We're All Moved In!

Our sweet water boiler pot.

So we have tons of room and love having a new kitchen! We also have a good sized storage room, although I don't think we'll be doing much storing. We also have a balcony and our view looks east toward the fjord, and from the balcony we can see south and west up the mountains! It's good to be settled in finally!

p.s. here's a portion of our view

Photos- Some Old, Some New

Monday, February 16th, 2009

It's been a quiet week in Akureyri. The students are busy with a project- they are working in groups on a paper and presentation- and I am getting to see more and more of the town and culture. Heather started class last Monday, and with the promise of work I spent the day in the back of the classroom waiting to speak to someone about my responsibilities, but the staff was busy hearing thesis defense presentations given by the students who will be graduating this week. After Tuesday and Wednesday I spent exploring the town on foot, taking pictures of the landscape. I am starving for opportunities to take pictures of people, as I need to work on that aspect of my photography. Heather gets home around 4:30 and spends time on facebook catching up with people and events at home, then hits the books while I catch up on reading. Since we are living in a hotel and do not have a kitchen or even a fridge (some of the other students were fortunate enough to have a mini fridge in their hotel room, we've created a makeshift fridge in the window) we go out to various restaurants and try to order big meals so we can have leftovers.
We decided to celebrate Valentine's Day on Friday since RES planned a party on Saturday night. We went to the Thai restaurant we had been to before and then went to our favorite cafe to share a dessert. The RES party on Saturday night was a great opportunity to meet the students finishing up and get advice on living in Iceland. RES allows the students to use the classroom for movie nights and parties as long as the room stays clean and intact, so we played a trivia game, with the first and second place teams winning beer from a local brewery. Our team came in 2nd. Then, as true Icelanders, we headed for the after party so the evening could begin. We partied in one of the apartments we will be moving into, and we can't wait to move in! We waited until about 1:00 a.m. to go to our favorite bar, since that is when the crowd arrives, and danced to the hits of the 80's and 90's, which seem to be the most popular musical eras.
On Sunday we took school vans out to Skjaldarvik, a RES dormitory 10 miles outside of Akureyri where about 12 of the students will be living. We used the spacious kitchen and dining room to cook a spaghetti dinner for 30 something students. To the astonishment of many of the other students, it was the American males who took charge of the kitchen and, with the much needed help of a few of the girls, served dinner right on time. We can't wait to do the same thing again, hopefully we will be able to cook for everyone every weekend!
We will hopefully be moving into our apartments on Thursday, so stay tuned for news and pictures of our new accomodations!

At Last

I've found temporary work! The RES staff have asked me to help edit the English in the 2009 thesis reports (the class that is graduating this month). Since English is the required language for the reports, and most of the students are from European countries, and since the staff is Icelandic, they are in need of someone to make sure the language in the reports is correct. I'll be editing the reports electronically, then be sending them back to the author for approval. I don't know what or how I will be paid, but I'm excited to have something to occupy my time and to have some responsibility while I'm over here. That's all for now, more updates will follow. Take care!

Swimming in Winter is Great!

So far we've been to the geothermal pools twice, and it was amazing both times. We met an old blind Scot who is married to an Icelander and frequents Akureyri, and he told us he's always out and about, and if we ever see him in town and have any questions to ask him. This has been our experience with the population. Local or foreign, everyone is outwardly very friendly and helpful, which is a relief since it has been such a transition. Since most of the population speaks English we (the rest of the students included) feel guilty not knowing much Icelandic, but we are trying to pick up phrases to make dealing with us easier.

We've also experienced some of the nightlife. A couple of bars offer student specials, so we have visited those for the cheap beer. We have adhered to the American standard hours of operation, but Icelanders do not start the party until well after midnight, and usually go until morning. So we have not really experienced the bar scene in full swing, as we usually retire for the night when it starts to pick up. For us to do this (and those of you who know Heather will agree) Heather will have to get over her Cinderella syndrome. We will make it one of these weekends. Last night RES threw us a small party with free beer, wine, and delicious hors d'eurves (spelling?) and we learned that even the authority figures at the school like to party! They feel, and we gratefully agree, that making the students feel at home is very important, so they have been absolutely wonderful in helping us make the transition into a new land and culture... That is all for now. Check back soon!

We Made It!

So we made it to Akureyri ( pronounced Ahkoorehrey with the R's rolled), Iceland on Wed. February 4, sleep deprived and exhillerated. We had left Minneapolis at 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 3rd and didn't get to Akureyri until 11:45 on the 4th. We had a couple long layovers without much sleep, and this was especially hard because we could barely sleep on the night of the 2nd because of the excitement of leaving the country. But we made it safely and are quickly falling in love with the town. We are still getting used to the time difference, Iceland is 6 hours ahead of Minnesota, so we lost some time en route.

When we landed in Akureyri, the PR representative for the School for Renewable Energy Sciences (RES) whom we've been emailing for the past month recognized us from pictures we sent in and drove us and three other students to the Hotel Harpa in downtown Akureyri. We have met several of the other students, from Mexico, Slovakia, Kazakhstan, Poland, Hungary, and have quickly become good friends with all of them. All of us being in such a new situation has made it very easy and necessary to make friends. Arnbjorn, the representative from RES drove us in "green" cars to our hotel and met us for dinner later. His job is to make sure the students feel at home and get whatever they need, so we will keep him close.

For the first two weeks we will be staying in the Hotel Harpa in downtown Akureyri. The hotel is very nice, and as I write this I am sitting in the lobby, a wifi hotspot, with several of the other students who are all on their computers as well. There are several shops and cafes very close by the hotel. Actually, most of the buildings featured in photos on Akureyri's website are within a block of the hotel.

The day we arrived we got a tour of the campus and wandered around town with some of the other students. That night we ate at Bautinn, a restaurant right across the street from the hotel, and I tried horsesteak. It was better than I expected. We ended up falling asleep at about 9:15 (we didn't even make it through the opening credits of a M*A*S*H episode) after fighting jetlag all day.

The next day we slept in, missed breakfast, and had lunch at a cozy cafe down the street in a building we had seen on Akureyri's website several times before departing. We meandered around town some more and visited the public library and some shops. I've made it my goal to buy an Icelandic wool sweater, but at prices between 7,900 Kr and 28,000 Kr ( b/w $80 and $250) I haven't been able to justify the purchase. After seeing the downtown area we went to an outdoor public pool. The water is chlorine free and geothermally heated, so as long as we were in the water we were very comfortable, but we had to make quick trips between pools and hot tubs. I don't know how exactly the water is cleaned without chlorine, but they are very strict about showering before entering the water. There is not much of a crime rate in Akureyri, as we had to leave our shoes on an unprotected rack outside the changing rooms. Everyone here is relaxed, friendly, and seems trustworthy. We are now preparing to go out to dinner and experience some of the night life in the city. Stay tuned to find out if we make it!