Being an Air Force town, we have a significant German population by marriage, but you just don’t see them. The Canadians are down because of the shorter visa length. They would come down and stay for the winter, but now they can’t, and those condo are now empty.
The entire state is a fiscal mess, as property and sales taxes are the state budget.
Throw in the higher insurance costs, and people are in real trouble with no relief in sight.
Homeland Security has run amok, and someone needs to impose some sanity on the process. Shackling someone because they overstayed their visa by 3 weeks a decade ago, is insane.
]]>So anyhow they had to lay off 20% of their workforce, cut their room rates practically in half, etc., and they’re still teetering on the edge. The only reason they haven’t gone under yet is because a number of us have volunteered to help them out from time to time, by, e.g., fixing stuff around the place that needs fixing but the money isn’t there because the tourists are staying away. But that can’t go on forever…
]]>I know what you mean, Jill. This is the time of year when we normally hear Canadian, British and German accents, but they are missing, even with the very favorable exchange rate.
Not that it helps much, Gisli, but I apologize for what happened. It was unwarranted and a total waste of our resources. It was senseless authoritarianism, which a lot of us are attempting to change. People have been terrorized by those in power, and it takes time to calm them down and return to reality.
]]>A blogger in Iceland by the name of Vidar Eggertsson translated Lillendahl’s narrative of the “most humiliating experience of her life” into English. You can find the translation below:
]]>If I was a commissioned salesperson in New York I would be seriously annoyed with this. No one comes from Iceland to shop for a couple of CDs and some batteries.
]]>And that would be really, really bad.
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