Distances

According to Google Maps, the distance from our apartment to Hrefna’s workplace is 760 feet or 230 meters, and the distance to Bjarki’s daycare is 1330 feet or 400 meters. The distance from Bjarki’s daycare onwards to what will hopefully be Anna’s school is 400 feet or 120 meters. (For comparison: Bjarki’s daycare used toRead more

We have a rental!

After much agonizing, consternation, stress, and some more stress, we signed a year-long rental agreement on an apartment in the west side of Reykjavik (called ‘West Town’ or ‘Vesturbærinn’) today. Not surprisingly we heard of this apartment through a friend how works with the previous occupant, and not through the regular online rental-sites. (In retrospect we should have taken out an ad in the paper, apparently that works also).

Anyway, the apartment isn’t fantastic by any means, but it is really really really close to where I will be working for the next year. It is also very close to Bjarki’s daycare (that he will be starting later this month) and hopefully close to Anna’s school next year (we’ve yet to sign her up properly). So bottom line: we decided to give up creature comforts for a non-existent commute, although many people will argue that the capital area is too small to call driving from one end of it to the other a ‘commute’…

So, regarding the apartment itself… On the good side it is large for a rental in this part of town. It has three bedrooms, two of which are pretty big by Icelandic standards (particularly by West Town standards). The living room is big, and there’s a dining area off of it where our big table will fit. The floors are covered using ‘plastic wooden flooring’ (Pergo?), and tiles. Not a carpet in sight – yay! Also, the rent isn’t terrible, and in fact it’s the least we’ve paid for rent in about ten years (since our first year at Stanford).

Now for the not so great parts: The kitchen is slightly above terrible. It’s the original kitchen, built when people were smaller, so the counters are at least an inch too low. In fact, the counters are about an inch lower than the newish stove that comes with the apartment. The sink is also the smallest sink I’ve seen in a while. It is not big enough for us to lay a dinner plate flat. Why it’s a double sink, (a double teeny-sink) I do not understand. We’ll have to buy our own (smallish) fridge, and dishwasher. And it has a space for a small table, plus some chairs, which I find less optimal than having our dining table sitting right next to the kitchen.

Another annoyance is that the landlord didn’t want to paint the apartment after the previous owners. Since we’ll only be there for a year (we’re SOOOO buying a place next year) it’s a hard call whether to paint or not (the walls are slightly dirty), so I think we’ll start by spotting all the holes left by the numerous nails the previous occupant put up. The landlord has mentioned that he’ll “help” us pay for any paint we buy, but it’ll basically be free manual labor for him. He did fix the broken electrical sockets and window closers, but that’s about it.

And why is he so lah-dee-dah about it? Well, apparently his contracting business bought up most of the apartments in the house before the crash, intending to renovate them and even add to the building. But then things went belly up and now they’re just holding steady, weathering out the storm.

So anyway, we have have a place to stay, triple hurrah for that! Now we just have to wait for the container to arrive, and for it to clear customs before we can call in the troops and start the fun business of jamming it full of furniture. 🙂

Here are some pictures taken on July 12th:

Standing in the hallway, looking into the living room, and the adjacent dining area. The door that used to lead from the dining area to the kicthen (on the right) has been sealed off to create a large coat hanging area by the entrance door. Oh, and did I mention we'll have to buy a lot of light fixtures? But we'll at least get to keep them!

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Borgarnes

We drove my oldest brother to Borgarnes on a windy Wednesday. Borgarnes is a small town (pop: 2000-ish) about an hour north of Reykjavik (the capital).  It was really nice to finally get to see some of the country-side after being stuck in town due to endless stomach bugs, and housing-worries.

In Borgarnes. Ylfa needed to take a nap, so Nökkvi, Jóhanna, Anna, anna and I went for a walk around town. It was windy enough that Bjarki would have complained non-stop so we left him behind with Finnur and Jóhanna's brother.

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Quarantined

We have had a rather strange start to our stay here in Iceland, because we have for all intends and purposes been quarantined for over a week due to a nasty stomach bug. So far Bjarki, Anna and now Finnur have gotten it, all about three days apart. A few other family members have alsoRead more

By the sea-shore

Anna got a nasty stomach bug on Thursday (Bjarki had gotten it on Monday). We therefore didn’t do much for a couple of days but on the Saturday we went to my mom’s (who’d already gotten it).

While we were there, my brother Pétur (i.e. Peter) was heading to band-practice so I decided to drive him and take the kids to explore the sea-side (aka waiting out the World Cup).

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Bump on the Forehead

Earlier today, Bjarki came running into the living room, semi-jumped up onto a soft footstool that had been pushed against the coffee table, and banged his forehead on the sharp edge of the table. Much crying ensued, but thankfully the skin didn’t really crack open so we didn’t have to go to the ER for stitches. Instead he’s now sporting a huge bump on his forehead.

The photo-smile. 🙂

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Dealing with the Icelandic DMV

I (Finnur) went to the Icelandic equivalent of the US department of motor vehicles (DMV) to get a new driver’s licence issued. My old one is probably somewhere in our container heading to Iceland, but I never got the international credit-card style licence (like Hrefna did before we left) so it was time to get aRead more

Bjarki turns 3 years old!

It was three years ago today that Bjarki and Reynir were born. How time flies! We didn’t do anything particular to mark the day (planning a proper party soon), but Nökkvi, Jóhanna and Ylfa gave Bjarki a fantastic drum that him and Anna banged on for the next few hours. We spent most of the day at my aunt Hulda’s (where Nökkvi and Jóhanna also live), because she has two kids and therefore LOTS OF TOYS!

It has to be said that it’s been a big relief how independent Anna is in her play with others in Iceland. We’ve hardly seen her for the past few days, which is a good thing after we all got a little too close in New York. Sometimes personal space is a good thing. 🙂

(Also, this post has a lot of vertical images.  Try pressing F11 on your keyboard to get “full-screen mode” and then press F11 again to go back to “normal screen mode”.)

The Birthday Boy himself having a fantastic time on the tire swing of a near-by school with my brother Pétur pushing him.

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A Tale of Two Parties

We were invited to not one party, but two on Saturday!! The first one was a 9 year-old birthday party for one of my nephews, and the second party was a rather hurriedly organized hello-goodbye/birthday party!

Eyþór, the Birthday Boy, in the center, circling the mouthwatering feast on the table.

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