The vikings

The days are getting much longer which is nice. We have had wonderful weather that past week and now the last few days have been cloudy and rainy, but still not too cold. All traces of snow are gone except for on the mountain. I still need to go up it some day but I will wait until spring when there will definitely be no snow or ice.

So a bunch of us are planning a trip to go to the Faroe Islands on March 10th. For those who don't know, they are a group of small islands between Iceland and Norway. They were also inhabited by Vikings and they speak Faroese which Icelanders think sound funny because it is similar to Icelandic though some words that would be one thing in Icelandic mean something completely different in Faroese. There is also some influence of Danish, because they were also under control by Denmark though I think they are their own country now. I am looking forward to the trip though I am not quite sure what to expect. I have this image of the Faroe Islands as something like the Vestmannaeyjar, but more beautiful. I saw pictures of the Faroes in the Nordic House here and it looks like some mythical place where fairies and elves live. Probably there was some camera effects and taking it at the right time of the day to make it seem like that.. but I am still sure it is nice. Leif was saying that it is probably a smaller version of Iceland, and then he used the metaphor of Iceland being a chihuahua and Faroes being a smaller chihuahua, how can there be that? Iceland really isn't THAT small... Well whatever it is it will be something. Tom was getting excited because the Faroes is another country so that means there should be a duty free...

For my one class, North Atlantic Archaeology, I have to do a presentation and write a paper as well. My topic is graves of the Viking Age, looking mostly at how they differ or are similar between Iceland and Scotland, maybe Norway if I can find sources not in Norwegian. Norwegian is a pretty cool language though. I have become really fascinated with languages, it is just so neat how they are all connected and the different influences on them. Like english has been influenced so much by Norse (ie. Icelandic), and I found out that apparently Friesian (from Friesland, country in the northern part of the Netherlands) is English's closest relative. And of course English has been influenced by the latin based languages especially French. My French Canadian friends told me that they found English somewhat easy to learn because there are so many similar words from French, just pronounced different...

Well anyway, to my assignment, the graves are interesting because you can see Celtic and Norse influences, the christian and pagan aspects of the burials. There are several boat burials, where men and women were buried in boats or even large ships. They were usually buried with many of their possessions as well were given gift offerings throughout time. Some cases if it was a person of high status, one of their slaves (usually female) had to "volunteer" to sacrifice herself and be cremated with her master... in one of my readings they described one of these ceremonies which was pretty gruesome. First she was liquored up on this special alcoholic drink, then the head men of the clan would have sex with the girl, as well as the male relatives of the deceased. Then she would be lead to the pavillion where the cremation would take place and would be held down and strangled and stabbed to death. The other men would bang their shelds with sticks so the other slave girls didn't hear the screaming so wouldn't want to escape their fates with their masters.. It said the purpose of this was for the men of the tribe to show their love for the man who was deceased, and the girl was suppose to be the messenger of their love.

crack open a beer and smile

So this morning I had my exam for my Cultural Heritage class. I think that was one of the first times I had an exam and was not stressed or worried about. I think it went really well. Wrote the essay part on the cultural heritage of Elmira, a hybridity of rural and urban, clinging onto the farmer/Mennonite identity but most inhabitants work in the cities, making Elmira just another suburb. So now that this exam is over I am free, for a while. This calls for celebration!

So tonight Leif and I will concoct some kind of drink. I have suggested Apple-Brenivin Smoothie (Brenivin being the Icelandic Schnapps, my dad tried some but never told me what he thought of it. It is usually used as a chaser for Hákarl, the rotten shark). We have a new food processor so most people on my floor and the second have been making a variety of smoothies and milkshakes. I attempted to make a peanut butter smoothie from a recipe on the back of my Kraft peanut butter I got from my mom. It was ok but kind of disappointing, I thought it would be more peanut buttery but was very banana-y. I want to try peanut butter and apple next time but will wait until I get the more liquidy natural peanut butter.

Speaking of drinks, Tom, Guillaume, Ane, Julia, Allison and maybe others have invested in a brewing kit to make beer. Alcohol is really expensive here so might as well make it yourself. Tom had been talking about doing it since he got ot Iceland back in August but never did anything until now. So we will see how it turns out in about 2 weeks or so.

The weather is still unpredictable. It has been warm, it has been cold, there has been snow, there has been rain, there has been sun. I saw northern lights on Tuesday, very faint though but it stretched right across the sky. Still no pictures of it though. Still haven't seen any spectacular ones though but I guess seeing any is fine enough for me.

Winter in October and Spring in January.. who would have thought? I think today it was 8°C, cloudy today and some light rain but the past two days were bright and sunny.

Side Note: My dad did finally receive the lighter in the mail from US custody, though apparently it does not now work (perhaps just needs some fuel). And to defend myself, I did not buy this thing to make my dad's life harder. Considering a lot of people smoke in North America, and would therefore have lighters on them, and more extravagant ones than this little keychain, it did not even dawn on me that it would cause issues in customs. Crazy Americans...

It is kind of funny that no matter how the weather is outside someone is able to complain about it. I bumped into a friend on my way to class and she complained that it was so cold out, even though it really wasn't. Good weather depends on such weird standards. Like to me, today was really nice weather, but that was based on being warm and not too windy, though it was drisly and cloudy. As long as I am not cold and soaking wet, I am happy.

Adrian, Tisho and I have been watching Twin Peaks episodes for the past few days. We have watched all of the 1st season (7 episodes). It is suprisingly addictive. For people who don't know it (which was me a few days ago, never heard of it before), it is a show directed by David Lynch (who I got confused with Ryan Lynch, *gasp!*) and Mark Frost from 1990. It is a murder mystery soap opera. There are so many subplots though, it is really complex but really neat. I found it so funny that no one in this town is able to have a good relationship and everyone is having an affair. We are watching the next episode tonight.

I also learned how to knit yesterday. I have attempted knitting before and everyone on my floor last semester was knitting. I don't know why I delayed knitting for so long, but I really like it. I am currently knitting a scarf, and I think it is coming along alright. I think all of iceland (well at least the women) can knit. They have classes on it in school I guess so they can keep up the tradition of their knitted woolen sweaters and other garments. Well I hope I can live up to being one of those cool grandmothers that knit their kids and grandkids sweaters, scarves, mitts and touques. I was thinking the other day that it would be cool to knit some pants. I really need some, mine are falling apart, but I don't know how good knitted pants would be because they would be holey and the wind would go right through them. Also probably would be itchy.

Well more later... gotta to go read.