Day 15

June 24, 2018

11:23 PM Iceland Time

This morning I met up with Margo (fellow Snorri) and we went to the Cultural museum aka Safnahúsið. It was in a really cool looking building that used to be the national library. There were a wide variety of items that portrayed Icelandic culture and history. There was a lot of art, sculpture, literature, and various historical items.

Historically Icelandic life has been quite difficult, and my ancestors went through and overcame a lot of adversity. Life often was at the mercy of nature; harsh cold winters, strong winds, lack of food, and volcanic activity that would cause floods and earthquakes. Many of the art portrayed this and showed the viewer what it was like or how it felt to them in those times. Due to all these hardships, Icelanders have a familiarity in the macabre. I’m not going to elaborate, but I have also experienced many dark hardships in my life that have caused me a great amount of pain. It has taken me a while to overcome that darkness, but I am resilient and have persevered. Knowing that my ancestors had the same kind of resilient spirit gives me so much comfort and has helped me know myself and my purpose.

All of the exhibit wasn’t macabre, there were a lot of interesting neat artifacts to see as well. 

 

My favorite was a huge narwhal tusk! It had to have been about 5-6 feet long. I had no idea Narwhals got that big! Another really interesting piece was “The Colic Leaf”. It was a piece of vellum dated back to the 1600’s that had both Icelandic and Latin text. The text was an exorcism against colic and gout!

After the exhibit Margo and I went and got coffee, and then I walked with her back to her host family’s house. Then I walked around a bit to go get some lunch, but I took a detour and walked a through Reykjavik’s graveyard. It is one of the prettiest graveyards I’ve been in; everything is covered in moss! I can’t get over how much I love all the moss here. It grows everywhere in every nook and cranny. After walking through, I went to a vegan restaurant called Glo in town. It was really good; I had a coconut curry soup.

 

I still had some time to kill, so I made my way to Listasafn Reykjavíkur- Reykjavik’s art museum. There was some beautiful photography, video art, abstract art and sculptures. It was really interesting, and I always love experiencing art! When I was done looking at the art I of course headed to the thermal pool again. There were a lot of people, but I was still able to slappa af (relax).

I made my way back home, and Skarpi’s son and his wife were there! They made dinner for us, and we watched some world cup matches. Skarpi’s son is a lawyer, and his wife is an accountant. It was neat to get to know each other. I am so blessed to be able to get to know such wonderfully kind people. I guess Skarpi’s son and his wife were able to go to Russia and see Iceland play against Argentina IN PERSON! They said it was absolutely amazing, and the game was so intense that they almost had a heart attack lol. I really enjoyed talking to them and am looking forward to seeing them again tomorrow for dinner. After they left, Skarpi and I watched a British crime show, Vera. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it with him!

Tomorrow I start my work placement with the Kopovogur municipality; so we will see how that goes! Stay tuned for more details!