Whoopsie

I just realized my title has been misspelled for quite some time, but nonetheless it is appropriately changed!

I go swimming a lot here. Íþrottamiðstöðin Borgarnesi (Sport center place Borgarnes)

I'm having a wonderful time, although I now appreciate my alone time (recharge time?) much more than before. I also cannot stress the importance of vitamin D enough. I thought I was getting really homesick and introverted or whatever a few weeks back, and I forced myself to walk down to the drug store (the name of it is literally "drugs") and picked up a bottle of vitamin D tablets. After figuring out the appropriate dosage in units I understand, I took twice the recommended amount and felt exponentially better the next day. My mood improved over the next few days, and I returned, mostly, back to normal and sociable Aaron.

Incoming cowboy hat

Last night was the halloween ball with my school. I did not know I was going. I had an Icelandic class in a neighboring town (Akranes) and got back home at 10:10 PM to find a car of people dressed like zombies, butchers, and Paulie D (Jersey Shore) about to drag me to the ball. I ran inside, borrowed a pair of overalls, put on a plaid shirt, and went as an Icelandic hillbilly. I had a pretty good time there, the ball ending at 1 am (yes, on Thursday, and yes, I was incredibly tired the next morning).

I have no idea who the person is on the right or why she won something. Bárður, on the left, is dressed as Minecraft Steve. He won most original costume.

So, life in Iceland... huh. Well, first of all, life is life is life is life anywhere, to be completely honest. I still have trouble waking up in the morning (haven't been late to any classes!), I still go to bed too late, I still don't understand a thing in biology which can probably be attributed to my language improficiency – and speaking of language abilities, I'm understanding the majority of what is said (ideas, mind you, grammar escapes me). I pick up on all the words I know, and kind of guess what the rest means, which can lead to some pretty wacky sentences when I try and repeat them in English.

"... , að ég finn til í rassinum í dag."
Translate it yourself. This is my Icelandic class in Akranes.

I was sick from about Thursday until Wednesday, and this story happened while I was at the pinacle of throat pain:
Last weekend I learned how to use the bus in Reykjavík. The exchange students all went to Klifurhúsið (The climbing house, clibb-err-hoos-ihth) and I decided to go a day early and stay at my host-sister's house. Well, I missed the morning bus by about 2 minutes, so I had to stay in Borgarnes for about 4 or 5 more hours than I'd planned, and speaking of plans, I had to cancel all of mine. I finally got to Reykjavík and was dropped off at Kringlan, one of the biggest malls in Iceland (don't get any grand ideas, it's pretty small), and thought my first order of business should be to find my bus stop I would be taking at 5:30 PM. So I walked around Kringlan, studying my maps, wondering where this street I marked could be. After 30 minutes of walking around the mall, I couldn't find it, so I went and asked the mall information center where this bus stop is. The told me to go over the main road and then right and then left and down this road and then left and past the first bus stop then the second one and sfasdfasdf. So 20 minutes of walking from the mall I see a sign that says I'm in Miðbær (mi(h)th bye-r), a part of Reykjavík that is on a completely different postal code than where I wanted to be. I stopped at an ice cream shop and asked where I was, and where I was supposed to be. The man I asked's eyes got really big and said "You're really far away from there, they gave you really bad directions." He drew me a little map on a napkin of where I needed to go, and about 25 minutes of walking later my bus stop came into view.

Needless to say, I was cold, coughing, sick, and angry. I went back into Kringlan, bought an Icelandic-English and English-Icelandic dictionary and an Icelandic comic book, then sat in the book store reading "My first word" books. I got a few looks.

The rest of the journey was no problem getting to my host-sister's house that night, but my bus driver was pretty grumpy and I had no idea what to do, so he kept chastising me for trying to pay for the bus with a 500 bill.
The next day I went and toured CCP Headquarters (makers of EVE Online) where my host-sisters husband works :DDD
Sadly I didn't have my camera with me that weekend. Every desk had a Nerf gun on it, and they were really eager to show me their Nerf gun modifications. I met the CEO and he showed me his tiny little Nerf gun that fit in the palm of his hand ("I'm thinking about getting a bigger one, this one doesn't really do much for my self-esteem").
I boarded the bus not far from there, and everything was going fine until I got off at the wrong bus stop, had to walk about 1km back to the previous one, got drenched by a passing car, and spent about 20 minutes trying to find the entrance to Klifurhúsið.

Me, exhausted, after finally arriving at Klifurhúsið

Klifurhúsið! Nothing but exchange students in this picture

My parents drove into Reykjavík that night and picked me up, we went and had Subway, and went home. Then I spent the next 4 days in bed. Couuuggggghhhhh.


This page is now littered with various facebook pictures because I didn't take any myself.

This picture is now diamonds. Or on the school community facebook page