Day 29- Asphalt Mill

So today instead of weed wacking, some of us went to the asphalt factory. Here are Guðjón, Ole, and Nori standing by the van.

The Westman islands have two exports; fish and asphalt.
So you get way dirty and here is Rupp getting his butt kicked at a game of Scum.  Pretty sure I was pres every hand, mainly because I had all the 2s
Here is the future of Icelandic music.  He was voted top teen drummer of Iceland.
Late nights with my boss Jón are always fun... mainly because he's so drunk I have to show him the pics the next day for him to remember what he did.
Here´s a video of the asphalt mill.

Day 28- Football and Boating

So work gets boring... Luckily we played a few football games together.  We play a game where we try to kick the ball as many times as we can before it touches the ground.  about half of them suck (including me) but I learned a good phrase for one of them "ekki nekla!"  which means don't kick it so hard!

Pretty sure if there is a boat named after you, it means you're cool.  
So Jóhanna and her family decided to take me on a boat to see the island.  Here are a few pics.

So when we were boating around some of the islands, there were cliffs with lots of seagulls, here is a pic of a fallen chick, so we tried to put it back.

Day 27- Cruising with Jóhanna

So after another day of work I had literally nothing to do. Luckily my friend and distant relative, Jóhanna, gave me a call to go drive around the island with her.  Here is a pic of where the whale from free willy lived.

Inukshuks? For a second I thought I was up in Nunavut, Canada.  but no, I guess the inuits must have made it to the Westman Islands too... or people got so bored here they all made a rock idol shaped like a man.  All Hail Þór!
Yeah, so since ships come in all time they have to have a nice watchtower to warn the ships.  I really liked it a lot up until Jóhanna made me run around it fast and I hit myself with a bar on the side.  At any given rate, I guess it wasn´t too bad because I still had time to put out the vibe.

Vestmannaeyja is beautiful. Period

In the Westman Islands, we have a saying, shipwrecks happen.

Day 24-26: I love my work

So here I am at work cutting grass. You my think that it's a totally lame job but the boys make it a lot more fun.  If you look from right to left you see Viðri, Norri, Oli, Guðjón, and rapp. You can barely see Guðjón behind Oli.  He's the biggest man on the whole island.  Norri and Guðjón play for the soccer team on the island, and are actually ranked really high, Viðri was voted best teen drummer in the nation, Oli is just huge, and rapp is rapp.  All and all, great bunch of guys.

Oh Guðjón.  He always has his fun writing words in the grass and then mowing them away when the day is over.
So when it get's hot, so does Guðjón.  Here he is putting out the vibe to some girls in the car.  He sure knows how to sweet talk.

Day 23- The Fishing Trip

So since Hauker has a few boats and he knew I loved to eat fish, he decided to take me fishing to catch some fresh fish. I figured we would just be trolling but he actually has these electronic fishing devices that can tell how far to go down and then reel in the catch when it comes. Pretty fancy if you ask me.  We caught 4 fish after driving the boat around for a while. We ended catching 4 fish and they were so good.  He even let me drive the boat around.

Day 

Day 22-The Statue and Party

So I went to a football game but since I was about 2 hours early I decided to take a walk, and look what I found! It´s the Mormon statue built by the Icelandic Association of Utah. On it it has the names of all the Icelandic pioneers from the Westman islands that went to Utah. It also gives a brief description of their sacrifice and how they are the first ever icelanders to immigrate to north america. Made me feel special as I read Kristín Einarsdottir and I had a lot of fun just sitting by the shore and meditating. I took a picture of the shoreline where she was baptized.

So after that, it was party time. Here´s a picture of Jón, my boss. It was acutally his birthday but he was so hammered... it was quite funny. He is a way close talker when he´s drunk. Reminds me of the episode of seinfeld.

here it is, immorality at it´s finest. So for the whole night I probably spoke Icelandic 85% of the time. It was way fun and I´m getting a lot better. Pretty much everyone knows me as the Mormon American that speaks lots of languages and has gold shoes. I guess bad news spreads quickly. Most people don't believe me when I tell them I've only been here 3 weeks because of my skills. Makes me feel special even though I'm not. It's great being around people and actually picking up normal words. definitely different than being a missionary and having limited media resources and limited topics of conversation.

day 20 & 21- Nature hike

So I went to the gym and unfortunately I was too late so since there was a mountain nearby I figured I'd climb for a while just for exercize. here are a few pictures of my hike. I saw a few puffins but they were too far for me to get a good picture. hopefully I'll get to eat one soon though.

day 18 & 19- Even more sheep!

So I guess Hauker has even more sheep! we went to feed a few more. Check it out, there's always a black sheep in every group.

Note to self: Sheep boogers are not as palatable as presumed.
So Hauker is a pretty old guy and I remember seeing his soccerball in his car. I asked him if he played soccer and he said "Oh yeah" so he took me to go play soccer... with his sheep. I was actually really surprised by the sheeps passing skills.

Day 15-17 The sheep

So after living with Oscar and Una for a few days, I moved in with my real host family; Hauker and Lilly. They're both older, have no children, and are way nice. Hauker has a business with trucks, fishing, and sheep so one day he took me to see some of his sheep out in the countryside. MMM, sheep love bread.What are you looking at?

South pacific exert "here am I, your special island. Come to me, come to me!"

Day 15- Westman islands

So for the weekend I stayed with Unni and her family. Great people. We went to church and right after Unni took me to the airport. I was way worried about it because I was 3 kilos overweight in my luggage and only allowed 6 kilos for my carry on... even though I had about 25 kilos on me. When the lady looked at me I played dumb and smiled at her a lot and she just smiled back and let me through. I didn't really think anything of it until Unni pointed out how she was looking at me and then related me to the first chapter of the twilight book from Edward's point of view when the lady thinks to herself "he's too young, he's too young" but because of his looks he got what he wanted. I guess the stewardesses were checking me out too, at least that's what Unni said. Made me feel good about myself.

So the plane ride was about 20 minutes and really quick. When I got there I met my family that I'd be staying with for just a few days. Their names were Oscar and Una; the only Mormon family on the whole island. I just unpacked, had dinner, and then went exploring and took a few pictures.

Day 13 & 14- The last weekend

Last weekend in reykjavik. *sniff sniff. It was fun here. Met lots of people, made lots of friends, and picked up a little icelandic. Another thing I did was walk to the beach to ponder and meditate. I've been doing that a lot. So on my last weekend I found this viking ship artwork and just couldn't help but take a picture of me on it.

This is a crime, a disgustingly cruel crime.
So I was one of the lucky ones that got to stay for the Björk and Sigur Rós concert. Here's a close up of the lead singer of Sigur Rós.
OH CANADA, OUR HOME AND NATIVE LAND! Just made me think of everyone in the program, (excluding Pall and Katie)
Close up of Björk and a tone downed Elton John wannabe.

Day 12- Ásta Sól's Birthday

We've been having great weather all week. Feels good to bask in the sun during our coffee breaks.

So for Ásta Sól's birthday we got a card and a purple scarf for her. Purple is her favorite color.  We had a huge barbeque in which Jay did the barbecuing.  Real great food.  Afterward we all gathered around the tv and played that singing game on the PS2.  Pall and I got the high scores while singing Nirvana.  Not gonna lie, we cleaned house the whole time.
Here's Cheryl trying to hold me up. I figured since she was a cheerleader and used to throwing people in the air that she'd be able to pick me up... I was quite disappointed.
Jay, on the other hand, had an easy time picking me up. Now that's a true Canadian.