pocket that you don’t have. Moving is expensive. If she didn’t have any more money, she didn’t have any more money. That’s life. All she had left to do was ride out the flight. I’ve been there, done that. It happens.
It’s called being broke.
It could be that they process an address change with more bureaucratic hoops than issuing an absentee ballot, or you might have had bad luck with the people who worked on it.
Well, you would think that an international couple in their 30’s would have a freakin’ credit card for emergencies. Wouldn’t you?
Not necessarily. I never had a credit card until I was 40.
Well, crap. My bad.
I’m 30 and I don’t have one in 2008. This happened in 1988.
Ok, ok - not everybody has a credit card.
Do you go overseas very often? Don’t you think it might be prudent to carry some money if you were going overseas?
That’s my entire point.