mimsydahling

For the first time, inexplicably, I got 3 pictures to load up without becoming broken images, which is terribly exciting. They just so happened to be incredibly random, too.

This is another picture of the beautiful Icelandic horses I took at Snæfellsness (see: 2 posts back) I love this one, it's definitely on of my favorites.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v464/mimsydahling/Iceland%202008/?action=view&current=116.jpg

Here's a creepy baby head that I found in the bathroom. I'm really put off by it, so much so that i might steal it and bring it home with me.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v464/mimsydahling/Iceland%202008/?action=view&current=015-Copy3.jpg

and here's the super funky dress (if I do say so myself) that I sewed yesterday, made from a super funky men's shirt.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v464/mimsydahling/Iceland%202008/?action=view&current=013-Copy5.jpg


Last night mamma and I went to a show called Innipúkinn at Nasa, a super hip little club in Reykjavík. This weekend is the Verslunamannahelgi, which is the National Workers Holiday, and most people in the country use it as an excuse to go camping, and Innipúkinn is for all the people who stayed in the city. It's a 2-day concert (last night and tonight) with 5 or 6 bands each night, several of whom are very well known in the country. We went to see 3 of the bands last night, Múgsefjun(http://www.myspace.com/mugsefjun), Benni Hemm Hemm(http://www.myspace.com/bennihemmhemm) and Hjálmar(http://www.myspace.com/hjalmarmusic). Hjálmar is easily my very very favorite Icelandic band, and I was stoked to get to see them live again (I saw them twice in 2004/5). There was lots of dancing and singing a long, and it was an excellent show overall.

I feel like i´ve been a really lame overseas-correspondent-blogger-what-have-you, but then I cam to the realization that Iceland is, for the most part, ordinary life for me. The excitement of being back in the country as a visitor died down pretty quickly when I noticed that most everything here is the same as it was before, the same as it always has been. I´m a very different person now, though, than i was when i was here as a 16 year old exchange student. I´ve changed and grown in so many different ways, and am very proud of the person that I´ve become, as i´m now the person that I feel I was aspiring to be as a teenager.
This time around in Iceland has brought about a lot of spiritual adventures for me, and I´ve made a lot of conclusions about my life (as aforementioned in the post about the camping trip). I haven´t seen as much of the country as i would like, the volunteer work I wanted to do it pretty assuredly not going to happen now, and I haven´t contacted with a lot of the people I had hoped to see again. But I can easily say that, if i were to leave right now and go back home, I had an amazing time, and a very successful trip...maybe not by conventional means in terms of traveling, but by my own standards, which is all that matters for me.

Now. In terms of the previously noted conventional traveling- We´re going on a 7-10 day camping trip sometime early-mid next week, and I´m really looking forward to it. We´re driving up to the West Fjords (www.nat.is/veidi/islvf3600.htm) and staying a few days, and then taking the ferry back with a day or two stop on a little tiny island called Flatey. There are no cars, no cell phone reception, and less than 50 people that live there. We´re going to stay at a B&B and I´m STOKED.

In completely unrelated news, but nonetheless really exciting, I FOUND TOFU!! Finally! It comes in a jar and cost me like, $8 for what would be about $2 worth of tofu in WA, but whatever. I´m so excited, and making tofu-potato burritos tonight (with beans and rice, and lots of sauteed veggies too). Exciting!

I could write more, but for now, I ask you to please take a look at this site:

http://www.phallus.is/


My favorite part of the entire site: "Now, thanks to The Icelandic Phallological Museum, it is finally possible for individuals to undertake serious study into the field of phallology in an organized, scientific fashion."

...finally!

I just had one of the best weekends of my life. We went camping in a place called Snæfellsness about 2 hours´drive North of Kef. on the West Coast. It´s a phenomenal (phenomenal!) place, surrounded by mountains, with the Snæfells glacier overlooking a beautiful golden beach (most of the beaches here are black sand). We arrived there Friday evening, and it took us about an hour to get the camper set up due to crazy high winds that make everything a little more difficult to do. That night we took it easy, made dinner, and Salka and I went down to the beach to see the sunset, and it was absolutely gorgeous:

The Snæfells glacier and the mountains (the bottom of the picture was cut off, sorry)
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v464/mimsydahling/Iceland%202008/?action=view&current=007-Copy.jpg

Right
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v464/mimsydahling/Iceland%202008/?action=view&current=016-Copy2.jpg

Left
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v464/mimsydahling/Iceland%202008/?action=view&current=020-Copy2.jpg

The beach there is full of really awesome stones, and I came back with pocketfulls of them, which I´m sure you will all get to see sometime.
Saturday was easily one of the best fays of my life, i came to a lot of personal conclusions about living my life to the fullest and living through the spirit of my friends and family who have passed. I would be happy to talk more about this sometime, but for now, here are some more pictures:

This place is called Hellnar, and it´s a big seabird (of various species) rookery. Not pictured is a tiny little coffeehouse, just off the shore on the left side. Here we got coffee and waffles and sat in the sun. This was one of the last stops of our trip.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v464/mimsydahling/Iceland%202008/?action=view&current=092.jpg

The very last thing we did was go swimming in a great little hot springs, where no one could get over the fact that the water was green (it´s unfiltered, non-chlorinated water). Outside were some impecably (sp?) photogenic Icelandic horses:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v464/mimsydahling/Iceland%202008/?action=view&current=103.jpg

I ended up with a couple hundred pictures of the day, and I will try to upload more later, although it takes forever and a day on this computer. I will also write more soon, but i´m a little pressed for time as of right now. Check out my photobucket (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v464/mimsydahling/Iceland%202008/) to see more pictures!

lovelove,
-mims.


°°°°7.23.EDIT°°°° I can´t make any direct links to the pictures work, so I just posted the URLs. I´m assuming it´s the computer I´m on, as everything involving up/downloading my pictures has been wonky. Sorry!

i just baked some of the best muffins I´ve ever made in my life. They´re blueberry banana spelt, and they´re all vegan. I´ve yet to meet another vegetarian here (although my mamma used to be one when she was in college), and I´ve had to define vegan I don´t know how many times. It´s really funny to come to iceland from Olympia, as Oly is such a venue for veg. food of all sorts, and I can count 2 vegetarian restaurants in Iceland, both of which are in the capitol. I´ve been on a mad hunt for tofu since I´ve been here, and even after visiting several "specialty" health shops in Reykjavík, have had no luck. I asked the people working at one of the stores, and they told me that they have no idea who would sell it, if anyone does.

This makes me think that maybe it´s an untapped market and I should start importing tofu and tempeh and seitan. HAH! That´s a funny joke, I could probably count all of the vegetarians in this country on one hand.

Anyways. I´m about to cook dinner, and Inga Jódís already told me that she won´t eat it, without even knowing what it is. I told her that was fine and that there would be more for those of us who like good food, and I think I shocked her by not telling her that she is, in fact, GOING to eat it. i couldn´t care less, and don´t really blame her if she doesn´t want to eat my udon stir fry. And really, that just means that i will have leftovers to eat while the rest of the fam eats their meat!

I´m slightly bitter today, and I will blame that on my stomach ache and the nasty state of the burn on my hand.

So, do to grennandi rigning (pouring rain) our camping trip was cancelled. I´m a little sad, but at the same time, I now have the opportunity to go see Hjálmar, which is, along with Mugison, some of my favorite Icelandic music, and might actually be at the very top of the list. I´ve played them for a lot of you before, if you remember the icelandic reggae i´ve made you all sit through. Their live shows are awesome (I got to see them 2 times my first go-around), and this one will be at Nasa, which is possibly the hippest place in Reykjavík. Not to mention, the show´s free! Needless to say, I´m stoked.

So instead of camping, we´re going on a day trip to a nearby town to check out several different museums, which will be fun for me and the parents and i expect plenty of complaining from the little ones. Hah! WHO WINS NOW, BABIES?

In much cuter news: last night my mamma told me that it was "ýndislegt" (fantastic/amazing) to have me as an exchange student, but that the only problem with me was that I set the standards too high for those to come. They had an italian exchange student stay with them for 6 months this past year and said that they had a much harder time with her, and that they really appreciate how helpful i am and that I´m much more a part of their family then she ever was. Aw. It was a really nice thing to hear, seeing as how I feel a little in the way sometimes.

Today and yesterday have been so frigging stressful, and I´m really ready to find something to get me out of the house for a longer period of time than a few hours. Especially after working in a school last quarter, I´ve developed a lot of strong opinions about parenting, and not to say that there´s a wrong or right way to parent, and not to say that I have any clue about being a parent myself, but I feel like there are some things that are just a given. Like, when you deal with issues with your kids by yelling, they will quickly learn to yell back to deal with their issues with you. The outcome? LOTS OF YELLING.

Whatever. I´m still really happy to be here, but I feel so personally affected by the stress level in this family. Things are made all the more stressful with a grandpa in the hospital and a baby in the house, everyone´s on edge. I´ve been more persistent about having my own time to myself, having personal adventures walking around the area for hours at a time, spending time in a local coffeeshop reading/writing/drawing. I think I´m going to look into this volunteer thing (that will take me to more remote areas of the country, doing trail repair and whatnot) earlier than I had intended, which is just fine. I can´t get over the feeling of being a burden upon my family, although I can fairly say that I do more than my share of work around the house helping cook, clean and babysit.

In completely different news, I´m getting a new tattoo soon, and i´m STOKED for it. You´ll all see it when I get back to the states, because i don´t think i´m going to post any pictures of it before then...but i assure you, it´s going to be really freaking cool. I´ve decided to start the trend of getting a tattoo whenever I´m in iceland. Anyways, it´s been over 2 years since my last one, and i´ve thought about this one for a while. This last 6 months or so has enlightened me with the true idea of living life for the moment and all that humbo-jumbo that people get so teary-eyed about. But seriously, i´ve been taking the idea of experiencing every day to it´s fullest to heart, more so than ever before, and trying to be more at peace with myself and my surroundings. It´s an incredibly interesting experience to be in Iceland with this new outlook on life, as the last time I was here i was suffering from chronic littlest-sibling syndrome (i.e. I am continually convinced that everyone around me is cooler/smarter/generally better than I am). The first time around in this country, i was plagued with the idea that i couldn´t make REAL friends here because i obviously wasn´t good enough, and felt like everyone was looking down upon me...now I see that so many people in this country, specifically people around my age, are extremely self-conscious and, I believe, scared of exactly the same thing, of being seen as an outsider, or as being not good enough (by whose standards? who knows!).


MUGISON! MUGISON! Yesterday we went into the capitol and I bought 2 Mugison cds (as well as a Múm record for Brad). For those of you who don´t know, Mugison is possibly my very favorite Icelandic musician. A lot of his music is pretty easy acoustic guitar and singing beautiful, simple lyrics (almost exclusively in English, although I´ve heard a couple of his songs in Icelandic), although on one of the new cds I bought, he uses a lot of organ and strings and the like. He´s got a kind of grungy, rough sound to his voice, belting out a lot of the lyrics in a fantastic way, the way that any ex-small-town-fisherman would. I´ve been listening to both of them on a little personal cd player, because the kids don´t exactly like his music much, and some of it is a little too heavy and loud for them..but i can´t wait to here it on some big speakers, there´s lots of resonance to his music.

Anyways. Last night I burned the frap out of my hand like I haven´t done since I last worked in a kitchen. I´ve got a big gnarly burn-turned blister on the top of my left hand, and hopefully it´ll make a good scar (haha, not that it´ll be a very good story--I was making pita-pizzas for the family and burned it while taking one out of the oven for my little sister).

Alright. Well that´s all the update-energy i have in me for now. We´re going camping in an AWESOME place called Snæfellsnes (pronounced: Sn-i-fells-ness) tomorrow,  which should be fun. All i remember about it from the first time i went is that there´s a really cute church (where my host parents got married) and a really amazing (yes, amaaazing, Michael!) beach with really cool rocks.  I´ll update at some point once I´m back from that.

Lovelovelove to each and everyone of you!
-mimi.

I made dinner last night, because the fam wants me to cook vegetarian/vegan food (so they can eat healthier and the girls can try new things). I made felafel with yogurt sauce and pitas, couscous and spinach salad. Surprisingly, the girls both really liked the felafel, so 1 for 1 with the vegetarian meals! I haven´t been able to find tofu or tempeh in town, so I´m going to have to work around that with making food that they will eat.

The weather today is gorgeous and sunny, and it´s around 70 degrees out, which is hot by Iceland standards. I intended on walking to Innri Njarðvík (the town we used to live in, just a couple miles from here) today, but instead had to stay in with the baby, who´s been sick. They think she has an ear infection because she has a high fever and was throwing up all night. I´m fine with watching her because she´s not a normally fussy baby, but on days like today it´s kind of lame...ah well, hopefully tomorrow I´ll get to go on my walk. Mamma and pabbi call me ´lítið lambin´ (the little lamb) because I´m (apparently) quiet about what I really want, so I´ll try to be more assertive in wanting to be outside and not babysitting. It´s hard to voice that, though, because both mamma and pabbi are working full time (until Friday, then mamma gets a break from work until sometime in August) and I don´t want to be a big bitch and refuse to watch the girls. Ah well, we´ll just see what comes of it.

I´ve been oil painting for the last few days, which has been really awesome. I´m mostly done with one painting, although I have to let it dry some so i can make the final touches on it. Last night I started one with a big shau symbol in the middle, and it´s suuuuper cool (I think so, anyways). I´m so stoked to be making art again, because i really haven´t been feeling very creative for a while, and it´s an awesome outlet for what has otherwise become kind of useless energy. I think that iceland is restoring in me the creativity that I´ve been missing, and I can only hope that it will stay with me when I return to Washington.


lovelovelovelovelove,
-mimi.

So! Here, as promised, is the blog I said I would keep, so yall can see what i´m up to over here across the big blue. I´m using my family´s computer, so it might be a couple days before i can get some pictures up. I intended on using my own laptop, but found out that they´re going to charge me something like 15,000 ISK (Icelandic Kronur) which is close to $250 USD to buy a power cord that works in the country. Which, in short, is bullshit. Apparently it´s not possible to just get a power converter, either, as my parents and i have been looking and calling around to several places and can´t find anything. Whatever. At least I have a computer that i have pretty much constant access to, so it´s fine. i´m not going to load any pictures up before I get a new zipdrive, though, because i don´t want to overload their hard drive with my millions of pictures (last time I was here, with a comparatively shitty camera, I left with over 3,000 pictures...after a week here, I´m already up to about 200).

Anyways. Everything´s going great here, the weather has been awesome and sunny, which only happened a couple times when i was here the first time, 4 years ago. It´s fantastic to be with my family again, and to get to know them all over again. When I first came here, there were 2 little girls, Salka Björt (Sahlkah-Byohrt), who was 7, and Inga Jódís (Eenguh-Yohdees), who was 2. Now Salka is 10, Inga Jódís is 5, and Hildigunnur Eir (HildeeGoonuhr- Air) is almost 10 months old. Salka is an awesome little kid, extremely kind hearted and thoughtful, and totally in love with me. We stayed in contact via email the whole time i was gone, so we´re pretty close and have been spending a lot of time together.
Inga Jódís is a little terrorist and I can´t count how many times i´ve now seen or heard her stomp up the stairs and slam her door 3 times (always three times, i don´t know why). Hildingunnur Eir is absolutely adorable, and surprisingly not very fussy. My parents, Svanhildur and Kristján are both 40, and a lot of fun. We´re more of friends than anything, and they´ve been very understanding and helping me a lot to get my Icelandic back.

Speaking of, the language has been coming back to me in massive waves, although conversationally i´m still kind of slow. Salka is my best teacher, and, as she´s now learning English in school, she´s been a great help with my grammar. I´ve had to consciously try to think in English, because my brain has automatically reverted into Icelandic, and it´s been strange trying to finish up a book i´m reading  (Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks--IT´S AWESOME! I highly recommend it!!) in English while thinking in Icelandic.

Alright. Well it´s a gorgeous day outside and I´m going to go out for a walk. I´ll try to keep this thing updated fairly frequently! Feel free to leave me messages and the like, because I would love to hear how you all are doing, and what adventures you´re having this summer!

So much love to all of you,
-mimi.