Iceland for a Week

It has been a full week. Here are some of the things I have been up to:

- On Friday I tried to recover from the flight and arrival. I woke up and then spent the day getting some things in order (like minutes for my telephone) and contacting people I needed to see while I was here. I began my house search, met with our past landlady, and then in the evening I met Jon and Marissa's Bible study group(Dagny, Katrinn, Wilborg, Jon Kristinn, Thorra and one other of whom I can't remember how to say her name) for dinner and a trip to the Icelandic Gospel Fest (a first time event that has been a collaborative effort from different groups).

- Saturday morning I did a talk on Prince Caspian and the Themes of C.S. Lewis as a part of the seminar series connected with the gospel fest. The talk was at 10:00 am so it was quite a difficult wake up for me at 8:45 local time (4:45AM EST). Afterward I met with Kjartan Jonson, one of the leaders of SALT Christian Fellowship, followed by a nap, some car shopping, an evening run (6 miles along the bay) and some prep for my next talk the following morning.

- Sunday at 10 AM I was scheduled to speak again for one of the events connected to the gospel fest, so I had to wake up again at 8:45 local time. All went well and was followed by some music prep with Siggy for an evening worship service with SALT. I saw some friends Andres and Lilja for the first time and enjoyed talking with them. The gospel fest had some offsite music events in restaurants as a way to promote the bigger festival. When someone dropped off the schedule I was asked to play a few songs at The Perlan (Pearle) a rather expensive restaurant and dandy tourist attraction. For those that have been, I was on the top floor and then at the very top in this little circle setup. It is the highest point inside the building and I was awestruck by the view of the city the entire time, especially becuse the entire room rotates one full time an hour (see picture above). It was at 8 PM and I met some nice people who were also doing some music. One of the guys was from Charlotte, so that was nice to talk with him. I was especially flattered when one of the waiters came up to the top of the place where we were playing and said, "some of our guest would like to know who you are? What is your name?"

- Monday I met with Sveinbjorn to get some things in order before my visit to immigration. I had never met him before this trip, but he is the father a vey good friend David. It was very helpful and set me up for success at UTL(immigration). When I left immigration at 1:15PM I felt like I had all the answers necessary to finish our application packet. I then followed up on a lead for an apartment by visiting the owner of Antikhusid in downtown. Sure enough she had an apartment and we spent some time talking and made plans to arrange a visit with the current inhabitants. Following that it was off to Andres and Lilja's so they could help me read the auto ads in Icelandic. It was nice to visit there new place and see there wedding pictures and I can now navigate through the Icelandic auto website (very important skill). I was near David's workplace so I stopped by to see one of the coolest buildings in the city. In the evening I had dinner with Hermann, Lars, an Kjartan and participated in the race that is mentioned in a previous post.

-Tuesday I woke up a little later and spent some time reading and refreshing in the morning. The visit to the aforementioned apartment was had after a return call from the resident. Whn I walked in I was so impressed I didn't know what to say. It is a great place and I think I will recommend it as my first choice. It is cheaper than most furnished places, has a nice open kitchen and living area, and two bedrooms. It was the nicest place I saw all week. By happenstance in the afternoon I stumbled upon an Icelandic language school after taking in afternoon coffee with Bing, Ying-Zi, and Brian Allen Smith III. After speaking with the teacher I was ready to sell all and take up language training. The man named Olygur was so passionate about teaching Icelandic well that I wanted to start immediately. After that I met with the ownr of the earlier mentioned apartment to talk terms. By then it was about 7:45PM and time to go to Jon and Marissa's for burgers. It was nice to relax and talk with them and Thorra.

Through the entire trip there has been intermixed visits to car lots and other apartments of no consequence, but as you can see it has been a hefty week. Tomorrow I return to the States for an NY city adventure and return to VA. I haven't decided, but I think I am going to take the bolt bus home to DC and then beg someone for a ride. So you might get a call.