Even though at this point I'm still having some rather magnificent struggles trying to pronounce Icelandic, at least it seems to make quite a lot of sense. I mean, really. I'm taking classes in Icelandic language for foreigners, and while a mind-numbingly vast percentage of the peoples attending seems to be Finnish, there are still a few others nationalities represented.
During the first class our lovely-in-that-elderly-way teacher spent time explaining how Icelandic doesn't really want to accept foreign words. Instead they often take an old word and give it a fresh connotation. When telephone arrived to Iceland sometime around 1960's (IIRC), they didn't adapt the oh so global word for the technology. Instead they named it after an old word for a thin thread, sími.
The same happened with television and CRT's. The word for a display or a TV in Icelandic is skjár, pronounced "skjaur". It used to mean "window" back those dark medieval times. The folks in here didn't have glass at their disposal, so the screens were made of dried cow stomachs. Hey, that's what they did in Finland as well.
To get back on the point issued in the opening paragraph, it took a Swede to make me realize that the pronounciation in Icelandic isn't all that scary as I first perceived. He noticed the similarity to the Swedish word skärm. He said "skärm" quite like "HHhhcärm" or to be more phonetically exact, "*sounds of a person choking*ärm". Really. The rikssvenska pronounciation just forces me to roll my eyes and think that Icelandic is actually a lot friendlier for an outsider. Even if it doesn't feel all that friendly when taking the first steps of trying to learn it.
The pronounciation can make for some good fun though. One of the local banks, Kaupþing, recently changed its name back to the original form from a little more internationally friendly KB Banki. John Cleese was doing some ads for them. I haven't got a very good grip of the language so far, yet I cracked up at an unsuspecting Reykjavik café crowd.
maanantai 15. tammikuuta 2007
sunnuntai 14. tammikuuta 2007
Prologue
Erh.
So I promised to write to the exchange student column on our university newspaper. I realize that during the switch of terms it might be hard to find available writers, but I'm just trying to figure out what I can possibly tell with my two and a half week experience of Iceland. It might turn out amusing, especially if I'll try to avoid the clichés of a rotten shark and eyeball eating, stormy weather enduring nation.
I already have the photos for the article though. I think I started from the right end of a writing process.
And greetings to Maaria, this little post is coming from Hjolmalind. I think I can pretty well see why you wanted me to come here. :)
So I promised to write to the exchange student column on our university newspaper. I realize that during the switch of terms it might be hard to find available writers, but I'm just trying to figure out what I can possibly tell with my two and a half week experience of Iceland. It might turn out amusing, especially if I'll try to avoid the clichés of a rotten shark and eyeball eating, stormy weather enduring nation.
I already have the photos for the article though. I think I started from the right end of a writing process.
And greetings to Maaria, this little post is coming from Hjolmalind. I think I can pretty well see why you wanted me to come here. :)
torstai 11. tammikuuta 2007
Remember what it feels like?
Whew. It's been quite a whirlwind for the past two weeks. I have so many things on my mind worth putting down and writing here that I'll probably forget most of them as I'm typing, but oh well. To give you folks an impression.
The New Year Eve was indeed quite a show. Being able to watch it from one of the high points in the city, Perlan. The restaurant itself was apparently blocked from common people for the occasion, but there were quite a lot of us on top of the hill, and the view from there is not a very shabby one either. The sky was thoroughly coloured by rapidly burning patterns of lithium, magnesium and all that fun stuff you got to burn in the chemistry classes back in secondary school. After midnight the city was completely covered in a puffy gunpowder smoke cloud. It was quite a change from all those peaceful rural and firework-wise tightly regulated New Year Eve's I've spent with my cousins at Hirvensalmi. After the explosions in the sky slowly started to fade away, I strolled alongside the majority of spectators towards downtown. Laugavegur was populated by mostly drunken people mostly trying to make their way into the outlets where they could keep consuming those mostly intoxicating beverages they had been enjoying most of the evening. Then there were a few people, such as myself, looking like lost puppies and just observing the folk.
The following couple of days I spent battling off this fierce cold I apparently catched. I wouldn't really blame it to poor clothing choices, I think I've been pretty well prepared. I didn't really give it all that many thoughts, I was just busy dealing with what felt like all of the waterfalls in Iceland suddenly giving a presentation of themselves in my nostrils. Our house is on the colder side. The common areas are too cold, and my own room is either too hot or too cold, depending how I set the thermostat. I usually aim for the too cold though, as sleeping is so much easier then.
Along with the cold arrived a feeling of guilt, that there are so so many things to do and see in my immediate vicinity, and I'm missing all of them. Obviously, it would be just a couple of days before I'd dare to venture out again, but still. Nobody likes the nagging feeling in their minds.
And obviously it got better. We had an orientation meeting at the campus last Friday, with all kinds of more and less practical information handed and spoken out for us. Afterwards the crowd was split into small groups and assigned a couple of Icelandic guides who'd walk us around the campus, pointing out the functions in different buildings and their personal opinions of them, and mispronouncing the name of the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, who designed the Nordic House in the campus.
It turned out that there is a student council election coming up in few weeks at the uni, and our guide lads have something to do with it. Apparently also the exchange students are allowed to vote, so they invited us to the opening of their election office with a promise of some free alcohol and the honest statement that "foreign students are important to us because they're easy to trick."
"Oh well" thought our Finnish-Norwegian invasion army of six Finns and one Norwegian and met up later that evening, heading to check out the place. It turned into a rather delightful evening of conversations, first between the foreigners, then with the Icelandic to-be-politicians. I found myself talking about the differences of student politics in our countries and the differences of the parties running up in the election, our nations in general, receiving compliments about my apparently fair ability to pronounce Icelandic names, and teaching others to pronounce names for Aki Kaurismäki movies. Whoever said that Icelanders are kind of distant and difficult to get to know, well... At least I was delighted to find that untrue that evening. Even if some of those people only had interest in my vote in the upcoming election, I still enjoyed going there. I left with the happy, comfortable lightness in my footsteps. That feeling was one of the things I had been missing for so long, one of the reasons why I had to leave was that I wanted to experience it again.
A couple of days after I again walked home with the same kind of lightness after a delightful meeting and introduction to the café culture here in Reykjavík. How am I to resist a cozy, warmly lit place which plays the occasional Amon Tobin track on the background?
I was starting to remember what it feels like. After the few days of initial confusion about living abroad, I had been reminded why I had to leave. My footsteps feel so much lighter than they did back home.
My introduction to the swimming pools in here was a rather nice one as well. The following Monday saw the temperature drop to around -8 degrees. Unlike in Finland, that doesn't mean the outdoor pools are closed. I got to Laugardalslaug just in time to watch the gold and orange sunset slowly turn into the dark blue while I was resting in the long outside pool. The air was full of mist, the warmth slowly escaping from the water, only to be replaced with jets pumping new warm water inside in the corners. And the water felt just right, very soft and chlorine-free unlike in any Finnish swimming pools. Truly delightful and uplifting, again.
Today I also got my first real experience with the unpredictability of weather around here. After leaving my first Icelandic classes today I toured along a fellow Finn for awhile in the most perfect sunrise before ending up in the university bookstore. I spent in about 20 minutes, and at that time the weather had changed into an all out snowstorm. Judging by the amount of snow on the ground, it probably had snowed for awhile before I came out. You apparently don't need to blink all that many times if you'd like the weather to change.
So far so good. I realize that I'm still going through the discovery period, when pretty much everything (well, maybe except the prices) feels exciting. Knowing myself, the period when you just miss everything back home will eventually come. Still, I've already found a few good ways to raise my spirit in here. And I already know some things and some people I'll miss whenever I leave this strange little country. So far it has let me befriend itself.
The New Year Eve was indeed quite a show. Being able to watch it from one of the high points in the city, Perlan. The restaurant itself was apparently blocked from common people for the occasion, but there were quite a lot of us on top of the hill, and the view from there is not a very shabby one either. The sky was thoroughly coloured by rapidly burning patterns of lithium, magnesium and all that fun stuff you got to burn in the chemistry classes back in secondary school. After midnight the city was completely covered in a puffy gunpowder smoke cloud. It was quite a change from all those peaceful rural and firework-wise tightly regulated New Year Eve's I've spent with my cousins at Hirvensalmi. After the explosions in the sky slowly started to fade away, I strolled alongside the majority of spectators towards downtown. Laugavegur was populated by mostly drunken people mostly trying to make their way into the outlets where they could keep consuming those mostly intoxicating beverages they had been enjoying most of the evening. Then there were a few people, such as myself, looking like lost puppies and just observing the folk.
The following couple of days I spent battling off this fierce cold I apparently catched. I wouldn't really blame it to poor clothing choices, I think I've been pretty well prepared. I didn't really give it all that many thoughts, I was just busy dealing with what felt like all of the waterfalls in Iceland suddenly giving a presentation of themselves in my nostrils. Our house is on the colder side. The common areas are too cold, and my own room is either too hot or too cold, depending how I set the thermostat. I usually aim for the too cold though, as sleeping is so much easier then.
Along with the cold arrived a feeling of guilt, that there are so so many things to do and see in my immediate vicinity, and I'm missing all of them. Obviously, it would be just a couple of days before I'd dare to venture out again, but still. Nobody likes the nagging feeling in their minds.
And obviously it got better. We had an orientation meeting at the campus last Friday, with all kinds of more and less practical information handed and spoken out for us. Afterwards the crowd was split into small groups and assigned a couple of Icelandic guides who'd walk us around the campus, pointing out the functions in different buildings and their personal opinions of them, and mispronouncing the name of the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, who designed the Nordic House in the campus.
It turned out that there is a student council election coming up in few weeks at the uni, and our guide lads have something to do with it. Apparently also the exchange students are allowed to vote, so they invited us to the opening of their election office with a promise of some free alcohol and the honest statement that "foreign students are important to us because they're easy to trick."
"Oh well" thought our Finnish-Norwegian invasion army of six Finns and one Norwegian and met up later that evening, heading to check out the place. It turned into a rather delightful evening of conversations, first between the foreigners, then with the Icelandic to-be-politicians. I found myself talking about the differences of student politics in our countries and the differences of the parties running up in the election, our nations in general, receiving compliments about my apparently fair ability to pronounce Icelandic names, and teaching others to pronounce names for Aki Kaurismäki movies. Whoever said that Icelanders are kind of distant and difficult to get to know, well... At least I was delighted to find that untrue that evening. Even if some of those people only had interest in my vote in the upcoming election, I still enjoyed going there. I left with the happy, comfortable lightness in my footsteps. That feeling was one of the things I had been missing for so long, one of the reasons why I had to leave was that I wanted to experience it again.
A couple of days after I again walked home with the same kind of lightness after a delightful meeting and introduction to the café culture here in Reykjavík. How am I to resist a cozy, warmly lit place which plays the occasional Amon Tobin track on the background?
I was starting to remember what it feels like. After the few days of initial confusion about living abroad, I had been reminded why I had to leave. My footsteps feel so much lighter than they did back home.
My introduction to the swimming pools in here was a rather nice one as well. The following Monday saw the temperature drop to around -8 degrees. Unlike in Finland, that doesn't mean the outdoor pools are closed. I got to Laugardalslaug just in time to watch the gold and orange sunset slowly turn into the dark blue while I was resting in the long outside pool. The air was full of mist, the warmth slowly escaping from the water, only to be replaced with jets pumping new warm water inside in the corners. And the water felt just right, very soft and chlorine-free unlike in any Finnish swimming pools. Truly delightful and uplifting, again.
Today I also got my first real experience with the unpredictability of weather around here. After leaving my first Icelandic classes today I toured along a fellow Finn for awhile in the most perfect sunrise before ending up in the university bookstore. I spent in about 20 minutes, and at that time the weather had changed into an all out snowstorm. Judging by the amount of snow on the ground, it probably had snowed for awhile before I came out. You apparently don't need to blink all that many times if you'd like the weather to change.
So far so good. I realize that I'm still going through the discovery period, when pretty much everything (well, maybe except the prices) feels exciting. Knowing myself, the period when you just miss everything back home will eventually come. Still, I've already found a few good ways to raise my spirit in here. And I already know some things and some people I'll miss whenever I leave this strange little country. So far it has let me befriend itself.
lauantai 30. joulukuuta 2006
So this is it
Greetings from Iceland.
I arrived the day before yesterday at around five. The country was not being particulary inviting, wrapped inside a solid dark grey shroud of clouds, greeting me with the occasional shower. It had been a long day of traveling and my mood was swinging every two minutes from some kind of sadness of leaving to wild and bouncy enthusiasm you always experience in foreign places.
I will try to avoid the complaints about being tired in the future, but that is how I most of all felt on that dark Friday afternoon. Nonetheless, I found to my apartment rather easily. Speaking of which, the place I am staying is quite interesting. The landlord had apparently just recently acquired this half of a little, three-floor, around-ten-room apartment. It does not look especially glorious from outside, but the insides have just been renovated, so he is apparently creating a little guesthousey place for foreign students. Not much is working yet, for example we are missing a fridge in main kitchen, a washing machine and an internet connection. Everything ought to be up and running in a few days, which is completely fine by me. I was one of the first arrivals anyway. Seeing the place helped me lighten up a bit, I liked it instantly.
After that I braced myself and navigated the short, few minute walk down to Laugavegur. It was surprisingly narrow and quiet for a friday afternoon in one of the most essential roads in a capital city. Just a couple of steps over the one way road gets you to the other side.
Taking the same road again in light resulted in the same discovery enthusiasm as the night before. The sea and Esja could be seen from a distance, inviting to take a closer look. I just might do a pedestrian sightseeing tour tomorrow and arm myself with a camera.
I also tested myself and took the not-so-long-walk-either to the mall Kringlan on 30th of December. Naturally, it was crowded beyond belief. There is apparently enough Icelanders to jam a rather big shopping centre.
So far I have managed to deal with people with my strange and varied mix of English, Swedish and really poor Icelandic. People have said that Icelanders generally will start speaking to you instantly in English if they notice you are struggling with the local language. So far I have managed to complete all my grocery store conversations without people speaking to me in English, so I think I might blend in someday. I slowly learning the pronounciation, but understanding rapid fire Icelandic conversations seems like a distant dream. Well, I've got to start somewhere.
Icelanders have also started the firework shows days ago. They've been flying around very plentifully already, so I don't really yet know what to expect from tonight. I think I will hike to Perlan to be able to spectate it properly. I wish everyone a good 2007 wherever you might be spending it!
I arrived the day before yesterday at around five. The country was not being particulary inviting, wrapped inside a solid dark grey shroud of clouds, greeting me with the occasional shower. It had been a long day of traveling and my mood was swinging every two minutes from some kind of sadness of leaving to wild and bouncy enthusiasm you always experience in foreign places.
I will try to avoid the complaints about being tired in the future, but that is how I most of all felt on that dark Friday afternoon. Nonetheless, I found to my apartment rather easily. Speaking of which, the place I am staying is quite interesting. The landlord had apparently just recently acquired this half of a little, three-floor, around-ten-room apartment. It does not look especially glorious from outside, but the insides have just been renovated, so he is apparently creating a little guesthousey place for foreign students. Not much is working yet, for example we are missing a fridge in main kitchen, a washing machine and an internet connection. Everything ought to be up and running in a few days, which is completely fine by me. I was one of the first arrivals anyway. Seeing the place helped me lighten up a bit, I liked it instantly.
After that I braced myself and navigated the short, few minute walk down to Laugavegur. It was surprisingly narrow and quiet for a friday afternoon in one of the most essential roads in a capital city. Just a couple of steps over the one way road gets you to the other side.
Taking the same road again in light resulted in the same discovery enthusiasm as the night before. The sea and Esja could be seen from a distance, inviting to take a closer look. I just might do a pedestrian sightseeing tour tomorrow and arm myself with a camera.
I also tested myself and took the not-so-long-walk-either to the mall Kringlan on 30th of December. Naturally, it was crowded beyond belief. There is apparently enough Icelanders to jam a rather big shopping centre.
So far I have managed to deal with people with my strange and varied mix of English, Swedish and really poor Icelandic. People have said that Icelanders generally will start speaking to you instantly in English if they notice you are struggling with the local language. So far I have managed to complete all my grocery store conversations without people speaking to me in English, so I think I might blend in someday. I slowly learning the pronounciation, but understanding rapid fire Icelandic conversations seems like a distant dream. Well, I've got to start somewhere.
Icelanders have also started the firework shows days ago. They've been flying around very plentifully already, so I don't really yet know what to expect from tonight. I think I will hike to Perlan to be able to spectate it properly. I wish everyone a good 2007 wherever you might be spending it!
keskiviikko 27. joulukuuta 2006
Nothing about much, much about nothing
Note to self: do not pretend to be an accountant in the future. Does not suit you, sir.
Besides that, leaving Vaasa turned out to be pretty easy. A few handshakes, a little fewer hugs, some promises to be well and see again sometime, some respective "happy travels" to people going somewhere too. About 30 seconds after the last bye-byes I walked into a mall, where the loudspeakers were blasting Verve's Bittersweet Symphony. Nice timing, Verve. I smiled and felt very warm for the rest of the day. No ideas why, I don't normally even like that song all that much. It just fit the moment.
My Christmas formalities were spent at mom's. Just having some of the traditional foods, which I haven't really liked in years, and lying on the couch. Nice, and helped me forget the accounting hell. She finally seemed to get over the thought of me being away for half a year, if not longer. She spoke quite similarly a couple of years away when I moved away from home, so I suppose it shouldn't be too hard anymore. She's always been of the overprotective, overworrying kind, but I think she'll cope. It not like it should be a surprise to any parents that one day the children are bound to fly away from the nest.
Right now I'm located in Helsinki at dad's. Time to fill out the last forms and do evaluations about things I've surely forgotten. It shouldn't be much, but I don't really trust my ability to move. If I hadn't forgotten something, I wouldn't be me. I've got a worrying overload of stuff going with me, but luckily dad's gonna visit at some point. That, or more specifically his luggage quota, gives me an opportunity to swap my accessories from wintery to summery, so I don't need to take all the things eventually back myself. Still I don't like looking at that pile o' stuff. There's quite a lot of it, but taking anything away would seem like too big a sacrifice.
Although, having some idea about what everything costs in Iceland, I think I'll just try to negotiate my way through the luggage overload and pay if I have to.
But now it's about time to have a little whiskey, try to sleep a little, wake up early in the morning and drift along, whatever that may mean.
Goodbye Finland. I'll miss you, but now I have to prove I could live without.
Besides that, leaving Vaasa turned out to be pretty easy. A few handshakes, a little fewer hugs, some promises to be well and see again sometime, some respective "happy travels" to people going somewhere too. About 30 seconds after the last bye-byes I walked into a mall, where the loudspeakers were blasting Verve's Bittersweet Symphony. Nice timing, Verve. I smiled and felt very warm for the rest of the day. No ideas why, I don't normally even like that song all that much. It just fit the moment.
My Christmas formalities were spent at mom's. Just having some of the traditional foods, which I haven't really liked in years, and lying on the couch. Nice, and helped me forget the accounting hell. She finally seemed to get over the thought of me being away for half a year, if not longer. She spoke quite similarly a couple of years away when I moved away from home, so I suppose it shouldn't be too hard anymore. She's always been of the overprotective, overworrying kind, but I think she'll cope. It not like it should be a surprise to any parents that one day the children are bound to fly away from the nest.
Right now I'm located in Helsinki at dad's. Time to fill out the last forms and do evaluations about things I've surely forgotten. It shouldn't be much, but I don't really trust my ability to move. If I hadn't forgotten something, I wouldn't be me. I've got a worrying overload of stuff going with me, but luckily dad's gonna visit at some point. That, or more specifically his luggage quota, gives me an opportunity to swap my accessories from wintery to summery, so I don't need to take all the things eventually back myself. Still I don't like looking at that pile o' stuff. There's quite a lot of it, but taking anything away would seem like too big a sacrifice.
Although, having some idea about what everything costs in Iceland, I think I'll just try to negotiate my way through the luggage overload and pay if I have to.
But now it's about time to have a little whiskey, try to sleep a little, wake up early in the morning and drift along, whatever that may mean.
Goodbye Finland. I'll miss you, but now I have to prove I could live without.
maanantai 18. joulukuuta 2006
Echo breaks
It is just exhausting. Physically, mentally, often both. I packed nearly everything my modest apartment (well, just a room) contained into very trustworthy Danish cardboard boxes which have been around for nearly twenty years. Those are relics from times when my folks were moving around Scandinavia because of dad's job assignments. I tell you, those Danes know how to make a cardboard box. They take around four seconds to assemble from their thin, room saving appearance to their full fledged, sturdy-as-a-tank-with-impressive-storage-capacity glory.
So those excellent Danish cardboard boxes were manhandled into a rented trailer and hauled across Finland to be stored. I just wasn't able to find a good and affordable storage for the stuff from Vaasa, so my belongings switched from West Side to East Side over a weekend. I didn't want to pay extra rent for my exchange period, and I didn't really want to eventually return to this very apartment either. Knowing that Iceland will stretch my financial ability quite a lot, I refused to stretch it even further by paying for a place where I'm not living and I wouldn't want to either.
But it was exhausting. I do a terrible job at moving. I hadn't even really started when dad arrived, so everything had to be packed and disassembled together. I wasn't really enjoying it, especially getting to witness how lazy a cleaner I can be at times. I don't know which made me feel more guilty, the fact that dad saw how I hadn't properly even started the process beforehand and had to help, or the fact that I found lots and lots of spots in my room where I should've cleaned regularly. It was something like the mental version of the feeling you get after excercising yourself harder than you should, when you find new aching muscles in places you didn't know of.
All I have now left in this room is me, a laptop, a borrowed matress, a little clothes, a carpet which I forgot to pack, a lot of paperwork, some dust gatherings and a few memories. It's quite interesting to notice how similarly I've spent this day, compared to when I had this room fully furnished. What do I need that trailerful of stuff actually for? I can sleep here, use the computer, eat, perform certain bodily functions and read in a non-furnished room just as well. Still I know I'm putting everything out again when I move back somewhere, but at least I'm one step closer to realizing why askesis has been practiced.
I've also managed to get pretty far without any overly emotional bye-byes, whether that's a good thing or not. In fact a couple of those would've probably meaned that the distant return might've been easier. I think it's a nice feeling to miss, to know that there are certain people, certain moments and certain things you'll be longing for.
Another good feeling is knowing that most work for your future move is now done, and there are fairly little things to do anymore than kicking back, relaxing and enjoying the ride, whatever might come across. I also made the decision of taking a little less used route from Helsinki to Reykjavik, so instead of Copenhagen I'll go via Oslo. My previous experience with Oslo airport was somewhat memorable, so it's fun to see if the Norwegians can put up a show this time around too.
When I last was there, maybe five or six years ago, their new airport had just opened a couple of days earlier. When we got off the plane, we discovered that parts of the terminal floor were made of glass slices, dimensions perhaps something like 20x150cm. They were arranged in patterns, so that there was nearly as much glass as the more solid looking floor. A Japanese businessman before us apparently didn't apparently see glass as a viable floor material, so he didn't step on them. The resulted step dancing was something between penguins wobbling forward and Fred Astaire high on life and substances that would be deemed illegal in most countries. But he avoided all the glass.
The baggage claim area was also full of surprises, as it was literally flooding. Apparently the opening of the new airport wasn't going as smooth as people were hoping for. Thankfully several friendly Norwegian officials were instructing us to the parts of baggage claim where you didn't need a kayak to move in.
It is a funny thing. In ten days I'll complete one circle in my life. I've got no clue what life in Iceland will bring, but I know I'm motivated to make the most of it. And from what I hear, it ought to be quite a show on New Year's Eve!
So those excellent Danish cardboard boxes were manhandled into a rented trailer and hauled across Finland to be stored. I just wasn't able to find a good and affordable storage for the stuff from Vaasa, so my belongings switched from West Side to East Side over a weekend. I didn't want to pay extra rent for my exchange period, and I didn't really want to eventually return to this very apartment either. Knowing that Iceland will stretch my financial ability quite a lot, I refused to stretch it even further by paying for a place where I'm not living and I wouldn't want to either.
But it was exhausting. I do a terrible job at moving. I hadn't even really started when dad arrived, so everything had to be packed and disassembled together. I wasn't really enjoying it, especially getting to witness how lazy a cleaner I can be at times. I don't know which made me feel more guilty, the fact that dad saw how I hadn't properly even started the process beforehand and had to help, or the fact that I found lots and lots of spots in my room where I should've cleaned regularly. It was something like the mental version of the feeling you get after excercising yourself harder than you should, when you find new aching muscles in places you didn't know of.
All I have now left in this room is me, a laptop, a borrowed matress, a little clothes, a carpet which I forgot to pack, a lot of paperwork, some dust gatherings and a few memories. It's quite interesting to notice how similarly I've spent this day, compared to when I had this room fully furnished. What do I need that trailerful of stuff actually for? I can sleep here, use the computer, eat, perform certain bodily functions and read in a non-furnished room just as well. Still I know I'm putting everything out again when I move back somewhere, but at least I'm one step closer to realizing why askesis has been practiced.
I've also managed to get pretty far without any overly emotional bye-byes, whether that's a good thing or not. In fact a couple of those would've probably meaned that the distant return might've been easier. I think it's a nice feeling to miss, to know that there are certain people, certain moments and certain things you'll be longing for.
Another good feeling is knowing that most work for your future move is now done, and there are fairly little things to do anymore than kicking back, relaxing and enjoying the ride, whatever might come across. I also made the decision of taking a little less used route from Helsinki to Reykjavik, so instead of Copenhagen I'll go via Oslo. My previous experience with Oslo airport was somewhat memorable, so it's fun to see if the Norwegians can put up a show this time around too.
When I last was there, maybe five or six years ago, their new airport had just opened a couple of days earlier. When we got off the plane, we discovered that parts of the terminal floor were made of glass slices, dimensions perhaps something like 20x150cm. They were arranged in patterns, so that there was nearly as much glass as the more solid looking floor. A Japanese businessman before us apparently didn't apparently see glass as a viable floor material, so he didn't step on them. The resulted step dancing was something between penguins wobbling forward and Fred Astaire high on life and substances that would be deemed illegal in most countries. But he avoided all the glass.
The baggage claim area was also full of surprises, as it was literally flooding. Apparently the opening of the new airport wasn't going as smooth as people were hoping for. Thankfully several friendly Norwegian officials were instructing us to the parts of baggage claim where you didn't need a kayak to move in.
It is a funny thing. In ten days I'll complete one circle in my life. I've got no clue what life in Iceland will bring, but I know I'm motivated to make the most of it. And from what I hear, it ought to be quite a show on New Year's Eve!
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