Professional versus personal contacts
The challenge of maintaining a purely professional relationship with someone here in Iceland is almost impossible. People start asking about family or personal matters almost immediately. 9 times out of 10, a mutual acquaintance or relation is found, and whala, the relationship transfers from professional to personal. In fact, I do not think there really is a distinction here in Iceland. I have tried, owing to my own background, to impose such a distinction. This person is a personal contact, a friend, and this person is a professional contact, a colleague. It does not work. The people that are your friends want to find out if they can work with you on something. The people who are your professional contacts all of a sudden invite you to their birthday parties. I admit I am absolutely unable to manage the distinction, and therefore happily retreat to Reykjanesbær, where everyone is family.
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