Day 22

July 1, 2018

11:55 PM Iceland Time

Happy Canada day! I didn’t really realize that I was very Canadian until recently. Anyways, this morning I woke up and had breakfast with Skarpi, and it finally had stopped raining! Interesting fact, apparently there has been more rain in Reykjavik this June than in the past 100 years! No wonder many people haven’t been too keen on the weather.

After we ate, we decided to go on a bit of a walk down the coast just down from his apartment. We walked for about an hour and a half; it was very beautiful! When we got home, he pulled out his Iceland Atlas and showed me a little bit more about where our family is generally from. Most of our family lived in the Snæfellsnes Peninsula area in western Iceland. I am really excited because that is one of the places that we will be stopping on our tour during our last week here! After talking about what he remembered about our family, we had some lunch.

 

I packed up my things and we were about to head out to his sister Þora’s house. Before I left I gave him a few thank you gifts and expressed how grateful I am to have been able to get know him. He was ecstatic and gave me a big hug before we headed out the door.

Soon we arrived at Þora’s house, and she welcomed me with open arms. It was sad to say goodbye to Skarpi, but he gave me another big hug, and he was glad to know that I want to stay in touch! He will be leaving for Italy tomorrow. Þora is very nice as well! We first sat and had some coffee together and chatted a bit about the Snorri program, and about our families. Then we headed out to the grocery store since she hasn’t been home for a while; she just got back from holiday in Djupavik. When we got back I unpacked a bit. Her daughter moved out a while ago, so I am staying in her old room.

She had some things she needed to do, so I started drawing. When she was done, we opened up Icelandic roots on my computer, and she opened up Islendingabok and we compared the information on our families. She knows and remembers more about our families than Skarpi did. My great great great grandmother Katrina Jonsdottir, was the sister of her grandmother. Apparently, her grandparents didn’t talk much about Katrina, probably due to some old resentment that many Icelanders used to have for those who left for the west. After some digging, we found out some interesting information that I hadn’t known about. We took a break and facetimed with my parents so that they could meet her and say hi. My dad already knew a lot of the information we had come across, and he told us a few other things we didn’t know.

Soon Þora and I had dinner. Then once of her sons came over with his girlfriend; they had just flown in from Greenland. He is working as a carpenter in Greenland, and his girlfriend is an elementary school teacher. I talked with her a little bit more than him, but they were pretty tired from traveling, so I didn’t talk to them too much. After they got settled, Þora and I looked more on our family trees, while I simultaneously worked on my drawing.

Tomorrow morning Þora is going to pick up her daughter who has been in New York for the past 6 weeks. She is 24, so it will be nice to meet a relative a bit closer to my age. She has been studying economics after she quit a modelling career. I am a bit tired, so stay tuned for tomorrow! Goða nott!