yes
today was one of the best days i've had here in iceland so far. (the two-day trip to the south/east of iceland is of course unbeatable enjoyment-wise).
wanted to get up at 10pm, rolled out of bed at noon instead... ahem. then met jørgen and rabea in the library around 1pm. was pretty crowded, couldn't find a seat so we met down in the café and decided after a good hour of talk that we might as well just go to tíu dropar. so while jørgen scanned his books, rabea and i waited on the 2nd floor where they also have a nice chess board. neither of us are any good with chess, but it was hilarious anyways (i lost btw even without jørgen helping rabea out when he came back and found our kings running in circles around each other).
after that we headed for laugavegur and walked over the frozen pond, tjörnin. i've never walked over a frozen pond before, and since i am safety-conscious i was chicken-scared ("what if the ice breaks?? oooh don't jump on it, aaah!" but there was no need for that, the layer of ice was probably about 15-20cm thick.). there were frozen bubbles of air in the ice, at one point even a plastic bag, caught floating. quite beautiful.
after that we made a short stop at the post office and rabea and i got lovely christmas cards with the icelandic jólasveinar (13 in total), each one of them has a different poem printed on the left inside. we stole the idea from jørgen, who wanted to go the tíu dropar café initially to write his christmas cards. we talked and played card games instead, and before that, he showed us his only magic trick ("and this!... is not your card."). i was quite impressed!
i ate a spicy french stew with pork, i believe, not quite sure. but it was wholesome all the same and the lights in the café were low and warm. there was a small christmas tree in one corner and the windows were decorated with christmas lights, just like the city (miðbær). it makes me long for home in a strange, fuzzy way. jørgen then told us of the schubert concert at the langholtskirkja and asked whether we wanted to tag along. i was not quite sure if i wanted to do that but the prospect of returning to my cold, bare room where i would mope around all alone did not seem very appealing so after many indecisive comments, rabea decided to treat me to the concert. we met yoav on the way in 1011 where i bought two small bars of chocolate for rabea and jørgen as a thank-you and then we all took the bus to the church (jørgen paid for the bus but he still owed me money for coffee anyways).
the concert was quite lovely (although the organ-part wasn't very inspiring, i kinda fell asleep there for a while). jerel from our programme sang in the choir and after it was over, we met him backstage. funnily enough, i ran into sólrún there (she's a professionally trained violin player and led the orchestra) there, a friend of my flatmate who had invited me over for boardgames. i had been not sure if it was here playing there because i could not really see everyone's faces in detail, but i had had an incling. die welt ist ein dorf!
and theeen we went home and here i am, eating inner, thinking about taking a shower and being so so grateful for these wonderful people and this fine, inspiring day, even though i did not do anything for university today (yet).
aah, i am happy :>
tjörnin btw!
wanted to get up at 10pm, rolled out of bed at noon instead... ahem. then met jørgen and rabea in the library around 1pm. was pretty crowded, couldn't find a seat so we met down in the café and decided after a good hour of talk that we might as well just go to tíu dropar. so while jørgen scanned his books, rabea and i waited on the 2nd floor where they also have a nice chess board. neither of us are any good with chess, but it was hilarious anyways (i lost btw even without jørgen helping rabea out when he came back and found our kings running in circles around each other).
after that we headed for laugavegur and walked over the frozen pond, tjörnin. i've never walked over a frozen pond before, and since i am safety-conscious i was chicken-scared ("what if the ice breaks?? oooh don't jump on it, aaah!" but there was no need for that, the layer of ice was probably about 15-20cm thick.). there were frozen bubbles of air in the ice, at one point even a plastic bag, caught floating. quite beautiful.
after that we made a short stop at the post office and rabea and i got lovely christmas cards with the icelandic jólasveinar (13 in total), each one of them has a different poem printed on the left inside. we stole the idea from jørgen, who wanted to go the tíu dropar café initially to write his christmas cards. we talked and played card games instead, and before that, he showed us his only magic trick ("and this!... is not your card."). i was quite impressed!
i ate a spicy french stew with pork, i believe, not quite sure. but it was wholesome all the same and the lights in the café were low and warm. there was a small christmas tree in one corner and the windows were decorated with christmas lights, just like the city (miðbær). it makes me long for home in a strange, fuzzy way. jørgen then told us of the schubert concert at the langholtskirkja and asked whether we wanted to tag along. i was not quite sure if i wanted to do that but the prospect of returning to my cold, bare room where i would mope around all alone did not seem very appealing so after many indecisive comments, rabea decided to treat me to the concert. we met yoav on the way in 1011 where i bought two small bars of chocolate for rabea and jørgen as a thank-you and then we all took the bus to the church (jørgen paid for the bus but he still owed me money for coffee anyways).
the concert was quite lovely (although the organ-part wasn't very inspiring, i kinda fell asleep there for a while). jerel from our programme sang in the choir and after it was over, we met him backstage. funnily enough, i ran into sólrún there (she's a professionally trained violin player and led the orchestra) there, a friend of my flatmate who had invited me over for boardgames. i had been not sure if it was here playing there because i could not really see everyone's faces in detail, but i had had an incling. die welt ist ein dorf!
and theeen we went home and here i am, eating inner, thinking about taking a shower and being so so grateful for these wonderful people and this fine, inspiring day, even though i did not do anything for university today (yet).
aah, i am happy :>
tjörnin btw!