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I get a bit confused when you can and can't combine the present and past tense. For example, look at the following sentence:
When the plane landed, I looked out the window because I wanted to see what Norway looks like.
Should it say, "Norway looks like" or "Norway looked like?" I ask because when I looked out the window, I didn't want to see what Norway looked like twenty years ago.
Any opinions?
We can reasonably talk about what "Norway looked like" at a particular point in time.
We can reasonably talk about what "Norway looks like" ignoring time. I for instance saw what Norway looked like one year ago. It is reasonable to suppose that this gives me a fair impression of what Norway looks like now, and will look like tomorrow.
As such, both sentences are valid but mean slightly different things, focusing either more on a particular or a general state. You should choose between them according to which focus you'd prefer to convey.
Were you hoping to see into the future, to see what Norway looks like 'now'? When the main verb is in the past, so are all the other verbs in the sentence.
