The following is somewhat amusing - it is a class at my school with 3 sets of twins. Identical twins. Now, there are 24 people in each class, which means one quarter of this class are twins. Scary stuff.
http://www.hoydalar.fo/myndasavn/?savn=38&mynd=18
Hmm OK, so THIS WEEK IN FAROE LIFE ...
Not overly much has happened, to be quite honest. Though last night I attended the 50th anniversary of AFS Føroyar which was good fun. I also set all of the 124 placings for it and decorated the tables. And played the piano as entertainment. But yeah, it was good fun. I met a lot of people who were returnees and going on exchange and one or two people who were actually going to New Zealand and all very excited about it. So that was really cool. Then they brought out a live band and we left at about 2AM. Oh, and 2 of the sets of twins in the photo above were waiting/waitressing. It was really funny - the guy set had to wear different ties so that everyone could tell them apart and one of the girl ones was wearing her hair up. It was still very confusing.
But yes, all very fun.
Daylight savings started here today so it will now be dark until about 10AM every morning. Very weird. School again tomorrow and I'm still not used to walking to school in the dark but I'll get over it, I'm sure. What's going to be very strange is walking home in the dark too - apparently that is coming soon but it's what they try to avoid as much as possible with the daylight savings (which seems silly in the Faroes as it gets so dark anyway and then it's light all night in the summer - why do they need it?!).
I met up with my contact person again last night, who has invited me to stay at her house next weekend on Vágar, another island which is really cute - it's where the airport is. So that will be fun. I look forward to it.
Anyhoo, I'd better head off. I've somehow been roped into helping with the clean-up from the AFS party last night ...
Kelsy
20071028
20071024
So I finally get around to blogging this week. It’s Wednesday and I’m sorry but it’s the first chance I’ve had to really do this thing. And my last blog received no comments so if this one suffers the same fate, I will start blogging once monthly. Or 3-monthly.
So yeah, what’s happened since I last blogged?
Well, in the Heystferia or Autumn holiday, we went to Skælingur, a tiny, tiny little village about 45 minutes drive away. It had about 9 houses, I think, and a slaughterhouse. We stayed in a house belonging to the host parents of a girl who was staying in Klaksvík, which was beautiful, and set right beside a huge waterfall. Skælingur itself was beautiful too, set between the mountains and the sea, and the entire village was built on the cliffs as there are really very few beaches here. The landscape was truly epic. Except for the sheep – there were lots of those, and they just roamed free. But there were less as we left because it was sheep killing season and though we were offered the chance to ‘fara á fjall’ or go up the mountain (it’s their way of saying mustering), we declined. Though Lisa from Austria went to her host family’s little sheep killing ceremony and killed AND flayed a couple of sheep. Very brave, I thought.
We were in Skælingur for 3 days and then came home, and on my first night home my host family called (they’d been in Klaksvík) and said I was being picked up in 45 minutes to go to my aunt Ása’s for dinner. I learnt a while ago that Ása makes fantastic soup but doesn’t speak much English. But she’s lovely and so are her family. And on this particular occasion, we ate ræstjøt for dinner. Now, I believe I’ve mentioned ræstan fisk before, and ræstjøt is the same, but with lamb. It’s made through a rotting process, literally, and it smells dreadful. Even worse, the smell is on your clothes for days – you cannot get it out. But ræstjøt, like ræstan fisk, is very delicious once you get over the smell – it just tastes like very strong lamb (it is boiled before you eat it). And it’s fantastic with lots of salt, as my host cousin Bjarni helpfully pointed out. They eat it with soup. Which is also really good.
Oh, and my host parents brought my host grandad back from Klaksvík with them. He speaks no English so we have some very amusing Faroese conversations. And very simple Faroese conversations. But it’s nice.
And on Saturday, Magnus and I went table shopping, and now I have a large, glass, round table in my room which is extremely handy. I really must put up some photos of the house somewhen. It’s a lovely house, really it is.
Hmm, so that was my Heystferia (only lasts a week). Now I’m back at school which is rather fun – I won at bingo in French yesterday – I’m quite good at French, funnily enough. And my class are organising more class parties and outings and alsorts so this term looks to be good fun. One thing which is making me feel a little odd, though, is the fact that for the last 3 days, I’ve walked to school in the dark. It’s VERY dark here, and for longer and longer. By Christmas, it won’t get light. So that’s very interesting. The sun rises at about 9AM at the moment. But the days are getting shorter very quickly, and it presents a stark contrast to the 5 hours of darkness a day when I arrived!
But no snow in Tórshavn yet. Infact, it’s about 10 degrees, which is considered very warm for October (nearly November. Eek!). But I still live in hope of a white Christmas.
Another important development is that I have acquired a Faroese troyggjar, or jumper. It’s very warm, pure wool and handmade, and they have special silver buttons that are very Faroese, that go down the shoulder. It’s beautiful and VERY traditional. I shall put up photos somewhen.
Oh, and I’ve started Faroese lessons at evening school but they’re very basic and so a little boring. But yeah, that’s about it so I’ll head to dinner now as we are having ræstan fisk! (yum. Believe it or not).
Kelsy
So yeah, what’s happened since I last blogged?
Well, in the Heystferia or Autumn holiday, we went to Skælingur, a tiny, tiny little village about 45 minutes drive away. It had about 9 houses, I think, and a slaughterhouse. We stayed in a house belonging to the host parents of a girl who was staying in Klaksvík, which was beautiful, and set right beside a huge waterfall. Skælingur itself was beautiful too, set between the mountains and the sea, and the entire village was built on the cliffs as there are really very few beaches here. The landscape was truly epic. Except for the sheep – there were lots of those, and they just roamed free. But there were less as we left because it was sheep killing season and though we were offered the chance to ‘fara á fjall’ or go up the mountain (it’s their way of saying mustering), we declined. Though Lisa from Austria went to her host family’s little sheep killing ceremony and killed AND flayed a couple of sheep. Very brave, I thought.
We were in Skælingur for 3 days and then came home, and on my first night home my host family called (they’d been in Klaksvík) and said I was being picked up in 45 minutes to go to my aunt Ása’s for dinner. I learnt a while ago that Ása makes fantastic soup but doesn’t speak much English. But she’s lovely and so are her family. And on this particular occasion, we ate ræstjøt for dinner. Now, I believe I’ve mentioned ræstan fisk before, and ræstjøt is the same, but with lamb. It’s made through a rotting process, literally, and it smells dreadful. Even worse, the smell is on your clothes for days – you cannot get it out. But ræstjøt, like ræstan fisk, is very delicious once you get over the smell – it just tastes like very strong lamb (it is boiled before you eat it). And it’s fantastic with lots of salt, as my host cousin Bjarni helpfully pointed out. They eat it with soup. Which is also really good.
Oh, and my host parents brought my host grandad back from Klaksvík with them. He speaks no English so we have some very amusing Faroese conversations. And very simple Faroese conversations. But it’s nice.
And on Saturday, Magnus and I went table shopping, and now I have a large, glass, round table in my room which is extremely handy. I really must put up some photos of the house somewhen. It’s a lovely house, really it is.
Hmm, so that was my Heystferia (only lasts a week). Now I’m back at school which is rather fun – I won at bingo in French yesterday – I’m quite good at French, funnily enough. And my class are organising more class parties and outings and alsorts so this term looks to be good fun. One thing which is making me feel a little odd, though, is the fact that for the last 3 days, I’ve walked to school in the dark. It’s VERY dark here, and for longer and longer. By Christmas, it won’t get light. So that’s very interesting. The sun rises at about 9AM at the moment. But the days are getting shorter very quickly, and it presents a stark contrast to the 5 hours of darkness a day when I arrived!
But no snow in Tórshavn yet. Infact, it’s about 10 degrees, which is considered very warm for October (nearly November. Eek!). But I still live in hope of a white Christmas.
Another important development is that I have acquired a Faroese troyggjar, or jumper. It’s very warm, pure wool and handmade, and they have special silver buttons that are very Faroese, that go down the shoulder. It’s beautiful and VERY traditional. I shall put up photos somewhen.
Oh, and I’ve started Faroese lessons at evening school but they’re very basic and so a little boring. But yeah, that’s about it so I’ll head to dinner now as we are having ræstan fisk! (yum. Believe it or not).
Kelsy
20071014
Well hey, guys – I’m back and it’s Sunday (no way. I’m on a roll ...) and well, not too much has really happened this week except that it’s now HEYSTFERIA which looks like hysteria but means Autumn holidays. We only get a week but that’s OK, considering the term lasted only 8 weeks.
School finished on Friday – I got a good deal in that I finished at 11.30AM and then the AFS girls (Stacey, Lisa and I plus Katharina and Celeste who live in other towns) started planning our holidays. We are using a house belonging to Katharina’s host parents in a tiny town called Skælling, seriously tiny – I think there are four houses, and maybe five at the most. It’s very small, anyway. So we’re meeting there tomorrow – Skælling is about 45 minutes drive from Tórshavn – and we shall watch movies, paint our nails and just generally talk about everything that’s happened so far on our exchanges. We don’t see Katharina and Celeste very often as they go to the other school (yes, there are only two high schools in the Faroe Islands) so I’m really looking forward to talking to them again. We’re staying in Skælling for about four days.
Yesterday, I was lucky enough to go to a soccer game at the local stadium – it was a pretty big game as the Faroe Islands were playing France. Everyone was pretty enthusiastic (and there were 10 very loud people supporting France) which was kinda fun as everyone knew the Faroes were going to get thrashed. One of my customers back at New World asked once where I was going, and I was astounded that he knew where the Faroes were, and well, that they even existed, until he said that it was only because of their amazingly bad soccer team. Well, yeah. He was right. France beat us 6-0 and the Faroe Islanders were happy with that because let’s face it, it could have been so much worse. The funniest thing happened during the game, though – everyone was yelling in Faroese (“Kom sá, Føroyingar”, “Kom NÚ!”) and then suddenly I heard this very very strong Scottish accent yelling, “GO HOME AND EAT CHEESE” at the French supporters, which made me laugh. A lot. So that was fun, if a little depressing.
Anyway, I’m going to go and finish packing for Skælling now – I made an awful lot of afghans for us and Lisa is making an Austrian chocolate cake (mmmm), so I think I may come back obese. But ah well.
Kelsy
School finished on Friday – I got a good deal in that I finished at 11.30AM and then the AFS girls (Stacey, Lisa and I plus Katharina and Celeste who live in other towns) started planning our holidays. We are using a house belonging to Katharina’s host parents in a tiny town called Skælling, seriously tiny – I think there are four houses, and maybe five at the most. It’s very small, anyway. So we’re meeting there tomorrow – Skælling is about 45 minutes drive from Tórshavn – and we shall watch movies, paint our nails and just generally talk about everything that’s happened so far on our exchanges. We don’t see Katharina and Celeste very often as they go to the other school (yes, there are only two high schools in the Faroe Islands) so I’m really looking forward to talking to them again. We’re staying in Skælling for about four days.
Yesterday, I was lucky enough to go to a soccer game at the local stadium – it was a pretty big game as the Faroe Islands were playing France. Everyone was pretty enthusiastic (and there were 10 very loud people supporting France) which was kinda fun as everyone knew the Faroes were going to get thrashed. One of my customers back at New World asked once where I was going, and I was astounded that he knew where the Faroes were, and well, that they even existed, until he said that it was only because of their amazingly bad soccer team. Well, yeah. He was right. France beat us 6-0 and the Faroe Islanders were happy with that because let’s face it, it could have been so much worse. The funniest thing happened during the game, though – everyone was yelling in Faroese (“Kom sá, Føroyingar”, “Kom NÚ!”) and then suddenly I heard this very very strong Scottish accent yelling, “GO HOME AND EAT CHEESE” at the French supporters, which made me laugh. A lot. So that was fun, if a little depressing.
Anyway, I’m going to go and finish packing for Skælling now – I made an awful lot of afghans for us and Lisa is making an Austrian chocolate cake (mmmm), so I think I may come back obese. But ah well.
Kelsy
20071007
It’s Sunday here in the Faroes, though Monday morning in New Zealand, and I do believe it’s time for the weekly blog.
This week has been a week of music, movies and very odd food.
I may have mentioned the fact that I have been given a saxaphone for the entire year, rent free. This is thanks to a very nice fellow at the tónleikaskulanum or music school, who teaches saxaphone. He has also been kind enough to put me in two big bands (saxaphones, trumpets and trombones) – one of which is a training band and one of which is a professional band. I am, as one may imagine, extremely grateful.
I had my first band practice on Wednesday, and I LOVED it. The first band was good fun – some of the songs I had actually played in New Zealand so I knew them. I knew a few people in the band as well, so that was useful, and though I had no neckstrap, I have been given one also for the entire year I shall be here. It all worked out rather nicely!
The second band involved some of the teachers at the music school and there was no conductor – we were all given music and then we just sat down and played. It was really fantastic – they were all very good musicians but thankfully I could keep up with them, and some of those songs the Mahu jazz band had played as well – Good News, anybody?! And the entire practice wound up being more like a jam session with music – very, very enjoyable.
When I arrived home from band practice, I realised that something smelled fishy. Very fishy. Infact, I could smell it from outside my house. And it smelled of rotten fish. It was unpleasant. The smell was even more intense as I got inside and I soon realised that what I was experiencing was the pungent odour of ræstan fiskur. Ræstan fiskur is half-dried fish which is then boiled, and served with stuff called garnatolg, which is matured sheep’s tallow melted on the stove into a kind of sauce. The whole dish smells rank, but it tastes surprisingly delicious, and I have decided I quite like ræstan fiskur, which defies everything all other visitors to this place have thought. The smell usually puts people off, but once you try the fish it is delicious, and the sauce is also very, very good, as long as you don’t think of what’s in it. My host mum, Kristinbjørg, refused to tell me until I had tried it, and would only say that it was ‘made of sheep’.
So there’s some of the strange Faroese food for you – it’s weird, yes, but oh, so delicious.
On Thursday, Stacey and I headed into town to get tickets to a concert, Crystal Waters, which was last night. That was very fun – we have discovered that there is an ice cream shop in the mall which sells extremely large ice creams extremely cheap, and we always wind up getting ice cream.
Then, when I got home, Lisa (from Austria) rang me and invited me to her house to watch movies and eat cake and popcorn (we do this quite a lot). So we watched Dirty Dancing, which Stacey had borrowed from the town library, and then Lisa, a very good manicurist, did our nails. It was rather enjoyable.
On Friday night, Stacey and I, plus a bunch of people from my class and a bunch of people from her class met up at a place called the Posthúskjallurinum, or the post house basement, for a concert. The concert was in aid of a thing called Dagsværk, which is next week and involves working for a day in the local business of your choice. They pay you anything they can afford over 300kr and the money goes to Bolivia. It seems cool. But anyway, we had this concert which was fantastic – mainly jazz but finishing with a rock band which is huge here and very good performers. See photos in the post below – one of my friends performed, Karin, and she proved to me an absolutely fantastic jazz singer, as did her dad, who accompanied her on the keyboard. Every day I am still more impressed by the musical prowess of this strange little place.
Yesterday I wound up at Stacey’s for the afternoon, watching Girl With the Pearl Earring (weeeeird movie but rather good), so that was quite good, though I had to get back earlyish for my host cousin’s 22nd birthday party. Birthday parties here are a very big deal and they usually involve the whole family. So you get to meet everyone – they’re really a fantastic opportunity for exchange students to meet and get to know the extended host family. THIS birthday party also had extremely good food – frikadellir (kind of mince balls which are GREAT and typical of Denmark and the Faroes) and the best soup I have ever tasted. I have asked for the recipe and will be emailing it home once I translate it into English!
Then Stacey and I and my friend Lilja (who is the daughter of the AFS coordinator here in the Faroes) hit the town again, this time for the major concert of Crystal Waters, which was held in the handball hall just out of town (and about 10 minutes walk from where I live). It started at 11PM and finished at 4AM and there was a lot of dancing to be done. It was fantastic, and I loved it, though I was lucky to be let in as they were checking IDs and we were supposed to be 17 – I quickly figured out that my friend Hanus was on one of the gate booths and he let me in. Must thank him for that one tomorrow!
And then, today, Stacey and Lisa turned up at my house (they literally knocked on my window, it was creepy – though they do it a lot so I’m getting used to it!) and we went to try and talk to Lisa’s contaktperson – we are organising an AFS group holiday to another town this Heystferie (autumn holidays). Most of our host parents have houses in other villages, and so we will probably go to Gjógv (my host parents have a home there, though it was built in the late 1800s and has no central heating – scary stuff), Fuglafirðir (Lisa’s host parents have a slightly more modern house there), or another town on the island of Eysturoy where Katharina’s host parents have a house. It should be fun – we will probably go for 3 or 4 days and just explore – there are a lot of very cute little villages around that provide excellent holiday spots (though excellent holiday spots here are generally very, very cold, one must understand).
And then we went back to Lisa’s and watched Grease, which is always fun, even if it does have Danish subtitles!
Anyway, that’s my week and now I shall go and do my physics homework which is due in tomorrow.
Kelsy
This week has been a week of music, movies and very odd food.
I may have mentioned the fact that I have been given a saxaphone for the entire year, rent free. This is thanks to a very nice fellow at the tónleikaskulanum or music school, who teaches saxaphone. He has also been kind enough to put me in two big bands (saxaphones, trumpets and trombones) – one of which is a training band and one of which is a professional band. I am, as one may imagine, extremely grateful.
I had my first band practice on Wednesday, and I LOVED it. The first band was good fun – some of the songs I had actually played in New Zealand so I knew them. I knew a few people in the band as well, so that was useful, and though I had no neckstrap, I have been given one also for the entire year I shall be here. It all worked out rather nicely!
The second band involved some of the teachers at the music school and there was no conductor – we were all given music and then we just sat down and played. It was really fantastic – they were all very good musicians but thankfully I could keep up with them, and some of those songs the Mahu jazz band had played as well – Good News, anybody?! And the entire practice wound up being more like a jam session with music – very, very enjoyable.
When I arrived home from band practice, I realised that something smelled fishy. Very fishy. Infact, I could smell it from outside my house. And it smelled of rotten fish. It was unpleasant. The smell was even more intense as I got inside and I soon realised that what I was experiencing was the pungent odour of ræstan fiskur. Ræstan fiskur is half-dried fish which is then boiled, and served with stuff called garnatolg, which is matured sheep’s tallow melted on the stove into a kind of sauce. The whole dish smells rank, but it tastes surprisingly delicious, and I have decided I quite like ræstan fiskur, which defies everything all other visitors to this place have thought. The smell usually puts people off, but once you try the fish it is delicious, and the sauce is also very, very good, as long as you don’t think of what’s in it. My host mum, Kristinbjørg, refused to tell me until I had tried it, and would only say that it was ‘made of sheep’.
So there’s some of the strange Faroese food for you – it’s weird, yes, but oh, so delicious.
On Thursday, Stacey and I headed into town to get tickets to a concert, Crystal Waters, which was last night. That was very fun – we have discovered that there is an ice cream shop in the mall which sells extremely large ice creams extremely cheap, and we always wind up getting ice cream.
Then, when I got home, Lisa (from Austria) rang me and invited me to her house to watch movies and eat cake and popcorn (we do this quite a lot). So we watched Dirty Dancing, which Stacey had borrowed from the town library, and then Lisa, a very good manicurist, did our nails. It was rather enjoyable.
On Friday night, Stacey and I, plus a bunch of people from my class and a bunch of people from her class met up at a place called the Posthúskjallurinum, or the post house basement, for a concert. The concert was in aid of a thing called Dagsværk, which is next week and involves working for a day in the local business of your choice. They pay you anything they can afford over 300kr and the money goes to Bolivia. It seems cool. But anyway, we had this concert which was fantastic – mainly jazz but finishing with a rock band which is huge here and very good performers. See photos in the post below – one of my friends performed, Karin, and she proved to me an absolutely fantastic jazz singer, as did her dad, who accompanied her on the keyboard. Every day I am still more impressed by the musical prowess of this strange little place.
Yesterday I wound up at Stacey’s for the afternoon, watching Girl With the Pearl Earring (weeeeird movie but rather good), so that was quite good, though I had to get back earlyish for my host cousin’s 22nd birthday party. Birthday parties here are a very big deal and they usually involve the whole family. So you get to meet everyone – they’re really a fantastic opportunity for exchange students to meet and get to know the extended host family. THIS birthday party also had extremely good food – frikadellir (kind of mince balls which are GREAT and typical of Denmark and the Faroes) and the best soup I have ever tasted. I have asked for the recipe and will be emailing it home once I translate it into English!
Then Stacey and I and my friend Lilja (who is the daughter of the AFS coordinator here in the Faroes) hit the town again, this time for the major concert of Crystal Waters, which was held in the handball hall just out of town (and about 10 minutes walk from where I live). It started at 11PM and finished at 4AM and there was a lot of dancing to be done. It was fantastic, and I loved it, though I was lucky to be let in as they were checking IDs and we were supposed to be 17 – I quickly figured out that my friend Hanus was on one of the gate booths and he let me in. Must thank him for that one tomorrow!
And then, today, Stacey and Lisa turned up at my house (they literally knocked on my window, it was creepy – though they do it a lot so I’m getting used to it!) and we went to try and talk to Lisa’s contaktperson – we are organising an AFS group holiday to another town this Heystferie (autumn holidays). Most of our host parents have houses in other villages, and so we will probably go to Gjógv (my host parents have a home there, though it was built in the late 1800s and has no central heating – scary stuff), Fuglafirðir (Lisa’s host parents have a slightly more modern house there), or another town on the island of Eysturoy where Katharina’s host parents have a house. It should be fun – we will probably go for 3 or 4 days and just explore – there are a lot of very cute little villages around that provide excellent holiday spots (though excellent holiday spots here are generally very, very cold, one must understand).
And then we went back to Lisa’s and watched Grease, which is always fun, even if it does have Danish subtitles!
Anyway, that’s my week and now I shall go and do my physics homework which is due in tomorrow.
Kelsy
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