California Day One, aka Let’s go to a Playground!

We landed at San Jose airport late Thursday evening, after a quick stopover in Seattle.  We are incredibly fortunate in that we still have many friends in the Bay Area, and were super-fortunate in that Sarah and Augusto agreed to house us for the duration of our stay.  Thankfully, Augusto also agreed to pick us up at the airport, which was very much appreciated after a looong journey! 🙂

Our first morning in California: Giving Clarissa a present, a classic Icelandic children's book. 🙂 She was much more interested in the wrapping paper though… 🙂

The older kids playing in the driveway. And wearing t-shirts outside! 🙂

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California, Here We Come! :)

Finnur’s job requires him to travel to our old stomping ground in California twice a year, usually in May (for the lovely weather) and November (for Christmas shopping).  This year I found myself feeling terribly homesick for Whole Foods, warm sunny camp playgrounds, and old friends – so I ever-so-gently twisted Finnur’s arm into agreeing toRead more

Finally!!

It’s been a torturous couple of weeks, with exam-making and then exam-grading, but I’M DONE!  YAY! (Sadly, I’m only DONE for another month before I’ll be hit with a couple of make-up exams for those that failed the initial finals.  I’m in denial until June begins.  But by mid-June, I should be REALLY REALLY DONE!)Read more

My Job Is Up For Grabs

Today this posting appeared on the government job-board (sorry, Icelandic only as far as I can tell).  Yes, it is my current job.  Which I have sort of resigned from – ‘sort of’ because I’m officially taking a year-long leave of absence for now because they’d (almost certainly) like me back if I change myRead more

Exam Season

I hate making exams.  I hate making exams.  I hate making exams.  I hate making exams.  … Yes, grraoooaaarrrgh, it’s Exam Season.  Again. I’ve retreated to working from home because I can’t risk running into students while I’m making an exam because I’d just tell them all about it.  I can’t lie. But that stillRead more

Art is the Name of the Game

Jóhanna (Nökkvi’s fiancée, aka my soon-to-be sister-in-law) is graduating from the Icelandic Academy of the Arts this spring.  To show off their students’ works, the school puts on a large graduation show at the Reykjavik Art Museum, which opened today.  More/bigger images here.

Jóhanna by her very large painting titled "Ég geri hvað sem er" or "I do anything".

Only in Iceland? Here Jóhanna and her parents are with the First Lady of Iceland, Ms. Dorrit Moussaieff!

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An Evening in Copenhagen

As I’m typing this, I’m sitting in the Copenhagen airport (Kastrup), looking at the Icelandair-plane I’m about to board, and I figure I have some 15 minutes to kill before they start boarding.  So here goes: My first evening in Copenhagen (click the link for all the images, I’ll just post a few below).

The bed in my tiny, yet somewhat swanky/modern room.

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Far Far Away

I’m in Denmark! Yup, I’m on a two-night worktrip to Denmark, to participate in organizing a conference this fall about a subject I know rather little about.  But I probably know more than Regular-Joe, and am therefore eligible to be ‘the Icelandic representative’ apparently. So far the trip has been mostly uneventful.  The biggest dramaRead more

Northern Exposure

One of the perks of having a state-sanctioned religion is that Easter-time comes with lots of holidays: Thursday, Friday and Monday surrounding Easter are all public holidays, and most schools take a week off or more.  We used the opportunity to visit Kata and Jói up north, just like last year (see this, this, this and this for a refresher) for a change of scenery, and the chance to spend some time with good friends.

This year we mostly lounged around.  The kids were mostly self-sufficient, we visited the next-door swimming pool a couple of times, visited a farm owned by Kata’s cousin, ate too much, and played board-games in the evenings.  The most energy-sucking ‘activity’ was me going out with Kata and her neighbors for two ‘couch-to-5k‘ walking/jogging sessions (weeks 2 and 3) after which my legs reminded me why I avoid running (Helloooo Shin-Splints!).

All in all we had a lovely time, and hope to visit them again this summer, when the area is a bit greener. 🙂

Three road-warriors during a walking-bit in very bright vests because that road is a 'main-road'.

The kids by the main-house at the farm. Behind them the fjord stretches inland.

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