fimmtudagur, febrúar 26, 2004
So, though my two oldest are thousands of miles away, they both really are a part of our daily lives. (Isn’t technology wonderful!!) Mundi and I have been talking about how interesting it is for us as parents (argh!) to be able to see our kids develop their thoughts about what they’re each doing and reading and thinking, and to even continue arguing!! (where are those SPLAT smileys when you need them!). This is also a great way to get to know some of the other people also checking out our blogs....and I’m reading others as well! (uh oh, Mamma is going to open her mouth and say STUFF!!) By being able to write/read blogs, emails, and snailmail, it actually makes phonecalls more “normal”, if you know what I mean. Similar to when you visit someone you haven’t seen for awhile and then all contact later is so much more natural (unless you had a terrible time during your visit.). This is something my poor mother didn’t have until much later in life. Phone calls were so expensive that it was only once a year at New Year’s that she actually called Iceland, and then everyone cried so much that not much was actually said. And there were telegrams for emergencies! Letters were de rigour (is that the right thing to say?) and Mamma and I wrote a lot of letters to each other. When the kids were young, I wrote her really detailed letters that only she would be really interested in, and that she eventually gave them all back to me, and they’re sort of a pre-blog (or maybe proto-blog?) of our lives then, i.e. the uncensored stuff. (the other stuff, that “classified” stuff, is closed away in one of my drawers!!). I also have all the letters my sisters have ever written me, plus all my close friends. I’ve actually given Mary-Win back some of her early letters, that really give a sense of her years right after National Ballet School, and I’m not sure she’s actually read them? Maybe someday she’ll let Ashley read them?;) Now I take emails and make documents out of them. I have one family email between us sisters from 2002 that is 106 pages. This is comparable to the Victorian era when people wrote short notes and letters several times a day, and mail delivery was five times a day in cities!! Though maybe their paper trail will end up lasting longer than our digital ones....(I’ve been reading about dangers of digital storage...!). Anyway, I used to wait “with bated breath” for the mail to arrive everyday in those pre-comp. years, and that feeling is still there. So, along with hardwiring the desire for owning books and cds into our kids, I’m also sending them “C.A.R.E.” packages (only baby boomers will remember those) and regular letters (mostly silly cat/animal cards and úrklippur) and guess what! I’ve started to make pdf.files of them with my scanner to save the “actual” look of them in my computer!! I love technology!! (hmmmm, I wonder what else can be turned into an Adobe pdf, file......now there is an untold sci-fi story....du du du du,.....here kitty kitty...)
þriðjudagur, febrúar 24, 2004
So there´s a huge orange Persian cat named Leo living with us for the next couple of days. Kisa is in heat so we decided finally to try to get her pregnant, all the other times we´ve tried the circumstances have been off, first everybody was on vacation, the 2nd time I was sick and we couldn´t take her. So, for the 3rd time, let´s see if it works.
This morning we tried taking her to his house, but that did not work. She started to hiss and growl and spit, until she found a good hiding place in the kitchen, in a small oblong space meant for winebottles. There we left her to see if she would calm down a little bit. But four and a half hours later she was still there and hadn´t come out at all. We decided to take her home and that the tomcat would come to our house in the afternoon. But it was pretty difficult to get her out of there, she had got in head first, and every time you tried to grab her from the back she started hissing and growling and trying to turn around to bit you, but of course she couldn´t turn around. So finally I had to pull her out by the tail and grab her hindlegs to get her out, she almost bit me when her head finally appeared when she saw it was me, and instead she clung to me, panting, hissing, spitting, growling and meowing, a chain of bad words in Cattish. So we took her home, and it was the first time in her life that she was glad to get into her travel box. And Leo has been here with us the last couple hours, seems pretty calm. He was very upset when we took her away this morning, and he seems to have recognized her, and is very interested. So now they´re doing a kind of ballet, twirling around the house, Kisa running around and he after her, chirping and crying out to her, but she doesn´t respond. Then she starts to roll around on the floor and put her butt in the air, but if he gets too close, she runs away. So she´s playing the hard-to-get female role, let´s see how long that lasts.
Anyway, I´ll keep you posted about how it´s going, at least Kisa doesn´t attack him (for now)!!
This morning we tried taking her to his house, but that did not work. She started to hiss and growl and spit, until she found a good hiding place in the kitchen, in a small oblong space meant for winebottles. There we left her to see if she would calm down a little bit. But four and a half hours later she was still there and hadn´t come out at all. We decided to take her home and that the tomcat would come to our house in the afternoon. But it was pretty difficult to get her out of there, she had got in head first, and every time you tried to grab her from the back she started hissing and growling and trying to turn around to bit you, but of course she couldn´t turn around. So finally I had to pull her out by the tail and grab her hindlegs to get her out, she almost bit me when her head finally appeared when she saw it was me, and instead she clung to me, panting, hissing, spitting, growling and meowing, a chain of bad words in Cattish. So we took her home, and it was the first time in her life that she was glad to get into her travel box. And Leo has been here with us the last couple hours, seems pretty calm. He was very upset when we took her away this morning, and he seems to have recognized her, and is very interested. So now they´re doing a kind of ballet, twirling around the house, Kisa running around and he after her, chirping and crying out to her, but she doesn´t respond. Then she starts to roll around on the floor and put her butt in the air, but if he gets too close, she runs away. So she´s playing the hard-to-get female role, let´s see how long that lasts.
Anyway, I´ll keep you posted about how it´s going, at least Kisa doesn´t attack him (for now)!!
sunnudagur, febrúar 22, 2004
So, here I am on a Sunday morning, drinking my coffee, while Manu is still sleeping and Kisa runs in and out of the windows (mostly she comes in to use her bathroom, she doesn´t seem to know how to pee outside), dodging big dogs loose in the yard and always trying to catch the birds, never succeeding. I´m very happy that it´s Sunday, that means that I don´t have to wake up at 6.30, get myself into an overfull train and ride to the university; I can stay at home, happily reading or playing the piano. Manu and I are going to try to organize a four-hand concert in May in Alpedrete (which is where he works) which would be lots of fun, and they might even pay us! :) And we might organize some summer courses together (June, July) for kids and adults.
So, as probably most of you know, we are going to get married in August, we chose the 10th because it´s the day we met three years ago (how romantic!) and the place, just because it´s so very beautiful (Skógar). So I hope that all you guys in the States can come, even though mamma has already told me that probably you won´t, but even so, it would be great! It wouldn´t be the same without you.
And I want to thank mamma and pabbi (officially here) for all the help, without them we wouldn´t even be able to do it, they´ve been doing all the organizing over there :) The only one who would suffer would be poor Kisa, who might have to stay in a cat hotel :(
So, anyway, I´ve been thinking a lot about this so called "life" and what it is for each of us. each day I struggle to study, to think and ponder over things, and I feel that I´m getting closer to something that´s out there, some higher state of consciousness, or thought, or being. But with every moment I also get farther away from it, because with every new thing that I learn I realize that they´re are so many other things that I don´t know yet, and are waiting there for me to discover them. I´m not only talking about things that you can memorize, it´s more about things that really affect you, that can change your way of being, your way of thinking about yourself, your relationship with you. It´s difficult to explain, because it´s like a sensation that I have impossible to analyze, in image that I can´t really see (yet). I guess noone will really ounderstand the words that I´ve written if that person doesn´t have the same feeling. Anyway, every day I try to keep searching for what it is, for it´s real face, it´s real image, sometimes it´s clearer, and then I feel as if I know the "meaning" of life (sounds corny, because it´s been used to much), but I still wouldn´t be able to explain it, because it´s like the other, it´s a sensation without image, but it´s so big that it fills me with happiness and joy of knowing that I´m alive.
I hope this makes sense to someone, I´m not sure it makes sense to me :)
Gotta go, a big hola to everyone, úlla
So, as probably most of you know, we are going to get married in August, we chose the 10th because it´s the day we met three years ago (how romantic!) and the place, just because it´s so very beautiful (Skógar). So I hope that all you guys in the States can come, even though mamma has already told me that probably you won´t, but even so, it would be great! It wouldn´t be the same without you.
And I want to thank mamma and pabbi (officially here) for all the help, without them we wouldn´t even be able to do it, they´ve been doing all the organizing over there :) The only one who would suffer would be poor Kisa, who might have to stay in a cat hotel :(
So, anyway, I´ve been thinking a lot about this so called "life" and what it is for each of us. each day I struggle to study, to think and ponder over things, and I feel that I´m getting closer to something that´s out there, some higher state of consciousness, or thought, or being. But with every moment I also get farther away from it, because with every new thing that I learn I realize that they´re are so many other things that I don´t know yet, and are waiting there for me to discover them. I´m not only talking about things that you can memorize, it´s more about things that really affect you, that can change your way of being, your way of thinking about yourself, your relationship with you. It´s difficult to explain, because it´s like a sensation that I have impossible to analyze, in image that I can´t really see (yet). I guess noone will really ounderstand the words that I´ve written if that person doesn´t have the same feeling. Anyway, every day I try to keep searching for what it is, for it´s real face, it´s real image, sometimes it´s clearer, and then I feel as if I know the "meaning" of life (sounds corny, because it´s been used to much), but I still wouldn´t be able to explain it, because it´s like the other, it´s a sensation without image, but it´s so big that it fills me with happiness and joy of knowing that I´m alive.
I hope this makes sense to someone, I´m not sure it makes sense to me :)
Gotta go, a big hola to everyone, úlla
fimmtudagur, febrúar 19, 2004
Pabbi er of þreyttur þessa dagana til að setja nokkuð á blað, allt of mikið af veikum börnum og of lítill tími. Ég vildi þó segja, að mér finnst ég eigi talsvert kredit skilið hvað varðar bókalestur og bókaást; meira um það síðar. Og mamma á líka talsvert í músikástinni. Dry humor? OK, ég sætti mig við það um sinn.
Meira seinna. Eg fer að vakna svona upp úr páskum og kemmst á skrið með haustinu. Ciao.
Meira seinna. Eg fer að vakna svona upp úr páskum og kemmst á skrið með haustinu. Ciao.
I haven't been nóga dúgleg recently, but there is one thing that I defintely want to post, for those who weren't there (the Spain contingent, etc.), and that is what I wrote about my little sister who turned 50 on Friday the 13th!!:
" On a fateful evening sometime in 1952, a well-known party girl and local fashion moghul in Reykjavik and a Bogart look-alike officer in his Navy blues with the studied nonchalance of Gable met......that is to say, he was sitting alone quietly sipping his a cup of strong Icelandic coffee (secretly laced with scotch) in the one and only place to be in Reykjavik late evening, when my mother, at the insistence of her girl friends, went over to him and asked if he’d like to join them. In other words, she “picked him up”. Well, that was a defining moment and the great adventure began. On Feb. 13th 1953 they got married, and one year later, on the exact same date, their first child was born. And what was the result of two such people who were best known in their lifetimes for amazing hospitality and great parties?:
---UBER Party Girl!! Born To Be Wild
Not only did she look exactly like her father at birth, down to the disjointed little nose that replicated his bigger bumpy one(broken in Navy football!!), she also got named after both grandmothers, AND she proved with time that sociability and having fun are genetic traits!
We have a saying in Icelandic: “snemma beygist krókurinn..”, which translates as: “early bends the hook”. And early on, Thora realized that parties were possible due to the three P’s: planning, preparing and picking-up. In fact there is a photo in the family archives of Mz. “Little Pete” helping her parents in the early hours of the “day-after” as she wandered through the living room emptying glasses, yes into her stomach, and with an appropriately sagging diaper, and a surprised look on her face, due to the flash of course.
She early found out that Beauty has it’s price. Mamma always wanted her girls to look good and the fact that her newest baby didn’t grow hair that fast did not stop her from putting a bow into it, or rather onto it with tape. Okay, okay, maybe that story IS family legend, but it was definitely told to me, even if there are no photos to prove it.
And then everyone loved Thora, she was so funny and sociable. And always ready to do and try everything. My favorite photo series of her as a child is the one taken in our backyard in Florida where she, standing in a little plastic pool, is spraying a kid (I think it was a Carpenter kid) who then immediately gets the hose to spray her back and she stands there with her back turned and wet pants hanging, shoulders all hunched, eyes closed, not trying to run away, loving every minute.
Ever since then, through all those famous “thicks and thins”, in all the many ups-and-downs that life has dealt her, she has always smiled to the world around her. And those around her feel good when she does so. She probably inherited the best of both her parents’ people skills, and though she probably never quite expected to be where she is today (she always thought she’d be a teacher surrounded by children, many of them her own), she is to me (and don’t forget I am her older half-sister who didn’t really recognize her until she was in her late teens!!) a true success, a person who affects many people around her daily, whose own worries give her the ability to empathize with her co-earthlings, and who always has exactly the right word, card, or gift for that person at any given moment. Anyone who knows Thora knows this, and if you don’t, stay tuned, the party only gets better!
Happy Birthday to my little sister who knows how to Rock n’ Roll !
ps: and now that you are at this momentuos point in your life, I can at last tell you a little secret, passed on by our Pabbi, in these words...
.....psst! you are really only 21!! ...I myself only got to 29!!!
he would have been 78 today and it would have been their 51rst wedding anniversary."
It was read to her the next morning because her party was too loud!!(how appropriate) and I DO really mean it.:)
And now we can get on with our second half-a-century, thankyouverymuch!
" On a fateful evening sometime in 1952, a well-known party girl and local fashion moghul in Reykjavik and a Bogart look-alike officer in his Navy blues with the studied nonchalance of Gable met......that is to say, he was sitting alone quietly sipping his a cup of strong Icelandic coffee (secretly laced with scotch) in the one and only place to be in Reykjavik late evening, when my mother, at the insistence of her girl friends, went over to him and asked if he’d like to join them. In other words, she “picked him up”. Well, that was a defining moment and the great adventure began. On Feb. 13th 1953 they got married, and one year later, on the exact same date, their first child was born. And what was the result of two such people who were best known in their lifetimes for amazing hospitality and great parties?:
---UBER Party Girl!! Born To Be Wild
Not only did she look exactly like her father at birth, down to the disjointed little nose that replicated his bigger bumpy one(broken in Navy football!!), she also got named after both grandmothers, AND she proved with time that sociability and having fun are genetic traits!
We have a saying in Icelandic: “snemma beygist krókurinn..”, which translates as: “early bends the hook”. And early on, Thora realized that parties were possible due to the three P’s: planning, preparing and picking-up. In fact there is a photo in the family archives of Mz. “Little Pete” helping her parents in the early hours of the “day-after” as she wandered through the living room emptying glasses, yes into her stomach, and with an appropriately sagging diaper, and a surprised look on her face, due to the flash of course.
She early found out that Beauty has it’s price. Mamma always wanted her girls to look good and the fact that her newest baby didn’t grow hair that fast did not stop her from putting a bow into it, or rather onto it with tape. Okay, okay, maybe that story IS family legend, but it was definitely told to me, even if there are no photos to prove it.
And then everyone loved Thora, she was so funny and sociable. And always ready to do and try everything. My favorite photo series of her as a child is the one taken in our backyard in Florida where she, standing in a little plastic pool, is spraying a kid (I think it was a Carpenter kid) who then immediately gets the hose to spray her back and she stands there with her back turned and wet pants hanging, shoulders all hunched, eyes closed, not trying to run away, loving every minute.
Ever since then, through all those famous “thicks and thins”, in all the many ups-and-downs that life has dealt her, she has always smiled to the world around her. And those around her feel good when she does so. She probably inherited the best of both her parents’ people skills, and though she probably never quite expected to be where she is today (she always thought she’d be a teacher surrounded by children, many of them her own), she is to me (and don’t forget I am her older half-sister who didn’t really recognize her until she was in her late teens!!) a true success, a person who affects many people around her daily, whose own worries give her the ability to empathize with her co-earthlings, and who always has exactly the right word, card, or gift for that person at any given moment. Anyone who knows Thora knows this, and if you don’t, stay tuned, the party only gets better!
Happy Birthday to my little sister who knows how to Rock n’ Roll !
ps: and now that you are at this momentuos point in your life, I can at last tell you a little secret, passed on by our Pabbi, in these words...
.....psst! you are really only 21!! ...I myself only got to 29!!!
he would have been 78 today and it would have been their 51rst wedding anniversary."
It was read to her the next morning because her party was too loud!!(how appropriate) and I DO really mean it.:)
And now we can get on with our second half-a-century, thankyouverymuch!
sunnudagur, febrúar 15, 2004
Hey guys.
So I'm not very active on this blog, but that's 'cause I gotmeown. Butcha know..I'll drop in by and by. I would like to get pabbi more involved :) One way to use this blog is for the things that make you go "oh I wish X could have seen that" where X is Freysi or Úlla or whoever. You know, the things you might send us in email or whatever. Some people actually carry on suspended conversations on their blogs...
Anyway...congratz darri on winning the concert, (*envy*) at úlla for being able to practice as much as she wants, and yes mamma, reading aloud to us and infecting us with respect and obsession for books definitely had much to do with who and where we are today :) Books and knowledge fascination from mamma, music (and knowledge) fascination from pabbi, sillyness from mamma and dry wit from pabbi, hey perfect combination! And all molded together with a firm foundation of stubbornness (from both of you :))
So I'm not very active on this blog, but that's 'cause I gotmeown. Butcha know..I'll drop in by and by. I would like to get pabbi more involved :) One way to use this blog is for the things that make you go "oh I wish X could have seen that" where X is Freysi or Úlla or whoever. You know, the things you might send us in email or whatever. Some people actually carry on suspended conversations on their blogs...
Anyway...congratz darri on winning the concert, (*envy*) at úlla for being able to practice as much as she wants, and yes mamma, reading aloud to us and infecting us with respect and obsession for books definitely had much to do with who and where we are today :) Books and knowledge fascination from mamma, music (and knowledge) fascination from pabbi, sillyness from mamma and dry wit from pabbi, hey perfect combination! And all molded together with a firm foundation of stubbornness (from both of you :))
mánudagur, febrúar 09, 2004
It´s been about a month since I stopped working, and already I´ve noticed a big difference in myself. First of all, I´m very happy not to be working, I had too many students that left me exasperated after three hours because nobody studied at home any they were (almost) all so dull, I couldn´t stand it! Now I´m working in a school where I only have three students who seem to be pretty intelligent kids and whol really show an interest in music, so that´s great. But the best thing is all the time that I have to play the piano, and since I have all this time I start to note the changes in my playing. I´m less tired, I can play pieces with less problems, that before made my arms hurt so much that I couldn´t go on, my back hardly gives me problems, and my fingers are much stronger. My mind also seems to be opening up better to the understanding of music, a feeling more global of all musical components. I understand harmony much better after I started to really practice it, instead of only studying the theory, and I think that harmony has to be studied this way to completely understand it. Anyway, music is about sounds, and if you don´t hear what you are working with, how are you going to really get it?
Sometimes I get frustrated because of the little time that I have to prepare a good program ( to get into a conservatory) and because sometimes there´s too much to do around the house. But most of the time that gets left to do when there´s time, so usually the house is a mess, but since nobody minds that lives here (neither Manu, me nor Kisa) that´s just fine. Using your mind is much more interesting than cleaning, right, mamma? (For years I´ve listened to mamma express her hatred of cleaning :) )
As for books, I have too many on my to read list, and twice as many on my to buy list. Now I have to focus on music history, we bought the Norton CDs and the Anthologies that have all the scores, which looks great, very thorough, and interesting too. I have all these great books that mamma and pabbi gave me for Xmas, and other ones that I bought with Karen´s and Hildur´s gift certificate, thanks, guys. :) But for now, they´ll stay on my shelves, once in a while tempting me to pick them up.
So, back to studying!!
Sometimes I get frustrated because of the little time that I have to prepare a good program ( to get into a conservatory) and because sometimes there´s too much to do around the house. But most of the time that gets left to do when there´s time, so usually the house is a mess, but since nobody minds that lives here (neither Manu, me nor Kisa) that´s just fine. Using your mind is much more interesting than cleaning, right, mamma? (For years I´ve listened to mamma express her hatred of cleaning :) )
As for books, I have too many on my to read list, and twice as many on my to buy list. Now I have to focus on music history, we bought the Norton CDs and the Anthologies that have all the scores, which looks great, very thorough, and interesting too. I have all these great books that mamma and pabbi gave me for Xmas, and other ones that I bought with Karen´s and Hildur´s gift certificate, thanks, guys. :) But for now, they´ll stay on my shelves, once in a while tempting me to pick them up.
So, back to studying!!
sunnudagur, febrúar 08, 2004
So it seems that all those years of reading aloud to my kids and buying books for them “paid off”(?) (“I’ve created monsters!!”) Children after my own heart; chips off the old block; great minds....! okok, enough. On to real life, which for us up here sounds definitely better than what the Vermont contingent is experiencing, weather-wise. I guess our problem, at least here on the SW part of Iceland, is that we get these alternating cold and warm fronts, so that one is never quite dressed properly. But lately it’s stayed cold, even went down to -15 here with us, and my front door freezes shut because the window weeps so much that water drips down to the threshold and then freezes!!How silly! However we in Rvk. are very glad we don’t live up north nor on the east coast where the weather has been so bad, so much snow, that houses are buried, people keep getting stuck on the heiðir when driving (there was an 11 car accident on Hellisheiði this weekend) and all those poor Italians working on Kárahnúkur(sp) dam site spend more time digging themselves out before and after work than.....well, at least they are inside a big tunnel when working, that then gets closed off by snow!!. Oj, who would have thought that this winter would be so bad out in the country. But here in town it’s not bad at all, which is why more than half the people of this country live in this area. And it’s finally starting to get lighter longer and there are even pink evenings now.
In the larger family, we recently attended two kiddie birthdays: Alex had his 10th on Thurs. 5th of Feb. and there we saw (finally) photos that Ásgeir and Ardís took of Robert’s little princess....yes she’s cute, but.....well, I’ve seen cuter...(grin). And we also saw a picture of Odessa’s Dennis and well, interesting face....I’m assuming we’ll meet him this summer when she comes for a visit, I think in June (they get married in May). And than this last week we went to Óli Geirs 11th and that’s always fun to go there, he being such a fun kid to give gifts to. Just Darri and I went as Mundi was still in Akranes and on his way home. And Birgir didn’t come because Kristín Thelma was sick and had been for days. And when he brought her to Mundi’s office the next day, Mundi sent her right up to the hospital and she was operated on that evening with appendicitis, on the verge of erupting. We visited her on the weekend, she’s in good shape, mostly bored, but perked up when I opened my big mouth and said that hopefully she won’t be like her father who is rather accident prone, walks into glass doors, lands in fights by “accident”..... that brought a smile to her face. (heehee) And then Ruth said that still today, if they’re out on the town, guys will walk up to Birgir and “put up their dukes”, wanting to go outside and slug it out. And Birgir doesn’t do anything to start it. It’s just the way he looks(?) Mundi says it’s the way he smells.....must get those “sailors” all excited! (he does have some interesting scars).
Ok, this time I did not write about books, but I do have some choice quotes for next time, and maybe also some more things about love, etc. And smells!!Góða nótt mis amigos y hermanas y hijos. Muchos besos.
In the larger family, we recently attended two kiddie birthdays: Alex had his 10th on Thurs. 5th of Feb. and there we saw (finally) photos that Ásgeir and Ardís took of Robert’s little princess....yes she’s cute, but.....well, I’ve seen cuter...(grin). And we also saw a picture of Odessa’s Dennis and well, interesting face....I’m assuming we’ll meet him this summer when she comes for a visit, I think in June (they get married in May). And than this last week we went to Óli Geirs 11th and that’s always fun to go there, he being such a fun kid to give gifts to. Just Darri and I went as Mundi was still in Akranes and on his way home. And Birgir didn’t come because Kristín Thelma was sick and had been for days. And when he brought her to Mundi’s office the next day, Mundi sent her right up to the hospital and she was operated on that evening with appendicitis, on the verge of erupting. We visited her on the weekend, she’s in good shape, mostly bored, but perked up when I opened my big mouth and said that hopefully she won’t be like her father who is rather accident prone, walks into glass doors, lands in fights by “accident”..... that brought a smile to her face. (heehee) And then Ruth said that still today, if they’re out on the town, guys will walk up to Birgir and “put up their dukes”, wanting to go outside and slug it out. And Birgir doesn’t do anything to start it. It’s just the way he looks(?) Mundi says it’s the way he smells.....must get those “sailors” all excited! (he does have some interesting scars).
Ok, this time I did not write about books, but I do have some choice quotes for next time, and maybe also some more things about love, etc. And smells!!Góða nótt mis amigos y hermanas y hijos. Muchos besos.
föstudagur, febrúar 06, 2004
It´s been so much fun commenting on Freysi´s blogsite that we´ve forgotten about blogging ourselves here! Important things in life, right? Sleep, eat, read, watch tv, what more? Ah, yes, mamma´s favorite, people who smell good.
Anyway, I´ve almost finished my tests, yesterday I had piano which was really easy for me, since they start out with the basics, though it´s a pretty complete test with harmony exercises. They told me today that they might give me the highest grade of the class, called the grade of honor or something like that, and then you don´t have to pay as much next year, they give you 6 credits free, or something like that. Yay!!Now I only have one test left, which is on Wednesday and I don´t even need to study, we only have to write a short paper on a text we read, and that´s it. So, I have the whole week to stay at home with the Krazy and play the piano!!
These days it´s really sunny here, and it smells like spring. I didn´t know that a smell as simple as the smell of grass could make me so happy, it puts me in the greatest of spirits. Anyway, they say it won´t last, it´ll be cold soon again :(
Jæja, best að fara að raða bókum í nýju bókahilluna! We have a new bókahilla, but not that many books to fill it, so, mamma, don´t you want to help me with that?! (hahahihi) :) A great excuse for buying more books, right?
Anyway, I´ve almost finished my tests, yesterday I had piano which was really easy for me, since they start out with the basics, though it´s a pretty complete test with harmony exercises. They told me today that they might give me the highest grade of the class, called the grade of honor or something like that, and then you don´t have to pay as much next year, they give you 6 credits free, or something like that. Yay!!Now I only have one test left, which is on Wednesday and I don´t even need to study, we only have to write a short paper on a text we read, and that´s it. So, I have the whole week to stay at home with the Krazy and play the piano!!
These days it´s really sunny here, and it smells like spring. I didn´t know that a smell as simple as the smell of grass could make me so happy, it puts me in the greatest of spirits. Anyway, they say it won´t last, it´ll be cold soon again :(
Jæja, best að fara að raða bókum í nýju bókahilluna! We have a new bókahilla, but not that many books to fill it, so, mamma, don´t you want to help me with that?! (hahahihi) :) A great excuse for buying more books, right?
sunnudagur, febrúar 01, 2004
It’s late (for me) and Darri and Mundi are watching show #2 of the third season of 24. I decided to stop watching it last year because I got too “anxious”(?!?) with the constant buildup, plus when his wife died at the end of the first season, well, I realized I was too “involved”. I think I’ll stick to my books and selected series like West Wing and ER (which has gotten so negative lately, at least this season that we’re watching up here, that it doesn’t really real as authentic....too many bad things keep on happening). TV!! In our real world it’s still skítkalt, so that the cars in the mornings look like they came out of some deep freezer, so covered with white frost are they! And to get inside them and touch anything actually, literally hurts. But then all of you to the west of us are experiencing similar conditions. At least we have endless hot water for long showers . And we only had one day last week that was really bad, when the wind was blowing as well as being 9 below C. That was ógeðslegt! Impossible to be outside! The crazy thing is to see how variable everyone dresses here.....so many still walking around in little jackets or sweaters. We’re just not used to such cold since it hasn’t happened for at least 4 years.
Today Darri finished his third rannsóknarverkefni for this school year. This time it was on origami and math. For once he (and I helping) actually finished before dinner, rather than towards 11 or so. This is his 7th project at Tjarnarskóli and it’s basically a way to teach them research skills as well as get them to think of presentation, because it’s not just a report, but also a project (which could be anything else that’s NOT a report). Darri made 5 math models from a book called Amazing Origami, and he should really tell you about them. (Ask him?) . So now I’m feeling like a big load is off our shoulders (his and mine) and that we can get on with other things like finishing taxes (for me and Mundi), and getting back to painting Tomb Warriors (for Darri), and of course, reading.
For me reading is always the “stuff” that keeps my day in one piece. If I don’t get enough of it, I feel literally at loose ends.(hmmm, this might bring on comments from certain quarters, eh?) Since Freysi is thinking of having a separate blog for his reading, etc., I might just do the same. But for now I just want you all to know that after a few false starts since beg. of Jan, I’ve picked up a good book: Servants of the Map by Andrea Barrett, a really good author who puts a lot of groundwork into her stories (esp. when they’re science-oriented). And my this-year’s-goals are to reread Harry Potter (this time the Brit. edtions) in order to read the fifth one; to attack A.S. Byatts tetrology( The Virgin in the Garden, Simple Tastes?, The Tower of Babel, and The Whistling Woman) where I have to reread the first two as they were published so long ago; and to read Jasper Ffordes 4th book as soon as it’s published! And then there’s V. Woolf, and soforth, o.s.f. (and this is just the tip of the fiction iceberg!!!....then there’s all the great history and science books around me....)
Enough for now! You see what a “enclosed” life one leads, heehee, haahaa. I only go out when I have to, which is actually about 5 times a day, back and forth in the car, oh well....(maybe I’ll “acquire” hermitism when I’m in my 70’s?)blæblæ. gerðurvc
Today Darri finished his third rannsóknarverkefni for this school year. This time it was on origami and math. For once he (and I helping) actually finished before dinner, rather than towards 11 or so. This is his 7th project at Tjarnarskóli and it’s basically a way to teach them research skills as well as get them to think of presentation, because it’s not just a report, but also a project (which could be anything else that’s NOT a report). Darri made 5 math models from a book called Amazing Origami, and he should really tell you about them. (Ask him?) . So now I’m feeling like a big load is off our shoulders (his and mine) and that we can get on with other things like finishing taxes (for me and Mundi), and getting back to painting Tomb Warriors (for Darri), and of course, reading.
For me reading is always the “stuff” that keeps my day in one piece. If I don’t get enough of it, I feel literally at loose ends.(hmmm, this might bring on comments from certain quarters, eh?) Since Freysi is thinking of having a separate blog for his reading, etc., I might just do the same. But for now I just want you all to know that after a few false starts since beg. of Jan, I’ve picked up a good book: Servants of the Map by Andrea Barrett, a really good author who puts a lot of groundwork into her stories (esp. when they’re science-oriented). And my this-year’s-goals are to reread Harry Potter (this time the Brit. edtions) in order to read the fifth one; to attack A.S. Byatts tetrology( The Virgin in the Garden, Simple Tastes?, The Tower of Babel, and The Whistling Woman) where I have to reread the first two as they were published so long ago; and to read Jasper Ffordes 4th book as soon as it’s published! And then there’s V. Woolf, and soforth, o.s.f. (and this is just the tip of the fiction iceberg!!!....then there’s all the great history and science books around me....)
Enough for now! You see what a “enclosed” life one leads, heehee, haahaa. I only go out when I have to, which is actually about 5 times a day, back and forth in the car, oh well....(maybe I’ll “acquire” hermitism when I’m in my 70’s?)blæblæ. gerðurvc
