Reykjavik Weekend

I have officially survived my first week (and one day, going on two)! I am beginning to form some structure to my day now that I know when and where my classes are. But thankfully I had the weekend free to explore some more.

I won't have any classes on Friday the whole semester, so this past Friday I walked to the Krona to buy a ton of real food with a few other study abroad people. It felt great to finally have a real meal in my stomach. (I am pretty sure I hadn't eaten a full meal since the Friday before I left). Later that night their was a get together in my dorm so we could meet everyone else. That was fun and someone had made this crazy amazing cake. It was a mix between a normal cake and cheese cake. Yeah, yummy! Around midnight people left to go bar hopping and I walked around town with a friend, Gerick from Washington, to watch the loud night life. It defiantly was worth staying out late just to experience to sights of Reykjavik with a completely different energy.

The next day I walked to the mall with my Taiwan friends and Gerick. It is no MOA but it was still cool. Very modern with all of their glass stairs. I finally bought a towel (I had forgotten one, ha) and enjoyed a knock off of a Chipotle burrito. That night I went to the Iceland vs Norway "football" game. I would have to say being in that stadium has been (so far) the coolest thing I have done here. From inside you have a gorgeous view of the Mountains all around. The game wasn't too exciting (even though I was told later on that it was the best game Iceland had played in two years) they tied one/one. The picture at the top of this blog is of Gerick, I, Charlize, and Laura (from ND) after the game. We had taken the bus to the National Stadium and had missed the back bus by ten minutes. We decided to walk back because the next one wasn't coming for another hour (buses here run less then in Chicago and completely stop at night). At the bus stop we met an American guy who was touring Europe because he had just retired from Sony, he walked back with us and we invited him to eat with us downtown. He ended up being very interesting because he had worked in Japan for awhile as well as England. We each talked about why we were studying in Iceland and what and then he told us about how he met these other Americans in Iceland who had just finished college and had been drinking the whole time and he even saw them at the game totally smashed. At the end of the meal (I got the Icelandic fish stew - an amazing creamy mashed potatoes with fish on top of Icelandic bread) he told us that he was glad to meet some Americans who were using their time studying the country and not wasting our time drinking so he paid for our meal! Lesson to learn kiddos: don't follow the crowd, but be yourself. You are always representing yourself, your country and your God - so make everyone proud!

Sunday was also great because I went to the flea market with Charlize and Ting. It is HUGE! A total thrifters dream. Millions (or so it seemed) of shoes and clothes. Lots of fresh fish and Icelandic baked goods. Most importantly was all of the hand made wool sweaters, mittens, and hats. I could probably go back every weekend and find something new. I tried grandma toast, it was like a giant fignuton with icing on top.

During my free time I have been skyping with my family (I sure would like to skype with some of my friends though!) and catching up on my reading. I am still behind even though I spent all of monday afternoon reading. I have now been to each of my classes at least once and I think I'll enjoy them. My Literature class seems like it will be much more boring than it is back home because the teacher spends the whole time telling us what to think about the passage, but other then that I'll be learning lots. I have a whole week off in October (right before my birthday) so some of us are trying to decide where we should go for a trip. :]

Last night I hung out with my Icelandic buddy Petur. He was going to take me to his Quidditch practice (yes, Quidditch as in Harry Potter, just not flying) but it was canceled... So he took me around town and showed me his high school and the beach. It was a lot of fun to talk to a local more and see where he spends a lot of his time.

Today is a very big day back home because it is my brother's first day of his senior year (hope it was amazing Dallas!) AND my great friend Bethany left for Swaziland Africa! She will be gone for three months helping at an AIDS orphanage. So please keep her in your prayers. Here is the link to her teams blog: http://09sw0908rl13.myadventures.org (it should work.. for some reason my blog won't let me copy it into here...)

I am off to do more homework. Thanks for reading. *HUGS*