Thursday, August 30

105

Housing problems are probably fixed! 

Thank god, I've been worrying for so long. My friend is moving to Reykjavík and when I offered him a girl roommate, how could he say no?

He has an adorable 2 year old son that I was already going to take care of twice a week until I came up with the brilliant solution of just moving in with them haha! I have a place to live and he has a babysitter whenever he needs. win-win!

The apartment is literally the house next to my school and I can ride a bike to work if I don't feel like walking for 15 minutes. Nothing's written in stone yet but so far it looks as if it will work out 

Looks like I won't be living on the street after all, yay!

Tuesday, August 28

Haaave you met Týra?


















This little muffin has been the light in my life whenever I go to Reykjavík. She's a complete primadonna and the queen of the house. My grandparents wanted to give me a puppy for ages, they finally achieved their goal and she was born on my birthday. If I'd believe in Astrology I'd be claiming that she's this adorable because of her birthday. Next month I'll be celebrating my 20th birthday and Týra her 5th. 

Whats'app
on to the next thing, have you ever heard of whats'app? If you haven't then go to your market or appstore and get it. Within Iceland texting is free but texting to or within other countries is so expensive so this becomes a lifesaver! 
It's kinda like a chat but instead of your facebook account it's connected to your phone number, it's also so easy to send pictures and voice clips, funfunfun! 
You can see when the other person was last seen online and weather or not they have seen your message. 

Seen 5:35am
What the hell made facebook (& whats'app for that matter) think that it would be a good idea for other people to be able to see when you've seen their messages?! I feel like my privacy has been violated. If I choose to ignore someone and then lie that I was asleep it's my business. What's next? being able to see who views your profile? I won't be able to cyber stalk anyone without them knowing. I'm not happy. Let's all sign a petition!

Now it's 05:44 in the morning and I'm still awake, the sun has gone down and come up again. I'm gonna go back to watching Suits. I'ts a really good show & the actors become more and more handsome with every show you watch! 

book mountain


holy guacamole!  
you are my Everest!
my next 12 weeks are going to be filled with joy

For those of you that know me know that I am the most irresponsible person ever and have in most cases no clue what I'm doing in life besides just what I want when I want to. Things always find a way to work out just fine. 

I am starting school in 2 weeks and still have no clue where I'm going to live thank you very much. 

I have 3 possibilities. 

First. Driving front and back. Which is hard since I don't have a car and would have to borrow my moms car along with taking the bus. That's going to cost me the same as renting an apartment in central Reykjavík. Buying my own car is too much responsibility. I don't like to be tied down.

Second. Renting an apartment in Reykjavík. On campus you can rent cheap apartments but since I don't like to plan ahead I didn't even apply, so much for that. I found a great apartment, good location and really nice, but no shower or bath. what?! I took a shower by heating water and pouring it over myself in Finland last summer. I'm not doing that every day!
I found another where I'm only renting a room but shearing the rest of the house with four 25 year old guys. I got enough of being a maid this summer, not going back to that with four loud guys 24/7! Also renting an apartment involves a lease that ties me too much down. 

Third (and my personal favorite). I'll use ja.is (site where you find peoples info) I'll go on that, find all guys living in 101 under 30 then cross reference them with the ones that I find are good looking and single on facebook and conveniently find myself the ideal boyfriend. This way I don't have to think about how to get front and back for the rest of the semester. I'm smart like this sometimes. 
(I'm of course joking, for god's sake don't take me seriously!)

I guess I'll end up just living out of my purse. Having my stuff here and there and just planing one night ahead where to sleep. That will work out just fine. Unless someone that lives in Reykjavik wants to adopt me... anyone?

Saturday, August 25

timetable paradise

Ok, this can't be considered normal. I called the school to make sure they weren't forgetting like half my schedule. No no, this is it.



Timetable from heaven! besides the fact that I have to drive to school two days only to be there for one hour and twenty minutes it's still great! :) 

The semester is also only 12 weeks + exams. Is this a joke? Why doesn't everyone just go to university just for the sake of it haha..

Okei I actually don't doubt that it's going to be hard, hardER if anything since I still have to finish reading the same amount of pages as if I was in school for 5 hours a day for 20 weeks. But I really prefer doing it on my own terms so it's all good :D 

now only one more week until the school starts, also one week until I go abroad.

I'll take my student of the month award now! :) 

Friday, August 24

hair cut & driving license

nothing can just be normal and simple for me... 

Yesterday I went to get my hair cut & colored. 5 minutes after they had put the color in I start leaking, simply just water leaking down everywhere and I have no clue where it came from or why. Everyone was standing over me wondering what the hell was happening but nobody had seen it before so that problem went unsolved. My hair didn't fall off so I can't say I care...


I then sat down in the chair and the hairstylist starts messing with my hair, brushing here and there and whipping this and that around. I suddenly feel like someone bit me in the ear and hear him go "OH MY GOODNESS" he had then pulled out the earring I had in the helix, I really didn't feel any pain until I found the earring and found it all in one piece. I had assumed that when he pulled, it had opened up and fallen out but no, he had pulled it out in one piece... once I realized that my ear started hurting a bit hahahah! So girls, take your earrings out before getting a haircut. Now I have gotten rid of all the band-aids on my fingers and have one in my ear instead! 

Then I have this one problem with having haircuts. The balance nerve in my head is so sensitive, which means that if someone else is moving my head in different directions and I'm not in control I feel like I'm on a freakin' roller coaster. We had to pause the haircut on several occasions because I was fainting and nauseated. I felt like everything around me was spinning 400 km/h and it wouldn't stop unless he stopped pulling my head! how can anyone make a haircut so dramatic?! I had to sit chewing sugar bites for the whole haircut to raise the blood sugar to keep me awake


I finally got the haircut over with and I bet the stylist has never been as happy getting rid of a client... I went to sleep early because I had to wake up early to get my driving license renewed. It only had 2 days left until it would expire and I was not going to pay a fine or whatever you have to do if your too late. Since it's Friday it's my last chance to get a new one today so I start calling driving instructors begging them to squeeze me into their schedule today... I got a guy to meet up with me and as we're filling out all the information he starts laughing and asking me if I'm high... Turns out it is expiring 26 of August.... 2013!! I'm a whole year too early... well at least I've gotten that over with

now work is calling... Hope I'll make it there and through the night without any absurd problems getting in my way haha! 

Wednesday, August 22

two places at once

Today I managed to strike another thing off my list...
be at two places at once..

Iceland is both on the American and European continent and technically I live in America... only 20 minutes from my house there is a crack in the ground where the continents meet. 
Going there and standing in the middle is actually being in two places at once.

I've been there once or twice before but I've never actually spent time there and BEEN there... only stopped the car and run out for 2 minutes just for the sake of it 

wohoo

   



no actual reason for these two pictures, I just liked the colors in the environment 


and I found a hole where the lava had collapsed 


and reached the top of a mountain so I did a little stretch 

anyways I have a haircut tomorrow early so I'm going to go to bed, Good night! 

Monday, August 20

The Moonbar



Last Saturday was the opening of the new club I'm going to be working at. It's called Mánabar and is right in the center of Reykjavík..

I came pretty early in the day because we needed to prepare all the booze. I started driving 1 hour before since that's the time it takes me driving from Keflavík and was right on time until I hit the center-area, then it took me another hour just getting 5 kilometers!!! 
I was going crazy and as I was talking to my friend on the phone complaining that there were too many people I realized that it was the birthday of Reykjavík that day so EVERYONE was downtown.... There might be more people in other bigger cities, but Reykjavík really isn't made for such traffic and everything was a big mess hahaha


I ended up driving in the wrong direction in a one way street which was also closed! good I didn't get caught, don't even wanna know the fine for that! but hey I got a great parking space right next to work. I stopped on a red light and these people crossed the street... hahaha


sun going down :( I don't like this, it's starting to be dark in the night again... so sad. I've even forgotten where the light switches are in the house because I haven't needed them for so long


the bar <3 


the upstairs area


& the bar upstairs


where the magic happens for some people


they've made graffiti in the ceiling of the solar system; insanely well done!



The downstairs bar & dancefloor


Before the tap came I looked at the sink and asked the workers how you flush.... good morning miss I-have-never-seen-the-men's-room. "hahaha darling, that's a sink"


cozy!


MÁNABAR!! 


people people people



First night and the place was stuffed 


g&t


barabbararababba.... Tequilla!


oh! how am I standing, never mind just turning your whole body... just twist the upper half



This place was without a doubt one of the most fun places I have ever worked at! The atmosphere was just so great and my coworkers even better, one of those places where you know the people around you and can relax. Not where you just feel like "bartender number 13941 on shift now"

I missed all the randomness of working in a bar, it never gets tired. One older guy was f.ex. always standing at the bar waiting and every single time when I came to him he asked me 3 times to mop the floor before he told me what he actually wanted 

I can't wait to go to work next weekend and I trust I'll see all of you there, trust me you won't regret it 
woohoo

1017 meters

1.017 meters up. Felt great, the nature was so surrounding and overwhelming it felt like when you're surrounded by water. Gets a bit frightening because you feel you're such a small part of everything, like it could just grab you any moment. 











Anyways, the nature was so amazing and I took a billion pictures! Sometimes I even thought "Oh I'll have to show this to mom when I get back to Iceland" or calculating the time difference to iceland... not realizing that I was already in Iceland, can't believe it's all been here and I've gone all the way to Australia even before checking my backyard

Sunday, August 19

DAY TWO

Day two was harder than day one... We had the best breakfast I've ever had though, breakfast burritos! mmm

We made a 20 km walk called Skalli, the pathway was always changing. The biggest challenge was the elevation, walking upwards so much was a bit hard but so rewarding once you got to the top. I had my backpack on so at some points I seriously though I was going to die! Considered just falling on purpose and sliding down all the rocks to go back to the camp hahaha! 

Before I left I had talked to some people that had made the walk before and they kept telling me that I couldn't do it and that I should start off with something easier, bla blegh bla! Which really motivated me actually, every time I wanted to turn around I thought about it and kept going, showed them huhh?




The first hill... you can see the group that left before us up there like tiny dots. This hill was so freaking difficult and it's way harder and bigger than it seems on the picture. The thing that was making it even more challenging was that the path was so gravelly so you couldn't get a grip anywhere. As if walking wasn't hard enough, I also had my backpack on which is a job all by itself and on top of that I had to be fighting to keep balance the whole time.


Finally up that first hill and the view was amazing. I thought this was the best. Later I looked back and this was borderline boring compared to what came later on. 


When you manage to get to the top of a hill you should always reward yourself with a Reese's cup. 
It has many purposes. As Adam is demonstrating here you can also use the cup as a Nutella spoon and then eat it. Giving you enough sugar shock to walk all over like a crazy person for the next hours. 

Now that I think about it I feel a bit silly whining about having to carry my backpack when I had half a kg of Nutella with me... in a glass jar! good prioritizing right? hahaha 


Looking back on the camping site. So cool how you can see the lava flow just stopping right there. I didn't even notice it was lava until A pointed it out to me



How did it manage to form and make this shape? Sometimes in places like these I wish I had just the basic understanding of geology. I sometimes stumble upon amazing things that I just consider normal but I guess some science freak would have a seizure of excitement seeing. 

. Later as we were walking we came to this big pile of rocks, sure they were nice rocks but come on, they were rocks. Adam however gets all excited obviously understanding what type of amazing rocks they were. Feels I'm kinda missing out on stuff with not understanding geology.



These piles of rocks are everywhere in Iceland. You can even find piles that have been in the same place for 1000 years, they were used as landmarks before the roads came so people would know where they were walking. Now, of course they are pointless since we have sticks telling us where to go and so on but everyone that goes adds on one stone to the pile. Every pile I came across I took the smallest rock I could find and put it on the very top. A tiny piece of me everywhere, yay!


vuhuu!! all excited after the nutella overload




just proof that I made it up there too!


You go to places like these where there is just the perfect background for some amazing photo. However arriving there is so hard that by the time you finally reach your destination your all disgusting and ruin the nice picture. Then you just hope to god people are so fascinated by the landscape that they forget to notice your being all disgusting hahaha



I can't even start to describe my happiness when I reached this lake. I had finished my water walking up that stupid hill and this was like winning the lottery! 


another hill.. yay!



it's not called ICEland for nothing. there we found a patch of snow, in the middle of the summer...

At one point we reached this great place where we decided to just lay down and enjoy simply being. That's one of the most important things. People are so obsessed with getting to their destination they don't realize that the journey is just as important as the arriving, even more important if anything. 


Then we decided to do acro yoga. It was the most fun ever. I've seen videos of acro yoga before and never thought I'd be capable of even thinking about doing it.


Sadly the self timer is only 10 seconds and finding the balance to do something more takes longer. After this he somehow, and I don't understand how, but he managed to get me upside down so his legs were on my shoulders instead of on my thighs like in this picture. That was crazy, exactly like in this picture but upside down, and the only thing holding me were his feet. After enjoying it for a while I of course started laughing and fell, which was surprisingly easy, no clue how but my feet just found the ground.


hahahaha





we found water again, in this weird way though, the ground had something or another chemical in them which stopped the water from going into the ground so it just laid on top of the moss like this. A explained it all and I want to say that I understood but aah


hahahah surviving out in nature, you suck up a big water drop you come across


I think it's so amazing how diverse everything is. In one place you have red rocks, next to that some grass, a bit away a chunk of piled up lava and of course on your right a geothermal pool!


katrín walking




how the hell does a duck end up there?!? haha


the rocks Adam really liked that I was referring to before



all the rocks were red & white... until all of a sudden they were all black & blue... what?


he looks like a walking 66°north advertisement.


aaand finally arriving back in the campside..

p.s. sorry for the really long post