mánudagur, mars 29, 2004
Now that it’s Monday and we’ve all gotten off to a “normal” start (both Darri and Mundi much better, thanks to antibiotics), and I’ve gotten to my æfingatími, so that all the muscles have been worked on, and I’ve now eaten lunch and ignored things like finishing tax papers in order to read a few more pages in 2 of the present 4 books I have going at the moment (Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis, Faucoult’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco, Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian, and Out of Place by Edward Said.....the first two sre the one’s I was just reading, the third one I’m reading before seeing the movie....but I just found out that the movie is actually based on two of his books so this one doesn’t really “count”, and the last one is the one I want to comment on here...eventually), and I don’t have to leave to get Darri for at least an hour.....so, best to blog-along for a while. And I’ve decided to go ahead and write some about books, even though I haven’t gotten myself organized enough to make a separate bookblog. It’s the Edward Said autobiography, Out of Place that I want to use as a kind of springboard for this feeling that so many of us have or have had about “fitting in”, “belonging”, “sticking out”, and all the consequences there of. Said is a Palestinian originally but raised in Egypt and then has spent most of his adult life in (I think) the USA so he’s an Arabic/English speaker from a Arabic Christian family that lived in Palestine but he and his parents and 3 sisters lived mostly in Eygpt, and though this doesn’t really give you a real feel for his upbringing, it was one of cultural isolation (also due to being middleclass, and his father having American citizenship), and is maybe more common than any of us can imagine. When I read a book like this, I realize just how simple and stereotypical my own views are of other peoples especially from non-European countries. As much as we like to simplifiy things, complexity is the real truth, in all countries and all cultures(even in little Iceland). And so, there are many more people out there who really are “out of place” because of the diversified geneologies they inherit or varied environments they’re raised in. And if that environment is a true homogenous one, then that odd person can stick out, in varying amounts of course. For example, growing up in the 1950’s in Middle Class USA as a military brat with an unpronouncable name....that’s one way to stick out. If you add to that the fact that you’re either ahead of the kids in your new school, or behind in that the old school had a different curriculum, well, maybe more points against you. And then you had different rituals at Christmas!! that only the family was allowed to take part in! And strange food!! All of this is now very mild compared to what one sees around one’s self these days, in all Western countries. I saw the change when Mundi and I and Freyr and Úlla went to live in the states in 1982 and no one batted an eyelash at the fact that we all had different last names.....not one eyebrow raised in 5 years!! In fact no one was really interested. And this past summer when I went to be with mamma and my sisters, I noticed that there were even more people around speaking all kinds of languages other than English. But now I’m off track.....
What I want to say is that even if you look like you belong, and even if you speak the language like a native, and have all the moves, so to speak, well the feeling of being out of place can actually be more unsettling, because it’s a deeper difference. And because you look like you should belong, your inability to act like it can be more “misunderstood”, especially if you yourself show discomfort.....? no, now I’m off the track again. I think it probably has all been researched and written about time and again, and that it’s part of human nature to go through periods of “outsidedness”, in order to “grow”, gain perspective, etc.etc., and that once you catch on to the fact of this cycle, well then the world is your oyster! And it’s all a question of how deeply engrained the feeling of dislocation is, as to what happens in adulthood.....In Edward Said’s case, it was too deep (because of the incredibly strict upbringing he had) so that he never could get rid of the uncertainty of the feeling, though he became a succesful writer on things having to do with the Mid-East as well as being a professor in English and comparative Lit.at Columbia University!(ever taken one of his classes, Courtney?) And of course there all the issues of one’s own biological makeup, family history, and soforth that can determine outcome......But I guess my point to all these ramblings is that “out of place” is now the international norm, and one sees more and more kids and young people who truly are world citizens, those who walk to a far more complicated beat than the “norm”, wherever they live. In the end, we’re all Earthlings, Terrans, Gaians,(though one wonders whether all politicians aren’t maybe aliens!), blips in the history of our environments! (and that last statement comes out of watching with Darri this amazing German documentary about what the earth will be like 5 million years from now!!!) (see what happens when I don’t get going on making a book blog.......!?)
and ps: it's snowing like crazy here!!
What I want to say is that even if you look like you belong, and even if you speak the language like a native, and have all the moves, so to speak, well the feeling of being out of place can actually be more unsettling, because it’s a deeper difference. And because you look like you should belong, your inability to act like it can be more “misunderstood”, especially if you yourself show discomfort.....? no, now I’m off the track again. I think it probably has all been researched and written about time and again, and that it’s part of human nature to go through periods of “outsidedness”, in order to “grow”, gain perspective, etc.etc., and that once you catch on to the fact of this cycle, well then the world is your oyster! And it’s all a question of how deeply engrained the feeling of dislocation is, as to what happens in adulthood.....In Edward Said’s case, it was too deep (because of the incredibly strict upbringing he had) so that he never could get rid of the uncertainty of the feeling, though he became a succesful writer on things having to do with the Mid-East as well as being a professor in English and comparative Lit.at Columbia University!(ever taken one of his classes, Courtney?) And of course there all the issues of one’s own biological makeup, family history, and soforth that can determine outcome......But I guess my point to all these ramblings is that “out of place” is now the international norm, and one sees more and more kids and young people who truly are world citizens, those who walk to a far more complicated beat than the “norm”, wherever they live. In the end, we’re all Earthlings, Terrans, Gaians,(though one wonders whether all politicians aren’t maybe aliens!), blips in the history of our environments! (and that last statement comes out of watching with Darri this amazing German documentary about what the earth will be like 5 million years from now!!!) (see what happens when I don’t get going on making a book blog.......!?)
and ps: it's snowing like crazy here!!
þriðjudagur, mars 23, 2004
The events just eleven days ago in Madrid are no longer front page news. That has been replaced by other various outrages and tragedies. Madrid and the investigation are still news inside the paper, and we follow it everyday since we “have a stake” in it you know (what a strange phrase...is it from the days of the Gold Rush?). And I did buy both Newsweek and Time (we get the international issues here) and was aghast at the photos that got printed.....oh well, voyeuristic, almost ghoulish, some of this. But isn’t this what we all have to face?
During these days Darri and I have been taking turns being sick with colds and throat things, that in one way were a kind of a boon in that being sick doesn’t really “allow” one to dwell on anything other than that. It’s almost as if it’s the only “proper” response to all it, i.e. be sick. Now, on the other side, where the weather has changed here into more of a spring-mode (Icelandic style), with often crystal clear views of all the various mountains, from Esja to the end of Snæfellsnes, where each and every fold and crevice is magnified by that kind of brilliant light that is only found in places near water (this is something that Karen commented on when she and Hildur were here last, that the quality of the light reminded her of being at the beach in the states....and thats when I saw it.....yes it is like that, so bright and even white-tinged when the sun is full and the sky really clear), one really feels like having woken up “on the other side”.....where yes maybe it really IS important to go ahead and do those things with/for your family and friends (Good grief!,how many bonks on the head does it take, for pete’s sake!). Okok, back to the mundane....the glue of daily life to which all kinds of gross things stick! (where is Mr. Clean when you need him?!) But oddly enough, when one is no longer feeling sick nor worried, then even stupid household chores can feel productive....(...except for bathrooms.....my all-time least favorite job, which I’ve solved by doing it in bits-and-pieces, only cleaning when eyes other than my own are going to see them!!) Yes, I guess one should be thankful that there are still clothes to be washed , dinners to be made(so Mundi has something to do in his free time) and bathrooms to be cleaned......
(I started the above yesterday and finished today)(let’s hope more animal stories show up!)
During these days Darri and I have been taking turns being sick with colds and throat things, that in one way were a kind of a boon in that being sick doesn’t really “allow” one to dwell on anything other than that. It’s almost as if it’s the only “proper” response to all it, i.e. be sick. Now, on the other side, where the weather has changed here into more of a spring-mode (Icelandic style), with often crystal clear views of all the various mountains, from Esja to the end of Snæfellsnes, where each and every fold and crevice is magnified by that kind of brilliant light that is only found in places near water (this is something that Karen commented on when she and Hildur were here last, that the quality of the light reminded her of being at the beach in the states....and thats when I saw it.....yes it is like that, so bright and even white-tinged when the sun is full and the sky really clear), one really feels like having woken up “on the other side”.....where yes maybe it really IS important to go ahead and do those things with/for your family and friends (Good grief!,how many bonks on the head does it take, for pete’s sake!). Okok, back to the mundane....the glue of daily life to which all kinds of gross things stick! (where is Mr. Clean when you need him?!) But oddly enough, when one is no longer feeling sick nor worried, then even stupid household chores can feel productive....(...except for bathrooms.....my all-time least favorite job, which I’ve solved by doing it in bits-and-pieces, only cleaning when eyes other than my own are going to see them!!) Yes, I guess one should be thankful that there are still clothes to be washed , dinners to be made(so Mundi has something to do in his free time) and bathrooms to be cleaned......
(I started the above yesterday and finished today)(let’s hope more animal stories show up!)
miðvikudagur, mars 17, 2004
The following was written on 16.mars:
I am amazed at how well Úlla can follow what’s going on in Spain, considering that she’s only been there for 2 years. During my first 2 years in Iceland, I’m not sure I had any idea as to what was going on (other than the now infamous Kvennadagur when I went downtown with my Leiklistaskóla roommates.....). Úlla was able to gain her new language in less than a year (actually six months, right Úlla?) and so her experience of all that has happened is as if she were a native. And why was she so quick to learn and use Spanish? Well, she comes into that language already bilingual (or even trilingual, if you count music), and she does have a sensitive ear, plus a desire and need to learn it (that’s what love does to you;), and so it goes. Me? After 29 years of using Icelandic, I feel comfortable enough, can read it and speak it (though I still make grammatical mistakes), but not write it. I feel that now today I can actually really read it, except if there is either too much of “technical” jargon, or too “amorphous” , as can sometimes be in “nútímabókmenntir”. And the odd thing is, I understand the conjugations when I read them......it’s the having to pull them out of my brain in order to write something that just doesn’t work. And that is a definite future project, among many, to be able to “clean up” my Icelandic.
Now it’s the 17th, and after 3 days of developing bronchitis and losing my voice (or actually sounding like a teenage boy?with all those ups and downs), I’m finally on antibiotics and feeling already better (Zitromax, only 3 pills, one today and the rest halves over 4 days....a real kill-dem-critters kind of drug). Freyr can attest to the awful voice when we called him last night to chat about life and people, (we’d already done movies and books by msn). And now after this past very dreary week, though the weather is great here, it’s time for a silly story. And , yes of course, it contains a cat....what else?
You see, Morgunblaðið, the one “reputable” newspaper left in Iceland today, does like to lighten it’s tone with animal stories. And on the 15th this story appeared on the back page: It seems a man in Hvolsvelli woke up in the middle of the night because of a lot of noise coming from the laundry room. Now usually his wife is the brave one that gets out of bed to see if robbers have invaded. But this night she wasn’t home, so he had to “manna sig upp”(and I don’t think I need translate that) and go see what the noise was all about. When he gets to the laundry room, where the door is closed, the noise is quite loud and it seems as if someone is hitting both the washing machine and the door. Well, this is too loud to be a thief, so, still expecting the worst, he opens the door to peek in and was quite surprised to see.....a cat with a tin can stuck on his head banging around trying desperately to get it off! Nú voru góð ráð dýr! Our hero quickly closed the door, went and got dressed, went back into the laundrey room, managed to grab hold of the can with the intention of literally shaking the cat out of it. It wasn’t until the cat began to literally run out of energy that he was able to get said can off of the victim’s head. And then this cat was so glad to be free that he jumped up and shot out the window as fast as he could! Our now triumphant hero was glad that he hadn’t had to resort to a can opener, for he realized that the poor cat had probably begun to sufficate inside that can! Well, needless to say, there was too much adrenalin flowing for him to get back to sleep so he went to work the next day quite a mess with an outlandish story. Moral?: best to make sure one’s wife is always at home in the middle of the night, just in case one has those unexpected guests.
And where was the family cat all this time? Probably asleep, in the warm, recently vacated bed.
I am amazed at how well Úlla can follow what’s going on in Spain, considering that she’s only been there for 2 years. During my first 2 years in Iceland, I’m not sure I had any idea as to what was going on (other than the now infamous Kvennadagur when I went downtown with my Leiklistaskóla roommates.....). Úlla was able to gain her new language in less than a year (actually six months, right Úlla?) and so her experience of all that has happened is as if she were a native. And why was she so quick to learn and use Spanish? Well, she comes into that language already bilingual (or even trilingual, if you count music), and she does have a sensitive ear, plus a desire and need to learn it (that’s what love does to you;), and so it goes. Me? After 29 years of using Icelandic, I feel comfortable enough, can read it and speak it (though I still make grammatical mistakes), but not write it. I feel that now today I can actually really read it, except if there is either too much of “technical” jargon, or too “amorphous” , as can sometimes be in “nútímabókmenntir”. And the odd thing is, I understand the conjugations when I read them......it’s the having to pull them out of my brain in order to write something that just doesn’t work. And that is a definite future project, among many, to be able to “clean up” my Icelandic.
Now it’s the 17th, and after 3 days of developing bronchitis and losing my voice (or actually sounding like a teenage boy?with all those ups and downs), I’m finally on antibiotics and feeling already better (Zitromax, only 3 pills, one today and the rest halves over 4 days....a real kill-dem-critters kind of drug). Freyr can attest to the awful voice when we called him last night to chat about life and people, (we’d already done movies and books by msn). And now after this past very dreary week, though the weather is great here, it’s time for a silly story. And , yes of course, it contains a cat....what else?
You see, Morgunblaðið, the one “reputable” newspaper left in Iceland today, does like to lighten it’s tone with animal stories. And on the 15th this story appeared on the back page: It seems a man in Hvolsvelli woke up in the middle of the night because of a lot of noise coming from the laundry room. Now usually his wife is the brave one that gets out of bed to see if robbers have invaded. But this night she wasn’t home, so he had to “manna sig upp”(and I don’t think I need translate that) and go see what the noise was all about. When he gets to the laundry room, where the door is closed, the noise is quite loud and it seems as if someone is hitting both the washing machine and the door. Well, this is too loud to be a thief, so, still expecting the worst, he opens the door to peek in and was quite surprised to see.....a cat with a tin can stuck on his head banging around trying desperately to get it off! Nú voru góð ráð dýr! Our hero quickly closed the door, went and got dressed, went back into the laundrey room, managed to grab hold of the can with the intention of literally shaking the cat out of it. It wasn’t until the cat began to literally run out of energy that he was able to get said can off of the victim’s head. And then this cat was so glad to be free that he jumped up and shot out the window as fast as he could! Our now triumphant hero was glad that he hadn’t had to resort to a can opener, for he realized that the poor cat had probably begun to sufficate inside that can! Well, needless to say, there was too much adrenalin flowing for him to get back to sleep so he went to work the next day quite a mess with an outlandish story. Moral?: best to make sure one’s wife is always at home in the middle of the night, just in case one has those unexpected guests.
And where was the family cat all this time? Probably asleep, in the warm, recently vacated bed.
mánudagur, mars 15, 2004
Since for now my computer has decided to let me use the internet (it has a mind of its own, you know) I´ll use the chance and write a little bit more.
As you guys probably know, the Socialist Party won the elections last night. This is the start of a new era, after 8 years of the Conservative Party in power, and at the same time historical in Spain´s political history, because it´s the first time that someone who is running for the first time gets voted. This change is important for Spain, after all the blunders and mistakes that PP (conservatives) have been making over the last years. Of course the most important factor in this change was how they have been handling the investigation of Thursdays´attack, manipulating information, witholding it, trying to manipulate people´s feelings and minds. The worst thing (for them of course) is how badly they lied. I saw through them right from the start. And it was actually amazing, after arresting 5 men from Marroco and India, they still tried to tell the public that their prime suspects were still ETA. So the people finally caught on, and PP paid their price. It was actually Aznar´s defeat, more than his new candidate, since he had sent Spain to the war, the people are blaming him for what happened on Thursday. The new leader, Zapatero, is ready to work, he´s already announced that there are going to be many changes, and his main battles are with terrorism, protecting women (who are being killed brutally by their husbands-too many of them each year) and bringing the troops back from Irak, seeing he was very much against the war. So, it´s off to a good start, with the Bushasslicking Aznar out of the way, it seems almost positive.
Anyway, enough politics, and enough tv and newspaper for now, they´ve put too many gruesome pictures in the papers and there´s too much sadness in the faces of those who appear on the screen, telling us that they will never see their father or their brother again. A Polish woman who was on the train with her husband and six month old baby, lost them both. Nobody has been able to tell her yet. Many children lost their mother, their father, or both their parents. How will these lives turn out, how will they keep on? I can´t even imagine.
Meanwhile, I try to stay strong, although I feel so small. I need to be happy, although it´s difficult to see the reason why. I will find myself again, much quicker than those who have really suffered. I need to remember that this life is to live, in happiness, and with fear in your heart that is impossible. Anything can happen to you, at any moment, and that´s what you have to forget to be happy.
So, I hope that soon things will be better, but never will they be the same again. Our lives keep changing, but some changes we could be without. The sense of helplessness comes when something or someone takes away from us the sense of control that we had, and that we never had, because we aren´t in control and we never will be. That´s the scary part, that there is always something out there bigger and mightier than us, that can change everything in less than a minute.
I don´t want to depress anybody anymore, only that these things are lying heavily on my mind, and it´s good to express it. This blog is almost like a digital diary, right?
The good news is that Kisa is finally rid of her collar and can wash freely!! Her paw is almost all healed, and she´s back to herself again (she was actually nicer while she had the collar on!).
So, bye for now, and thanks again to all of you for the comments that you left us, they´ve been a real help. Úlla
As you guys probably know, the Socialist Party won the elections last night. This is the start of a new era, after 8 years of the Conservative Party in power, and at the same time historical in Spain´s political history, because it´s the first time that someone who is running for the first time gets voted. This change is important for Spain, after all the blunders and mistakes that PP (conservatives) have been making over the last years. Of course the most important factor in this change was how they have been handling the investigation of Thursdays´attack, manipulating information, witholding it, trying to manipulate people´s feelings and minds. The worst thing (for them of course) is how badly they lied. I saw through them right from the start. And it was actually amazing, after arresting 5 men from Marroco and India, they still tried to tell the public that their prime suspects were still ETA. So the people finally caught on, and PP paid their price. It was actually Aznar´s defeat, more than his new candidate, since he had sent Spain to the war, the people are blaming him for what happened on Thursday. The new leader, Zapatero, is ready to work, he´s already announced that there are going to be many changes, and his main battles are with terrorism, protecting women (who are being killed brutally by their husbands-too many of them each year) and bringing the troops back from Irak, seeing he was very much against the war. So, it´s off to a good start, with the Bushasslicking Aznar out of the way, it seems almost positive.
Anyway, enough politics, and enough tv and newspaper for now, they´ve put too many gruesome pictures in the papers and there´s too much sadness in the faces of those who appear on the screen, telling us that they will never see their father or their brother again. A Polish woman who was on the train with her husband and six month old baby, lost them both. Nobody has been able to tell her yet. Many children lost their mother, their father, or both their parents. How will these lives turn out, how will they keep on? I can´t even imagine.
Meanwhile, I try to stay strong, although I feel so small. I need to be happy, although it´s difficult to see the reason why. I will find myself again, much quicker than those who have really suffered. I need to remember that this life is to live, in happiness, and with fear in your heart that is impossible. Anything can happen to you, at any moment, and that´s what you have to forget to be happy.
So, I hope that soon things will be better, but never will they be the same again. Our lives keep changing, but some changes we could be without. The sense of helplessness comes when something or someone takes away from us the sense of control that we had, and that we never had, because we aren´t in control and we never will be. That´s the scary part, that there is always something out there bigger and mightier than us, that can change everything in less than a minute.
I don´t want to depress anybody anymore, only that these things are lying heavily on my mind, and it´s good to express it. This blog is almost like a digital diary, right?
The good news is that Kisa is finally rid of her collar and can wash freely!! Her paw is almost all healed, and she´s back to herself again (she was actually nicer while she had the collar on!).
So, bye for now, and thanks again to all of you for the comments that you left us, they´ve been a real help. Úlla
laugardagur, mars 13, 2004
On Thursday morning between 7.30 and 8, we were woken up by two explosions, one very loud, long one, and another smaller one. We both wondered what it was, explaining it away as big thunders, and thinking that it must be raining a lot. Manu´s more called to tell us that there had been a bomb in Atocha station, just a few hundred meters away from our house. We turned on the tv and yes, there they were, the police running all over the place, the street filling with police cars and ambulances, people sitting on the curbs bleeding, others running, more crying. We sat there watching this, not believing our eyes nor our ears, thinking that this was impossible. They started counting the dead, starting with 5 that sounded like such a high number, and slowly over the day thenumber went growing to almost 200 people. It´s too big of a number for me to actually grasp how many people died in such a short time and for such an absurd reason.
When the showed thefooting of the exploded trains is when we actually started to understand that this had really happened. I take the same kind of train every morning to go to the university, I should have been on my way soon to the train station where the trains almost exploded (which they say is what was the actual plan, to destroy the biggest most important train station in Madrid). I know how overfull those trains are at that time of the morning, how the people scrunch in to not be late to work, and I started to understand the horror of what had just happened. It is still difficult to understand it, and the horror of it all keeps washing over me again and again, thinking all the things that must be going through the heads of all the live in Madrid: It could have been me, it could have been one of my loved ones. How lucky I am not to have been there, but how bad that makes me feel too, to admit my luck of being alive, while so many others suffer their loss. Our lives our filled with everyday material things, that lose their importance in moments like this. The next day we walked down the street and saw one of the trains that had exploded just below our neighborhood. I don´t have words for what we saw, we had seen it already so many times on tv, but seeing it with our own eyes, was too much, we watched it, with horror, imagining what had just happened right there, and trying to understand how this could be the work of another human being, someone who supposedly is like us, a person. I don´t have words strong enough for this feeling.
So, all of this happens just before elections, three days before. I suppose all of you have been following it on tv, internet. We are noticing the strange way that the government is handling this, they of course have their reasons, but they are selfish horrible reasons.The conservative party wants to stay in power, which is normally what happens. But to make sure that they will, they decided from the start to blame this on ETA, who have already announced that they are not responsible.This of course is very serious, because supposedly you are innocent until proven guilty, and I thought from the start that this was the wrong way to go about it. There are many bits of evidence that point to it being AlQaida, avenging Spain´s involvement in the Irakwar. (And yes, mamma and Darri, I had figured out the connection with the timing too, exactly 2.5 years after 9-11.) If they are responsilbe, it could be crucial for the outcome of the voting for the Conservatives, since they are the ones who sent Spain to the war despite global disagreement of the nation. So now they have arrested 5 men, from Marroco and from India. But they keep saying that their no.1 suspects are ETA, and censure the news. I have noticed that there are many things that are portrayed as crucial for the investigation on the internet, that here they portray as a detail. They are definitely trying to manipulate the people to maintain their votes, probably concealing important evidence. Today, I think still at this moment, there are huge groups of people in front of their offices, protesting.
So, the whole thing is so very sad and so very infuriationg, both the attack itself on innocent people and the way others try to manipulate the situation. We are fine, just very sad, missing my family in Iceland, and missing the feeling of (fake, but also real) security that we had, and I´d like the right to vote tomorrow, for the hope of a little more luck. I hope the people of Spain figure out what is happening, what seems to be so obvious, and do something about it, and vote someone else, someone who is ready to tell the truth and face the consequences. Maybe that doesn´t exist in politics, but for now the other choices seem so much better than Aznar and his pack.
So, I hope nobody is worried about us, we´re fine, just jolted out of our normal existence. But don´t worry, mamma and pabbi, I have Manu and Kisa, but I also have you guys and my silly brothers, even though they (and you) are so very far away. Úlla.
When the showed thefooting of the exploded trains is when we actually started to understand that this had really happened. I take the same kind of train every morning to go to the university, I should have been on my way soon to the train station where the trains almost exploded (which they say is what was the actual plan, to destroy the biggest most important train station in Madrid). I know how overfull those trains are at that time of the morning, how the people scrunch in to not be late to work, and I started to understand the horror of what had just happened. It is still difficult to understand it, and the horror of it all keeps washing over me again and again, thinking all the things that must be going through the heads of all the live in Madrid: It could have been me, it could have been one of my loved ones. How lucky I am not to have been there, but how bad that makes me feel too, to admit my luck of being alive, while so many others suffer their loss. Our lives our filled with everyday material things, that lose their importance in moments like this. The next day we walked down the street and saw one of the trains that had exploded just below our neighborhood. I don´t have words for what we saw, we had seen it already so many times on tv, but seeing it with our own eyes, was too much, we watched it, with horror, imagining what had just happened right there, and trying to understand how this could be the work of another human being, someone who supposedly is like us, a person. I don´t have words strong enough for this feeling.
So, all of this happens just before elections, three days before. I suppose all of you have been following it on tv, internet. We are noticing the strange way that the government is handling this, they of course have their reasons, but they are selfish horrible reasons.The conservative party wants to stay in power, which is normally what happens. But to make sure that they will, they decided from the start to blame this on ETA, who have already announced that they are not responsible.This of course is very serious, because supposedly you are innocent until proven guilty, and I thought from the start that this was the wrong way to go about it. There are many bits of evidence that point to it being AlQaida, avenging Spain´s involvement in the Irakwar. (And yes, mamma and Darri, I had figured out the connection with the timing too, exactly 2.5 years after 9-11.) If they are responsilbe, it could be crucial for the outcome of the voting for the Conservatives, since they are the ones who sent Spain to the war despite global disagreement of the nation. So now they have arrested 5 men, from Marroco and from India. But they keep saying that their no.1 suspects are ETA, and censure the news. I have noticed that there are many things that are portrayed as crucial for the investigation on the internet, that here they portray as a detail. They are definitely trying to manipulate the people to maintain their votes, probably concealing important evidence. Today, I think still at this moment, there are huge groups of people in front of their offices, protesting.
So, the whole thing is so very sad and so very infuriationg, both the attack itself on innocent people and the way others try to manipulate the situation. We are fine, just very sad, missing my family in Iceland, and missing the feeling of (fake, but also real) security that we had, and I´d like the right to vote tomorrow, for the hope of a little more luck. I hope the people of Spain figure out what is happening, what seems to be so obvious, and do something about it, and vote someone else, someone who is ready to tell the truth and face the consequences. Maybe that doesn´t exist in politics, but for now the other choices seem so much better than Aznar and his pack.
So, I hope nobody is worried about us, we´re fine, just jolted out of our normal existence. But don´t worry, mamma and pabbi, I have Manu and Kisa, but I also have you guys and my silly brothers, even though they (and you) are so very far away. Úlla.
föstudagur, mars 12, 2004
Yesterday was not a good day for way too many people. To have one’s child be so close to a terrorist attack is definitely one of a parent’s worst nightmare(right, Þóra?). Úlla sent us email after they were woken by the blasts and found out what was going on. She, needless to say, felt very fortunate in not having had to go to school that morning. Though her timing is usually later for being at Atocha, she could easily have been waiting on the platform. It turns out that Manu’s mother, a pediatrician who works in a community clinic outside of Madrid, had actually already that morning taken a train out on one of the lines that got bombed. And so I spent the day following the news, called Úlla in the morning and then again later in the evening; and basically was wierded out by the fact that this happens, and (did anyone notice?) it’s exactly 2 and a half years since 9/11?(Darri told me this: 11th of March, and 11th of Sept. are 6 mos. apart.). Hmmm....at least it wasn’t the Ides of March(?). Mundi’s first reaction was, tell her to come home. Mine was, I should go to her to be with her. But since she is with Manu, that’s where she should be. If anything, we’d like to see them move out of the city. And they actually would like to do that too.
The one thing that always amazes me is the amount and kind of film footage that camera men get when such horrible things happen. It makes them seem like vultures, especially when it’s civilians that are hurt and killed.(I think war is a little different). Úlla did tell me that the Spanish authorities did round up all these camera people rather early on and herded them to some spot or area and told they had to stay there and not film all the carnage. I did see a helicopter picture on Sky of a traffic circle island covered with these people all crammed together. And at least on CNN and SKY only once did I see actual dead people not covered up. It’s hard to imagine how all this feels to be there. Horrific. I think I’ll continue to be grateful for only having to deal with things like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and hurrican weather here in Iceland, so far. But no one is really safe, and we do have an international airport.......
Kisa? she’s too wrapped up in her sorrowful existence, with that plastic collar around her neck preventing her from licking her wounded paw (as well as other parts of her body!). Loud noises are probably just one more confirmation in her little mind that humans have been put on this earth to torture her. She’ll feel better once the collar is off and she can take a serious 2-hour “bath”. And for once, I’m glad they have this krazykat to keep them company.
The one thing that always amazes me is the amount and kind of film footage that camera men get when such horrible things happen. It makes them seem like vultures, especially when it’s civilians that are hurt and killed.(I think war is a little different). Úlla did tell me that the Spanish authorities did round up all these camera people rather early on and herded them to some spot or area and told they had to stay there and not film all the carnage. I did see a helicopter picture on Sky of a traffic circle island covered with these people all crammed together. And at least on CNN and SKY only once did I see actual dead people not covered up. It’s hard to imagine how all this feels to be there. Horrific. I think I’ll continue to be grateful for only having to deal with things like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and hurrican weather here in Iceland, so far. But no one is really safe, and we do have an international airport.......
Kisa? she’s too wrapped up in her sorrowful existence, with that plastic collar around her neck preventing her from licking her wounded paw (as well as other parts of her body!). Loud noises are probably just one more confirmation in her little mind that humans have been put on this earth to torture her. She’ll feel better once the collar is off and she can take a serious 2-hour “bath”. And for once, I’m glad they have this krazykat to keep them company.
miðvikudagur, mars 10, 2004
And here is the continuing saga of Kisa Klikkuð en Madrid:
from Úlla 8.mars.2004:
So poor Kisa, I took her to the vet again this morning, as I told you yesterday she was worse, hardly putting her leg on the floor, and the vet of course had to clean out the sár, which was pretty infected, due to her obsessive licking. So the two of us had to hold Kisa down, she first put a kragi on her so that she couldn´t bite, then I had to hold her while she got out all the gross stuff in the sár, with Kisa hissing and screaming all the time. She got even madder when the vet put her into a blanket to wrap her up and hold her down (which by the way didn´t work at all) and screamed like I've never heard before and wriggled so much, ending up scratching my in the palm, which hurts like hell. So, here she is at home, with the kragi on and her leg all wrapped up, walking around the house meowing this pathetic wail, limping around, knocking the kragi into furniture, and staying in the same position forever, with her head hanging down onto the floor and her foot held in ther air. It´s pretty pathetic, I feel very sorry for her, it must hurt a lot and imagine if someone put something around your neck like that, so you can hardly eat, you can´t orient yourself and it´s relaly hard to go to the bathroom!
from Úlla 9.mars.2004:
And then we took poor Kisa back to the vet, who told us that her leg is still so swollen that she wants to clean it out really well tomorrow, so tomorrow afternoon I have to take her (alone, Manu working), they´ll sedate her and open up her leg. Oj bara!! But that way we hopefully can get this over with, and the poor thing can start to feel better. We did take a picture of her with her thingie on,that I´ll send to you.
from Úlla 10.mars.2004:
So we´re back home, Kisa and I and she´s very happy to be here. She couldn´t eat anything all day so she was very happy to see her dish back in its place and eat a little bit of turkey with me. So the vet drugged her, but only alittle bit, so when she started to shave her leg Kisa started to protest and really put up a fight, which must have needed a lot of will power seeing that she was pretty stunned. So the helper had to hold her down while the vet cleaned out the wound with Kisa crying like a baby all the time. Then they gave her another shot (I don´t know what) to wake her up and I took her home, she was very happy to see her box and get in! Anyway, I´ll probably have to take her back tomorrow to change the wrappings and put more cream on the wound (since Manu isn´t home tomorrow I can´t do it alone) and then I hope that we won´t have to go back for a few days at least! We´re both tired of going every day! So poor Kisa still has her cone on around her neck, but has learned how to eat more or less without it getting too much in the way. The funniest thing (and the saddest too) is when a piece of food falls into it and she starts going crazy trying to reach it, sticking out her tongue trying to lick it, and turning in circles all the while! Then of course she likes to sleep the siesta with anyone who is sleeping it, and likes to go under the covers between your legs, and of course with the cone on, it´s pretty difficult to fit underneath! And she walks around the house bumping into furniture, and getting stuck for a few minutes if no one is around to guide her out of her dilemma. It kind of takes the dignity out of her catness, poor thing!
jæja, ekkert nýtt í bili, everything more or less fine around here, heyrumst bráðum, úlla
from Úlla 8.mars.2004:
So poor Kisa, I took her to the vet again this morning, as I told you yesterday she was worse, hardly putting her leg on the floor, and the vet of course had to clean out the sár, which was pretty infected, due to her obsessive licking. So the two of us had to hold Kisa down, she first put a kragi on her so that she couldn´t bite, then I had to hold her while she got out all the gross stuff in the sár, with Kisa hissing and screaming all the time. She got even madder when the vet put her into a blanket to wrap her up and hold her down (which by the way didn´t work at all) and screamed like I've never heard before and wriggled so much, ending up scratching my in the palm, which hurts like hell. So, here she is at home, with the kragi on and her leg all wrapped up, walking around the house meowing this pathetic wail, limping around, knocking the kragi into furniture, and staying in the same position forever, with her head hanging down onto the floor and her foot held in ther air. It´s pretty pathetic, I feel very sorry for her, it must hurt a lot and imagine if someone put something around your neck like that, so you can hardly eat, you can´t orient yourself and it´s relaly hard to go to the bathroom!
from Úlla 9.mars.2004:
And then we took poor Kisa back to the vet, who told us that her leg is still so swollen that she wants to clean it out really well tomorrow, so tomorrow afternoon I have to take her (alone, Manu working), they´ll sedate her and open up her leg. Oj bara!! But that way we hopefully can get this over with, and the poor thing can start to feel better. We did take a picture of her with her thingie on,that I´ll send to you.
from Úlla 10.mars.2004:
So we´re back home, Kisa and I and she´s very happy to be here. She couldn´t eat anything all day so she was very happy to see her dish back in its place and eat a little bit of turkey with me. So the vet drugged her, but only alittle bit, so when she started to shave her leg Kisa started to protest and really put up a fight, which must have needed a lot of will power seeing that she was pretty stunned. So the helper had to hold her down while the vet cleaned out the wound with Kisa crying like a baby all the time. Then they gave her another shot (I don´t know what) to wake her up and I took her home, she was very happy to see her box and get in! Anyway, I´ll probably have to take her back tomorrow to change the wrappings and put more cream on the wound (since Manu isn´t home tomorrow I can´t do it alone) and then I hope that we won´t have to go back for a few days at least! We´re both tired of going every day! So poor Kisa still has her cone on around her neck, but has learned how to eat more or less without it getting too much in the way. The funniest thing (and the saddest too) is when a piece of food falls into it and she starts going crazy trying to reach it, sticking out her tongue trying to lick it, and turning in circles all the while! Then of course she likes to sleep the siesta with anyone who is sleeping it, and likes to go under the covers between your legs, and of course with the cone on, it´s pretty difficult to fit underneath! And she walks around the house bumping into furniture, and getting stuck for a few minutes if no one is around to guide her out of her dilemma. It kind of takes the dignity out of her catness, poor thing!
jæja, ekkert nýtt í bili, everything more or less fine around here, heyrumst bráðum, úlla
Here we are in sunny/not sunny(choose one) Iceland having daily hurricane wind and rain.....really!! Mundi left for his usual Wednesday trip to Akranes and he ended up turning around at Mosfellsbær. For those of you who don’t live here, that means that the winds were so strong at Kjalarnes, that vehicles were being swept off the road. It’s not so bad in town, but it’s always those certain spots both out on the main road around Iceland and then certain areas in the city.....places where houses were never built in the “old days” because people knew how rotten the weather was there. Now people are building all over (because, according to one architect, Icelander but lives in Denmark, Icelanders don’t really treat their capital city like a CITY. They need to build higher buildings in the better places rather than fill the surrounding country with more low buildings and expect people to want to live there....plus in 40 years all the possible building land will be used up.). And there are these amazing wind pockets all over! We had one in Kópavogi when we lived in that big apt. at Þverbrekka—the wind would whip around the corner of the building, where our balconey was, at 11-12 (whatever)on the Beauforte scale.....that’s why when I put Freyr out to sleep in his vagn and had to securely tie it to the rail, he never slept better—constantly being rocked.(smile). So, weather is still “king” in Iceland (veðurkóngur), and anyone who forgets that, even momentarily, can be unpleasantly surprised. I mean once there was such a bad snowstorm so suddenly, that people on Bústaðavegur near Öskuhlíð got stuck in their cars for 5-6 hours, waiting to be rescued! This was in the early 90’s. Fortunately we probably have some of the best rescue teams in Europe, all volunteer, filled with both men and women looking for a challenge. And we also have an amazing helicopter crew who not only pick up seriously sick people from the country, but also pull off rescue jobs out at sea. Why just the night before, they rescued 16 men off a huge trawler that stranded off the south shore when it’s net got tangled in the propeller blades....it took them exactly 40 minutes to get these guys up into the helicopter, and for once they didn’t even have to go down to the ship to help them as these sailors had been well-trained. All this in hurricane winds. Pretty neat. I suppose this is a kind of “last frontier” for those wild Viking æfintýri genes, right?
Meanwhile we can sit in our homes and stay cosy with the noisy weather and not even worry too much about things like loosing electricity (because our lines are all underground). If anything, our tv reception might get uneven because of our own antenna. And besides, ER has gotten way too soapy with only bad things happening and now more screwups in terms of doctor stuff(Mundi catches more and more mistakes). Must be new writers that get paid less. So a puzzle is on the dining room table, Wasgij 9, and we wish we had the “puzzle crew”(F+Ú+M...but-K) to help. (“but Freyr would finish it all in one night...!”). This particular blog turned into something totally different than intended......that idea will have come later.
Stay tuned for the next episode of “Serious Serendipity”...!
Meanwhile we can sit in our homes and stay cosy with the noisy weather and not even worry too much about things like loosing electricity (because our lines are all underground). If anything, our tv reception might get uneven because of our own antenna. And besides, ER has gotten way too soapy with only bad things happening and now more screwups in terms of doctor stuff(Mundi catches more and more mistakes). Must be new writers that get paid less. So a puzzle is on the dining room table, Wasgij 9, and we wish we had the “puzzle crew”(F+Ú+M...but-K) to help. (“but Freyr would finish it all in one night...!”). This particular blog turned into something totally different than intended......that idea will have come later.
Stay tuned for the next episode of “Serious Serendipity”...!
fimmtudagur, mars 04, 2004
Inspired by mamma´s recent blog and by our ever constant discussions about languages, I'm going to try to tell you guys my story. I moved to Spain February 2002, without knowing harldy anything. I knew what a few of the letters had to sound like and a few words, but forming a whole sentence! No way. It seemed that everybody spoke really fast and I couldn´t catch a single word, and they also talked really loud and I didn´t know why (now I know, if you don´t almost shout, nobody pays attention to you- the Spanish are known for shouting their whole lives). Manu and I spoke English at home, and everywhere we went he had to translate for me, which became very tiring for him, since his English wasn´t perfect either, although he speaks very well.
So the situation was this: I had to learn Spanish, or else, how was I supposed to function? Nobody speaks English here, so there was no choice. And it was difficult, but the good almost private classes that I had during the summer, and the fact that I started to read and read the language from the start helped a lot. The reading helped immensley for example in learning where toput the accents, and memorize the words that had accents. I´ve never been able to learn the rules for the accents, but I seem to know the accented words unconsciously, probably from reading them over and over again.
And my accent (speaking-wise) has always been good, some people don´t even realize that I´m not Spanish. I think this is due to the Icelandic, that has many similar sounds (as well as thousands of others, that since trying to teach Manu Icelandic, I have realized that they are very strange and difficult) and to the fact that I was already used to two different sounding languages,and another different one wasn´t too difficult.
I think one of the reasons that it was easy (relatively) for me to learn a new language is that I wasn´t asking myself all the time why it was like this or like that, I just learned the new rules and used them. And now I feel them to be in a different place in my brain than English and Icelandic, that they actually function separated from the other previous rules that were there. And that´s why when I speak Spanish I don´t confuse the three, I translate my thoughts into Spanish and I speak in Spanish, therefore using the spanish rules,and system. BUT, always the big but. Now, when I speak in Icelandic my brain is too close to Spanish (since I use it all the time, I guess) and all of a sudden, without my noticing it, out pops a Spanish word! It takes me a few seconds to register it, and it´s like I´m lost between the two languages. I think that this is due to the similarity in the languages´sounds, that that part of the two languages got mixed up in one part of my brain. Concerning English, it´s different, it´s seems to be easier for me to speak it without mixing it with Spanish, but my English accent is much more affected than my Icelandic one (although that one too). I think all these things are fascinating (although I´d like to be able to control them better) but they´re difficult to deal with. We don´t speak English at home anymore, since I learned Spanish it was the natural thing, but we´re going to make an effort, for me not to lose it, and for Manu to keep it up. I´ll have to teach Icelandic to my kids to be able to talk to somebody (or maybe to Kisa?) in that language!
Anyway, there´s lots of things that I´ve forgotten that I wante to say, but one of the most important changes, since learning a new language, is that I "feel" my brain working, I can almost hear it churning away and I´m aware of the power that it´s using. I don´t know if this makes sense but I think it´s interesting, becuase I can almost feel the which part of my brain is working the most for each language. Of course it´s more of a vague feeling, but this is definitely the most work my brain has ever had to do (since I was a baby?) and it´s a really good feeling, although many times it exhausts me. But the best thing, is that a whole new world has opened up for me with Spanish, to the Romance languages, Italian, French, Latin, I almost understand them (mostly in writing though), and all this literature to be able to read in it´s original language!! Yeah, more books to read!
And yes, mamma, I´d participate in your bookbloggiethingie, although maybe I haven´t read all the books that you have! :)
So the situation was this: I had to learn Spanish, or else, how was I supposed to function? Nobody speaks English here, so there was no choice. And it was difficult, but the good almost private classes that I had during the summer, and the fact that I started to read and read the language from the start helped a lot. The reading helped immensley for example in learning where toput the accents, and memorize the words that had accents. I´ve never been able to learn the rules for the accents, but I seem to know the accented words unconsciously, probably from reading them over and over again.
And my accent (speaking-wise) has always been good, some people don´t even realize that I´m not Spanish. I think this is due to the Icelandic, that has many similar sounds (as well as thousands of others, that since trying to teach Manu Icelandic, I have realized that they are very strange and difficult) and to the fact that I was already used to two different sounding languages,and another different one wasn´t too difficult.
I think one of the reasons that it was easy (relatively) for me to learn a new language is that I wasn´t asking myself all the time why it was like this or like that, I just learned the new rules and used them. And now I feel them to be in a different place in my brain than English and Icelandic, that they actually function separated from the other previous rules that were there. And that´s why when I speak Spanish I don´t confuse the three, I translate my thoughts into Spanish and I speak in Spanish, therefore using the spanish rules,and system. BUT, always the big but. Now, when I speak in Icelandic my brain is too close to Spanish (since I use it all the time, I guess) and all of a sudden, without my noticing it, out pops a Spanish word! It takes me a few seconds to register it, and it´s like I´m lost between the two languages. I think that this is due to the similarity in the languages´sounds, that that part of the two languages got mixed up in one part of my brain. Concerning English, it´s different, it´s seems to be easier for me to speak it without mixing it with Spanish, but my English accent is much more affected than my Icelandic one (although that one too). I think all these things are fascinating (although I´d like to be able to control them better) but they´re difficult to deal with. We don´t speak English at home anymore, since I learned Spanish it was the natural thing, but we´re going to make an effort, for me not to lose it, and for Manu to keep it up. I´ll have to teach Icelandic to my kids to be able to talk to somebody (or maybe to Kisa?) in that language!
Anyway, there´s lots of things that I´ve forgotten that I wante to say, but one of the most important changes, since learning a new language, is that I "feel" my brain working, I can almost hear it churning away and I´m aware of the power that it´s using. I don´t know if this makes sense but I think it´s interesting, becuase I can almost feel the which part of my brain is working the most for each language. Of course it´s more of a vague feeling, but this is definitely the most work my brain has ever had to do (since I was a baby?) and it´s a really good feeling, although many times it exhausts me. But the best thing, is that a whole new world has opened up for me with Spanish, to the Romance languages, Italian, French, Latin, I almost understand them (mostly in writing though), and all this literature to be able to read in it´s original language!! Yeah, more books to read!
And yes, mamma, I´d participate in your bookbloggiethingie, although maybe I haven´t read all the books that you have! :)
miðvikudagur, mars 03, 2004
Here I am now with a very funny, just-received email from Úlla which I've entitled as:
"The Trials and Tribulations of Cats in Love...(and their owners,too)"
So, I´m finally home after a too long day of running around around and around,... First Iwas at school until 2.30, at home at 3.30 and I notice that Kisa is limping, her left front paw is swollen and she hisses at me if I touch it. So, I eat and then I have to go to work, the half hour that I have Wednesdays, and am not home again until around 6, too much traffic. So I take Kisa to the vet by myself because Manu is working and the box is really heavy. At the vet they decide to take an Xray of her, which means that I have to go to another clinic which is at the top of the hill! So I go there, take her back, her paw is not broken but two bones are too close together, that seem to have moved when she knocked them into something, and that´s why it was swollen. So finally I get her back home, with my arms and legs exhausted! I have too much to study and too many things to do around the house, but I´m too exhausteed to do anything!
Anyway, the book came yesterday, it looks great, thanks a lot! And the letter with the form came today, Manu still has to pick up one of those papers that he needs, but I´m going to try to get that all done and send it all to you together with your QueLeer that´s here waiting for you.
Leo went home yesterday, which was really sad, he was such a nice cat. The last two days Kisa had lost interest in him as a mate , but they played a lot.He ran after her trying to catch her, the funniest part was when they started to chase each other around the couch, with Leo sneaking up behind Kisa with these huge eyes full og excitement because she didn´t know that he was coming! So, let´s see if anything came out of their meeting, we´ll know in about a month or so.
Jæja, ekkert meira í bili,bæbæ úlla
"The Trials and Tribulations of Cats in Love...(and their owners,too)"
So, I´m finally home after a too long day of running around around and around,... First Iwas at school until 2.30, at home at 3.30 and I notice that Kisa is limping, her left front paw is swollen and she hisses at me if I touch it. So, I eat and then I have to go to work, the half hour that I have Wednesdays, and am not home again until around 6, too much traffic. So I take Kisa to the vet by myself because Manu is working and the box is really heavy. At the vet they decide to take an Xray of her, which means that I have to go to another clinic which is at the top of the hill! So I go there, take her back, her paw is not broken but two bones are too close together, that seem to have moved when she knocked them into something, and that´s why it was swollen. So finally I get her back home, with my arms and legs exhausted! I have too much to study and too many things to do around the house, but I´m too exhausteed to do anything!
Anyway, the book came yesterday, it looks great, thanks a lot! And the letter with the form came today, Manu still has to pick up one of those papers that he needs, but I´m going to try to get that all done and send it all to you together with your QueLeer that´s here waiting for you.
Leo went home yesterday, which was really sad, he was such a nice cat. The last two days Kisa had lost interest in him as a mate , but they played a lot.He ran after her trying to catch her, the funniest part was when they started to chase each other around the couch, with Leo sneaking up behind Kisa with these huge eyes full og excitement because she didn´t know that he was coming! So, let´s see if anything came out of their meeting, we´ll know in about a month or so.
Jæja, ekkert meira í bili,bæbæ úlla
These last few days Freysi and I have been talking a lot together, both MSN and phone, about life and movies and books and what we’re going to be when we grow up ;)......and we also talk a bit about the differences between Iceland and the states which almost always gets one pondering on cultural differences and language. And so, even though Iceland is really “infilitrated” with American culture, especially via tv and movies, Icelanders and Americans (of a similar financial background, read here middle-class) are different animals. Or as I keep reading/hearing somewhere, it’s like trying to compare apples and oranges. Thus Freyr, raised by his “American” mom, is going through real culture shock. Before Xmas it was really apparent as he had to learn all the ways of dealing with a totally new world and roommates and silly bureaucracy(sp), all of which became very interesting fodder for his blog site. He got through it and after a nice long rest over the New Year at Hótel Ma&Pa, he returned and very cleverly got himself all set up in ways I never really imagined. (I especially like the idea of shopping groceries online). “Culture shock”,however, is still going on, it being something that can actually take years of resolving. But now it’s not so blatant. In fact it’s almost insidious. And for a sensitive guy like Fresyi (yes, this is his mother speaking and you can interprete that anyway you want ;)) , this is maybe harder to deal with because it’s so amorphous. Example: he told me about how sometimes when he’s talking with his new “bosses” about the stuff they asked him to read and absorb (boy, I wish someone would pay ME to read!!), he realizes he lacks the right word now and then because he can only speak English with them. An Icelandic word pops up in his head (and don’t forget that he has spent the last three years doing computer stuff in Icelandic), and it’s not just the technical stuff, but also the conversation fillers that one uses (sem sagt, þú veist, eða þannig) without even thinking. This is all part of his upbringing where code-switching is part of our family daily existence. A sentence starts in English, gets phrase or word in Icelandic and ends in either one, and none of us even notice anymore. We’re just communicating. People outside of the family who have heard us carry on such an interchange, have almost gawked at us, they find it so strange (these are monolingual folk). And it’s probably this that monolingual people think is an example of how “bad” it is to allow a second language to interfere with the “mother tongue”. Well, they just don’t know any better.(the unknow is always feared.) So, for Freyr, who does speak with a regular American educated accent (though not with the inntonations nor slang of his peer group out there), he may come across as not always able to express himself without anyone realizing that he is actually a foreigner. Once upon a time your name defined you as foreign (this is a topic for a whole other blog, to which all my sisters can easily add !). Now, everyone has unusual names in the states. The whole point of this is that Freyr himself felt that this was almost his fault(?). I encouraged him to explain himself to these guys, who afterall should be interested in such a phenomenom since they’re all into some aspect of language or neuroscience. And Freyr has also run up against another “language” barrier, and that is social cues, which seem to be very different from what he’s used to in Iceland with people in similar positions. Yes, Mundi experienced this too when he was a resident at Georgetown. Icelanders in general do not “understand” hierarchy, that is that one is lesser than the guy above him. Hey, we’re all equal here!! (actually, this isn’t really true, but that again is another blog topic). Maybe it’s because you always address a person by their first name, no matter what age. Children call all adults by their first names, o.sv.f. So, my big son is still going through culture shock, discovering that American/whatever grad. people aren’t easy to get to know. And though he’s not at all interested in trying to compete on any scale in that graduate program, it is hard sometimes to figure out what people really mean or think......Hey! I think he’s doing a good job with what they’re asking him to do, and I want to read everything he’s reading!! (oh well, his brain has far surpassed mine when it comes to complex computer issues, but I can still throw him titles and books that might pertain to these narrative/brain/language things...).
This is way too long, but then it’s been a while since I blogged (blug?) last. And if I DO do a book blog, would anyone like to join in?
This is way too long, but then it’s been a while since I blogged (blug?) last. And if I DO do a book blog, would anyone like to join in?
