And today was a day just like any other (joke)

Side note. This post was written awhile ago. You´ll see when I start talking about the 4th of July which was 6 days ago... Fyrirgefðu! (Sorry!) More updates from recent times to come!

 Seyðisfjörður, a small fjörd town in the East of Iceland

Today was awesome. And because of that, I need to write a small blog post.

Except, I need to begin with last night. 

Last night was a family potluck at Baddý and Gulli´s house in Seyðisfjörður. I think there were about 15 people there and although everyone was speaking Icelandic and I could hardly follow along, I still felt included. Family is family. That´s what I´ve learned here in Iceland. I am 4th cousins (some once removed) with the people here in Seyðisfjörður and some I´m not even related to at all. And yet everyone has welcomed me with open arms and has been so excited to share their life in Iceland with me, as well as hear about mine back in Minnesota. Oh and I should mention that there is always so.much.good.food. At every meal. Including kaffi tími, which is this amazing meal between lunch and dinner packed full of Icelandic goodies. This is not good for my waistline, which continues to expand every day. See below and you might understand why.

After the family gathering I skyped with my wonderful parents back home! So naturally I needed to speak English with them. But because I´ve been so immersed in the Icelandic language, every other sentence that came out of my mouth was Icelandic. Or at least started that way. 'Þetta er... I mean, this is...' 'Ég veit ekki... I mean, I don´t know' 'Kannski... ugh, sorry, I mean maybe.' My dad´s response to everything is 'takk' - so awesome. Sometimes it fits, but more often than not it doesn´t and it makes me giggle. I miss you mom and dad! Especially now that it´s 15 minutes from being 4th of July... and I think I´ve only had one 4th away from my family.

So then I went to bed. And when I woke up, I realized that I had been dreaming in Icelandic. LEGIT. I was so pumped. And then I couldn´t find my jeans and I said to myself 'Hvar er þetta?' Even though it was not grammatically correct (I asked myself where is this?), I was still excited to find that my internal language is slowly changing into Icelandic.

THEN! At work I was able to help two customers using only Icelandic (I know they knew I wasn´t a native speaker, but they didn´t let me know that they knew, so I pretended... I mean, I was wearing my cousin´s lopapeysa so bet I looked like the real deal). And then two people came in from Denmark and spoke very little English, yet I was able to walk them through the museum and explain everything with a combination of English and Icelandic. #smallcountry#bigwins
Oh this isn´t Twitter? #sorrynotsorry =)

I am a little worried about what will happen to all my language skills once I leave Iceland, so I think it´s probably best I just stay here until I´m fluent. And at that point, I might as well just live here for the rest of my life. Seriously, I love this place and don´t know how I´m going to be able to leave in less than a month. Don´t get me wrong, I miss all of you back home. So actually it´d probably be best if we all just moved here. Anyone in?! Hope to see you here soon.

...but seriously, don´t you want to live here?

Two whirlwind weeks in Iceland

Wow. It´s hard to believe that I´ve been in Iceland now for over two weeks! So much has happened, and so quickly, that I´m in between feelings. It feels like I´ve been here forever, but I also feel like I just arrived in Keflavík. What a strange combination... á íslensku: það er mjög undarlegt. I am working on putting together a video blog, but it takes a lot longer than I expected. So fyrir núna, I´m going to put up some pictures of a few highlights of the trip =)

 

Thumbs up for climbing Mt. Esja in Reykjavík!!

 So yep. I did an interview on Icelandic radio mostly in Icelandic. Ég var mjög stressa. I was incredibly stressed out about it, but I can check that one off the bucket list!

 There are no pictures from our river rafting trip, but this one was taken on our way there! Crater Lake.

 Það er kominn sautjándi júní! Happy Icelandic Independence Day!

 My grandma and grandpa had one of these in their backyard =)

 An amazing dinner with wonderful INL Board Members, complete with interviews for a video documentary about Western Icelanders (people of Icelandic descent living in Canada/USA).

 This was what I walked by every day on my way to school. Beautiful.

 Meeting the President of Iceland... All four American Snorris in this picture =)

 Ég er að borða svið. I am eating sheep´s head. I had the cheek, eye, and tongue. Nom, nom.

 Just a midsummer´s eve on the shores of Iceland.

 Forest festival in Hallormsstaður!

 These are my cousins, we are just drinking water from the stream.

 

 Hot pool on the mountains with my cousins!

 More of my cousins! You can def tell we are related =)

Mountain top grilling - what a way to have lunch.

So anyway, those are pictures from my trip. Here are a few other highlights that I didn´t get pictures of that I´m taking from my journal...

-The first day at our Guesthouse, I tried to use my blow dryer, blew all the fuses in the apartment, and had to get the owner to help me fix it. He gave me a blow dryer to use. The guesthouse was amazing. Plus amazing breakfast every day. You should stay there when (not if) you go to Iceland. Guesthouse Odinn. Check it out.

-So far I´ve lost three pairs of earrings in Iceland. Hoping that will be the end of it.

-I am in process of buying all the Little Miss Sunshine books in Icelandic. I´m calling it an investment since I´ll read them to my kids, but let´s get real - I love those books and they are all for me. Saying it´s an investment just makes me feel better about spending so much on them.

-Locked myself in a bathroom at a concert. My cousin Óli had to come save me because I was so panicked I thought nobody outside the bathroom door would speak English (everyone speaks English in Reykjavík). So now I never lock the bathroom doors... this could be a problem in the future, but it hasn´t been one yet.

-Started a salsa dance party in a small pizza parlor. Enough said.

-The Snorri Program has been in the paper twice here in Iceland... so basically we are celebrities. Hopefully you got my autograph before this trip.

-Ate waffles from a yellow van. Seems legit, yes? So tasty.

-Was filmed during language class correctly using 'jú' instead of 'já' and was super pumped. Hoping that will make it to the documentary. I´ve been working on that skill for about a year.

-Saw some awesome indie/folk concerts in Reykjavík. Wish I could make it for Airwaves. What an amazing place for music.

-Met so many cousin in a forest in Hallormsstaður, East Iceland. It´s amazing how much we look and behave alike. Nature vs. nurture, man, makes you think.

-Basically, I´m having the time of my life with my new family in Iceland. Everyone here is extremely generous and I can´t thank you all enough for taking me in as one of your own. I will be so sad to leave each place and to leave Iceland, but after this trip I know I will never go more than a year without visiting. I´m already trying to figure out how I might be able to live here =)

-I´m sure I´m missing a ton of highlights, so if any Snorris are reading this please comment!

I hope this is a good enough update for now... stay tuned for a video update with different clips I´ve taken around Iceland... sometime in the future. (Putting a time frame on it will only make me miss the deadline). TAKK FYRIR OG BLESS Á MEÐAN! Thanks and bye for now!

Tími fyrir tónlist!

I love music. I especially love Icelandic music. I think you should, too. Here is a video blog to get you started :)

Velkomin til.... my blog :)

Thanks for stopping by my page! In less than three weeks I will be on my way to Iceland to take part in The Snorri Program. I am SO EXCITED! So much so that I made a video blog about it. I'm hoping I'll get less awkward in front of a camera the more I do these... but who knows. Let me know what you think! :)