Day 12

June 21, 2018

11:55 PM Iceland Time

Today was the last day of Icelandic language classes.L I still have lots to learn, but our teacher Sigríður Kristinsdóttir was amazing. She taught us so much with so much enthusiasm and patience, that we were able to learn a lot in the little two weeks we have been here. I know a LOT more than when I arrived. I am able to engage is small conversations and I can get around asking for basic things such as ordering coffee, asking where the bathroom is, ordering food, talking about family, and a few other things. It was a hard to say goodbye to our teacher but hopefully we will see her at our graduation ceremony. After we said goodbye we went to lunch at the school. I don’t think I have mentioned, but the food has been excellent every day in the school cafeteria, and they always have great vegetarian options!

What made today’s lunch special was that we met with one of the young women (named Svandis) who was with the family a group of us Snorris had supper with the other night. Tomorrow all of us Snorris will be separating to meet up with our families, but since I will be staying in Reykjavik, I will be able to meet up wither her again sometime. She is really sweet and is more than happy to share information about Iceland and help me with some of my Icelandic!

After lunch most of us Snorris went to the thermal pool. After about two hours of relaxing, we got ready to go to a BBQ hosted by the one and only Asta Sol (our program manager)! We had veggie burgers, Icelandic style hot dogs (I had the veggie version) potatoes, corn and sautéed mushrooms. Then we watched a short documentary Asta had produced about a previous Snorri group back in 2004.

Asta said a few words and mentioned about how special our group is this year. All of us has grown to be great friends, and we have amazing chemistry. We are all cousins by blood, but we have created a unique bond that I will always cherish. Today has been a bit of a bitter sweet day. We all go meet all of our host families tomorrow which is very exciting, but that also means that we will all be apart for the next 3 weeks. I usually have a hard time opening up and making friends, and this experience has opened a unique opportunity to overcome that. I feel that I have made great lasting connections with everyone here, and it makes me a little bit sad that we will be away from them for the next three weeks. I have grown to love everyone that I have met on this trip. Though I will miss everyone for the next few weeks, I am both super excited and nervous to meet my family tomorrow!

So for the next three weeks I will be staying with two host families in the greater Reykjavik area, and will be working for the Kopovogur municipality. It will be really neat to get to know my family and learn more about Icelandic life and culture. I am getting a bit tired and have to prepare for tomorrow, so I will keep you all posted!