Cain Manor

The Museum from Wednesday was (name??) was great. It had quite a bit of really cool and unexpected art, and I think the best art is the art of the unexpected. I don’t think necessarily that four slabs of steel in a large X is necessarily art, but I do think looking at a light switch in a new way can be as intriguing as Mona Lisa’s smile.
Continue reading ‘Notes from the last couple of days’ »

Most Icelanders still follow the ancient tradition of deriving their last name from the first name of their father. If a man is called Leifur Eriksson (his name is Leifur and he is Eriksson, the son of a man named Erikur). A woman called Johanna Heraldsdottir has the personal name Johanna and is Heraldsdottir (daughter of Herald). If these two have a son, he would have Leifsson as a last name and their daughter would have Leifsdottir as her last name. These aren’t names as such, but patronymics, which refer to their fathers. Hard to track, but very important to call people by their given (first names) and not just their surnames. Many people have two or more given names and there are just a limited number of Icelanders who do have family names.

Today we woke up early…. Our last day in Reykjavik. I was up most of the night. I pretty much figure that I’m not going to get any real sleep on this trip. It’s partly the jet lag, but mostly the fact that it’s sunny round the clock. I think the body can go for a lot longer when it’s sunny. I’m constantly tired, but happy to be here so it really doesn’t matter. The fact that they have coffee and it’s pretty good helps. So, we got up and packed up our stuff. We have too much, but there wasn’t any way to tell what the weather would do. Warm down jackets and rain parkas haven’t been needed yet.
Continue reading ‘Friday, June 29th’ »

We awoke to a beautiful morning in Reykjavik. The clouds and wind had moved on and it was lovely and sunny. We stayed up too late which is easy to do when it’s continually bright outside. I think I’m still adjusting to the time change from Seattle/East Coast and the long days.
Continue reading ‘Thursday June 28, 2007’ »

After sleeping way too late (9:30am) we staggered out into a cloud and very windy day. It is true what they say, the weather here can change on a dime. I would guess the temperature today to be around 48 degrees but with the wind chill felt cooler. Still, no rain and great walking weather. After a morning coffee we stopped and bought me a scarf and some cool black leggings that all the women wear here. Then we found our way to the Registry offices where we got our marriage certificate translated into English.
Continue reading ‘Day Two’ »

Well I am officially an “honest woman” except that I can’t read what our marriage certificate says because it’s in Icelandic. We’ll get it translated into English tomorrow (Wednesday) and then I’ll know for sure what I’ve agreed to.
Continue reading ‘Our first day in Reykjavik’ »

We left Seattle on Jet Blue’s red eye flight - leaving 12 p.m., arriving New York at 8 a.m. Jet Blue is a pretty good airline, and it was the first time I’d flown them. Flying is still a cattle call, but at least Jet Blue made some of those ignominies more bearable. Justine took an Ambien and slept OK, and I, even with my sleeping super powers didn’t get a ton of rest. Her dad picked us up early and we spent day napping, lounging and generally trying to feel human again. On Friday morning, I’d gotten up at 5:15 a.m. for work, so my day was spent trying to act normal. I’m always working on a sleep deficit, so two days with little to no sleep made the day feel like one heck of a hangover. I have decided that I’d rather be hung-over than operating on 4 hours of sleep (6 hrs doesn’t bother me though.)
Continue reading ‘It has begun…’ »