Conversation topics 101

Every so often, one is forced to make small talk with strangers with whom one has absolutely nothing in common - typically at luncheons, conferences, business dinners, etc. If you're a foreigner in Norway - or in my case if you're assumed to be a foreigner in Norway - and entertaining international guests at some function, there seems to be a list of universal, lowest common denominator topics which will appear during the course of your "conversation". Some people appear to just be reading off of said list:

1. So; where are you from?
2. (follow-up to #1) Do you know ........? (If subject answered "France" to the above question, feel free to make up a regionally-sounding name like Jean-Francois LeFrenchguy if you don't actually know someone from that country - keep the ball rollin')
3. Where'd you go to school?
4. What do you do now (what type of research/studies/..)
5. Why'd you choose to go to Norway?
6. Doesn't it get, like, really cold in Norway?
7. It's expensive to live in Norway, isn't it?
8. The roads in Norway are in such a horrible condition, aren't they?
9. So; did you see the ........ vs. ........ soccer match last night? (bonus points if you remember the name of the home team and whichever pack of third-tier losers they got defeated by)
10. Alcohol and gasoline appear to be really expensive in Norway
11. Why do Norwegians refer to fuel usage as litres per 10 kilometers instead of miles per gallon?
12. Is it true that Norwegians are cold and unsociable?
13. Does the King of Norway have any political power?
14. So; can you say anything in Norwegian?
15. My kid Bubba/Günther/Igor/Jean-Claude actually visited Norway last year - him and a couple of other kids spent a week in ....... (insert name of random SWEDISH city here)

Feel free to add to the list