My brother, Pétur Breki, graduated today from Menntaskólinn í Hamrahlíð, a ‘Junior College’ where students usually enter at 16 years old, graduate after 3-4 years, and can then enter University in their chosen field (no general subjects). If the setting seems familiar its because his older brother graduated from the same school some three yearsRead more
The school year is drawing to a close. One of the yearly rituals of Anna’s aftercare is to participate in a boxcar race (kassabíla-rallý) against the other aftercares in this part of town. The centers made a big deal about it, had a parade downtown and then took over one of the squares for the racing. There were four centers present, three with first and second graders, and one with third and fourth graders (not nearly as many third and fourth graders go to aftercare as first and second graders).
There were many races run. The older kids had third-grade-girls vs. fourth-grade-girls, and the same for boys. The remaining centers had competitions between centers per gender per age. Anna was chosen by her center (after they timed the kids) to be one of three girls in her age group to race for her center, and they crushed the competition! Now, it must be said that Anna’s center had by far the best car: lightest, best wheels, and pushbar up high, so that probably made it easier. But still, it was awesome! 🙂
It was a rainy day! Here are the third and fourth graders by Ingolf's Square.
Today we had a parent-meeting at Bjarki’s daycare. Basically it’s the same old story, he’s advanced for his age in some areas (concentration, thing’s he’s interested in) and slightly behind in others (gross motor skills). She praised his kind and happy nature, although remarked that he is a big teaser, and reads the other kidsRead more
The big event on Tuesday was my first hosting of a sewing club that I’ve belonged to for a decade, and got graciously invited to on our visits to Iceland for all these years. These are some lovely lady-classmates from Junior College (Menntaskóli) and friends from the University of Iceland, as well as some friendsRead more
We got up late this morning (all except Bjarki, there was no school for Anna) and exited to find not a lot of sand on our car at all. Sure, there was a thin sandy film on it when you stroked the car with a finger, but it wasn’t too bad. Then it was intoRead more
A volcanic eruption started around dinner time yesterday (21 May 2011 – aka The Rapture Day) in Grímsvötn which is the most active volcano in Iceland, located under the Vatnajökull (Lake-Glacier?) far far away from Reykjavik. We didn’t care very much until today, when all the airports got shut down, and then an ominous cloudRead more
Finnur and Anna arrived this morning, as expected. Bjarki and I decided to be good sports and drove all the way out to Keflavik airport (40 mins) to pick them up shortly before 8am. Everything went well apparently (well, aside from that ‘almost missed the plane to Iceland’-part), and they were in good spiritsRead more
Finnur and Anna departed California today, and started their long journey back to Iceland. They should arrive very early tomorrow morning. The last few days in California have apparently been hectic, filled with lots of fun meet-ups with old friends. It sounds a lot like when we used to travel to Iceland, except that Finnur’sRead more
We repeated much of yesterday’s routine this morning, except Bjarki didn’t wake up until 7 am, so I skipped the sofa-nap. Instead I got him to daycare around 8:30 am, and then went home and collapsed into bed for 2-3 hours. This made the remainder of the day manageable. After lunchtime, I finally sat down byRead more
Bjarki was up at 06:22 this morning, much to my chagrin. Yes, it’s very bright outside by that time now, so there was zero chance of convincing him to go back to bed. Instead, I fed him breakfast, fetched my duvet and fell asleep on the sofa while he played. This is a routine thatRead more