plans plans plans . . .

the language course I´m taking is only four weeks long . . . which means we have a big scary test this Friday morning, and then almost all the participants head back home shortly after that.

I am staying here until October 5 . . . And I don´t quite know what I´m going to do. I know I want to get around Iceland a bit, see some things I haven´t seen, camp a bit, take lots of photographs, talk lots of Icelandic (hopefully improve a lot with practice!), visit my relatives here, and possibly also go see some museums in Denmark and Norway that have stuff that will help with my PhD (mostly artifacts from Iron-Age Scandinavia, particularly iron things - swords, staffs, etc... - and evidence of smiths and how smiths operated in communities). I´d also LOVE to go to the Faroes, and there is a ferry that runs from Seiðisfjorður in eastern Iceland, to the Faroes, Shetland, Denmark and Norway . . . so maybe I´ll take that!

Not sure what I´m going to do next week. One of the participants is renting a car and driving around Iceland in 8 days. I´m going to ask how he´d feel about some company - we both like taking photos a lot, so it could be an excellent photography trip, but he doesn´t speak Icelandic much at all (it´s REALLY tough) so might not be such a great week for language practice. Another option is to do volunteer work up in the north in the highlands, making nature-hike trails etc... I´d have to pay about $40 CAD for 5-6 days of accomodation and food, and then do tough work making trails most of the day, hopefully talking with a lot of nice Icelanders, and maybe getting to see some interesting places and take some photos and go on some extra hikes if I have energy and if my knees and back are feeling ok. There isn´t really any way to get up to the north (or anywhere) for that cheap, and it´s certainly a great deal. So maybe that´s a good starting point for further explorations . . . we´ll see . . . Either way, I´ll be without internet for a week or so, but I´ll post when I return - IF I return: maybe I´ll take up residency in the highlands beside a glacier with a half-troll like Grettir did in his saga . . .

afmæli!

I had my 28th birthday on Monday this week . . . This is the second birthday I´ve celebrated in Iceland (I was here three years ago too) and I had a wonderful time. Had language classes most of the day, and then got to talk with Christina for a nice long time (she´s in Mauritius) and then had a picnic with some of the other students in the course (it rained a bit, so plans changed and we had to stay undercover, but it was still VERY nice) and then went swimming for a really long time in the local pool (wanted to go to the geothermal beach nearby, but again the weather wasn´t cooperating and there isn´t much shelter at the beach). Then went downtown for a bit and MUCH later went by the city hall and took some fun photos there of reflections and such - that building is amazing - I think it´s maybe my favourite in Reykjavík.

Thanks to everyone who celebrated with me, and to everyone who sent me nice b-day wishes!

Harry Potter attacks downtown Reykjavík

So I’m sitting in the equivalent of a small 24-hour grocery store in downtown Reykjavík, around 10:45pm on a Friday night. "Penny Lane" is playing over the PA system. Usually at this time and day, the downtown core is busy with teenagers and young adults going to bars and clubs, expensive cars cruising the main streets. Usually . . .

Tonight is different, however. There are masses of families, kids, adults, family cars, and a huge line-up at the biggest bookstore downtown, cause Harry Potter’s final volume arrives in about 15 minutes . . . There are also two groups of young people dressed up as wizards, running about, stopping, striking poses and freezing for about five minutes at a time. Some other cars are driving by with people yelling “Geeks” and such at the wizards . . . Oh . . . and I just saw a group of four adults walk through the masses wearing traditional ceremonial Icelandic dress . . . and they all got in the line-up . . . It’s a big Friday night in Reykjavík! And I just came downtown to get some milk and phone home . . . Maybe I'll play some Quidditch before I go home . . .

Attached photos show the wizards, and also the first group of lucky fans RUSHING into the bookstore to get their fresh copies. Note the street sign outside . . .

A photo from a place called Dyrholaey

This is a photo of me and the group of students who went to a fantastic and out-of-this-world place last weekend. From the left: Laura from USA, Charlyne from France, Heidi from Norway, John (Linguist from USA), John (another linguist from USA), Elise (wants to go into radio broadcasting and teaching, from France), and Julia from Germany (studying in Switzerland, and she grew up with Star Trek: The Next Generation, just like me, but she only knows it as it was dubbed into German - very cool!)

'Icelandic is kicking my ass'

This is what the librarian from Harvard (who is in my class) said about his experience learning Icelandic: "Icelandic is kicking my ass." This is the guy who is totally fluent and cunningly excellent with his accents in French, German, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Spanish, Japanese, and a few others too . . . He can speak with everyone in the course in their own native tongue, and he's really really good at them all it seems. He says of himself that, "I can speak French, German, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Spanish, Japanese, etc..., but I can't cook, dance or do math." He's a funny guy, and I can't really see him being a librarian at all. He's very happy and aloof about being in Iceland, and he sort of expected that after only four weeks he'd be fluent (also after pre-requisite individual study prior to the course), and his experiences learning other languages have reinforced this expectation. After three weeks of classes and living in Reykjavik, however, he has concluded with this statement: "Icelandic is kicking my ass." He's pretty good at it, but it's still very very tough and slow going. Some people have lived here for more than a year and still do not feel comfortable or competent in the language. It's just tough and different - has a lot more stuff going on in it that many other languages - declensions, cases, etc... and the sounds are tough to speak and hear sometimes.

So . . . I have concluded that hearing someone as linguistically tallented and experienced as Chip (the librarian at Harvard) say something like that, that I really should feel alright with where I'm at (and not at) with the language. I'm also VERY glad that I decided to spend more time here - a four week course is simply not enough: just feel like things are getting started when it's over . . . So hopefully I can hook up with some old people (they are usually easier to understand) over my time here and get a lot more practice and feedback on how I'm doing! I don't expect I'll ever pass as fluent, though - even Kristofer (my landlord), who has been here for ten years now (originally from Toronto) still talks in English with a lot of people, even though he can easily speak Icelandic.

here´s one of the lovely things that makes Icelandic difficult - ´ég á á á á´ - that is a complete sentence, meaning ´I have a small farm beside a glacial river.´ Several words are pronounced exactly the same, but have entirely different meanings. ´Mál´, for instance, can mean ´bowl´, ´problem or issue´, and also ´language.´ There are three genders (feminine, masculine, and neuter) and four cases, and EVERYTHING declines depending on how you use it.

I could go on . . . and don´t even get the many linguists in the program started on talking about Icelandic . . . it is a fascinating, lovely, and troublesome tongue . . . If you want to hear some, try going to www.ruv.is, and click on anything that says ´hlusta´or ´horfa´. . . This is the equivalent of the CBC in Iceland. RUV - Ríkisútvarpið - rík: kingdom or nation (i.e. Bishop-ric) útvarp: broadcast. -ið: this is an enclitic definite article, the equivalent of ´the´in English, except it is attached at the end of nouns in icelandic, and it takes all manner of declensions depending on number and case.

back to studies!
- Leif

it's the little things . . .

thought I'd share a few little things that one notices (and gets used to) in Reykjavik in the summer:

- the sun is always up (only goes below the horizon a few hours a day) so it's always light and never dark - makes sleeping hard only in that I don't feel like I need as much sleep . . . but I do . . . I think . . . ? Makes photography fun . . . and makes the nightlife funny in that the dark clubs need thick blinds to create the atmosphere . . .

- the water in the shower smells of sulfer and will tarnish jewelry (in public hotubs too)

- the hot water from the tap is instantly scalding and will burn your skin if you're not careful

- the moon is curiously absent . . .

- people like to cruise the mainstreet in fancy expensive new and old cars, and fancy motorcycles . . .

July 15

Hi -

Just decided to try starting a blog . . . this might persist, or it might not . . . we'll see!

I've been in Iceland for two weeks now, and it has rained ONCE, for less than a few hours . . . the rest of the time it has generally been ridiculously sunny and rather warm (even up to 20, which is VERY warm for Reykjavik) So I'm feeling very very lucky about the weather.

Went on an adventure yesterday - it was truly spectacular: I was so thrilled to be exploring the landscapes we found. I will maybe describe some of it another time. Back to homework now . .

- Leif