Monday may 18th
Hi Hi (Icelandic greeting)
Got in to Iceland late last night… found my apartment, which is really nice. I put my stuff down and was asked by my professor to drive back the rental van+trailer at 3am because apparently I am the only one that could “kind of” drive a manual transmission. After stalling more times than I would care to count, I made it to the car rental drop off place. Orri dropped me back off at my apartment and I met with Adam from my studio, who’s person didn’t know he was coming Sunday night and hadn’t moved out yet. So he crashed on my couch and we easily fell asleep due to exhaustion, despite the fact that it never really got dark out.
Its strange, around midnight to 1am, it looks like dawn or just after sunset. That’s about the darkest it gets and then it just gets light again. It’s almost 10pm as I am writing this, and it looks to be about 6pm or 7pm back in Michigan. Strange, but I think I will get used to it. It will be nice if I want to do a late night run.
Anyway, I got to sleep in a little bit this morning and we all walked about 20min to downtown Reykjavik to meet our professor for lunch at this nice little café. I got a garlic burger and it was amazing. We took a small tour of the downtown area of where we can get some stuff. Saw the fish market, bakery, liquor store, and Orri took us into the grocery store to point out what to get and what to avoid. Shopping for things is a bit more difficult when you cannot read what you are getting. All meat, produce, and dairy are locally attained. So, when you go to grab meat, you really don’t know what you are getting… I was looking for roast beef and asked someone and they said that they probably don’t carry it. So, I got what I think was ham. It tasted ok. Im not dead yet…
I cannot get on the Internet in my apartment yet, but some of the other people on my trip can get on. So, I need to figure out how I am going to get it, either in my room or where I can go on campus to get it.
The scenery is beautiful. You can see mountains and Glaciers in every direction you look. The weather is fantastic right now mid 50’s all week and crystal clear blue skies. When stepping off the plane, I noticed there is slight smell of sulfur in the air. Yes, a very faint smell of rotten eggs. The whole city is heated by hot water and its completely free. No one in Reykjavik pays for heat. And the hot water also smells like sulfur. So taking a hot shower is somewhat interesting. I am noticing the smell going away as I am getting used to it.
It’s a little less busy here as opposed to Copenhagen, but I like it. Its a large town, with a small town feel. There are a lot of cars and things are pretty spread out. Walking isn’t impossible, but there is no way I am taking the bus because it is way too expensive.
Most things here are not that expensive though. I am finding that most things if they are not equally as expensive as in Michigan, than they are cheaper to buy. There are only a few things that are imported that are expensive. I haven’t been shopping yet near tourist shops, but I would assume they are overpriced like anywhere else.
It seems like we are going to get a lot of time to explore the city. I took a few pictures of my first day here and thought that I would share. They are not the best, but I snapped them on our way downtown for lunch today. I am still getting used to the time change again!! We went back 2 hours from Copenhagen, so now I am only on a four hour difference rather than 6. We are four hours ahead of Michigan time.
Tomorrow we have some logistical class things to cover, a little bit more of an orientation around town… and some other minor things. I will hope to set up some Skype times when I know we have a little better of a schedule, but it looks like I am going to start getting into one soon.
Tuesday, May 19th
Today we had a short class and debriefing about Copenhagen. We discussed projects and who was doing what, and I think that I might be changing from the documentary to the Mountain Scali. I just do not feel like working with 5 people on a documentary where absolutely no one really knows what they are doing. If two of the girls decide to work on another project with each other, then I will probably go back to working on the documentary. Guess it is still up in the air.
We are still getting the Internet access worked out with the University, so I don’t have it yet… But soon I will have better access. I’ve just been stealing it from whoever has it whenever I can.
We took a small tour of campus today. We had class in the engineering building and got to see the student center and workout facilities. I will be checking those out really soon.
I just went for a run along the Ocean and it was the most amazing thing ever. next time I will bring my camera and hope to get a picture of the Glacier off in the distance. Its huge and white and probably one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I cant wait to go for a run tomorrow. Its a great way to start to see Reykjavik.
I am absolutely hungry for cheese and pickles on a bun...
ReplyDeletehahaha...**correction** ... Cucumbers
ReplyDeletethose pics are great. miss you bunches!
ReplyDelete