Iceland, 2 Days In

I've completed my second day in Iceland and it's going great.

Super quick summary of what I've done:

I flew to Boston, stayed there for a zillion long, painful hours, flew to Keflavik overnight, and drove to Reykjavik. I did a little shopping for necessities, did some immigration paperwork stuff, and picked up the key to my room. Then I (along with my parents, who are here for a couple of days) went to the Blue Lagoon. The Blue Lagoon is a geothermal spa a short way out of Reykjavik which is very popular. The warm, blue water was relaxing and a great way to finish the day. I was exhausted and fell asleep for a long time.

We started today with a trip to Hallgrimskirkja, a major landmark in downtown Reykjavik. We climbed to the top of the church tower, where there are great views of Reykjavik and the surrounding area. The houses are all kinds of colours: green, orange, purple. The views of the mountains outside the city were spectacular. Then we went to IKEA and bought some furniture. The IKEA was much nicer than the one I normally go to in Burlington and I was able to find some stuff I really needed.

After that I did less interesting stuff, like buying a printer. It's expensive to move to a different country! There are so many different things to buy and they add up after a while. Later, I began moving stuff into my residence. I'll be all moved in by tomorrow - for now I'm staying in a hotel apartment. For dinner we went to Perlan, which is a hot water storage unit on top of a hill that has a rotating restaurant with great views of the city. The restaurant was good and the views were fantastic. Today was a lot more fun than yesterday!

I have so many things to comment on that I can't keep track of them all:

-The number of blonde people: It's insane! 75% of people are blonde, and most of the non-blondes are tourists. It's so different from Canadian cities where there are lots of people from countries around the world.
-Interactions with locals: People don't seem to stress as much as in Canada, or seem to be in a hurry. When I went to the directorate of immigration to get my picture taken, they told me their camera was broken, and they told me to come back "sometime later, maybe next week." While this was a tad inconvenient, most of the time Icelanders have been helpful, and everyone speaks impeccable English, which makes things a lot easier.

-Bonus: The main grocery store is called Bonus, and it has a drunk-looking pig as its logo. I love visiting foreign grocery stores because of all the weird products, and an inebriated pig as the logo? And they have peanut butter!

-The language: Icelandic is seriously difficult to learn. I recognize almost no words and mostly have to guess what things mean. I'm itching to learn some Icelandic for myself, because I think it's an interesting language and it'd be great to thrill the locals by saying some Icelandic phrases.

-Where I live: I'm in a student residence at the university. It seems like a nice place. I've got a big room to myself, and I met a few people who are friendly. Plus, I'm close to the city centre. It's great! I'll be all moved in tomorrow.

-The scenery: Iceland is breathtakingly beautiful. At first it seems cold and desolate, but as you get to know it better, you learn to appreciate it. I can understand how Iceland has produced so many great musicians, poets and artists - how could you not be inspired by this amazing place?

That was a little longer than I expected, and I've barely scratched the surface of talking about this place. More to come!

Arrived in Iceland

I'm here! After spending around 8 agonizing hours in Boston, I was finally able to board a plane and travel to Iceland. I try to avoid overnight flights because I can never sleep on planes and always feel awful the next day. This time I actually managed to fall asleep for a half hour! I'm still pretty tired, of course, but for me it was an accomplishment.

We got into Keflavik at around 6 am. After I left the airport, my first thought was, "It's freezing here!" On this particular August day, it's a balmy 5 degrees out, and WINDY. I promptly switched into warmer clothes as soon as I could.

Now I have to stay awake until bedtime. I look forward to being on a regular schedule. Until then, I've got lots to do to get my life here organized!

I have good news and bad news. The good news is I made it to Boston alive. The bad news is because we were late I didn't make my connection and I got bumped to a flight late tonight. I am most displeased with the situation. Now I will be getting into Keflavik Airport at around 2:30 am my time, 6:30 am their time. After that, it's an hour-long trip to Reykjavik. I'm already exhausted and I hate to think how I'll be after a further 12 hours. Oh the joys of travel!

Boston muzak:

The Adventure Begins...

If you’re reading this, chances are you probably know who I am and what I’m up to, but just so we’re on the same page, my name is Joseph and I’m about to begin a year in Iceland. I’ll be living in Reykjavík, studying on exchange at the University of Iceland. A couple of years ago, when I visited Europe for the first time, I stopped over in Iceland for a few days, and I was enchanted by the country. I decided that someday I was going to live there. My school, the University of Ottawa, offers exchanges to the University of Iceland, and I leapt at this opportunity to live in Iceland for a year. I’ll be in Iceland for two semesters, beginning in September and ending in May. I know nothing about blogs, but I decided to start one so everyone at home can have an idea of what I’m up to on that little island in the North Atlantic.

Right now I’m at Pearson Airport in Toronto. I’m flying to Keflavík airport in Iceland via Boston. It’s very foggy outside, and our flight is delayed, so I have no idea when I’ll get to Iceland. It took forever to pack, but I wanted to make sure to include some Canadian essentials that may not exist in Iceland: Kraft Dinner, peanut butter, that kind of stuff. Going to live abroad is an insanely complicated process – I had to do a ton of paperwork. I’m hoping I didn’t forget any vital documents!

Anyway, I don’t know what to expect but I’m sure I’ll have lots of good stories by the time I head home to Canada. The plane seems to be showing up so I’m outta here! More to come!