Right now in Iceland the country is celebrating something called þorri (pronounced 'Thorri'). Every Icelander that attempts to explain it to me has described it as "Old Food Month." For a whole month Icelanders reflect on the way their ancestors used to survive by eating foods such as dried fish, sheep head, rotten shark, ram testicles, lamb jam, kidneys, liver and fat. This is not a joke. Colby and I went to the flea market and witnessed this first hand. After eating some dried fish and Read More
Immersion Time!
This week a spot finally opened up at Grænaborg Leikskoli (pre-school) and Haley began her journey into cultural assimilation. She has been on a waiting list since September (they move quick around here). On Tuesday I got to spend some time at the school getting a tour and meeting her teachers. When we arrived, the kids all hovered around her, touching her face, showing off the few English phrases they knew ("Merry Christmas!! one! two! three! four.....). The kids Read More
Not the First Day of School
Haley Jane loves to learn and I love to teach. We make quite the nerdy team. When she was 20 months, Colby read her "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" and shortly thereafter she memorized the alphabet. I jumped on board buying Leap Pad learning toys and spent time with her every day "playing school." Since birth, the world has been our classroom and everything from cereal boxes to street signs have been our curriculum. I decided this year to start kindergarten with Read More
Germany or Bust!
We just got back from a really refreshing and encouraging conference in Germany. We took a few days after the conference to see Frankfurt and couldn't get over how little English people knew, especially compared to our beloved Icelanders. I did charades all week trying to communicate what I needed and still was not successful. Colby and I both felt like we were in Middle Pennsylvania the whole week because the food was all white and brown. We had baked macaroni Read More
Tim Hawkins Ode to Chick-Fil-A
I love living in Reykjavík, but every now in then I get a real hankerin´for the original Chicken sandwich. Read More
Helen Haley Meets Reykjavik, Iceland
We surprised the kids early this morning with their last Christmas present (In Iceland, Christmas lasts until January 6th). Check out the excitement here:Colby and I both had to go to school, so the babysitter still came to watch the girls while Nonny got some rest. Now, as you know, 90 percent of Icelanders speak proficient and fluent English. Only old people and young kids don't know English. Our babysitter, Halla (in her 20's), is no exception. Nonetheless, after I introduced them, mom Read More
Ísland, Best í Heimi! New Year’s Celebration Iceland Style
We spent the evening last night with our friends Örlygur, Svala, and Jeremy. After a great dinner at Örlygur´s we took off for The Pearl so we could position ourselves above the city in time to take in the fireworks. We had heard about the fireworks, but little can prepare someone for experiencing the real event. The first video below is the excitement of the build-up. The explosions began several hours before midnight and continued a while after. The second video is the climax of the evening. Read More
Out with the Old and in with the New
So, it's the time of year when everyone waxes eloquent about the previous year's trials and accomplishments, and begins to dream and wonder about the coming year's possibilities. It is certainly a good thing to take time to assess our lives from time to time and if these next few days afford the opportunity, well that's just fine. I'm finding myself less interested this year in the exercise and I don't think it is really cynicism that's the cause. I just look back at the past year and realize a Read More
Fun in the Snow!
This week we finally got some snow. To the surprise of many I'm sure, we have not really had much snow at all this year so far. So with fresh snow on the ground we headed to the park to enjoy some sled-riding. The girls had forgotten that such an activity existed since the last time we did it was in Connecticut on New Years Day a year ago. It was a big hit and we followed it up with some Blueberry Soup, making it an all around great day. Read More
Dear Grammy and Papa
Thanks for the Christmas gifts... Read More
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