þriðjudagur, júní 22, 2004
Well, like Frodo wrote, "There and Back Again" (or was it Bilbo?)
Iceland was very nice, even though I barely had enough free time to think, let alone spend with my family. Almost every minute of each of the 4 days I had was planned in advance.
It all started with Nice Auntie Freyja driving me to the airport because I had a flash of paranoia, envisioning myself waiting for some stupid bus to take me there and it not coming and me cursing and missing the airplane (This paranoia is from mamma, btw). The flight home was ok, although I hate flying. They showed Cactus Flower and The Candidate, both oldies. Cactus Flower has Goldie Hawn in it. Never seen her so young before. I finally understood why a whole generation of men fell for her. I had fallen for her within a minute of the movie :p.
Mamma picked me up at the airport, and drove us home, where some big teenager claiming in a voice deeper than my own to be Darri waited for us. He's doing the same thing I did around this age, skipping the whole "broken voice" thing. I stayed at home, chatting with m&p&d for a couple of hours, until I got picked up at around 2pm by the guys.
For those who didn't know, I came home ONLY to be at my good friend's Jón Grétar's wedding. So we were taking him into the country for a "bachelor" party. Mind you, not an "American bachelor" party, with strippers and bullshit. Nono, just a sort of formal "last time getting wasted with all the guys" party. One of the guys' family owns some land in the country along with a little rustic hotel. We stayed there for free. Basically, we just got drunk, grilled some meat, went swimming in one of Iceland's oldest swimming pools (Seljalands laug), and saved 2 swedish girls. They had stuck their car in some sand, and came up to the house, hoping to find some old farmer to help them out. Instead they got 6 strapping young Icelandic men, eager to please sweet Swedish girls. It was quite funny. We also took a little offroad trip on a tiny, square shaped, buggy, through some of the glacial rivers and a ways up the mountains behind. Very exhilarating. My forearms probably grew half an inch in diameter from gripping the buggy.
The day after that was spent mostly in recuperation and visiting people. Saturday was the day of the wedding. Our gift to Johnny was going to be a musical composition. We had decided this in January, when he asked us (after a bottle of cognac) to write the piece of music instead of giving them something physical. We loved the idea then. Now, 5 hours before the wedding, and no music in sight, we weren't quite as fond of it. BUT, since we are such musical geniuses, we met at 10 in the morning, Stefán Jón, Stulli and I, put our heads together, and came up with a piece of music which was actually quite nice. Silja, Stefáns significant other, actually contributed greatly to this as well. We managed to get a theme from Johnny's favorite Kiss song woven into our music, over a theme written by Silja which had a strong "Chariots of Fire" feel to it. It might not have been a masterpiece, but it dropped Johnny's jaw. So, he was happy which made us feel happy. Hey guys, maybe we should try to write some other stuff together, since we managed this in only 2 hours? :)
The wedding was nice, very short, good food, and then straight to another party while they enjoyed their wedding night. Went to a graduation party at my friend Finnur's house, where his parents were very diligent at keeping my glass full. Brought my trumpet along and attempted to play a little bit while a guitarist strummed some chords and Finnur pounded a conga. I met a bunch of people from my past, always fun.
The day after that, more recuperation, more visits, and then I left the day after that. Had my last meal at Old West with Svanur at lunch time.
All in all, I had fun, although travelling so much in such a short time is exhausting.
Right now, I'm just getting back into gear with the research. We just had a girl come in to help us out. She's cute...too bad she's 17 ;) She's from a high-school nearby, a top student who got a grant from her school to do whatever she wants this summer, and she chose AI at UMD, so she was sent to us.
Anyway, I'll be back home at the end of July, and will be staying for almost 4 weeks then, so plenty of time to meet people.
Iceland was very nice, even though I barely had enough free time to think, let alone spend with my family. Almost every minute of each of the 4 days I had was planned in advance.
It all started with Nice Auntie Freyja driving me to the airport because I had a flash of paranoia, envisioning myself waiting for some stupid bus to take me there and it not coming and me cursing and missing the airplane (This paranoia is from mamma, btw). The flight home was ok, although I hate flying. They showed Cactus Flower and The Candidate, both oldies. Cactus Flower has Goldie Hawn in it. Never seen her so young before. I finally understood why a whole generation of men fell for her. I had fallen for her within a minute of the movie :p.
Mamma picked me up at the airport, and drove us home, where some big teenager claiming in a voice deeper than my own to be Darri waited for us. He's doing the same thing I did around this age, skipping the whole "broken voice" thing. I stayed at home, chatting with m&p&d for a couple of hours, until I got picked up at around 2pm by the guys.
For those who didn't know, I came home ONLY to be at my good friend's Jón Grétar's wedding. So we were taking him into the country for a "bachelor" party. Mind you, not an "American bachelor" party, with strippers and bullshit. Nono, just a sort of formal "last time getting wasted with all the guys" party. One of the guys' family owns some land in the country along with a little rustic hotel. We stayed there for free. Basically, we just got drunk, grilled some meat, went swimming in one of Iceland's oldest swimming pools (Seljalands laug), and saved 2 swedish girls. They had stuck their car in some sand, and came up to the house, hoping to find some old farmer to help them out. Instead they got 6 strapping young Icelandic men, eager to please sweet Swedish girls. It was quite funny. We also took a little offroad trip on a tiny, square shaped, buggy, through some of the glacial rivers and a ways up the mountains behind. Very exhilarating. My forearms probably grew half an inch in diameter from gripping the buggy.
The day after that was spent mostly in recuperation and visiting people. Saturday was the day of the wedding. Our gift to Johnny was going to be a musical composition. We had decided this in January, when he asked us (after a bottle of cognac) to write the piece of music instead of giving them something physical. We loved the idea then. Now, 5 hours before the wedding, and no music in sight, we weren't quite as fond of it. BUT, since we are such musical geniuses, we met at 10 in the morning, Stefán Jón, Stulli and I, put our heads together, and came up with a piece of music which was actually quite nice. Silja, Stefáns significant other, actually contributed greatly to this as well. We managed to get a theme from Johnny's favorite Kiss song woven into our music, over a theme written by Silja which had a strong "Chariots of Fire" feel to it. It might not have been a masterpiece, but it dropped Johnny's jaw. So, he was happy which made us feel happy. Hey guys, maybe we should try to write some other stuff together, since we managed this in only 2 hours? :)
The wedding was nice, very short, good food, and then straight to another party while they enjoyed their wedding night. Went to a graduation party at my friend Finnur's house, where his parents were very diligent at keeping my glass full. Brought my trumpet along and attempted to play a little bit while a guitarist strummed some chords and Finnur pounded a conga. I met a bunch of people from my past, always fun.
The day after that, more recuperation, more visits, and then I left the day after that. Had my last meal at Old West with Svanur at lunch time.
All in all, I had fun, although travelling so much in such a short time is exhausting.
Right now, I'm just getting back into gear with the research. We just had a girl come in to help us out. She's cute...too bad she's 17 ;) She's from a high-school nearby, a top student who got a grant from her school to do whatever she wants this summer, and she chose AI at UMD, so she was sent to us.
Anyway, I'll be back home at the end of July, and will be staying for almost 4 weeks then, so plenty of time to meet people.
laugardagur, júní 12, 2004
I've managed to get this far in life without regretting anything, not one single decision I've ever made. Granted, many of my decisions resulted in things turning out differently than I had planned, and in possibly less desirable situations. However, through this all, I've managed to keep in mind that "past is past". Decisions have been made and what matters now is what happens in the future. Even through a painful breakup with a former girlfriend, I managed to keep to this idea, that thinking about the past, pining over a bad decision rather than trying to do something in the present, is bad for you and ultimately destructive. And then, sometimes one must realize there is nothing one can do, put that realization in the past, and apply the same idea; past is past.
I have reached a point where, yes, maybe there is something which I regret; something I had and then lost, until someone else found it. I just hope I can place it firmly in my past.
Elsku Gunnhildur, til hamingju með allt það góða sem hefur hent þig síðustu mánuði. Þú átt allt það besta í lífinu skilið. Ég vona að þú hafir fundið það sem þú vissir ekki að þú vildir.
In other news, I'll be going home for 5 days next wednesday, wheee! It'll be a tight schedule; land around 6am the morning of the 17th, sleep a bit, meet with the guys and go to a summerhouse somewhere in the middle of nowhere, get stinking drunk and come home the next day. Spend friday recuperating with the family. Wedding on the 19th, my good friend Jón Grétar is the groom. After that I figure the rest of us will go out and get drunk again. Spend sunday recuperting with the family. Then I leave for USA the next day, the afternoon of the 21st of june. I was going to not mention this on my blog until afterwards, people usually expect you to contact them if you're at home, so since my time is so limited, I figured I'd avoid it by not posting about it. Also, I was going to surprise some people with visits. But I decided against it. Anyway, if any of you guys at home would like to meet up with me, drop by for a visit or whatever, friday and sunday I'll be home and more than willing to entertain visitors, just expect me to be smelly and grumpy. Saturday evening I'll be going between a couple of parties, so you could always give me a call then, I'll be around. I will still have my old number 695-2476. And if I don't see you next week, I'll most likely meet you when I come back home in august for Úlla's wedding.
I have reached a point where, yes, maybe there is something which I regret; something I had and then lost, until someone else found it. I just hope I can place it firmly in my past.
Elsku Gunnhildur, til hamingju með allt það góða sem hefur hent þig síðustu mánuði. Þú átt allt það besta í lífinu skilið. Ég vona að þú hafir fundið það sem þú vissir ekki að þú vildir.
In other news, I'll be going home for 5 days next wednesday, wheee! It'll be a tight schedule; land around 6am the morning of the 17th, sleep a bit, meet with the guys and go to a summerhouse somewhere in the middle of nowhere, get stinking drunk and come home the next day. Spend friday recuperating with the family. Wedding on the 19th, my good friend Jón Grétar is the groom. After that I figure the rest of us will go out and get drunk again. Spend sunday recuperting with the family. Then I leave for USA the next day, the afternoon of the 21st of june. I was going to not mention this on my blog until afterwards, people usually expect you to contact them if you're at home, so since my time is so limited, I figured I'd avoid it by not posting about it. Also, I was going to surprise some people with visits. But I decided against it. Anyway, if any of you guys at home would like to meet up with me, drop by for a visit or whatever, friday and sunday I'll be home and more than willing to entertain visitors, just expect me to be smelly and grumpy. Saturday evening I'll be going between a couple of parties, so you could always give me a call then, I'll be around. I will still have my old number 695-2476. And if I don't see you next week, I'll most likely meet you when I come back home in august for Úlla's wedding.
fimmtudagur, júní 10, 2004
miðvikudagur, júní 02, 2004
I am so fucking pissed.
This is the final straw. Tomorrow I start looking for apartments. I'm moving.
It all started this morning/afternoon. I woke up around 11, went online, did my usual stuff. Then decided to go get something to eat, remembered that I had loads of rice I had cooked the night before, maybe I'd make some fried rice. So I go into the kitchen and there is my rice, overturned in some other dirty pot.
The thing was, when I cooked the rice the night before, all the plastic containers had been full so I just put the pot in the fridge with the lid on it. The rice had burned a little, but since I couldn't empty it, I couldn't clean it. So this morning the pot was in the sink and my rice destroyed. I pounded on Binh's door and asked him to explain himself. He gets all upset and starts shouting things at me. Here's what I could make out:
"This is my pot"
"I tried to wake you this morning but couldn't"
"You know I use this pot everyday. I was quite angry this morning when I couldn't cook my food"
So I immediately told him that there are a lot of things in the kitchen which are mine and Dan's and we all use them without a fuss. Which made no dent in his argument. I told him we had never established any boundaries as to who was allowed to use what. Deaf ears. I was really angry at him for throwing away my food. You just don't do that. So I started shouting back at him. It all ended with me telling him to go fuck himself and slamming my door. Then he attacks my door with some wild spinning kick, gets me out again and tells me to wash his pot, which I did. No reason not to, I had burned the rice. After that, I went through the kitchen, pulled out everything I had brought with me, and moved it to my room. If the plastic containers had food in them...oops! too bad. Got a little vindictive there.
Immediately after that I sent my landlord a letter asking for a key to my room (never got one). I don't know what Binh is capable of and I don't want to find out. However, some part of me wants to just push him so he'll do something that could get him thrown out of the country.
I wish that were all.
Tonight Tos started to do bills. They went over phone bills, adsl and cable(TV). I immediately pointed out that I don't have a TV, and our community TV has been broken since January before I came back from my break. So I haven't used our cable AT ALL.
Then all hell broke loose.
Dan wouldn't even consider it. I offered to pay half, even though I felt I didn't owe a dime. No deal. And he thinks he is so in the right. One analogy I gave in my defense was "If I didn't have a computer, would you charge me for the ADSL?" And they said without a blink, Yes. What kind of a twisted way of thinking is this? Their rationale was that "it is available to you, you just don't use it". If the community TV were working, I'd be fine with that. But I don't even have a cable line into my room, let alone a TV. In my opinion, they are robbing me of $100.
Man am I furious.
So anyway, I'm searching for apartments starting tomorrow.
This is the final straw. Tomorrow I start looking for apartments. I'm moving.
It all started this morning/afternoon. I woke up around 11, went online, did my usual stuff. Then decided to go get something to eat, remembered that I had loads of rice I had cooked the night before, maybe I'd make some fried rice. So I go into the kitchen and there is my rice, overturned in some other dirty pot.
The thing was, when I cooked the rice the night before, all the plastic containers had been full so I just put the pot in the fridge with the lid on it. The rice had burned a little, but since I couldn't empty it, I couldn't clean it. So this morning the pot was in the sink and my rice destroyed. I pounded on Binh's door and asked him to explain himself. He gets all upset and starts shouting things at me. Here's what I could make out:
"This is my pot"
"I tried to wake you this morning but couldn't"
"You know I use this pot everyday. I was quite angry this morning when I couldn't cook my food"
So I immediately told him that there are a lot of things in the kitchen which are mine and Dan's and we all use them without a fuss. Which made no dent in his argument. I told him we had never established any boundaries as to who was allowed to use what. Deaf ears. I was really angry at him for throwing away my food. You just don't do that. So I started shouting back at him. It all ended with me telling him to go fuck himself and slamming my door. Then he attacks my door with some wild spinning kick, gets me out again and tells me to wash his pot, which I did. No reason not to, I had burned the rice. After that, I went through the kitchen, pulled out everything I had brought with me, and moved it to my room. If the plastic containers had food in them...oops! too bad. Got a little vindictive there.
Immediately after that I sent my landlord a letter asking for a key to my room (never got one). I don't know what Binh is capable of and I don't want to find out. However, some part of me wants to just push him so he'll do something that could get him thrown out of the country.
I wish that were all.
Tonight Tos started to do bills. They went over phone bills, adsl and cable(TV). I immediately pointed out that I don't have a TV, and our community TV has been broken since January before I came back from my break. So I haven't used our cable AT ALL.
Then all hell broke loose.
Dan wouldn't even consider it. I offered to pay half, even though I felt I didn't owe a dime. No deal. And he thinks he is so in the right. One analogy I gave in my defense was "If I didn't have a computer, would you charge me for the ADSL?" And they said without a blink, Yes. What kind of a twisted way of thinking is this? Their rationale was that "it is available to you, you just don't use it". If the community TV were working, I'd be fine with that. But I don't even have a cable line into my room, let alone a TV. In my opinion, they are robbing me of $100.
Man am I furious.
So anyway, I'm searching for apartments starting tomorrow.
