5/30/09
Woke up around noon. Solvi and Oliver’s friend Camilla was there, and she said they were going to Food Not Bombs later. Bought a hot dog. It was around 1, and I saw that free Reykjavik tour was being held that I had always meant to go to. I stopped there for a bit, but it was rather boring, so I left. I was going to go to Kolaportið, but managed to get lost. I found the Salvation Army thrift store. Looked through their entire stock of coats but didn’t find anything in my size. I found a tiny little caterpillar on my cardigan though. I passed by Alfholl Guesthouse. I was going to go in to ask if I could interview them, but I chickened out. I went to the library for a bit. There was the National Photography Museum on the top floor. It was also tiny. I found a few folklore texts and the entire back collection of Wired. Read a little bit of both. I found my way back to Kolaportid. It was really hot inside, and all I could think of was if someone infected with swine flu was there. Saw Solvi briefly in the seafood section. I looked through a bunch of clothes. I found this pumpkin corduroy blazer from Zara for 900 kronur and a double breasted khaki H&M jacket (I think it was originally little girl’s size) for 700 kronur. I was really excited. I also found a leather Ann Demeeulemeester jacket, but it was huge on me and most likely quite out of my price range. Blast. I walked back to the flat, I think. I got really hungry and walked to Nudluhusid. Got deep-fried fish with curry sauce and rice. On the way back, I heard some band warming up and some Americans sitting at a table and talking. I meant to go back and watch the band but was too lazy to. Watched a ton of Jon and Kate Plus 8. Solvi and Oliver had a small dinner party with their friends and invited me. They didn’t start eating until 11 though. Little itty bitty tequila orange shrimp, rice, pineapple salsa, and baked apples for dessert. Camilla (who is..Danish?), a Hungarian guy who worked at the National Museum (didn’t catch his name. He wanted to start a school where they taught yoga to children from the start, which I thought was a cool idea), and Einar and Johanna (whom I had met before-they went to art school in LA?) were also there. Mostly I just sat there listening. I washed all the dishes though because I felt rather obligated to. During dessert I talked to Camilla about my folklore research (or lack thereof), and she told me about her studies in environmental storytelling-she would be working with Terry Gunnell too. I found out there had been a bunch of small earthquakes and a few bigger ones in Iceland the past two days or so. I totally didn’t feel any of them whatsoever. Also they keep predicting that Hekla will erupt because of all the volcanic activity. I did the dishes because they were so nice to always invite me to eat with them and such. Went to bed around 3 despite my efforts to go to sleep early.

Woke up around 1. Checked couchsurfing and saw that Elfa was going to Borgarnes, and I was all over that since I didn’t really have any plans. Originally I wanted to walk to Kringlan, the shopping mall, but it was already raining. This was pretty innocent rain unlike that I had experienced on the way to Dr. Hafstein’s office, but I wasn’t about to brave an hour or two of walking in that weather. I made ramen for lunch. Washed my hair. Elfa picked me up around 4 and drove us to Borgarnes. The view of the mountains on the way there was just incredible. There was actually a Roche on the way, which was kind of funny. She talked about sheep eating herbs while grazing, and I thought of it as..self-marinating. ahaha. Apparently most of the lifestock here is raised pretty much organically, or at least free range, so it's relatively healthy compared to US meat even if it's not technically labeled organic. Stopped at the small grocery store, where a lot of food was completely gone. There were a lot of tourists there. Also a lot of cute guy workers. Anyway. There was a long drive up a gravel road to get to her country house. Lots of cute tiny little lambs and stocky little Icelandic horses. The country house is tiny and adorable. We had some dried fish before dinner, which was really good, surprisingly. She grilled pepper steak on this instant grill thing, which we had some problem starting up. Had some mushroom gravy, salad, and mashed potatoes with that. One of her neighbors out here came by and talked with her, but she only spoke Icelandic. I think she was pretty shocked that Wake costs $50,000 per year. Ahaha. The TV was on this whole time. We watched America’s Next Top Model, the Biggest Loser, and Psych. Then we went over to the same lady’s country house. Her husband was a super nice old man who spoke English. They spoke in Icelandic most of the time, and he drank the white wine that he made himself (that Elfa said didn’t taste good). There was some movie on about…a Turkish girl who moves to Germany as a refugee? They had this really good milk chocolate (Freyja brand?) that had little cats imprinted on them and little cereal bits (Kix-like) in them. Very good. Ahaha. Was there from about 9-11:30? I kept meaning to ask him about elves and such but couldn’t bring myself to. Damn. Ahaha. The old man went to Cornell and and UC-Davis for horticulture and agricultural economics. He gave me a nice hug as we left. Stayed up listening to an audiobook of Angels and Demons and typing up these blogs. Ate some leftover potatoes and salad because I was hungry.

6/1/09

Woke up the next day around 11:15. We ate leftovers from the day before. Watched some music videos that were showing on TV (James Morrison ft. Nelly Furtado, Ciara ft. Justin Timberlake, Razorlight, Ne-Yo, Lady Gaga...weird combination of stuff). Then Erla went to cut some tree branches, and I went on a walk along the road to see this elf rock she had been talking about. It wasn't really that exciting, just a big boulder-ish rock formation thing. There were some really cute Icelandic horses.I walked along the stream that bordered the elf rock, and the sun was shining on the valley, and it was just gorgeous. I tried to capture it all on the camera, but I'm sure it didn't do it justice. It kept showing the mountains as all blue-ish because it was cloudy. Blargh. It was reallly cold though. Brr. Then I went back to the house, ate paprika potato chips and watched How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. We left for Reykjavik around 4:30 or so. The view of the mountains and the fjords were gorgeous, as they were before. It was nice talking to her though. There was a weird scraping noise coming from the bottom of the car as we neared the flat. Something on her car broke, and I felt really bad.

I went to Krua Thai for dinner. Got chicken in brown sauce with rice. Kind of got lost on the way. It seems like whenever I'm looking for a restaurant, I can never find it, but whenever I get lost, I always find my way to these restaurants accidentally. It was ok, but not amazing. I still really like Nudluhusid, but maybe I just ordered the wrong thing at Krua Thai.

6/2/09

I didn't really do anything. Had canned tuna and skyr for lunch, which did NOT go over well with my stomach. I called Magnus of the Icelandic Elf School. Initially I tried with Skype, which was definitely being all crappy. So I had to pay $3 to call him using my cell. Bah. Caught him at the grocery store, I think, because I heard beeping in the background. Went over to Alþjóðahús to see if they had Icelandic language classes, and they did. They failed to mention the prices of it...then I went to Bonus and bought some food. Solvi had a friend over, so I ate dried fish (a CRAPLOAD of it) and gummies for dinner, pretty much. ahaha. But he invited me to eat pineapple, strawberry, and lemon sorbet with them, and it was really good. Real food! I talked to his friend about literature because that's what she studied in uni. They went off to play some soccer (football). Oliver twisted his ankle though. Solvi said there was a politcian and an actor playing on the same field, so he and his friend played them. Only in Iceland. ahaha. While they were gone, I struggled to do laundry. I could not figure out our washing machine to save my life, so I furtively used someone else's. Unfortunately, I did not realize it would take TWO hours to do one cycle. I was watching it do the last spin mode for TWENTY MINUTES. It would lazily rotate one way and the other, and I wonder what role this served in the washing process. NOTHING. So I tried pushing the stop button multiple times, but the door remianed locked. I had images of people coming down and catching me using their washing machine in the middle of the night. Or that I would have to leave my clothes in there because they'd be stuck forever. I also poured the washing powder in the wrong part of the tray initially, so I frantically tried to scoop it out and put it back in the right one. Then I put it in the dryer. After an hour of drying, all my clothes were still damp, so I put them on my radiator. ahaha. I hate European washing machines and dryers. Sigh. Or maybe just those I used.

6/3/09
Woke up at 8 (urgh so early) to go to my first language class. Mostly we went over basic stuff like "What's your name?" and pronunciation of letters. It was kind of awkward because it seemed like everyone else was married or dating an Icelander, and I'm just...me. Very diverse group though, but I guess that's expected at an Intercultural Center. People from Spain, Colombia, Wales, Thailand, Japan, Cuba, Czech Republic. I was definitely the youngest there though. I got a brochure and noticed that there were classes for teenagers for much, much cheaper. Went back and made myself some chicken nuggets and a grilled ham and cheese for lunch (plus baby carrots and cherry tomatos and this weird juice thing). Left at around 2 to go to the Culture House. Museums in Iceland are so freaking small. There was a manuscripts exhibition, something about Icelandic films, and a natural sciences section that was literally 3 rooms. I finished in 30 minutes and left. Went back to Alþjóðahús to inquire about the classes, but they told me to go back at 5. So I had two hours to kill. I went to this art museum, which was also tiny. They had some crazy weird films. One was two men in bunny suits hanging with one arm from the ceiling and wiedling knives for cutting food with another. This other one was a bunch of men standing in a square on a glacier, cruncing the ice beneath their feet in the same spot over and over. Then they would zoom in super close on their orange suits. It was really bizarre. There was some exhibit about an artist who won this Carnegie Prize for sound-absorbing art. I saw these steel plates on the floor, and thought we were supposed to step on them. So I did. Then I realized we probably weren't supposed to when nothing happened. Then I noticed the camera pointing at me and shimmied out of there in a hurry. The "cafe" was actually just one of those automatic coffee machines. to the University Library to look for folklore books and got terribly terribly lost and somehow ended up in a Staff only section. There were very few books. Then I went over to the Arni Magnusson Institute, which is supposed to have a folklore collection. But I didn't see no folklore collection while I was there...just people who looked at me funny. Grahhhh. So I may be stuck with translating Jon Arnason's 6 volumes of folklore. ahaha.

Then I went back to the flat for a bit because my legs were getting tired. I meant to go to Bonus to buy some orange juice, and it's only two blocks away, but for some reason I COULD not find it. It was kind of side. I had never tried to go there coming from that direction before but still...then I hurried on over at 5 to the intercultural house. Talked to a Norwegian guy named Mats who was working at a nursing home. Yeahhh...apparently the rest of the students were already intermediate students who had already taken classes before except us. And Norwegian is similar to Icelandic so...ahaha. There was also a cute Vietnamese guy who didn't speak any English or Icelandic, I do believe. ahaha. I felt kind of awkward, but it was nice being around people my age. I was starving by 7 though, so I rushed back and ate some..chicken nuggets? Something. ahaha.

It was a really nice day though, weather-wise. A tad chilly, but warm under the sun and not too windy. I've definitely had to amend my definition of what a "nice day" is for the Icelandic climate. Elfa told me it was a lot warmer this time last year though, around 15 degrees Celsius. She also said she never saw rain falling straight down until she was 14 years old. ahaha.