Day 8- The horses

So Jay lost his iPhone yesterday and went a whole day without it.  He was pretty happy when he got it back.  He has tons of sweet applications on it, he even has a shaver... the screen looks like an electric razor and when you flip it on it vibrates and sounds just like an electric razor.  Pretty impressive if you ask me.

So after a long bus ride we went to an old house out in the boonies to eat dinner and ride horses.  Since I was the only real farmer there everyone had me carve the roast beast.  It was actually grilled lamb.  Very good food.  When we went to the old house they had a few cool things, but I just thought it was cool that they had a huge stone mallet. 
Everyone was really excited to ride the horses, and I was a little excited at first when I saw their horses, but they then brought some small horses for us to ride.  It was definitely a different experience riding english for the first time.  Instead of having the reins in just one hand, you hold on with both and since the saddles were so small I had to reach down to put my foot in place... Luckily the horses were pretty tame so they didn't buck or try to throw me off.  They didn't even really gallop either, but the experience of riding a horse in Iceland with everyone was fun in itself.  It was interesting to see firsthand on how different riding horses is in Iceland.

Day 7- Genetics!

So we finally found out all about ourselves... our heritage, that is.  We actually got some folders of our family tree in Iceland, starting with the first that left for North America.  Pretty sure since I'm a decendent of the very first icelanders to move to America, it only shows 5 generations and everyone else's grandma is icelandic, my tree was considerably smaller.  I actually got to see how closely I was related to not only famous people in Iceland, but also the other Snorris.  Come to find out I'm only 7 generations away from the President and everyone else is a long shot.  In the museum they had a big DNA strand.  Here's a picture of brad with it.  

So since it was a friday night, there was nothing else to do but party!  Pretty sure parties don't start till midnight and they end around 8 in the morning.  Freaking crazy culture, that's all I've got to say.  We got into a club for free and they even gave us all 2 free beers.  Pretty sure since Pall, Cheryl, and I don't drink beer, we just gave it all to Jay (on the right) and he drank 9 beers in just that club.  That man is proud to be a canadian.  I think my favorite thing about him is that whenever there is a problem he always tries to fix it with zambuka.  If the drink isn't that good, zambuka.  If your day is going wrong, zambuka. If you feel slightly queezy, zambuka.  If you have a sore throat, zambuka.  I only wish it was that easy to solve all of lifes problems with just zambuka.
Here's a personal fav- downtown pizza in the middle of the night. I just wanted to show you how reykjavik looks outside in the wee hours of the night.

Day 6- The Parlament

So today we got to go to the parliament and talk to a representative. We were with a group of minnesotans and so it was really fun to be in a big group.  We talked all about whaling, the EU, immigrants, and what not. It was actually really fun to hear everyone's opinions on everything. Here is a picture of one of the Snorris, Marc. He is from Calgary and way funny.  He's got a powerbook, what else is there to know?  He works for a TV channel in Toronto and he totally loves it.

So after we went to the parliament, we also got to go to a mountain just next to reykjavik.  One thing that is great about iceland is that the water is so pure you can even drink it from a stream!  Can't get more fresh than that!  It was way refreshing as we found it half way up the climb.  Towards the top it was way steep and you practically had to climb rocks to get to the top. That part got hard, and it was a little scary, but after getting to the top and sitting down only to find out I've got 4 blisters on my feet, it made my sandwich that much better.  It was just a bunch of rocks at the top and I guess for manly purposes we all tried to pick up this one big rock.  Since I didn't want to look like a sissy, I lifted it, but oh man, it was heavy. I guess at the top there was also a huge pile of rocks that some people made and for some reason I just thought of Star Wars so we decided to do a reenactment of the star wars cover.  Awesomest picture ever! 

Day 5- The President

Great, another day of school. Not that bad actually. We usually have a few hours of Icelandic and then we get some cultural classes with a group of Minnesotans that hate me. Life couldn't be better, let me tell ya. I just remember that in the cultural class Heather and I were so bored!

So later that day we actually got to see the president of Iceland. Really nice guy. While we waited for him we looked around all his house at many of his gifts from others and to my surprise there was a statue given by the Utah Icelandic Association. When we finally met him we were in a semi circle and he wanted us to say who we were, what we thought of Iceland, and what our goals were. For most everyone, he just nodded his head and the next person spoke. When he got to me I told him that I was a farmer from Spanish Fork Utah, how my goals were not only to learn Icelandic, but to also become Icelandic by relearning my families culture. I told him I was a missionary in Sweden and to my surprise, the icelanders were generally more polite and open to visitors. After I told him that he then stopped me and began talking about how the first ever Icelanders to settle in North America were the Saints of the LDS church. He told everyhone how it took them over 300 days to make it all the way to Utah and that they played an improtant role in Icelandic immigration because they brought their culture with them. He said he was pleased that I could come there as a representative of the first Icelanders that immigrated to North America. He then talked about how he loved Spanish Fork and how honored he was to meet President Hinkley. He was the first ever foreign president to ever come to Utah and unfortunately I never got to meet him because I was in Helsingborg, Sweden at the time. You can see him there right next to me in the picture. Good thing I wore a suit. After that I was able to go see my reletives. They took me to the nicest resaurant in Iceland, Perlan. It spins around a whole 360 degrees in about two hours time.  At first they only spoke english to me but I kept speaking back in icelandic.  Luckily my uncle works at Landsbanki and is very profficient in English so whenever I didn't know how to say something he could help me out.  As a gift they gave me an English to Icelandic dictionary but it was the best one you can buy here so I was way excited about it. I'm sure I'll use it while I'm in the islands with nothing to do.  The food was so good too!  I was way surprised at how elegant everything was. I wish I got pictures of everything because I had four courses.

Day 4- Independence day

Here it is, the ticket of a lifetime!  They don't want the tickets too big because normal bus fares are just so big that you don't know what to do with them.  I think I had to consciously think about holding it in my pocket for about 20 minutes. I think the best part was how we had to run to the other side of the street only to wait for half an hour in the wind.   Our lunch also consisted of icelandic hotdogs... not gonna lie, they were pretty swedish but they had different sauces on them.
  Here is just a picture of some of the Snorris walking around. (Jay, Michael, and Ásta Sól and her husband)

Ásta Sól- our Icelandic mom.  Chillest woman ever. She's doing the pose on her skirt.  I should have taken pictures of her outfits.  She definitely gives me a run for my money when it comes to fashion.

Heather is from Calgary. She's a fellow snorri and definitely one of the coolest.  We were talking to each other while we walked around that day and I just took a quick picture of her.

So that day we went to a huge party just south of Reykjavik.  There was a lot of music and tons of classic/muscle cars.  I think the best part about iceland is definitely the water.  Fresh bottled water and tap water are the same so it doesn't matter where you get it.  We all got pretty thirsty while we were there but since I'm uber cheap I refused to spend 4 bucks on water and I found a bathroom and drank from the sink.  The best part was that it tasted great.  After that we went to the house of the Snorri founder to have dinner and chat.  The best and most memorable part of the whole experience was when he was giving his speech.  He started by saying how happy he was that we were here representing the Snorri program and that the program was having it's 10th anniversary.  He expounded on how we are a remnant of the Icelanders and their culture.  He then went on to say how pleased he was that I (he even called me Thor) was here, that he was so excited to finally have a descendant from the first immigrants from Iceland there in the program and said that my family held significance in the icelandic immigration to America.  He said he was grateful that I was able to make it to Iceland and hopes that I remember this experience. He said that they have never had one negative experience from the Snorri program and they don't plan on it happening.  The whole day was worth hearing that speech he gave about the Spanish Fork Icelanders.  It made me feel very distinct and noteworthy because I was the only Snorri he mentioned by name.  He has always been nice to me, always calls me Thor, which I love, and is just an all around nice guy.  I don't have any pictures of us together yet on my camera but I'll make sure to post them later.

Day 3- The Bank

So Finally after 2 days of cloudy weather, we finally got to see the sun! Yay! I love the sun!  We went to our first Icelandic class today and the teacher found out pretty quick that I studied Icelandic previously.  I was definitely more confident about my phrases and when she was teaching us later on the pronunciation of the letter ö, she wrote down a few words, one of which was öl.  She then asked me what it meant and I promptly said beer. She said "I figured you'd know what that word meant" and I then asked her why.  She then got startled and thought that she had offended me and then said "well, you seem to know so many scandinavian words"... It was a nice cover I guess but I thought it was funny 

So after that Ásta Sól took us to Landsbanki to get our bank accounts.  On the way we went to a flower shop and Pall didn't think I could go 5 minutes without talking so I just listened to music on my ipod and sat there.  When that got bored I took a few photos.  I think the best part of it was when I was at Landsbanki and some executives were showing statistics of the success of Landsbanki so while everyone was quiet I asked the executive that if he thought that the success was because of the senior management or because Iceland's GDP was one of the top 5 per capita in the whole world.  I then asked him if they had CEO's CFO's CIO's and COO'S.  I kinda caught him off guard there for a bit but he answered well. When we were having our complementary pancakes one of the executives came up to me and gave me a book about the past fiscal year.  He talked to me a lot about the growing business and also about how I could possibly get a job working there if I was good enough at Icelandic ant that there was an internship that they could travel all around Europe. I am very interested.
If you were standing in the city wearing Reebok's, you'd look like this

Day 2- The trip

There’s something about getting up 15 minutes before you leave for a field trip that just make the whole day special.  Our whole room slept in and we threw our clothes on as we tried to grab a bite to eat to make it to the bus by 8:30, that is, until we found out that we were an hour early.  We then took a little more time finishing up breakfast, the girls put makeup on, and we actually packed a few things for our trip. 

Initially I was a little disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to make it to church but we actually went with Nordjobb, which is a Nordic association that lets any Young Scandinavian adult move to another Nordic country for work.  It consisted of 4 Danes, 3 Norwegians, 13 Finns, 15 Swedes, and 1 Greenlandic girl.  I almost crapped my pants meeting the Greenlandic girl because not only did I tell her how our family fought over Greenland when we played Risk, but just the week before Unnur asked me if I could go anywhere in the world where would I go and I said Greenland.  When I was on the bus I talked to a ton of them but I sat by a Swedish speaking Finn, Silja (right), and the Greenlandic girl (left).

We went to a huge waterfall at first and I made friends with so many people, mainly the Swedes and Finns, that is, until I met the Danes.  Funny guys let me tell ya.  We were lucky enough to stop at the local gas station to stock up on supplies in which I bought skyr, a liter of milk, and a salmon and egg salad sandwich.  During the trip I brought my milk with me and did quite a few promos, I know, I could really be a photographer; maybe I should study marketing instead.  I also went to the bathroom and couldn't stop laughing when I saw the sign.

As always, all the Swedes wondered why I spoke Swedish.  They were all surprised as I explained that I served as a missionary to serve the people in Sweden.  A lot of people asked me why I went or asked basic questions about the church in which I was much obliged to elaborate.  Here are some pictures of my friends, Olivia (Sweden), Markus, (Finland), and my Norwegian Friends.

Afterward, I went to go see Unni and her friends with Michael, a fellow Snorri that just got back from San Jose on his mission.  Unnur’s best friend corrected my Icelandic, which I loved, and her boyfriend was from Göteborg, Sweden and we had lots of fun talking about life back home.  Unnur helped me as I read Donald Duck to her and she commented on my Swedish accent, I then busted out the most atrocious American accent that almost made my own ears bleed. She laughed but promptly told me to use my normal accent.  Towards the end though we decided to have a staring contest in her car but she couldn’t go 2 seconds without laughing, maybe it was my shutter shades.  She then paid the price by listening to AM radio static and having the AC blasted on her for 2 minutes for doing something that escapes my mind at the moment, but she so deserved it.  It was I called taking matters into my own hands and letting the repentance process take its role as she learned the true meaning of restitution.

Day 1- liftoff

So I’m finally in Iceland.  The trip was rougher than I thought.  I went to Salt Lake at about 6:00 and customs only took 15 minutes so I had about two hours to wait around.  I spent it sleeping because I still hadn’t gone to bed yet.  After the trip I then had a delay at Denver and by the time I was on the plane from Minnesota, I finally met another Snorri, Katie.  When we first got in we sat on the emergency exits and had lots of legroom up until the stewardess asked us to switch places with some huge couple that needed the legroom more than us. We were packed like sardines in the back of the coach but since I slept through a lot of it, It wasn’t all that bad of a flight.

By the time we got there we had to wait for everyone else to arrive so we tarried in the local coffee shop for an hour or so. Nothing to exciting happened though.  I remember sitting on the bed and waking up 3 hours later for orientation which was followed by dinner. 

All and all, it wasn’t all that eventful, mainly because we were tired from traveling and were a little disoriented.  The real fun came when we walked into the centrum at 11AM. I think we could have counted all the people we saw on our hands… The most eventful thing was either the barf I found on the walkway or the Donald duck comic book I bought at the store… processing… Donald duck was more eventful, mainly because when the manager asked us while checking my comic book if I spoke Icelandic I said “a little.  I speak Swedish.” and she then spoke Swedish to me.  Really nice girl, thought it was weird that I was 23 and buying a Donald duck comic book, but she wasn’t there to judge.  For your convenience I'm just gonna show the donald duck comic book instead.  

Preperations

T minus 38 hours until liftoff.  I can't believe I'm finally returning to the homeland.  I wouldn't say I'm nervous, rather unprepared. I was hoping to be better at Icelandic by the time I got there; I studied just about every day and thought it was pretty easy up until I started video chatting with my friend Unnur, then I realized how bad I suck.  In my defense I don't sound american at all. I think it's pretty safe to say that people will think I'm Swedish.  I usually spend most of my time doing role plays with her pretending that we're on the bus or doing formal introductions with a lot of my tangent stories about something humorous.  It's kinda like a bad role play from a district meeting from my mission where we don't even talk about the church.  She does a good job playing a typical icelander. For example, before we started our role play I decided to make it interesting by saying that she was the only person on the bus.  I began by asking her if I could sit next to her. She replied by asking why. Not gonna lie, it took me by surprise... so after some lame excuse as for why I wanted to sit by her she finally said yes.  Icelandic bombardment makes any role play interesting.  

I think on of the great sacrifices that I'm going to make is what to wear and which shoes I should bring.  I can take up to two suitcases but they advise one... Two it is.  How can they expect me to bring clothes for six weeks with a sleeping bag and only bring one bag?  I may not be metro, but I'm too high maintenance for two pairs of shoes for six weeks.  I have five pairs of shoes confirmed, one pair of which is my pair of Chad Muska 14k Supras. Keep in mind only 1,00 pair were made.  (Thank you Dave.  That was the present of a lifetime)

It'll be hard to leave the family, the girlfriend, the farm, the Deeres, etc etc etc but I'm sure I'll be so busy that I won't even have time to think about them very much.  For me this is kinda like having an extra transfer from my mission, except I can wear what I want, do what I want, but still have the responsibility of being an example to everyone.  Not only will I be representing my religion, I will also represent my family name, country, State, and community.