2 Month Update

Well, I've officially been here for 2 months. That's 1/6th of the way. Crazy.


The Good News

- The sauce section at the grocery store is glorious. It seems Iceland likes sauce as much as I do. They even have fry sauce here (but they call it burger sauce). Some of the first Icelandic settlers to the United States were mormons who settled in Spanish Fork, Utah. They have fry sauce. We have fry sauce. Coincidence? I think not. (Everyone I've explained my theory to so far has been unimpressed...)

- The days are getting longer. Much longer. Two months ago daylight lasted from about 10am to 5pm, now it's around 6:30am to 9:00pm and getting longer everyday. The weather accompanying the longer days has been magnificent. For some reason I figured Iceland would be very overcast most of the time. False. The climate has been not unlike a spring in Utah... except for the piercing winds of a Satan.

- Icelandic is hurting my brain less. Street names (and other long words) usually make phonetic sense now instead of looking like a bunch of letters being thrown in random order. And the other day, I totally understood a random little boy who told me I had good looking shoes. Win!

- I've made a variety of wonderful friends. From the people in the LDS branch, to other au pairs, to other expats, to my host family: I'm surrounded by some really fun, smart, interesting, artistic, encouraging, funny, and all around great people. I count myself very blessed and lucky.

- I really dig the genuine trend of sweater wearing. I didn't know if the whole Icelandic sweater thing was just to sell crap to tourists or what, but it's legitimate. Lots of sweater wearers are to be seen all the time here. Men, women, children, everyone. I'm into it.

- Because I don't have the endless stream of entertainment from Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, my personal movie collection, etc., I've been reading a lot in my spare time. I've read 4 books in the last month, which very well could be a record for non-school-related readings. Though I enjoy reading, I definitely prefer visual and auditory storytelling, so pushing myself to read more has been a good and rewarding challenge. My current read: The Great Gatsby. I figured I should experience the original before I see Baz Luhrmann's highly anticipated interpretation next month.


The Bad News

- There is an alarming lack of beards. They exists, but not in the numbers I'd hoped for. By my highly scientific calculations, I figure only about 14% of the male population sports facial hair. I've seen some of the most satisfying beards since my arrival, which makes it a shame it's not more trendy. I don't know if it's the rugged landscape or the sweaters, but Icelandic men wear the look well. I just wish they wore it more often.

- I've yet to receive all my proper documenting paperwork from the Icelandic immigration people (or whoever is in charge of doing whatever they're supposed to do to get me whatever paperwork I'm supposed to have). Because of this, I can't do certain local Icelandic-y things like buy a bus pass. Lame, unknown person not being quick enough at a probably pretty hard job, very lame indeed!

- My dear sweet little niece Ivy is starting to forget me. I knew I should have whittled a life-sized statue of me in some heroic pose for her to display in her bedroom. Guess I'll just to step up the Skype dates instead.


And that's the update from across the pond... and to the north.
Bless!