50/50

I have always lamented that English does not have a plural you, no way to distinguish between you meaning one person and you meaning all of you (unless one says y'all, which one might sometimes say but never write). Icelandic on the other hand has a plural you, þið. For some reason I have a much easier time with using this word in its accusative, dative, or even genitive case, rather than in the nominative. When I say something that would translate as, 'Are you plural going to do that?', it comes out instead as 'That is going to you' or God knows what, because I say, 'Ætla ykkur að gera það?' instead of 'Ætlið þið að gera þetta?' After all this time, I finally get to use a plural you, and boy I wish I could do it right. 

On my way home from a marathon meeting in the city, I decided to stop at Taco Bell. In terms of fast food places, Taco Bell ranks as probably my favorite. When I was 16 or 17, still driving my little red Maxda RX7, I bought a meximelt at the Taco Bell down the street from my house, on my way to church or something. I was really hungry. I remember the man handing me the food and I decided to eat it standing up, right there near the cash register. Another man near me watched me do it, heard me sort of let out a little yumm as I ate. When I was done he said, 'wow, sure is nice to see someone enjoy their food so much.'  Today as I went into Taco Bell in Hafnafjorður, I thought about that meximelt, how good it was. And I decided I really wanted to order one. I searched the menu, did not find a meximelt. I found some other chicken melt thing, but no, I wanted a meximelt. So I asked the cashier if they had one, she said she thought so, and asked a big black man working behind the coun...

Yesterday I talked to my colleague in the Faeroe Islands, and we were laughing about the fact that the way I speak Norwegian, which is basically Icelandic with a sing song tone, means I am speaking Faeroese. On a less upbeat note, it looks like my trip to the Faeroes may get delayed until early June, which is OK since of course I am really busy. Of course, when one is busy, a trip to somewhere one has never been before (but always half-thought about visiting) sounds really nice. 

Today I heard that, 'Knock yourself out!' does not work very well in Icelandic. I wonder if 'Pretty Please with Sugar on Top' would. 

In cultural anthropology, we have a term for certain members of society that are especially diligent about learning things from their parents or grandparents, ways to do things that are perhaps no longer necessary in today's society. These people are called heritage bearers. They can be story tellers or carvers, seamstresses or basket weavers, reindeer herders. People who took the time to listen when their grandparents prattled on about the old days. These people are considered especially good informants for anthropologists. In some countries, people like this can be nominated to receive Living National Treasure designation. They may live out their lives in quiet simplicity, but such an award allows others to take note of what they can and do offer society, even when it has no monetary value what so ever.  I work with someone like that, Gunnar Marel Eggertsson. Unfortunately, here in Iceland, there is no award for people like him, people who consider the past more important than th...

Every Icelander has a container they keep their coffee in, they dump the coffee out of the bag into said container. I always lamented not having a container like that, ever since I started drinking coffee years ago. One Fall, when I was walking along the streets of Athens, I wandered into a pottery museum, and after looking around the exhibits, I wanted to buy something. I asked the sales shop lady if she had anything for coffee. At first they looked around, half apologetic, not sure what they had. Then one lady pulled out a small white jar, with an olive branch decoration, and she pointed out that the Greek letters in the center spelled coffee. We looked at each other, both started smiling and laughing. Of course I bought it, had it with me in California, and now it is my favorite thing in my kitchen, here in Iceland. That alone made up for my rather unfortunate Greek experience.

A lot of people I know have gone into marketing. My first boyfriend. My first husband thought about and then changed his mind, became an academic instead (or tried to). A friend here in Iceland did the same. Dave has a marketing degree but went into the Coast Guard. I myself have never toyed with the idea much, although my mom told me on several occasions that I would be a good company spokes person (I rather doubt that, I am far too eager to express my opinion!).  Today, as myself and our marketing manager were having words over our marketing strategy, I started thinking about marketing in general. Or the propensity for people to believe the projected image, to be attracted to a projected image. Men that like women who are thin and smart and accomplished with a pretty face. This is what Derrida called loving for characteristics. Marketing depends on us projecting those characteristics that visitors will find appealing. Instead of just letting them come and see for themselves the conte...

The first time I came to Iceland, it was with my mom and my brother when I was 7 years old. We spent a lot of time that summer with my mother's first cousin and her two children, a boy Einar and a girl Margret. Margret was older than my brother, and Einar a bit younger than my brother but older than me, and we all got along pretty well. I especially adored Margret, probably because she reminded me of my sister who had stayed behind in California; they are about the same age and both have strawberry blond hair. I guess it was the summer when I was 9 that I caught on to another similarity; they both played the viola. Of course, my sister stopped doing so when she was 17 I think, but Magga still does it today, freelancing her talents on the mean streets of New York, after graduating from Juilliard. 

Just wanted to say that my job is actually oh so much fun. I suppose it would have to be, otherwise it does not make a lot of sense that I would leave my adorable, amazing, smart little boy in California with his dad, even though I know he is being very well looked after and is happy. Still I hope he'll be impressed when he comes here in June, and gets to see everything his mommy has been doing. I have a feeling he will be. 

It is seriously getting tiring at work, that I cannot think of the proper way to conjugate even the simplest nouns. I must get an Icelandic tutor, that is all there is to it. As soon as I find the time. And the money. 

First I would just like to say the weather today was delicious! It was too bad I was too busy talking to one contractor after another to enjoy it, but on the plus side, I actually feel I am getting something done, and that is the best stress reliever of all.  As I was eating dinner, I decided to flip on the news, see what was up. Iceland has a new government today! Just like that! Ta Da! It is actually the same government it has had since January, but that is OK, it is a good government, an interesting government, with lots of differing viewpoints on matters but a genuine desire to work together. What could be better than that? Anyhow, the heads of the two parties that will form the new government met at Norræna hús, and held their extremely informal press conference outside (I guess owing to the LOVELY weather...). Johanna made a big deal about the symbolic importance of being outside of Norræna hús, the idea I guess being that Iceland was going to rejoin the other Scandinavian countr...

I know one of the things I love about living here in Iceland is the clouds. There are so many different types of clouds here, and at any given time the variety of types and shades from white to black in the sky at once always amazes me. I guess it is because the swirling of the winds and the differences in water temperature in this part of the North Atlantic. In California, there was hardly ever a cloud in the sky. And if it was, it was one type of cloud, either cumulus or stratus, and those would be the clouds on hand all day long.  When the sun peaks out from the clouds here, it rakes across the landscape, bringing out all the colors in the grass and the rocks and the houses. And today, there are still white caps on the mountains in the distance. It is so beautiful, it makes me want to stop time. 

I was unfortunately too tired to go to a birthday/election party I was invited to in the city last night (thought it best to go into today with a clear head!), but I am most eager to see what the upshot is this morning. With 97% returns counted, it looks like the two parties currently in power, Samfylkingur and VG will be able to hold their position, now with a majority of 34 Thingmen out of 63. But it seems to me it would be a very nice gesture, after everything that happened last fall, if these two parties would invite the new popular movement party, Borgarhreyfing, to join them. That party looks to get 4 Althingi seats, and in the process deflating several other wore out fringe parties. In my opinion, VG and S would be sending a clear message about their belief in democracy and in reform if they would offer Borgarhreyfing a real say in the new government, including a seat on the cabinet, and perhaps having them be in charge of the Constitutional Committee that many Icelanders have b...

I have a rather complicated work related story to relay, but in the end it gets around to a point. Of course, it is a point I have made before, about the totally bizarre way things really and truly do seem to work out here in Iceland.  As some of you might know, Skáli Íslendings, aka Viking Aldan, aka Vikingaheimar aðalbygging, will house Gunnar Marel's Viking ship, Íslendingur. The ship is a work of art, in my opinion, and the captain a national treasure, not only did he build it by hand, he then sailed it across the North Atlantic with a crew of 8. At first, Íslendingur was the only thing that was supposed to be in Skáli Íslendings.  Well, I of course changed that. Innocently sent the mayor an email way back in 2003, asking, 'Wouldn´t you like a Viking exhibition to go with the ship?'. The mayor, smart man that he is, decided to give my idea a go. So, that is how two projects, the Viking exhibition I curated and Gunnar's ship sailing, came to be housed in the same bui...

So, yesterday my adventurous brother decided to take his jetski out exploring the Escambia river, which runs between the pan handle of Florida and Alabama. After he'd been out for a while, the jetski started stalling, and eventually he could not get it to start anymore. He beached it and was trying to work on the engine, see what was wrong, when it occurred to him to call my dad for mechanical advice.  This reminded me of the time many, many years ago, when my mom and I got a call from my dad, who was out in the desert. He had been exploring mine shafts, and night time had snuck up on him rather quickly. He called my mom to tell her he was lost, and thought it might be best to sleep in the car for the night instead of driving around, getting more lost.  There is something very strange about cell phone coverage, that one can in fact be lost and yet still call people to tell them about it. People that are hundreds if not thousands of miles away, and in no position to be of immediate ...

The polling station had the same set up, and the same serious air about it, as the polling stations in the states. And the feeling as I exited was exactly the same too: I am part of something bigger than myself. 

Another winter has ended, and I again did not get to go iceskating. Poor iceskates have sat here in Iceland for two winters, unused. Really awful to think of it. But then, I am not an Olympic iceskater or anything . 

Twice over the last few weeks, I have been around groups of Icelanders when the election (which is being held tomorrow) has come up. On both occasions, as people went around the room saying what party they were going to vote for, when it came to my turn, I threw up my arms and thumbs in a victorious pose and yelled out, Vinstri Graen! Both times, all the Icelanders let out a huge moan and a chorus of "Nei, Lissy" was heard. Today I went into the Vinstri Graen election headquarters here in Reykjanesbaer, because I am actually trying to make up my mind about voting or not. Walk in to find two old guys sitting in the ramshackle remains of a Thai restaurant, which did not look like a rally spot at all save the enormous blow ups of the extreme closeups of the four VG candidates in the window. A few nervous looking female students left shortly after I got there. The two guys seemed to assume I would leave soon, kind of just looked at me funny. But I took a seat, made myself at home...

I had a swimming pool in my backyard growing up, I may have mentioned this already. But I was thinking about it today, since the weather is nice, thinking about swimming. Having a pool in one's own backyard is undeniably great, and I think for two really different reasons. First of all, there are times when it is so nice to just dive into a pool all by oneself, to feel the freedom of having the whole pool to swim back and forth in. I have actually a sort of underwater ballet routine I came up with in my pool, and I can still do it, I still remember it. It takes up the whole pool, so I can only do it when I am alone in there. So that was one thing I liked about having a pool in the backyard. The other thing though was how absolutely great it was to have a pool party, how we could invite our friends over any old day of the week at any time, and it was so much fun. Playing Marco Polo and the Match game, practicing crazy dives, jumping from the jacuzzi into the pool, all of it were thi...

Today I am trying to write one paper, edit another, then I have things to translate and edit over the weekend. I hate to be rushed on these sorts of projects, because actually, it is a really complicated task. Not to get the words on paper, that is not such a big deal. The issue is rather to weigh through all of what has been written, and to carefully think about how each point relates to the other, which points need to be emphasized, which made less bombastic, where to put more care and feeling, where to put more methodological rigor, where to use a metaphor, where to scale it back and be subtle. Editing a paper is like directing a play, arguing a legal case, and painting a painting all at the same time, and many things must be considered.  Not since I was an undergraduate have I just deleted a whole paper and started over, even if that is tempting. Because there is always good ideas in the first draft, always.