Postcard January 2004

The New Year started of quietly. Had a nice quiet New Years Day. After a long time off work I headed back on the 2nd of January. Since it was a Friday, worked one day and then off another two. I soon realized I had to watch what I ate. I had a couple slices of bread with herring; it didn’t take long for the stomach pain to start. As a result, I didn’t sleep much that night. January 4^th I attended an Ethiopian Wedding in Iceland. The service was at Hallgrimskirkja, Hallgrimur´s Church. It was very nice; most of it was in English with a short address in Ethiopian. The banquet later was equally interesting. The food was fantastic and the atmosphere festive. The only thing different was that there was no liquor served. The first dry wedding I attended, but still had a very enjoyable afternoon. Started planning summer 2004 by visiting a couple that I will travel with to Minneapolis and Canada with in June. I had a nice visit with them and believe that we will have a good trip to Canada together and I can hardly wait to do some fishing at her cousin’s in Ontario. Monday was another workday; Guðmundur sick meant that I had to open the school. At the start of each semester, the photocopying piles up and this semester was no different. 13 hours later my workday ended. I didn’t waste time in booking my flights for the summer; I didn’t have to book them until later but wanted to get things arranged. Getting back into the work groove, but it wasn’t long before I was jetting off again. This time it was to London. I went with 8 teachers to BETT, British Education Technology Show. The flight to Heathrow went fine, customs also went smoothly and a bus whisked us to our hotel just around the corner from Oxford St. We all headed to the show together. There were lots of things to see and try. We had a great time, ate at some really nice restaurants, East Indian, Italian and Chinese. The highlight of the trip was seeing the musical “We Will Rock You”. The show was fabulous and something I will remember for a long time. The shopping went well too, checked out Harrods. There was a men’s watch for sale there for a mere 23,000GBP or $56,000.00; no I didn’t buy it. Spent all day Saturday exploring London. I had never been to London and now I was in London for the second time in less than 3 months. I have to admit I wasn’t that impressed with London the first time I visited it in October. Now I am hooked, I would go there anytime. It is hard to explain but it grows on you I guess. The flight back to Iceland went well.

Well back to the grind, lots to do at school. I also started some evening classes. I am taking a History Class, 1850 to present day, a geology course and a physical science course. I hope they will help me when I return to Tour Guide School in the fall. January brought some colder weather. This was kind of different for Iceland; the last couple winters have been very mild. January also brought out Icelandic Idol fans. The competition was fierce but the best man, Kalli a fisherman from Grindavik won. Margret and Jens (my Icelandic parents) reached a milestone. They celebrated their 50^th Wedding Anniversary in mid January. I did find time to attend a Mason meeting; it went well. I even attended a Lions Club meeting to do a presentation on Cuba. It went well and hopefully we can arrange a tour to Cuba next winter. I kept spending money, buying equipment for the school. I bought 4 TVs, VCRs and DVD players and then my boss said I should get prices. OOPS, I told him the equipment is already in the school. Þorrablot season meant that we had to celebrate. Ingibjorg treated Guðmundur and I to a feast at the Viking Village in Hafnarfjörður for Bondadagur (husband’s day). The next night I went to a play that the school’s (MH) drama club put on. It was very interesting but quite hard to follow. Well January remained cold, with the short days it sure was hard to get out of bed some mornings. Maybe things will warm up in February……