Day 24

July 3, 2018

11:48 PM Iceland Time

Of course I started the day by going to the Kopavogur thermal pools right down the road from Þora’s house. I didn’t have to go into work until noon, so I was able to relax and take my time. At work I reviewed some of Gerðarsafn’s website and helped them with suggestions on how to improve it. I am mainly reviewing the English text and making sure that the grammar and wording is correct. We also had a meeting with someone from the library who was helping us figure out how to correct things using their website builder platform.

After work, I had the pleasure of meeting up with Svandis; who was the Snorri west youth who hosted a few of us Snorris for dinner a few weeks ago. I was going to meet her at a coffee shop, but plans changed due to the rain. Instead of her taking the bus over to meet me, her dad was giving her a ride and they offered to pick me up at the library. So sweet of them! Svandis took me to a really neat café called  Flóran Café. It was inside of a greenhouse and had beautiful plants and a fish pond. We had coffee and cakes and talked for about 2 hours. 

After we finished, we walked around the Reykjavik botanical gardens they had near the greenhouse. It was really beautiful despite the rainy weather. Moss growing everywhere as usual, with many different flowers and plants mostly all native to Iceland. It was very well organized. All of the plants had little signs telling you the names and scientific names of each of them. Svandis was telling me that it is used as an educational area for school children to learn about Icelandic botany. It was so sweet of her, she walked me to the bus stop, made sure I knew which bus to take home, and then we parted ways.

When I got home, Þora was glad to see me. We talked for a bit while she made us dinner. I keep offering to help her, but she just says, “Nope, you just watch me”. While we were talking, one of her grandsons stopped by. He didn’t speak much English, but I was able to understand the majority of what Þora and him were talking about. He was asking about how we were related, and of course Þora brought out my little Islendingabok. It’s cute how excited everyone has been to look in that book and see how we are related and how they are related to some famous Icelanders. In both my broken Icelandic and his broken English, we managed to communicate a bit, and I found out a little bit about him. He is 21 and is a carpenter. He also found it very odd that I don’t eat meat. I tried to explain a little bit as to why, but I could tell he still thought it was weird that I liked “rabbit food”. Haha nothing new after being vegetarian and or vegan for the past 16 years. I will be seeing him later this weekend; I guess Brynja (Þora’s daughter) invited me to a party at her and her boyfriend’s apartment on Saturday.

After eating, she called her oldest brother so that we can arrange for me to meet him tomorrow. She said that he thinks he remembers when my great grandparents came to visit back in the 50’s, so it will be interesting to see what he remembers! We also tried to get ahold of another relative; Ebba who lives down the street. She wasn’t in, but her husband said that she would be available tomorrow most likely. I don’t have to be at work until the event in the evening, so I will be meeting some more relatives tomorrow! Meeting all of this family is both exciting and surreal. I know that we will all be in touch for a long time! Anyways its late, so stay tuned for tomorrow’s adventures!