Christmas Lights and Fireworks!

Oh my goodness. The last few days have been an oddly slow whirlwind, if that is possible. Right now, I am sitting in the cafe of the National Museum (located just about 30 seconds from my dorm) with this tiny, blonde-haired, blue-eyed tyke dressed in a little green sweatsuit clambering around on the chairs next to me. The kids in Iceland are the cutest things one could imagine. Now he is making truck noises and drinking Icelandic chocolate milk!!

An email I sent to my parents yesterday just about sums up the mood of the last few days. My dad suggested I post it, so...

HI guys!! Still no internet. I ahve to be FAST because i have a MILLION things to do, but here we go:
1) Classes start today and we haven't even been registered
2) No one knows what time classes are
3) people are nice
4) I had an amazing run experience yesterday
5) SHould get internet sooommmmee day

asklfhsdlfhglkdjfg;lhisg I am feeling totally wild. But I will try and write more intelligibly later when I don't have all this other crap to do! THIS IS INSANE!!!!!!

Love,
Sara

As the message says, I am still without internet in my room which has been super frustrating. The process of registering, figuring out the time tables, getting a username and password, connecting to the internet, etc. has been incredibly convoluted and slloowww. I certainly will not go into it here, because just thinking about it makes me feel crazy! I think many of the international students are stuggling to adjust to the laid back, unstructured "system" at this university. It is funny, because there are clearly expectations and things that we must accomplish, but no one seems to know how, when, or where to go about these things. There is a lot of "Don't worry, it will all work out, Iceland is a relaxed country" but it is extremely difficult to actually take that to heart. Geology classes started yesterday (before we had been allowed to register AND before the time table had been published), but no one actually told us that they were going to begin. Every faculty at the university has a different start and end date, so even the registrars seem confused about when things are supposed to happen. I think all of this is going to force me to relax and have faith that things are going to be okay, but it is going to take a good deal of practice!

I was feeling pretty sad/homesick the first couple of days that I was here, but I think not eating, not sleeping, and all of the darkness and confusion were huge contributing factors. Since that time, I have made some friends and begun to get back into my eating, sleeping, and running routine. Unfortunately, my body has been insisting that I wake up at 5 am no matter what time I go to bed, but because of the darkness almost no one else wakes up until 10. Most shops don't open until 11, but the streets do start to bustle at around 8. In the few days that I have been here, we have already gained almost an hour of light, if you can believe that! I think the rapid change is going to be a really fun thing to experience.

All of the people I am living with seem pretty cool. Unfortunately, many of them are from North America (predominately Canada), but that is ok. I have many of my classes with about 3 other people on my floor, which I think will be fun! We are excited that we can all figure out where our classes are together! For the most part, everyone seems really eager to go out and do things (after they are awake, anyway!). Yesterday we walked a good distance to a geothermal beach and soaked in this long shallow tub before jumping into the North Atlantic Ocean which was UNBELIEVABLY cold! I was reluctant to freeze my body, but it seemed to be the Icelandic thing to do, so I bucked up and went. This particular beach is free, which is sweet since money seems to be rapidly flowing out of my bank account and into the Icelandic economy.

On my first full day here, I went for the most amazing run. I gave up on trying to run in the few daylight hours and so took off at about 5 pm in the darkness. I didn't really know where to go, as I had yet to see a single runner. It was pouring rain and windy, but that just sort of added to the adventure. I ran along a bike path until I saw a man (the first other runner I saw!) go darting off on a path into this little forest on a hill. I decided to follow him and quickly came across a sign that looked sort of like a park sign. I couldn't read anything on the sign, of course, but it looked like it was showing a bunch of promising trails. As I wound my way up one of the trails, I began to have a sneaky suspicion that I may be making my way up to Reykjavik's elborate water tank ("The Pearl"). After a little while, I emerged from the forest at the foot of the elaboratly lit tank! As I ran onto the platform the surrounds the tank (calling it a tank doesn't do it justice, it has a rotating fannnnnnccccyyyy restaurant on top of the tank) fireworks began to go off all over the place in the lower portions of Reykjavik! I felt so lucky to have happened across such a show! Since then, I have learned that during the week after New Years, tons of fireworks go off every night. People seem to try to cheer up the darkness any way they can-- cute little lights in virtually every window and on many of the street trees, lights on lamp poles, fireworks, etc. Makes sense to me!

This is getting far too long, but I had quite a bit bottled up since I have been virtually incomunicado with everyone back home!

Just one more thing-- as one would expect, all of the hot water in the building comes directly from the ground, so it is both very sulphurous and scalding. One has to be extremely careful while showering because the water temperature tends to fluctuate dramatically. Also, much of the jewlery I have worn in the shower has turn green... ah well, things could be worse!

So far, Iceland still seems like a crazy place. I am sure that I will get a handle on most things some day, but for now, I am content to settle with constant confusion.